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Sonic Retro Fundraiser 2011

Look, here at Sonic Retro, we can’t all be cool guys. Other members of the staff pal around and have fun and do cool things, because they’re cool guys. This is not to say that I’m not cool—from getting in big gay fights with the Westboro Baptist Church to popping wheelies on a motorbike, I’ve had my share of misadventures. I’m fun to go drinking with. Really guys. Really. However…

As the head of Retro, I have to be the boring Lane Pryce of this operation, and that involves doing all the coding, troubleshooting, support e-mailing, peace-keeping and book-keeping for the site.

Because those things aren’t fun, we only bring this up once a year: we are a fully member-supported site. We rely on your donations in order to continue bringing you news, making cool features and being all-around badasses. Running a site this large runs up a lot of charges, from the electricity powering our server and our licenses to the ability to go get things no one else will, For example, we’ve been working on getting various Mega Drive games that still haven’t been dumped from around the world and will be releasing those in a pack later in the year. You guys have felt the annoyance of us running on a shoestring budget: we had to cut our music service because of our outgoing bandwidth metering. We’re looking to raise enough money to bring those MP3s back, among many other things. Although everyone on staff volunteers their time for Sonic Retro, we can only do what our resources allow us to do.

We choose a donation model over advertising or other revenue streams not only because those things are annoying, but because this is the point of Retro: we’re all in this together. I’m an old codger of the Sonic scene and I remember well the time when it was cool to be a jerk and when people who didn’t like what you liked were to be shunned. We’re somewhat famous because we actually let people yell at each other and get upset, because they’re going to do it anyway and it helps reach a healthier consensus. The dozen annoying guys in the Generations thread and the hackers and the researchers and artists and musicians and guys who write apologetics for Big the Cat (hi, David!) are all under the Retro banner because, at the end of the day, it’s Sonic that draws us all together. We can disagree about various things (and outside people can latch on to our shout down of one person about “green eyes” and turn that into some dumb attack), but we’re all here striving to make change in a way that no other video game community does. Other places bitch; we correct. We do. We help out. It only makes sense that we’d also pitch in together to keep this thing going.

We’re doing some new things this year: while we have things to mail to our top donors, we’re also going to be giving all our donors a shoutout at the beginning of every month and are allowing for causes and services to donate for recognition. To get the lowdown on everything, please visit https://www.sonicretro.org/donate. Thanks for your time, and we hope to see you on the donor list. And just so you don’t feel like you’re going out of this post empty-handed:


 Yup.

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23 Comments

  • Reply

    $50 sounds a lot, but I could certainly manage $5 a month.  I’ll donate.

  • Reply

    I’m coming!!! 😀

    • Reply

      You sicken me, boy.

      Sicken me

      • Reply

        I came over here. What’s going on ‘<

    • Reply

      HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  • Reply

    By the way, I’m cooking up a little something-something for this donation drive to make it a little more interesting. If it pans out, keep an eye on the front page. It will definitely be worth it.

  • Reply

    I usually don’t laugh at sophomoric humor, but that picture is HILARIOUS. 

    And as for the actual donations, don’t count on me. As much as I love this site, I’m not exactly in the position to be giving out my revenue to keep a Sonic fan website running. Sorry guys.

  • Reply

    Are the PayPal buttons working for anyone? I click on them and nothing happens.

    • Reply

      Nevermind, they worked. Probably because I brought it to attention. But that’s mot point now, seeing as how student accounts can’t do subscriptions. Is it too hard for the moderators to manage monthly single donations?

      • Reply

        Ahem, “a moot point”.

  • Reply

    What did that sign originally say before someone decided Semen was an extremely funny word?

    • Reply

      There’s more sign to the left, you just can’t see it.

    • Reply

      Looks to me like it says something else but it’s cropped to just show the ‘semen’ letters.

      • Reply

        Yeah, that’s what I meant. I want someone to tell me what it said before being cropped.

    • Reply

      Just a guess, but “Amusement” would seem likely given that it has a Sonic sign above it; I guess it’s an arcade.

  • Reply

    I’ll donate for semen once my checking account reaches over $6.75

  • Reply

    I’ve been stalking these forums everyday for about 2 years now, and would gladly donate $20(hey its something from an unemployed musician right?), but please fix your god damn Request Approval page, i’ve tried for almost a year. I’m probably just a fucking moron, but I swear it doesn’t work for me at least. Regardless I’d be happy to throw you guys a couple bucks, quality site.

    p.s. I’m wasted

  • Reply

    I WILL give you my money if you give me the original picture.

  • Reply

    What do people get who donate who are stuck as Pending Approval forum members like me?

    • Reply

      I was in your boat… Got approved next day.. LOL

  • Reply

    Time to start coming in sonic speed!

  • Reply

    ‘That’s no good!’

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