Suggestion For Forum Funding

[Jobe]

Not sure what anybody else thinks of this idea.

The idea is to set up paid subscriptions on the forum, so users can say pay a small fixed fee via paypal to get a lil extra things like bigger avatar limits for example, at the same time the money received from the paid subscriptions can be used to keep the forum running for paying fees such as domain name, web hosting, and for the vBulletin license renewal.

That way poor old Peter doesnt have to pay for it all himself and we can all then contribute towards the running of the forum.

[2.0]

I agree. I'd pay if there was the option.

[jewels]

Nice idea jobe, however when the forum was re-started a few of us did offer to help fund the forum/server etc, Peter declined, also although I wasn't here from day 1, I do know a few members (thankyou to those members) did make donations to get the forum up and running.

[wild cherry]

Originally Posted by jewels

Nice idea jobe, however when the forum was re-started a few of us did offer to help fund the forum/server etc, Peter declined, also although I wasn't here from day 1, I do know a few members (thankyou to those members) did make donations to get the forum up and running.

Yes jewels your right a few very lovely people did in fact make donations to the forum, bless em.

[Nateman]

iSketch is a free game. it would be nice to keep it that way. it would also be nice to make it easy to donate money. one of the greatest features of iSketch is that anyone anywhere can play absolutely free and have a blast. ive never actually thought of donating money before but now it sounds pretty appealing.

[NoHints]

They're talking about this forum, not the game.

[Nateman]

this forum i think might have something to do with the game and the overall atmosphere.....

correct me if i am wrong

[El_Nino]

By asking players to pay for registering on the site would deter people from joining.

Also, those under the age of 16 would not have the opportunity of joining since they would not have a credit/debit card and would need to ask their parents to pay for it, which I think they'll feel most uncomfortable with doing.

Also, PayPal is a terrible company to pay by. They charge too much of a commision and fraudsters thrive on it, although these occur mainly on sites like ebay. But I would never trust PayPal 100%.

I see like on average, 75-90 people logging on every 24 hrs and that number would be crippled if registration fees were introduced.

My opinion is explained here in an earlier post on another thread
http://www.isketchforum.net/showpost...42&postcount=3

[*AJ*]

People don't have to pay to join the forum but I think there should be an option "would you like to donate to the running of this forum?" or maybe even a separate section of the forum where people could give money. There could be a "target" for each year/month or whatever and people can see how much more money the forum needs. That way it also prevents giving too much to the forum otherwise people might feel like they're being ripped off or something, like "the forum's got too much money now, why do they need all that?" or something.. ya know?

Re: Paypal not being 100% trustworthy... I think it's a risk some people are willing to take and so long as Peter doesn't want us to send the money to Nigeria cos that's where he claims to live, I think it's all good

That Nigeria comment was in no way supposed to come across as being racist or ignorant, simply because paypal and eBay members usually find that scams happen when people trade from Nigeria. In fact, I know a person irl who does a similar thing and has tried pinching my dad's details for his own use, anyway, lets not go too off topic here :)

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by El_Nino

By asking players to pay for registering on the site would deter people from joining.

Also, those under the age of 16 would not have the opportunity of joining since they would not have a credit/debit card and would need to ask their parents to pay for it, which I think they'll feel most uncomfortable with doing.

Also, PayPal is a terrible company to pay by. They charge too much of a commision and fraudsters thrive on it, although these occur mainly on sites like ebay. But I would never trust PayPal 100%.

I see like on average, 75-90 people logging on every 24 hrs and that number would be crippled if registration fees were introduced.

My opinion is explained here in an earlier post on another thread
http://www.isketchforum.net/showpost...42&postcount=3

The idea wasn't registration fees. It was to donate a small sum AFTER registering for additional/enhanced features such as higher limits on things like avatars, signatures and/or PM inbox size.

Registration would still be free and what you get now you would still get, but those who then buy the additional subscription would get a lil extra as a reward for donating to the forum if that makes sense.

[El_Nino]

How much in funds, annually do you think it'll take to keep up the maintenance?

I never worked on web design so have no idea about the figures involved to help pay for the running of websites.

There are over 3000 members registered but the average is below a 100 users daily, although members who don't have the time to log on will also have the opportunity to contribute.

Maybe both funding from other players and sponsorship will be the way forward.

I don't think it will do any harm in doing a trial period of sponsorship and see it both parties are satisfied with the results

[Chris_uk]

It would be perfectly safe for people to make donations through Paypal. Also this was so my idea in the other thread -_-. There would easily be enough people willing to make optional donations to run the forum, in my opinion.

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by El_Nino

How much in funds annually do you think it'll take to keep up the maintenance?

I never worked on web design so have no ideas about the figures

Well for the domain name, they're fairly cheap, at around $10 (£5) a year.

For the vBulletin license, that depends on which license Peter has. If he has an owned license then he only has to renew the updates at $40 (£22) a year. If he has a leased license he has to renew the whole license at $100 ($55) a year.

As for web hosting, the host is http://www.bluehost.com/ (which the suspended pages might have shown you) so you can see the prices there.

So it all adds up and currently is all coming out of Peters own pocket (and possibly the funds generated by the google adds)

[El_Nino]

Ahh ok

Not as bad as I first thought, but it would be better that Peter didn't pay for all of the costs.

On the point of PayPal, I personally wouldn't pay by that method. But everyone has differing opinions on that, all that I know is that I'd rather pay in person than use PayPal

Also, I tend not to notice the google ads

But as long as it's bringing in revenue, then that's all that matters

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by El_Nino

On the point of PayPal, I personally wouldn't pay by that method. But everyone has differing opinions on that, all that I know is that I'd rather pay in person than use PayPal

vBulletin does support other methods for payment too but each has to be set up individually. The suggestion for PayPal was just because it's the easiest to setup.

The list of supported methods (which aren't setup by default) are Paypal, NOCHEX, Worldpay, Authorize.Net 2Checkout Moneybookers and CCBill

[El_Nino]

Tyty

I'll do some checkups on those credit sites, used two of those sites and I guess every site has it's own flaws in some ways , but some are better than others.

Thank you for that list

[Cuddle]

Only just joined but anything worth belonging to is worth a small fee.
How much and where do I pay.
Donation will be unfair and will not work probably not work.
Someone will through it in your face one day that they donated.

[2.0]

hey here's an idea,

- free membership with no perks
- Silver membership with some perks (1 yr)
- gold memberhsip with more perks (2yr)
- platinum lifetime membership with awesome perks

[*AJ*]

The perk thing doesn't work. I thought this was mainly about paying for the forum to be kept up and running? Isn't the issue that more bandwidth is needed so donations can be made for that purpose? If the perk thing's put in place doesn't that just mean you extra goodies for your account only? How is that going to help the forum overall? I.e the bandwidth problem.

[Jobe]

Originally Posted by *AJ*

The perk thing doesn't work. I thought this was mainly about paying for the forum to be kept up and running? Isn't the issue that more bandwidth is needed so donations can be made for that purpose? If the perk thing's put in place doesn't that just mean you extra goodies for your account only? How is that going to help the forum overall? I.e the bandwidth problem.

The perks act as an incentive to donate to the forum. You donate, and you get something back as a thank you for the donation.

[*AJ*]

Oooh! I see now, thanks :)

[Cuddle]

Sounds like a plan, what sort of perks !!!!!

[2.0]

In other fora i participate in perks means signature rights (no money=no sig or no images in sig), pm box size (from 10 messages for non paying to 500 for premium memberships), avatar rights (no money means no avatar or generic avatar), access to vip private boards not available to non paying members and so on. Takes a bit of structuring but it's possible.

[LazyPanda]

So if any of this were actually established... someone like myself that couldn't pay by paypal if I wanted to or any other method seeing as I don't have a credit card and I don't use a bank yet, would just be inconvenienced?

[Saffron]

Originally Posted by LazyPanda

So if any of this were actually established... someone like myself that couldn't pay by paypal if I wanted to or any other method seeing as I don't have a credit card and I don't use a bank yet, would just be ...

All the suggestions that have been offered are to do with increased priviliges for payment (or limited priviliges without payment if you want to look at it that way).

There is nothing that would prevent any registered user posting, or being involved in the forum discussions (with the exception of the VIP boards that 2.0 mentioned)

So anyone in that situation would still be able to participate.