How you can help us without spending a dime

You don't have to spend any money to help rc.com get better.

There are a number of things that we could greatly use, that don't cost a dime:

• [user]eric[/user] could greatly benefit from access to a couple of computers with large screens, side-by-side, to update the forums' look-and-feel. If you're in the Bay Area and work at a design studio, for example, this would be a huge help in the redesign.
• If you've upgraded to a more modern computer, and have some sticks of PC133 ECC SDRAM memory lying around, we can ALWAYS use more RAM! Eventually we'd like to build out a second webserver and split our load 3 ways. If you have any 1GB sticks that are lying around collecting dust, we can put them to good use. Send [user]tim[/user] a PM (private message) if you'd like to do this.
• Filing bug reports when you hit a problem is a great way to make us aware of them. Sometimes we already know about them, and sometimes they take a while to fix (none of us make a living off of this site), but if you are seeing a problem, chances are you're not alone. Your feedback is always appreciated.
• Join your local advocacy organization (the Southeastern Climbers' Coalition, Friends of Yosemite, Mazamas -- whoever represents your interests, on the ground, in the courts, in your local area!) and pay your Access Fund dues ! This site is something you use to kill time between cragging, right? Maybe find a partner for a trip? There's no point to it if your favorite climbing area gets shut down. Stand up and be counted. And then get your local organization in touch with us, so that we can better understand how to represent their interests online.

There are other ways, to be sure -- you could help develop the site's code, or organize a trail building event and promote it on the site, or start a petition to reverse some wrongheaded regulations in your area. This is not a complete list! But the point is, even if you don't have (or care to spare) a dime, you can still help us out enormoously. No matter what anyone tells you, at this stage in the game, we are still basically a hobby site. If you want a major player in the online climbing space to be a grass-roots organization (which we are, n00bs and all), we'd be delighted if you'd work with us on this. Thanks, as always, for your consideration. And if you do feel like chipping in some cash, our Supporting Partners program was set up for just such an occasion. You get recognition for your support and we get a couple bucks for when the lights start to flicker. It really does make a difference in terms of what we can offer -- things like geographic partner search were paid for by user donations, for example, as were most of our server upgrades (and in fact our entire second server). This site would not exist without the efforts of its users. We appreciate your support enormously.