Site News - Donations

We know you have an opinion on how things should be run around here. These are suggestions for the forums, and the website.This forum is not a place to ask for suggestions to your own coding (or otherwise) problems.

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Benjamin
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Site News - Donations

Post by Benjamin »

How are we doing on donations? What's the bill and what's the surplus/deficit?

I'm planning on donating funds in the near future but I want the donation to be inline with what is needed/required.

Maybe we can put this data in the Site News forum and update it quarterly.

This forum has helped me immensely in the past. Just want to return the favor.

Thanks guys.
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John Cartwright
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Post by John Cartwright »

The next step, as this has already been brought up, to integrate the paypal donation system with devnet more tightly, which will include a preamble on why we are asking for donations, what's is going towards, surplus/deficit scenario. What do you guys think about recognizing those who have donated? or should this be kept private? or should the user decide?
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s.dot
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Post by s.dot »

I think recognition would be great.. left up to the user.
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Benjamin
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Post by Benjamin »

Probably should be left up to the user as well. I wouldn't want to see an environment where certain people feel like outsiders because they aren't able to donate or something.
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

Yeah, letting contributors decide is most flexible and best in my experience.
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Chris Corbyn
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Post by Chris Corbyn »

One other suggestion that's been mentioned in passing is to take donations once a year in one large cry for help ready for renewing hosting as opposed to a continuous trickle of donations. It's all still a bit undecided but currently we all just know we need to be paying for hosting like we are now after our recent fiasco. It would take a surpisingly small portion of our user base to help out by giving only a "pocket money" sized donation once a year to keep us afloat. I know I'm happy to donate on a periodic basis especially if it's just an annual rally for hosting costs being covered :)

Right now I'm just glad we've got the forum running smoothly again and whatever the money goes to, surplus or otherwise isn't my concern. Jason owns this domain and I'm more than happy for some reward to get back to him for providing a spot online for such a great community.
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John Cartwright
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Post by John Cartwright »

While I do greatly appreciate Jason's effort, I think it is important to distinguish what is happening with the surplus (if any) for the sake of some members who might have thought they donation would back into the community. However, if Jason decided that he wanted to take the surplus then as long as were honest about it I think all is fair.
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php3ch0
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Post by php3ch0 »

Just to let you know the donate button does not appear on the sherbet theme.

Also as a suggestion can people who donate have a little icon by their username?
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Maugrim_The_Reaper
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Post by Maugrim_The_Reaper »

I can see it on sherbet actually - it probably needs some love from a designer to fit in better though - it increases the height of the topic title area for no real reason.

Surplus funds should be handled delicately. I don't mind some going to Jason/Other as a small reward but there's a thin line between being non-profit and handing payments to an individual we all want to reward in some way (someone is then indirectly profiting). It's a minor point really - just needs to be made slightly clearer in any preamble without going overboard ;).
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feyd
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Post by feyd »

It's in the Sherbert theme. I've been working to get it better integrated than the initial pass that added it. Right now, it only appears in topic views. Once I get it displaying right it will be plastered across the other views too.
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califdon
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Post by califdon »

I've been absent for a few days, and I'm glad I noticed this topic. It's really odd, my subconscious was telling me that there was something new in the appearance of the page, but there was so much to catch up on that I never read the caption on the button! I'm not criticizing the button, just pointing out that, at least in my case, I never even noticed it.

Oh yeah, I just contributed.

As just one person's opinion, I don't think we should acknowledge contributions. If we desperately needed a lot of money, that would be a good idea, but I don't think we'll need that. As someone else said, I think we'll have enough from a small number of regular forum users, and I'd hate to think that people just casually visiting the forum, perhaps just to solve one particular problem, might feel guilty or pressured to contribute, because they see a lot of others with an icon or something. Also, I don't think it would be healthy if we created a tiered membership where some folks started thinking that they count more than other people, just because they have a little icon next to their avatar. Hey, there are plenty of us who are glad to contribute anonymously (oh oh, I busted my cover!), I vote for just having the little button up there and maybe a brief explanation of what it's for.

At least for now. If experience proves that we're either collecting too much or not enough to cover the out-of-pocket costs, we can re-evaluate. I wouldn't worry about Jason or anyone else getting slightly over-reimbursed. If it becomes an issue later, we can deal with it. But once you start recognizing contributors, then it's harder to turn that off. I'm willing to trust that Jason will take some action if the proceeds are a lot more than necessary (like maybe hiding the button for awhile).

Again, I don't think we're talking high finance here.

Don
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