The names you see below helped keep GibGames alive in early 2002 when our connectivity charges increased by about 500% and we had to scramble to find alternative hosting and hardware. It was the way the "community" pulled together that inspired us to keep going. That and the money that people contributed to make it less financially draining on myself. This was before our rentals were more than a glimmer of hope on the horizon as a means to offset some expenses. Most of what you read below is now past tense. Our rental business has grown to the point where it supports our public ports and sometimes even allows for growth.

Here is how the story unfolded...

I should probably explain a few things here. You may be wondering why I need/want/ask for donations. It's simple: This is an expensive endeavor. I have to pay for bandwidth, servers and sometimes even software in order to provide these gaming servers for the general public to play on. We get over 30,000 individual players each month and each of these is getting the services for free. In order for that to happen, I have to build a server (usually a dual P3 box, 512MBs of RAM, 1U or 2U chassis, etc.), load an operating system, install and configure the games and then pay someone for space and connectivity in a data center so that others can play for free. I do this as a hobby, but honestly smoking crack would be cheaper. The average server costs me about $500 in parts (we're up to 10 of them now) and hosting for each box runs anywhere from $200 to $250 per month. We offer rentals to help offset some of our expenses, but the deficit still comes directly out of my pocket. Right now that's about $600 per month.

That's where donations come in. Many people started asking how they could help out. For some it was easier to send money than to provide support as an admin or configuration guru or something. Thus, the donation concept was born. There was a point early in 2002 where I couldn't have continued to operate without the kindness of the people you see listed. With their help I was able to keep this alive and actually expand a bit. But it still continues to cost me money. There is "plan" to this that would enable us to operate at a "break even" point and it is nearing. In the mean time, your contributions - no matter how big or small - are greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hopefully now I don't sound like a cheapskate with my hand held out.

And finally, here are some of the people who have helped provide you all with our free servers over the years: