Newsletter for May 27, 2013 - Codename: Ready the Cody-Mobile!

1. Newsletter Editorial

Greetings dear readers, it's been 2 months since the last newsletter, so we have a full plate today.  I'll start as I normally do, with some abashed self-promotion.

First up is call for assistance in funding the purchase of a "Cody Mobile" (just a fancy term for a cheap used car to be adorned with a DonationCoder decal).  A grand total of $307 has been raised so far -- so any bit you can add will help.

Next up is a long blog post I've written on the idea of putting advertisements on the DonationCoder.com website, and some thoughts on the Project Wonderful ad service vs Google Adsense; we occasionally experiment with putting ads on the website and we're doing so again through June.  I'm going to try to write some more longer original essays on the site, and hopefully with your encouragement see if we can't get a few more DC regulars to do the same.

You'll also find in this newsletter some interesting project announcements from members of our forum.  In section 4 you'll find links to a very cool new open source music learning tool called Musicope by forum member czb and a fun science fiction magazine by forum member TaoPhoenix, as well as several new small coding snacks.  And don't mix the new invention we came up with in the long-running gadget thread (section 2).

Finally, I want to reach out to those of you who might have never posted on our forum -- and ask you to take a leap and make a post.  Everyone is welcome on our site and doesn't matter how knowledgeable you are -- and if you aren't sure where to start, check out the "User-to-User" items below.  We're still a small community site whose value depends on user participation. I know I speak for everyone on the site when I say that seeing a first post from a new member is one of our favorite things.

• Micro-Fundraiser for the Official DonationCoder CodyMobile!
• Some thoughts on the Project Wonderful Ad Network and web advertising in general

2. User-to-User: Your Input Requested

We love nothing more than having interesting discussions on our forum -- and we love when new people participate in the discussions.  In each newsletter we try to highlight a few topics that we think might interest casual readers and that are good candidates for making your first post.

• The DonationCoder.com 30-Day Healthy Eating and Exercise Challenge!
• What are Your Favorite YouTube Channels? Here are Mine for Board Games
• Gadget Weekends - we even invented something new this weekend
• Movies or films you've seen lately?
• Recommend free image hosting site?
• Have you ever gone Geocaching or Letterboxing?
• Best method for a dead simple web site?
• Help needed with computer hardware problem
• Some guidelines and rules about posting on the forum

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