5th Donation

In reviewing our donations to-date, I see that we still have another $100 to donate (the 2nd half of our first Good Boating payment).

We were stiffed the $2k for phase 2 of that project, because of legal wrangling. After the court dust settled, the company we did phase 2 work for, went out of business, so it's extremely unlikely that we'll EVER get reimbursed for that work. :(

The good news, however, is that the company that survived, wants the good boating skin and is willing to pay a $2k deposit, to begin work converting the skin to suit their own boating site (which is, fortunately, also a black and gold design).

We've just received the $2k deposit in the mail today, so as per our 10% for b2evo work policy ... we've not got an ADDITIONAL $200 USD to contribute to b2evo.

Policy Change

On the new (orange) b2evo site, you'll note that AstonishMe is listed as a GOLD donor. While that's great, there's no love back for it (i.e., <a rel="nofollow" ... ) :(

Not that linkage is EVERYTHING, but since we write and support b2evo, it makes a certain amount of sense to have reciprocal linkage.

So ... with a nice $300 in our pockets to donate (plus some more promised, upon completion of the project ... I've approached the FG about becoming a SPONSOR.

Dunno what's involved (in terms of cost), but we would get LOVE BACK, on sponsored pages.

More to come as we gather details. Keep yer dial tuned to AstonishMe backoffice news, for up-to-the-minute (well, hour ... no ... weekly ... no ... MONTHLY reports) !!!

1/2 of Phase I - Good Boating Project

I'm happy to report that we've made our fourth donation to b2evolution. We donated $100, which is 5.0% of our Good Boating, Phase 1 (of 5) payment, which we received last month.

Good Boating is by far our largest project to date, as we're rolling 5 separate websites into a single b2evolution install and using "GoodBoating.net" as the portal into all of the sites. Phase one was to create a "mock-up" page for Good Boating, demonstrating just "how" we were going to provide navigation and promote each of the five underlying sites.

We think we came up with a stunning design and the customer was very happy with the mock up page we made at http://goodboating.astonishme.co.uk.

We are in the midst of Phase II, (which will be to actually integrate an existing b2evolution site into Good Boating and then deploy these two sites). The remaining phases will be site redesigns and integrations for each of the remaining websites.

We actually have $200 to donate, but decided to "spread out the love" a tad, so that we can maximize AM's exposure on the donor list, as the FG only updates this periodically.

Note: FYI - I'm backing out my $50 contribution that I'm no longer getting credit for on b2evolution, as the FG has lumped it in with all the AM! donations. I have $50 in, so I'll back out $25 with this donation and another $25 with the next.

Our b2evolution contribution summary:

• 16-Jun-2006 - $100 (1/2 GB Phz 1)
• 24-Mar-2006 - $20 (2nd 1/2 Waterblogged -> OBN)
• 04-Mar-2006 - $20 (Danny's Tejas Skin)
• 12-Feb-2006 - $20 (1/2 Waterblogged -> OBN)

To-date, AstonishMe! has donated $160 (USD) to the b2evolution OpenSource project!

Silver Donor: AstonishMe!

We might not have many members *cough cough*, but all two of them will be astonished to see that the FG has finally acknowledged the TRUE source of his recent "mad money".

In an email I received today (which showed up in my SPAM mail folder, ironically - surprised I caught it - :| ), I received the following, which was so wordy as to take up nearly two complete paragraphs). I didn't know the French could be so wordy. :|

Hi Scott!

Thank you very much for your donation to the b2evolution project!

I changed your name on the log.

Best regards.

-François.

So spread the news, we're "officially" acknowledged as a British Organization on the Silver Donor Plate.

I best keep this short, if I want to spell check it. :-/

-stk

I'm happy to report that we've made our 3nd contribution to b2evolution.

The 3rd donation ($20) comes from the remaining payment (send via USPS ... so you know ... "the cheque is in the mail") from the work Yabba & I did on the OBN site, where we integrated the blog into their existing front page (way back in January).

You may note that "Scott Kimler" is currently listed on the b2evolution donations list (that's really US). This combines our $40 with $50 that I contributed, a while ago, and moves (us/me) into the SILVER Donor list ... at $90 total. :| With our third $20 donation, I've asked the FG to change the name from "Scott Kimler" to "AstonishMe!" (so we'll see what happens). Hoever, I bet y'all didn't know that although I'm a yank, living in Canada, that I'm really British!

Hopefully, the FG is putting his concentrated efforts on BETA. ;)

Our b2evo contribution summary

• 24-Mar-2006 - $20 (2nd 1/2 Waterblogged -> OBN)
• 04-Mar-2006 - $20 (Danny's Tejas Skin)
• 12-Feb-2006 - $20 (1/2 Waterblogged -> OBN)

To-date, AstonishMe! has donated $60 (USD) to the b2evolution OpenSource project!

I'm happy to report that we've made our 2nd contribution to b2evolution (even though the first hasn't even rolled onto the "donor page". The donations WERE recently updated through Jan 21st, or some such date. It seems, that the FG is running a tad behind with things ... like the BETA release! :|

Our second donation came from the hard work that one of our contributors, Danny Ferguson (AKA PersonPerson), did on an astonishing skin for a picky customer "Tejas". The skin is deployed at Software and Tools. (Sad to see that he's alread broken the bloody thing, with pics that are too large & posts that aren't XHTML valid). And in the <title> tag, an "&" that should be a "&amp;"?

Our motto: We make 'em, you break 'em

Danny put a lot of hard work into the skin and it SHOWS. This is a great skin. GREAT job Danny!!

We look forward to his write up on it, which will be featured on our "portfolio" section. We also look forward to showcasing the skin and making it available to our members first, then after 60 days, to the b2evolution crowd in general.

There are a couple of minor browser problems that maybe we can resolve?

1. Opera doesn't like the collapsible categories JS code
2. MS won't allow a "main body swipe of text" with the CSS rollover

Now that the stunned monkey is off our back for delivery, maybe we can take our time and find solutions to these, so the skin behaves the same across the browser field.

b2evo contribution summary

• 12-Feb-2006 - $20 (1/2 Waterblogged -> OBN)
• 04-Mar-2006 - $20 (Danny's Tejas Skin)

To-date, AstonishMe! has donated $40 (USD) to the b2evolution OpenSource project!

We have made our first contribution to the b2evolution OpenSource project: $20US.

This may not seem like a lot, but as Yabba and I both agreed that we'd give back 10% for any b2evolution work that came through AM!, we're keeping to that promise. (This represents 1/2 of the payment for work we did in Jan, integrating "Waterblogged" into the front page of Ohio Boating.

• 12-Feb-2006 - $20 (1/2 Waterblogged -> OBN)

As a team, we have contributed a total of $20.00 US, in support of the b2evolution project.

I'm sure we'll see the AM! website roll onto the "donor" list (just as soon as the French General gets a round tuit). Hopefully, before the infamous "beta" release. :|