The donate thing wouldnt work, a few would, for a few times etc, wouldnt last.
I think donating would work, though i don't like the idea of premium membership considering that we could end up with elitists and features on the forum should be available to all. However i would be happy to donate, perhaps only 5 - 10 bucks every so often but considering the size of the forum, having a bunch of people donating $1, $5, $10 could put a nice dent in operating costs, it would just help out, and i would like nothing more than to help out.
Provided you have a few rules.
- Donating members do not get ANY extra privileges, it is purely to assist in site cost because you love this forum. - You are not to discuss amounts donated, you may mention that you have donated, but you can't go around saying "I donated heaps to the forum and what have you done?" Which rolls onto the next rule. -Trying to belittle others for not donating/amounts donated is not tolerated, again you should be donating to help, not for bragging rights.
I would love the opportunity to help the forum like i mentioned, and this would be a great way to do it, perhaps we will see it in V2, in that case keep the idea in mind.
I actually like the idea! But I am sure that some people would like stuff in return. Money is not easy to get and there should be a treat that comes with it or something. Maybe for $1 you go a avatar and $5 You get a signature (That you donated). $10 You get a medal or reward on your profile. And $15 or more they get there name on the websites on the front page!
i) elitism through donating - an inflated sense of importance. ii) rewards
While it would be better for the wellbeing of the community to not dish out rewards or perks for every donation, that leaves very little incentive to do it. Many staff invest their time rather than money, and in turn that helps keep things flowing smoothly. I'm going to be honest and admit that I've no real clue how much revenue the adverts generate, and nor do I have an idea of how much this place costs to keep afloat. All I know is you're going to have a hard time getting people to part with cash when they aren't going to be getting anything more than what they have now, bar perhaps (perhaps) a faster forum to browse on. Regardless of how many that say they'd donate, only a fraction would, and the money raised would do very little, regardless of how appreciated it would be from the staff.
The next issue is the rewards. You're going to run into problems immediately with things like avatars, signatures and especially medals, because chances are you'll get somebody who harks from the bowels of the V section with two medals because he donated his dinner money, and now thinks he knows what's happening all of a sudden. Less implicit rewards like a larger PM inbox capacity are a better idea, but it's a case of these people bragging. I know it doesn't apply to all (in fact, I'd hope it applies to only a select few) but I know some members just wouldn't be able to shut up about it, either dropping it into conversation, or even sticking the fact that they've donated in their signature. You say that it'd be forbidden to so, but that's just one more think to moderate, and I don't fancy disabling signatures that state the fact on top of what already has to be dealt with.
In short, it's a nice idea for sure, but I don't think people are going to share the same optimism and community spirit when it comes to incentives, or rather, the lack of if this was going to work.
While it would be better for the wellbeing of the community to not dish out rewards or perks for every donation, that leaves very little incentive to do it.
Who said there needs to be an incentive? The incentive is to help out. If you don't want to, then don't. If you do, then great. There doesn't really need to be any reward or means to coerce people into doing it, in my opinion.
I'm speaking from a position of relative ignorance, but would setting up a means of donation cost the staff all that much, in terms of either time or money? As far as I'm aware the answer is no... therefore, what harm can it do opening up that channel of maintenance revenue?
Nobody's saying it's a means for the forum to become self-supporting or anything. But as Tesco would say, every little helps. Doesn't it?
Chronic post editor. Group: Leone Family Mafia
Joined: Aug 30, 2010
Tank probably puts up with enough sh*t just keeping the place running, especially with all the server issues, so putting some money back in his pocket would be a nice way for us to say "thank you".
Gods foster son. Group: Forum Admins
Joined: Feb 2, 2004
He's a millionaire.
For all donation offers, please PM me and I will sort it. You will also be allowed 2 extra pixels on your sig for £250.00 per week.. To become a MOD will stay at £500.00 per month and Admin charges are the same £1000.00 per month. Please remember these prices havent gone up in 4 years, and we have been in a recession! With each staff position you also get a free ban for a mod, and 2 free bans for Admin. We can only accommodate 50 new Mods and 60 new Admins, so first come first served!!
I like a big bush. Group: Moderators
Joined: Sep 25, 2002
This site has been going for over 11 years (if you count back to the days of www.grandtheftauto3.net/forums), and as far as I am aware, no donations were ever taken in that time. I doubt Tank is in critical need of funds to keep things running.
I don't get why everyone thinks there should be a reward like a medal or bigger avatar just because you donated. If you donate, the reward should be knowing that you helped contribute to keeping the website online, that's it.
I don't get why everyone thinks there should be a reward like a medal or bigger avatar just because you donated. If you donate, the reward should be knowing that you helped contribute to keeping the website online, that's it.
I don't get why everyone thinks there should be a reward like a medal or bigger avatar just because you donated. If you donate, the reward should be knowing that you helped contribute to keeping the website online, that's it.
That's exactly what i have in mind, there doesn't have to be incentive, people donate to charities for no real gain, i always drop a few bucks in just to give someone else a hand, in this case i would be giving Tank a hand. People tip waiters for a service they enjoyed, that is what would happen here, you enjoy GTAF (a service) so you donate, it works for Wikipedia, remember when they were asking for donations? People were actually donating.
The issue i have with rewards primarily is that it would turn off potential members, people join free sites, when they find out their are costs involved or premium members, people tend to leave and find other places.
The whole reason i want donations is so i can actually help a little around here and discreetly show my appreciation, the only other way i could help is to moderate, but that is not something i am really cut-out for and the moderators here already do a good job.
This post has been edited by finn4life on Tuesday, Jun 26 2012, 10:14
You need a Pearl necklace? Hit me up ;) Group: Zaibatsu
Joined: Dec 17, 2004
QUOTE (Waddy @ Friday, Jun 15 2012, 05:37)
He's a millionaire.
For all donation offers, please PM me and I will sort it. You will also be allowed 2 extra pixels on your sig for £250.00 per week.. To become a MOD will stay at £500.00 per month and Admin charges are the same £1000.00 per month. Please remember these prices havent gone up in 4 years, and we have been in a recession! With each staff position you also get a free ban for a mod, and 2 free bans for Admin. We can only accommodate 50 new Mods and 60 new Admins, so first come first served!!
Put me down for mod! i'l give you 1 guess as to who i'm going to ban
For all donation offers, please PM me and I will sort it. You will also be allowed 2 extra pixels on your sig for £250.00 per week.. To become a MOD will stay at £500.00 per month and Admin charges are the same £1000.00 per month. Please remember these prices havent gone up in 4 years, and we have been in a recession! With each staff position you also get a free ban for a mod, and 2 free bans for Admin. We can only accommodate 50 new Mods and 60 new Admins, so first come first served!!
For all donation offers, please PM me and I will sort it. You will also be allowed 2 extra pixels on your sig for £250.00 per week.. To become a MOD will stay at £500.00 per month and Admin charges are the same £1000.00 per month. Please remember these prices havent gone up in 4 years, and we have been in a recession! With each staff position you also get a free ban for a mod, and 2 free bans for Admin. We can only accommodate 50 new Mods and 60 new Admins, so first come first served!!
Is that a joke or are you serous? Just asking.
Why would he be joking? Do you know how much it costs to keep this place running, including all the other network sites? Someone has to pay for all of that. The charges have been in place since a long time. If you can't afford them, well, too bad.
For all donation offers, please PM me and I will sort it. You will also be allowed 2 extra pixels on your sig for £250.00 per week.. To become a MOD will stay at £500.00 per month and Admin charges are the same £1000.00 per month. Please remember these prices havent gone up in 4 years, and we have been in a recession! With each staff position you also get a free ban for a mod, and 2 free bans for Admin. We can only accommodate 50 new Mods and 60 new Admins, so first come first served!!
For all donation offers, please PM me and I will sort it. You will also be allowed 2 extra pixels on your sig for £250.00 per week.. To become a MOD will stay at £500.00 per month and Admin charges are the same £1000.00 per month. Please remember these prices havent gone up in 4 years, and we have been in a recession! With each staff position you also get a free ban for a mod, and 2 free bans for Admin. We can only accommodate 50 new Mods and 60 new Admins, so first come first served!!
Is that a joke or are you serous? Just asking.
Why would he be joking? Do you know how much it costs to keep this place running, including all the other network sites? Someone has to pay for all of that. The charges have been in place since a long time. If you can't afford them, well, too bad.
Don't the ads take care of it? Or does he also put his own money into it? If so, that's very generous, but it must be chump change to him if he's rich.
@Mr. Reaper That cracked me up.
This post has been edited by Original Light on Thursday, Jul 12 2012, 21:46
Ads only earn you a couple of cents per click or something like that whereas hosting servers in a data center in France costs a sh*tload. Not to mention, server maintenance, updates and paying for domains/software is extra.
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