With those disclaimers out of the way, I'd like to try something that hopefully allows people to contribute to shard without sacrificing integrity. There are a couple upgrades that would really benefit the shard. I'm going to be posting them over the next couple months (if all goes well with this first one). When we reach the goal, I'll end the fundraiser and purchase the equipment.
The first upgrade that I'd like to attempt is a SCSI hard drive and controller. This would give us two benefits: speed and reliabilty. SCSI drives are much faster than their IDE counterparts, and have big, fat 5 year warranties. The items I'm looking at will run about $250-300. I'm requesting Paypal as the contribution method. My Paypal account is laephis@yahoo.com . I'll keep everyone posted concerning our progress. Hopefully we'll have a new drive setup in a couple months!
I'm actually not a big fan of Paypal myself, but right now it's the easiest way to exchange funds for the majority of people. One of the biggest advantages is the privacy: I don't have to post my name/address to the internet. (There are a lot of crazy people out there and I'd rather not be stalked by some disgruntled former player.) I realize that some of you are not able or willing to use Paypal, and I really sympathize. If anyone has other suggestions I'll be glad to hear them.
I'll be purchasing the equipment this week, but it probably won't get installed until next week (or a bit later). I'll keep everyone posted concerning that since it will involve a bit of downtime. Thanks so much!