Miscellaneous ~ We're changing some.
# Posted on Dec. 11, 2009, 8:27 p.m. by Gideon Zhi

Over the next few days (hopefully no more than that) you'll begin to notice some changes as we tinker with the website a bit. It's nothing drastic, no major overhaul like when the current layout launched; rather, it's a culling of the stuff that doesn't work so well, and an addition of new things. The blog link will be replaced by a twitter link, the About Me will get a much-needed overhaul, the links page will get an update...

... but most visibly (and probably most controversial) is that a PayPal donate button will be going up on the site. This will direct you to a page detailing how our donation system works (with the actual button on the bottom of said page.) But since it's not up yet and people are immediately going to start crying foul, I figured I should explain right now.

Aeon Genesis is a loose collective of programmers, writers, and Japanese speakers. I spearhead the operation but by no means could I do this without lots and lots of help. As such I have been extremely hesitant to place a donate button on the site in the past. How could any funds added to the account ever be fairly distributed amongst all of the contributors? A few months ago, I hit upon the answer: a rainy day fund.

I'm still hashing out the details, but essentially we will have a private forum (possibly public-viewable) within the Pantheon wherein contributors can request funds. There needs to be a valid reason for a withdrawal from the fund. In my case, for instance, my student loan payments have dropped off in the past several months due in no small part to emergency veterinary bills, but this is a drastic example. The money could help finance a PS2 for Tyria so he could play the PS2 SRW games he's always wanted. It could go towards a pizza for a translator who's just finished a script, or who's motivation is flagging. It could help pay bus fare to help a contributor visit a sick family member. Stuff like that. Wide ranging, but not frivolous.

It's important to note that any donations made to the fund are strictly done as thanks for translations already released. We will not accept money for anything we have not produced, and do not want the pressure of someone claiming that they paid us for work that hasn't shown up yet. Furthermore, we will never withhold any releases due to lack of contributions to the fund. It would be nice to have an emergency pillow to fall back on, but everyone understands that times are tough, and I will not hold my work for ransom in this manner.

All that said, frankly, my finances are not very sound right now. I would not be doing this if I felt I didn't need to. I'd actually considered investigating Project Wonderful and placing an ad or two on the site, but figured that this would be, by far, the preferable next step. So when the button does go up, please, do what you can. We'll all appreciate it.

So, with all that out of the way, I'd just like to say that LUNAR *is* coming, hopefully within a few days if not a few weeks, and I hope to have something *else* for everyone on Christmas day. Better get my act in gear, eh?