5RGM

5RGM has some decisions that need to be made in order to move forward, and we need people to step forward and want this to happen. I think these are the current issues facing 5RG:

Restreaming
For pretty much every single SRGM we have relied upon Dickoak to provide everything we needed for the actual stream: layouts, RTMP setup and servers (also thanks to Ice), his desktop, and his internet. This time around we need an alternate host to provide their computer and quality upload speed. Dickoak has expressed that we can still use his setup depending on when the marathon is, but he will not be able to restream. This likely means that should anything happen to his setup, we would need to switch to an alternate host to keep things going – we may want to just skip that issue entirely by moving to another willing host, if someone can step up for it.

The other issue is the need for more restreamers in general. Ideally we would have enough people to circulate through time zones and availability, and those people would know enough to meme it up when it can be funny, but not be douchebags about it. However, the reality is that we need people to be available to at least make sure the stream isn't dead and that the next run is going to happen regardless of whether or not they can manage to put up memes.

Charity vs GDQ travel
The idea that we could raise money for a charity is not a new one, but it's looking better every marathon. People have expressed that they are not interested in helping another GDQ travel expense marathon, but we can all see that having donations really spices up a marathon in a good way. I've always thought it was weird that indirectly Uyama & the GDQ committee end up choosing who gets the money we raise, as raising money for GDQ expenses requires having a run in the GDQ.

The issue faced by raising money for a charity is, 1) is the charity a good cause and is the organization itself credible, 2) is the amount of money we raise going to actually benefit the charity in a significant way, and 3) can we all agree on a charity/cause that satisfies 1 & 2. Jesusftb compiled a list (http://pastebin.com/XATxQYvR) that is a good step in the right direction in terms of finding a charity. We might also want to contact the charity ahead of time, as some might take issue with how our marathons are handled (muh professionalism)

The third option is to go the JRTA route, and raise money for both. Once we meet the travel requirements we can switch to the charity of choice – or vice versa if we raised money for a specific project.

General Interest/Schedule
Some people are of the opinion that the marathon should last for as long as there are people willing to run it. Others feel that the marathon should be for a limited number of days, with a bonus lasting another set amount of days. The former option allows for all runs to (eventually) be run, but then makes the marathon long as fuck. The latter option means there has to be cuts, which makes people salty, and in some cases annoying. There has always been a delicate balance between our bois, newbois, and not our bois, and cuts complicate that balance. There are a lot more people reading/posting on /srg/ and it's harder to distinguish between cliques and whatever else anonymously, to an extent. If we raise money for a charity, more people than usual may want to run to help the cause. How it handle it all can go a number of different ways.

It would be nice to know that our bois have games that they want to run and that the doggy isn't dead and on a plane doomed to crash and die on the way back to his home planet.

Donation Incentives
Whichever way we go, I think everyone agrees that we will raise money. To help us do that, we need some better incentives than we've previously seen. Yea a copy of Bad Rats on steam is cool and all, but it would be nice to have some real prizes. I've already tossed around the idea of purchasing a sealed, boxed, English edition Chrono Trigger and Secret of Evermore as donation incentives, if we can offset the price of them ($200~250 each) which is only really possible through a vacation marathon rather than charity, since the money goes straight to the charity. I currently don't have the money to donate upwards of $500 to charity at the moment. However, if people are willing to part with, purchase, or create incentives to up donations, then that would be great. We can still do steam games of course if someone will organize it again.

Choose when 5RGM will be
We need a deadline for when this thing is going down. It's important to pick a time that is good for the runners, the viewers, and the staff. If we raise money for GDQ travel, then obviously the marathon has to be before AGDQ15. If we raise for a charity, then it can be whenever is good. Or we can put the doggy down for awhile.