I'm starting this thread because of the recent posting in NeHe's blog at: http://nehe.gamedev.net/about/blog.asp Everybody who has freely learned from this site owes NeHe a great deal of gratitude. I'm hoping that when people browing this forum see just what NeHe means to all of us that they will be encouraged to donate. For anybody who was around back in the glory days, Jeff practically bled to keep this site up to date on a daily basis. OpenGL enthusiasts everywhere are indebted to NeHe. So I ask you all this. Make a Paypal Donation. It doesn't have to be much. Every $5 donation NeHe gets will get him closer to paying off his $14,000 of debt. Then post here that you made a donation. Hopefully when everybody else in the forums notices how many people made a donation, more will be willing to sponsor NeHe a couple of dollars. With the large number of visitors to this site hopefully we can make a dent in that amount that Jeff owes. Think about it, a $20 donation (give up on pizza this Friday night and eat at home) from 700 different visitors will make NeHe debt free. I know that 700 donations is too much to ask for, but however this ends, NeHe will be the winner. I'm an Junior Electrical Engineering student in South Dakota, US. Money is not the easiest thing to come by in the world. Nobody likes giving away money, but this is for a good cause. So here goes, I'm making a donation now. Let's see how many different people we can inspire to help Jeff out!

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I mean we're talking about $14000, not many people even make that in their whole life.

If I take a look at my finances as a part time worker in college, I am slated to make about 12000 a year. Now of course, America is richer then other parts of the world; however, the guy over at nehe has taught me a lot. Its a much better cause then saving toby.

Out of curiosity, how did you incur a $14K debt?

I just bought a house so I'm in debt up the ying-yang, but seriously, you'd think that after, say $5K down you'd realize something is not right with the business, no? Don't get me wrong I love Ne-He and it would be sad for it to vanish, but also, aren't there enough smart opengl people around here to take it over in a zero-expense fashion?

Don't think of this as paying for his debt. Think of this as trying to repay the thousands of hours of time that he has donated to this site. NeHe is the kind of person who used to take all the donations and money from cd sales and his own personal money when donations were scarce and finance most of the constests on the site.

Please only make serious posts here. If you're just going to flame this attempt to help somebody who has helped the OpenGL community, at least make a different thread.

Thanks

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Tyderium Don't think of this as paying for his debt. Think of this as trying to repay the thousands of hours of time that he has donated to this site. NeHe is the kind of person who used to take all the donations and money from cd sales and his own personal money when donations were scarce and finance most of the constests on the site.

That is all fine and dandy, however your original post makes the impression that we owe it to NeHe to pay off his debts.

A better idea, although harder to make happen, would be to have the community plan, develop, market, and sale a game. And give NeHe a portion of the proceeds as a sign of thanks.

Asking people to donate money when it is scarce to begin with will recieve flames. Besides, NeHe is not asking for donations any more, he is asking for someone to buy the content on the site so that he can move on (my impression, may not be true).

Richard

Out of curiosity, how do you buy content if it's already public domain? Also, setting up server isn't that difficult either.

I'm not trying to sound greedy or ungrateful for his work, just trying to make sense of this. I certainly do like the idea of nehe receiving a small percentage of proceeds from a game though...

Just to make it clear, NeHe doesnt pay for the site, its hosted free by Gamedev.net and has been for some time now.

I'm not saying this to put people off donating, but also I'm sure he wouldnt want the facts misrepresented in this instance.

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superdeveloper how do you buy content if it's already public domain?

If I remember correctly, everything on his site is NOT public domain unless the original authors of some of the tuts made them so. Everything NeHe wrote (tut wise) is not public domain. He may have changed it recently but I don't believe so.

Rich

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Original post by superdeveloper Out of curiosity, how do you buy content if it's already public domain?

It is not public domain, it states very clearly that it is ©1997-2005 by NeHe productions, its free, but not public domain, basically what he is doing is selling that copyright, the right to publish it elsewhere, even charge for copies.

I think it's a better idea than what GameTutorials.com did (start charging for their tutorials), in this case NeHe keeps his image of being "the good guy".

I can't say I have had a lot of dealings with NeHe, but give the man a little credit. I have been around GameDev long enough to see a bit of what he has been through and what he has put into the site. If you want to be nice and make a donation, do it. If you don't want to - don't.

Just show the man a little respect. Try to respect those that teach others. They take their time and energy into helping others rather than furthering themselves (financially, socially, or job wise).