Opening up donations

[Tay]

Hey everybody,

 

Update + Donation System

This post is a follow-up to the spring funding plan I posted ~2 months ago (link). It's pretty late, so to prevent myself from being overly verbose, I'll write this thread in bullet points:

• The google ads were not very effective and, despite a lot of effort, only made the site look trashy. They've since been taken down on all our various sites (forums, blog, reviews hub, etc.)
• The affiliate links, on the other hand, have been performing well and if we can continue to expand the way we're using them on the upcoming front site, I think we'll make serious strides towards self-sustainability
• During the move I emphasized several times that I'm dedicated and determined to keep Fuwanovel alive for the long-haul and budget accordingly. That hasn't changed. I have, however, reconsidered the popular suggestion from back in March to open the site up to user donations. This is uncomfortable territory for everyone, I realize, so I will continue to do my best to be open with you
• As of today, a donation system has gone online to help cover some of the cost of hosting. I divided it up into small, recurring donations (a few dollars a month), or custom one-time donations of any amount. Recurring monthly donations are especially useful to us, as it allows for some long-term (albeit loose) financial planning, but any and all donations are very, very much appreciated.
• I wanted to offer some "goodies" as a thanks for those who do chip in (they aren't meant as a reward or incentive, necessarily, just a token of gratitude), so you can read about those below
• I realize that not everyone is in a position to contribute to the development fund. That's absolutely okay. A lot of thought and discussion went into making sure these "goodies" weren't granting some users exclusive site features while denying them to others.

 

 

Forums “goodies” for monthly donations/comparable single donations:

• You can now give twice as much rep per day (twice as many “Likes”)
• PM allowance increased to 200 300
• You can now customize your profile page!
• When enough people sign up we’ll make a user “badge” (think the “Board Mod” or “Global Mod” images in the user sidebar) which can be re-designed as often as once per month to maximize festive-ness and/or fabulousness
• After 6 continuous months of support, you will be contacted by a member of The Order and vetted. Should you prove worthy, you will be inducted into The Great Secret. Which doesn’t exist. Just ask Flutterz. He’ll tell you. Totally doesn’t exist... well, that's a strong word. "Probably" doesn't exist is better. Or "maybe". Hm. "It could exist." We'll leave it at that.

Donated funds go first towards hosting and a hosting “rainy day” fund, then towards expenses like forums software renewal (or forums themes renewal), and then other site development per our site financial plan.

 

Feedback is welcome, as always.

 

---

 

EDIT: Thank you *so much* to everyone who has donated. It means a lot and it's definitely going to lessen my wallet's tears each month. That said, please don't feel obligated to contribute big sums (double digits or more), especially on a regular basis -- there's a reason why I set the standard as $2.75ish a month: many of you already give a lot to the site, and my goal isn't to run the site on donations. Ultimately I hope we can even do away with donations and live comfortably off the millions we bring in from affiliates.

[Eclipsed]

Eyyy the banner I submitted for the Fuwa Spring Facebook was used for the donation page 

~~
I know you didn't intend this to be an incentive, but I may donate one day for that increase in Likes

[Ryechu]

Five bucks a month?

I can manage that.

 

Done!

[Nimbus]

Phase 1) Donate to Fuwanovel

Phase 2)..............
Phase 3) Profit 

[Satsuki]

Well, why not~

That custom profile page sounds exciting

Sub-ed~

[Clephas]

I don't mind doing a one-time (relatively large) contribution, if I can just use my paypal cash balance, but I don't like to use credit cards online, for obvious reasons.  I have a natural aversion to subscription programs, born of having been harassed by magazine companies I'd never contacted simply because I'd turned 18 way back when.

 

Edit: I don't trust even paypal with credit card information, and I use money orders for the stuff I get from Japan through my provider.  Convenience versus safety... I'll always pick safety.

 

Edit2: Ah, I should restate that above into a question.  Do you have to use the credit/debit through paypal option, or can you use the paypal online cash balance option as well?  One thing that pisses me off is that so many companies that allow paypal don't allow the paypal balance option.  They want a credit/debit card... annoys the hell out of me.  I have to be really roundabout shopping from Newegg, for example.

 

Edit3: I also prefer lump sums because I'm the type who pays his entire yearly insurance payments in a single block payment (yes, depending on the company you can do that)... I hate monthly bills.  It is bad enough I have to pay for electricity by the month, lol.

[nohman]

Does this mean I'll get two user badges?  Teeku

[Exenorate]

Now this looks like something I can get behind. Will most assuredly set up a sub tomorrow.

[astro]

• The google ads were not very effective and, despite a lot of effort, only made the site look trashy. They've since been taken down on all our various sites (forums, blog, reviews hub, etc.)

There were ads??

 

Forums “goodies” for monthly donations/comparable single donations:

• You can now give twice as much rep per day (twice as many “Likes”)

 You still can't like your own posts tho right?

 

 

• You can now customize your profile page!

Wait, I'm confused. What do you mean by 'customize'? Couldn't you always customize your profile to some extent?

[Nayleen]

IPB has a setting that allows custom backgrounds, if not custom CSS per user, which is disabled by default.

[solidbatman]

Anything left over after server costs and rainy day funds goes to Batmans Crime Fighting Fund. Mainly the fund I use to buy a new PC. 

 

Right? Right Tay? Pls?

[GLM4475]

Ugh, I would like to donate, but, but, ...., I can't even eat properly these days.

[Nimbus]

What Fuwanovel's rainy day fund is actually being used for.

 

[Tay]

 

Phase 1) Donate to Fuwanovel

Phase 2)..............
Phase 3) Profit 

On the LC (just yesterday, I think) Flutterz actually put together a comprehensive guide on how to game the system and make off like a bandit with Fuwa funds. You just need to bide your time until we start raking in the millions and millions of FuwaDollars.

 

I don't mind doing a one-time (relatively large) contribution, if I can just use my paypal cash balance, but I don't like to use credit cards online, for obvious reasons.  I have a natural aversion to subscription programs, born of having been harassed by magazine companies I'd never contacted simply because I'd turned 18 way back when.

 

Edit: I don't trust even paypal with credit card information, and I use money orders for the stuff I get from Japan through my provider.  Convenience versus safety... I'll always pick safety.

 

Edit2: Ah, I should restate that above into a question.  Do you have to use the credit/debit through paypal option, or can you use the paypal online cash balance option as well?  One thing that pisses me off is that so many companies that allow paypal don't allow the paypal balance option.  They want a credit/debit card... annoys the hell out of me.  I have to be really roundabout shopping from Newegg, for example.

 

Edit3: I also prefer lump sums because I'm the type who pays his entire yearly insurance payments in a single block payment (yes, depending on the company you can do that)... I hate monthly bills.  It is bad enough I have to pay for electricity by the month, lol.

Yes, you should be able to do both of these. At least that's what PayPal is telling me. 

 

To pay via card through paypal: click the donate link, and then look for the text "Don't have a PayPal account? Use your credit card or bank account (where available). Continue" text on the left-hand side.

 

To use your PayPal balance, log into PayPal and then click the donate link, and you should see the balance transfer option.

 

(Paypal has pretty crappy customer service, but I'm looking into this for you. Even if it doesn't work out, I appreciate the willingness : ))

 

Does this mean I'll get two user badges?   Teeku

I don't think that's possible, unfortunately.

 

... That said, if somebody designs a sufficiently awesome badge to tempt Nayleen into looking into the issue, well... anything's possible at that point.

 

Anything left over after server costs and rainy day funds goes to Batmans Crime Fighting Fund. Mainly the fund I use to buy a new PC. 

 

Right? Right Tay? Pls?

Where the money goes:

Immediate next hosting bill > hosting rainy day fund > software licenses > 2nd hosting rainy day fund > Opulent LC Relocation Packages > Batman PC Gaming Club

 

Ugh, I would like to donate, but, but, ...., I can't even eat properly these days.

That's absolutely fine. I appreciate the willingness : ). This program isn't meant to pay for the whole site, just offset some of the final cost. Nobody should feel obligated to contribute/feel bad for passing on it.

[Nimbus]

 

Where the money goes:

Immediate next hosting bill > hosting rainy day fund > software licenses > 2nd hosting rainy day fund > Opulent LC Relocation Packages > Batman PC Gaming Club

Immediate next hosting bill > hosting rainy day fund > software licenses > Paying for Tiago's Silence > 2nd hosting rainy day fund > Opulent LC Relocation Packages > Batman PC Gaming Club

[Nosebleed]

Considering site traffic, I don't think it'd be a bad idea to include a donate button on the forum navigation tab.

Sending in 10$

Someone else send in the extra doller for Rooke to relocate.

For people afraid of using credit cards, i always avidly suggest you look into your bank's services on how to create temp cards online, that's what i've been doing with all my online purchases, thus I never once typed my real card's number once. Paypal accepts these as well.

[sanahtlig]

For $20 a year, could you remove the PM limit or raise it to a ceiling no one would ever reasonably hit, like 1000 or even 10000?  I mean, the server costs for storing these can't be THAT much, and removing limits like this that are in place for financial reasons makes sense when people are actually helping to fund the site.

[Rose]

Sending in 10$

Someone else send in the extra doller for Rooke to relocate.

 

Sending in 2$

One for the relocate need and another one for a cookie on his way.

[Nosebleed]

Loading PMs takes a toll on the servers, that's why there are limits to them. At least this was always pointed out when someone suggested raising the limit before. I remember Nayleen showing me the server data and lo and behold PMs took a huge percentage.

Even Global Mods get 500 and not infinite PMs.

[Nayleen]

That's just storage space, though, which we have plenty of - especially considering that Piwik is sitting on its own server now.

 

On the other hand I'm in the "way would you ever need that much" camp. Move spammy PM threads to Skype and be done with it, imo.

[Tay]

For $20 a year, could you remove the PM limit or raise it to a ceiling no one would ever reasonably hit, like 1000 or even 10000?  I mean, the servers costs for storing these can't be THAT much, and removing limits like this that are in place for financial reasons makes sense when people are actually helping to fund the site.

I can confirm with absolute, 100% confidence (yea, even knowledge) that 10k PMs is definitely possible to hit. And it may or may not have been hit more than once. By, um, a friend. Yeah, that's right, a friend.

 

And yeah, 200 is probably a little low. We'll start with 300 and fiddle as we go.

[Tay]

Also, thank you *so much* to everyone who has donated. It means a lot and it's definitely going to lessen my wallet's tears each month. That said, please don't feel obligated to contribute big sums (double digits or more), especially on a regular basis -- there's a reason why I set the standard as $2.75ish a month: many of you already give a lot to the site, and my goal isn't to run the site on donations. Ultimately I hope we can even do away with donations and live comfortably off the millions we bring in from affiliates.

[OriginalRen]

I want to donate, but I don't have a credit card that I can use for a subscription. Since I no longer earn money in USD, I have to wire money back to the US. It's a hassle already considering I need to pay for my student loans, but I also need to pay for my Google Drive storage space as well. However, if anyone can figure out how to setup a Japanese PayPal account and show me how, I would be more than willing to do it then. As with Clephas though, it is a lot easier for me to pay a set donation rather than a certain amount each month.

[Nosebleed]

>Sets temp card to 10€

>Sets donation to 10$ (9,50€)

>Forgets paypal fee is 1€

>Gets 1€ deducted

>Operation rejected

>Repeat a second time

>Scratch head

>Sudden realization

 

[Nimbus]

Also, thank you *so much* to everyone who has donated. It means a lot and it's definitely going to lessen my wallet's tears each month. That said, please don't feel obligated to contribute big sums (double digits or more), especially on a regular basis -- there's a reason why I set the standard as $2.75ish a month: many of you already give a lot to the site, and my goal isn't to run the site on donations. Ultimately I hope we can even do away with donations and live comfortably off the millions we bring in from affiliates.

Happy to help out