Help lngn.net Services Stay Running

Hello,

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who is taking the time out to view this, even if you do not donate, thank you for reading what I'm asking.

I am the sole web maintainer of a website at lngn.net, a site small in nature, as it's mostly just my personal barely used "homepage". The main resource on this webpage is a subdomain for a hobby of mine (and many others) I have ran for somewhere over 15 years now. sdlmame.lngn.net is a site where people can download always up-to-date binary file releases for MacOS of the popular Arcade/Computer System emulator MAME.  Emulation has been my primary hobby since I was a teen just out of high school back in the 1990s. It's been over 20 years and I'm still into the same hobby and it has always interested me and will likely interest me for a long time yet. Before my site existed, I helped maintain a emulation news outlet in the 90s (actually, a few of them). I've always loved spreading information about projects and the scene in general, helping people learn and experience all the great games and gaming systems of the past.

I had made the switch to Mac many years ago, and noticed one of the most popular programs (MAME) had become stagnant on the platform. Developers had done the work of porting MAME to an open-source platform which runs on all types of computer systems, enabling me to provide MAME to Mac users for very little effort. 

So I started providing the latest builds (for many years there was weekly releases!), now it's on an almost monthly release schedule and I'm always right there, building, packaging, and distributing the latest version, right from my site.

I have always paid for this out of pocket, I display no ads (as I'm strongly against that practice) and I've always provided help to users who contact me with issues, in my free time and for free.

While I'm not one to beg or to make a fuss about it, as it's a relatively small cost to me overall. I dedicate time to this hobby as it provides me with an escape from family life for a bit ;)

With the current global crisis at hand with COVID-19, I have been put out of work. I had just moved jobs recently, and was laid-off before even starting one of the two jobs I had. And the other, is on a stop-production until further notice, so I am not working, and because of my situation, I'm sure I likely cannot claim unemployment as a result of never actually getting to work at either of the jobs before COVID-19 shut down my state of residence (Michigan, USA).

This all happened at a bad time overall. I'm trying to raise the funding to keep this server online, so I can keep providing these builds of MAME for the foreseeable future. I'm not raising funds to feed my family, or to pay my household bills, that would be silly, as that is something the internet isn't part of by any means. I'm simply trying to raise funds to pay for the domain renewal fee (due 4/24) and the hosting of the site (which is $10 monthly) for the next year, so I don't have to worry about being able to provide this site to the world, and it'll be taken care of.

I'll be back to work eventually, but who knows when that will be, and who knows when the supposed government stimulus checks will ever be going out. But at this point, I'm in a position to either provide for my family, or provide for this website. You can guess where my money is better off spent.

I'm asking those who are not in any kind of need themselves and who use these services to please think about sending a few dollars to this campaign. It would provide me with the ability to not have to choose closing this all up from lack of funding. But please do not consider donating if you yourself are going through a hardship, as I wouldn't feel right about that.

This is an elective hobby, I realize that, and any donation would be welcomed to help me keep this site running during these unprecedented (is anyone else sick of this word?) times. I've never asked for a hand-out before like this (even though this is a very small one overall), and it pains me to be in this situation, but I really don't have the means to be paying for this on top of the already huge mountain of Real Life (TM) bills I have at the moment.

If you're a fan of this service, and have the funds to spare,  please consider donating a few dollars and help set the certainty of me being able to continue doing this for the community for the near future during this time of need.

I'd like to thank you for reading this far, and for any donation you may send my way, I'd like to thank you as well. I don't have much to offer, but a promise to continue providing the same service, safe downloads, and ad-free webpage to keep all you Mac users classic gaming with the latest and greatest MAME builds.

Thank you,

Jay Lanagan (r0ni)