Regular readers will have noticed that we have setup a GiveALittle donation widget on the left sidebar.

No one at TransportBlog (or the Campaign for Better Transport) gets paid for any work we do, and we rely entirely on donations for operational costs.

Thanks to our successful film night last year, we still have about five months worth of hosting costs covered. However, as TransportBlog becomes more popular and readership increases, so too do the hosting costs and a server upgrade is likely to be needed in the near future.

Help us get there by giving a little (or a lot!) to the cause.  The target is $1,800 which will provide at least six months worth of dedicated hosting. All donations go to a ring-fenced fund with the Campaign for Better Transport, a registered incorporated society.

You can donate here for the TransportBlog cause.

If you are interested in joining the Campaign for Better Transport, you can join here. Our AGM is next Wednesday 17th July, 7:00pm at the Grey Lynn Community Centre, Richmond Road, and all members are welcome.

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30 comments

  1. How about you set up the ability to provide an ongoing donation via ap so you don’t need to go cap in hand every now and then?

  2. We try and minimise the admin overhead, but if anyone out there wants to set up a recurring payment via internet banking you would be most welcome.

    The bank account is KiwiBank 38-9009-0281735-00 and use TransportBlog as the reference. Let us know you’ve done it so we can invite you to the inauguration of the Congestion Free Network…

        1. Great! Can’t wait until the next film night. Last year was great. BTW will Patrick take some arty photos of the event and participants this year? 🙂

  3. You’re paying $300/mth in hosting! How about finding somewhere cheaper.
    Virtual hosting prices have dropped significantly in the last year or two (overseas at least). Have a look at Amazon EC2.

    1. Nope, we are currently paying around $150 a month, hosted through rimuhosting.com

      A virtual server on a dedicated machine would be the next step up and their list price is around $300/month for an Auckland based server, where our principal readership resides. This includes responsive tier 1 24/7 support. One of the main benefits of sticking with Rimu would be the ability to seamlessly upgrade to a new server with hardly any effort. Last time we moved hosting it was a mammoth exercise.

      Having said that, if there is a provider out there that can offer comparable hosting and service, preferably based in Auckland, and is willing to do the migration and take on the responsibility of hosting one of the most popular blogs in the country, then drop us a line.

        1. We are getting around 2,000 unique visitors and 6,000 page views per day however the last couple of days have been fairly busy e.g. yesterday over 5,000 unique visitors and almost 12,000 page views

        2. How many GB transferred out?, If you don’t mind my asking.
          What percentage of viewers are from NZ?
          I wonder what sort of revenue google adsense would bring in?

        3. Not sure of how much GB we are doing daily but we have hit our 60GB monthly limit a few times recently. Generally over 80% is local traffic.

          Would consider advertising it if meant the blog could start paying the authors.

  4. Wow Warren S – $1000 – you the man!

    Guys, can I suggest an annual blog-writer appreciation dinner at The French Cafe or equivalent? I think a few wives are owed that plus all day session at the spa too. I’d donate again for that.

  5. I’d donate 100. But I’m afraid an accident with my iPad means I’m a little short at the moment. (curse you glass screen) ….I’ll try an donate 20 as soon as I can.

  6. Well done ATB on exceeding your funding target in a day!

    Perhaps we’ve found how to fund the CRL and the Congestion Free Network 😉

  7. I have made a small contribution as I am a regular reader and occasional commenter (but only on topics I think I know something about!) and find most of the posts very informative – some of the comments not so much. Thank you.

    One small suggestion – generally this blog is more civilised than most political blogs, even though you have had to introduce some user guidelines recently. Some commenters are still ignoring these, so may I suggest that consideration be given to a demerit points system similar to what David Farrar uses at Kiwiblog? This gives the offender an opportunity to mend their ways rather than being banned outright. For example, the term “troll” is way overused by some commenters, together with very offensive ad hominems – almost a knee-jerk reaction to an opposing pov. There was a most egregious example last night (I won’t give it further oxygen by linking to it). If an opposing view is factually in error, the response should be present the true facts, or at least mitigating information. As an example, I’ve been sceptical of the value of the CRL, but I’ve gleaned information from this blog (eg re capacity improvements) that have tempered that view; thank you for that.

    One last comment that some of you won’t like very much. Please try not to react too violently! It does your cause no good to use CAGW and peak oil as arguments for PT (I’ve noticed that believers in one usually believe in the other). Even the IPCC reluctantly acknowledges a “pause” in global warming that the models didn’t predict (funny that). As for “emissions”, by all means highlight noxious gases, but please don’t knock carbon dioxide. After all, it helps the flowers grow. And fossil fuels may well become more expensive in the future due to increasing extraction costs and taxes, which is a valid argument for substitution, but to suggest they will run out anytime soon…

    1. Ah, Kiwiblog, that bastion of civilised debate. As for your last comment, what a waste of time — you did notice that the transport blog has teamed up with generation zero for their latest campaign, didn’t you?

      1. working with other groups to be more sustainable is very different from using questionable theories to defend your viewpoints.

      2. Re Kiwiblog: agreed. Dan, you do realise I was merely suggesting a possible way of increasing the credibility of this site even further, don’t you? And yes, I knew I was probably wasting my time, but if even one reader starts thinking about and investigating the topic a little further (regardless of the conclusion they reach) it will have been worthwhile.

  8. Thank you Jonno for your support and advice.

    But I’m sorry that you confuse science with religion. Both the fact natural resources are finite and the observation that we are impacting on the biosphere are not objects of faith. Certainly the details are worthy of attention and debate but neither are issues like the existence or otherwise of invisible beings that require ‘faith’ or belief’.

    1. Thanks Patrick – but not advice, that’s not my place to give, just a suggestion that might be of interest. I think I do know the difference between science and religion (although I didn’t mention religion, where did that come from?). As I’m sure you know, the scientific method says (put simply) that when observation doesn’t match the hypothesis, or the experiment is not repeatable, you discard that hypothesis and try again. And any IT guru will tell you not to trust computer models that have more than a handful of variables, especially if the programmer won’t release the code for peer review.

      1. Jonno1, the reference to religion clearly comes from your reference to `believers’. Luckily, IT gurus are not the ones we turn to for advice on climate science. Instead we go to climate scientists and those in related disciplines. They are scientists, they know how the scientific method works.

        1. Wow, that’s a big leap of faith Dan. I believe in gravity (for example), a proven hypothesis which makes it a theory, but I don’t worship it. The rest of your comment, to be blunt, doesn’t warrant a response.

          But I’m still happy to have made a small contribution towards keeping the blog running. The posts from Matt L, Stu D and Patrick R in particular are well worth reading. I deeply admire the effort those guys put into their research. I do a lot of technical writing and it’s very time-consuming (hence I work on charge-up, not fixed price). Which reminds me, I have a report to finish tonight.

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