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What is LonelyPrisoners.com?The website first came about because of my half-brother. He currently is in federal prison. He first wanted me to put him on the internet to hopefully find some pen pals to write to him. He also had plans of writing a book and he is an awesome artist so I thought I would some of his talent to the site also. From this small beginning, I've decided to help out others that is stuck behind bars, and who does not have internet access, help find pen pals that would like to correspond with them. In my quest of getting the website reconnized by more and more people. I've personally been popping into chat rooms over the internet every once and a while to help spread the word. And found family members of loved ones behind the bars and thought the site was pretty good. But one of the mothers said that we should have a SUPPORT CHAT ROOM for family and friends of convicts. To be honest, I never really thought about it, but thought it would be a good way to expand my site a little further. So, I have added a chat room that is dedicated for the support that these families have had to go through since their loved ones have been put behind bars. Back to TopHow do prisoners get listed on LonelyPrisoners.com and how can they access LonelyPrisoners.com?For an Inmate to be listed, all you have to do is go to the payment sight (which is only $5 a year) for them to be listed. To the best of my knowledge, there is no jail or prison that has internet access for a criminal. So, a family member or friend is pretty much required for the transaction to take place. As of right now, to keep my costs down, I have been using a service called Pay Pal to handle the credit card or regular check transaction. If you have further questions about Pay Pal, read further down. Since there isn't any Internet access to the prisoners, I do have to remind you, that they can only correspond using pen, paper, stamps, and the US Mail system. There IS NOT any E-Mail available to prisoners. Back to TopWhy am I suppose to pay for my family member (inmate) to be listed on the website ?Well, I am not here to make money. But I'm not here to lose money either. Even though, at this point, it isn't costing me very much out of pocket expense, in the future when the website hopefully kicks into high gear and starts getting more popular, I most likely will have to upgrade my site and move it to a new location to handle the inflowing traffic. Until that point comes to pass, I am trying to do with what I have. But I'm also trying to expand the website in as many directions as possible. I'm trying to accept peoples information and pictures to be added to the website which can take a lot more space. Also, I'm trying to add a Chat Room that will be able to hand live conversations with fellow family members that have brothers, sons, husbands, wives, daughters, or however your relationship is to the incarcerated individual. That way we can have a support system that can grow and help others who would like to talk about how the SYSTEM has broken their home or help put a financial strain on their pocketbooks. Or whatever your concern or even your pleasure out of the situation. I'm just trying to make this an open and free atmosphere that will allow anybody and everybody to chat with each other. I'm not sure exactly how I can expand besides these basic starts. Except for adding new inmates that want correspondents. If anybody has any ideas how to improve the site, either by the design or addition of anything. Please Email Me. Also, future things to come. I'm hoping soon to add an affiliates link to a company that sends post cards using the US Mail. The first post card is free using their service. So, I'm hoping that eventually, I can use this to help people start the process of writing an individual that is in jail or prison. If you would like to give your two cents worth on this proposal, also, email me? Back to TopWhy should prisoners Pay to be listed when you have banners on the website?I am not trying to get rich off of this website. I dislike the advertisements also but that is why the cost of the site itself is so low. To be honest, I don't like pop up ads anywhere on the net and is why I personally use an advertisement filter so I do not see any of the advertisements. I do not want to endorse any one product over the many that are out there. But Yahoo does have a pretty good listing of a few companies that offer ad filtration software. Please check it out and besides getting rid of that annoyance of ads, it might even help speed up your downloads slightly! http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=advertisement+filters Back to TopWho is running LonelyPrisoner.com?Well, at this point, only I am working on this project. My name is Moses, but I call myself The Green Dragon on the net. I don't plan out giving my full name at this point, I have a small daughter and a wife. And my wife is very concerned about privacy. But eventually, I do plan on getting a PO Box at the local post office but not until this site starts getting a little better business. I'm trying to keep my expenses way low. My brother is in a federal prison and is the one who inspired the initial framework of the website. But I've been trying to expand it pretty much all on my own. I do not have any formal training in computers or internet design. I have been using software to help me design the site, or at least making the creation of the page a little faster and easier. But for the most part, I am pretty sure that I could have done most of it by hand. The HTML code is that . But I using the program basically allowed the convenience of putting the site together a bit faster than otherwise and a lot easier too. But Every once and a while, I still do have to go into the source of the HTML and tweak it so it'll look just like I want it. I have had computer experience for almost 10 years now and internet experience just shy of my computer. So I pretty much understand what is going on. I plan on taking a few courses to help me better develop my skills and also give me some credit that I can apply to my resume for the future. Like I said, I am a father of a sweet baby. Ten months at the time of writing this. I am a full time father, at the age of 24, while my wife is busy advancing in her career. So I should have plenty of time to devote working on this website to make sure everything is on the UP and UP, between the feedings and diaper changes is that. Besides all this, there isn't too much more about myself. Back to TopWhat is PayPal and how is it that I can pay without a credit card, and I thought it was only $5 per year?Pay Pal is a service that allows individuals to pay for products using their credit card or checking account. I personally can not accept credit cards on the website. To do that, I would need what is called a merchant account and a hosting company that will securely have the ability to except them. And I've heard that obtaining a merchant account can be fairly difficult and cost more money per transaction that what I would like to spend at this point. Plus with a monthly fee. Pay Pal is nice in this aspect. They accept Visa, Master Card, and Checking Accounts. All information that you put in your account with pay pal stays with pay pal. The only thing I receive from a transaction is an email saying that the transaction has occurred and amount. So all your personal information is blocked from myself and I have no access to any of it. This is including any credit cards or checking account numbers. Like I said, I am asking a $5 dollar fee for adding people to the pen pal website. But if you click on the actual link. You might notice it says something about 41 cents for handling and might wonder what this is all about? Well, this isn't tax or anything like that. But this is my cost of every transaction that occurs using Pay Pal. Or how I think of it. My cost for the handling of excepting a credit card transaction. To help keep my books easier to balance, I am also charging this amount to you, the consumer. That way the exact amount that is transferred into my account is an exact $5 dollars. if you have any more questions about Pay Pal and their operations. I encourage you to explore their FAQ section of their site. Back to TopWhy isn't there any people in the Chat Support Room?I just put the Chat Room online recently. right now, it is in its infancy, like the rest of the site too. I'm not sure why people isn't using this chat site yet. But if you join the chat room without anybody else there. Please stick around to wait till more people to join. I know how difficult it is to stay on without anybody else visiting. But hopefully over time, we will have a pretty big following allowing the site expand. And hopefully this shall eventually be a very popular part of the website. Only time will tell, but with the assistance with those of you who would like to see this site and especially the people who want to start a Chat Room to develop, all we can do is wait to see how popular it shall become. Thanks for your interest. Back to TopWhat is this book about and who is writing it?This is going to be a book written by my brother Pete. He is the one that is currently in federal prison. As I understand it, his plan on the book is to write about other individuals that is also behind bars with him. Writing about what crime the people did, how they got involved, what they got away with and for how long, what was their final undoing or how they got busted, and how long they got sentenced and life now for them. He might emphasize one of these areas more than others and might not show too much of another. But as a complete book, it should develop all of the characterizes and more. The book itself is suppose to be written in a way where each person will be discussed in only a chapter. Sort of a short biography of information about the individual all grouped together into this on going process of a book. Right now, the plan is that I am going to publish it online with my wife as the editor. It has been a slow process, especially approving all corrections with Pete using the US Mail system. Also, my wife has been busy with her career and transferring from one area to another so it also has slowed down her editing time. I'm not sure how long this process is going to take us. But the plan is to publish the book a chapter at a time. We might go ahead and try to search for a professional publisher to help out with the book and editing. But still at this point, we have been working in this small facility to do it ourselves. And we will also be using Pay Pal to sell copies (of the chapters) of the book. And after purchasing the individual chapter, we are making it so you download the book itself using acrobat format, requiring you, the purchaser, to download the Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the book. Any developments on the book shall be put on the website. Back to TopWhere is all the money collected from the website going?All money collected from this website is going back into making the site bigger and better! Back to TopWhat is the direction that you are trying to take LonelyPrisoner.com?I'm trying to find a place to allow prisoners to find Pen Pals. People who like to actually write letters and mail them using the US Mail system. Also, Trying to start a support chat room to allow family members talk about it is like to have their loved ones away from home. Back to TopRevised: 19 Apr 2002 10:05 AM . |
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