BGK and all,
I was offline the last two days and when I got back online I saw this thread and felt compeled to post. Sorry if this thread was being sun seted, But I felt like I needed to add a few cents to the discussion.
It is clear to me to see that Bob and Mike added a donate button to the site for the obvious reasons. This site is part on a business, but Pond Boss is more than a business. it is a community and a passion.
Everyone here chooses how much they give and how much they take. Bob and Mike do not judge, after all, this is their passion and dream.
The truth of the matter is that if you look at the HOF 2012, you will see that 42 people donated. There are over 9800 members, with about 1000 core members in my estimation. The lurkers are even more numerous. So history tells us that donations don't fund forums. Businesses or passionate groups (save the fuzzy animal.org) do. So how does this forum do it, simple Bob and Mike choose to keep it running one way or another. For that I am grateful. And because of their passion, I have been inspired to participate as I have.
So what about labels, well there are two parts. Part one, some one has to do the work to keep the site up to date, and that is a lot of work and as we see some times there are problems. Part two what are the meanings to the labels. There have been several well intentioned attempts to codify the meaning of the labels, some have been successful and others have not.
For me the only labels I care about are as follows:
I am a good Christian trying to do Gods work
I am a good husband
I am a good father to my children
I am a good american giving back to my country
I am a good Texan giving back to my state
I am a good steward of our land and all it has to offer
I need to be able to look myself in the mirror and know I am a good person and that I am trying to be a better person than I was yesterday, because the me of tomorrow is a better person yet.
So where am I going with this, the simple answer is this , contribute if you want, how you want because it is part of your passion, Pond Boss is a business and a community. If you want or need labels, earn them for yourself, I have a wall full of them, but the only label I need is that I am a good man trying to do my best.
I love this community, I have found dam few like it. You guys and gals make it what it is, one of the best on the net.
