Subject: [ASSTR] Labor Day Site Upgrades

  Dear Friend of ASSTR,

  Every year around this time, the ASSTR admins take stock of the
organization's current computer equipment and decide upon any necessary
upgrades, replacements, additions, etc.

  As most of you probably are aware, computer equipment doesn't last forever;
it wears out over time, and often it is more economical to buy new than
attempting to repair old.  With this in mind, we have placed an order for new
equipment and are in the process of making travel arrangements for a
(generally) annual ASSTR Site Upgrade Trip over Labor Day weekend (Sep 2-5,
2011).

  We are sending this message out for two primary purposes: first, to let you
know the site may be unavailable at times during this period, and second, to
give you a detailed agenda to support our beg for a donation from you to
support the expenses incurred with this upgrade.

  On the agenda for the upgrades:

  1) Decommission three servers purchased in 2004.  Remove them from the
equipment cabinet to free space for new equipment.  The servers being
decommissioned are a web server, backup/secondary firewall, and primary
database server.  These machines are 7+ years old and all have various issues
that would be time/cost prohibitive to repair versus simply replacing the
hardware with modern equipment.

  2) Replace the primary database machine with a new server ($1900)

  3) Replace the backup firewall with a new server ($1100)

  4) Upgrade the memory in the backups server, one of the web servers, and the
primary firewall ($220)

  5) Take general inventory; update site documentation for network connections,
power configuration, etc.

  In addition to the aforementioned expenses, we estimate travel expenses for
two admins to complete this work to cost an additional $1500+.  On a side note,
we also recently renewed our domain names at a cost of $470 (9 year renewals).

  Therefore, we are kicking off a fund raiser right here and now in an effort
to pay for this trip and to cover ASSTR's ongoing ISP expenses of $500 per
month.  We are asking each and every person who enjoys the ASSTR site to please
chip in whatever you can - even if it's only a few dollars.  Every bit helps; a
few dollars from several hundred donors really do add up.  With your help, we
can reach our goal of raising $10,000.

  The quickest and easiest way to make a donation is by credit card; we accept
Visa and Mastercard only.  Donations can be made securely online at
https://secure.asstr.org/cgi-bin/donations/ccdonation.cgi

  We are unable to accept PayPal because their terms of service prohibit doing
business with adult sites.

  Alternately, checks, cash, or money orders may be mailed to:

    ASSTR
    PO Box 583
    Alexandria, VA 22313-0583
    USA

  Thank you in advance for your support!

  - Rey del Sexo
    ASSTR Administration