WHY A MEMBERSHIP CD-ROM?

Has a favorite website of yours simply disappeared off the internet?  It can happen when the cost of maintaining its bandwidth rises as traffic to the site increases.

These websites are the public face of two micro-groups, the Corregidor Historic Society and the 503d Heritage Battalion. In 1998, a small group with a shared interest in obtaining accurate knowledge about the history of Corregidor began contributing to the website "Corregidor - Then and Now."

As the information and materials being collected on the 16 February 1945 return of U.S. forces to Corregidor began to overwhelm the CT&N Website,  a fresh website was established - "503d PRCT on The Rock."

Over time, we received a number of requests from 503d Paratrooper veterans to recognize their colleagues who may not have been on Corregidor.  This led, eventually, to the creation of the "503d Heritage Battalion."

The size of these websites was now becoming critical. We'd outgrown the 'free' website ISP hosts, couldn't stand the 'advertising spamming' hosts, and we'd come to the limits of our 'goodwill, grace & favor' host.  We'd thus succeeded to the point where we had to choose between ceasing its development, keeping the site commercial free, or paying for the site's unexpected success in a way we'd not yet imagined.

Over the years, we'd seen a lot of non-commercial websites disappear at this point of evolution when they were unable to make the transition to a self-funded model.

We couldn't sit around relying on those few generous individuals who share our passion to make donations year after year, (thankfully there are some!)  so we decided to create a CD version of the websites. We decided it shouldn't be direct-sold, but given to new members of our tiny community, in recognition of their support.  To ensure that there was value added to the CD over and above the 'free-to-air' internet, we adopted a policy that the MEMBERSHIP CD-ROM should contain further levels of features and materials not otherwise available on the 'free-to-air" internet.

Consequently,  membership dues are allocated to help the constant improvement of both the websites, and of the CD.

The purpose of the membership dues is to ensure that the website is here the next time you visit it. Not only should the website still be here, we're hoping it will be constantly improving.

This is our way of thanking our colleagues, our supporters and our contributors.

Paul F. Whitman
Webmaster,
corregidor.org

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