The Newbie Obligation
What is the Newbie’s Obligation?
We are not talking about what/what not to post at Thunder’s. Rather, a Newbie’s obligation - your obligation - is to understand how Thunder’s works, how you fit into the community, and your responsibilities toward it.
It is essential that all newcomers understand the origin of Thunder’s Place Free PE Forums. It was solely funded by ThunderSS (our benevolent administrator). That means he footed the bill for this great forum software (expensive!), paid to have it installed so that it worked wonderfully and without huge glitches, pays an annual fee for software licensing renewal, purchases software upgrades, and so on. One of his great concerns was to create a fairly secure environment for the community to survive, safe (as much as reasonably possible) from some of the freaks out there that love to hack websites. Add in the amount of time and effort he devotes to running this place. All of this comes out of his pocket and the time out of his life. For us, the PE community. Think about that.
There are various responsibilities we have toward the community here such as our conduct and being a contributor toward PE in general and the efforts, safety, and positive mindset of others in this group. However, we also have to ask and answer these questions for ourselves, as recipients of the great gift that is PE:
1. Do I have a responsibility to help insure the survival and welfare of Thunder's in a financial way?
2. Do I have the means to contribute, no matter how small or large? And if so, will I do it?
Yes, Thunder’s Place Free PE Forums is truly free. Free to you as a reader. But it is not without cost. Consider it’s value to you. When we truly value something in life, we are promoted to show our appreciation for it.
Thunder has set up a PayPal account for contributions (the link is viewable from most pages at the bottom). If you are uncomfortable in going this route, you may perhaps PM Thunder himself to work out another arrangement.
Note: For anyone curious, this was a ‘Buster’ post and not that of T (that is, Thunder). He is concise, whereas I am verbose.