Donations and how to perhaps extend them?

[Neikos 968]

So I would like to donate, but just giving away money doesn't really rub me the right way. And the way donations are setup right now just feels bad. I don't want to pay for a 'service'. Especially with such a price.

 

Yes! Donors are promoted to the special Donors group, which offers them the following perks:

• • 150x200 avatars
• • space for 500 private messages
• • the ability to change your member title
• • a golden username

How long you remain in this group depends on how much you donate. The rates are as follows:

• • $1.00 = 3 days
• • $10 = 30 days

Making another donation before your donor status has expired will add to your remaining days.

 

That is 118 dollars a year just so get a golden username, a larger avatar. Too much in my opinion for too little. I know I sound like a jerk, this is meant to be a donation, there is no need for anyone to give me back something, only, here I do get something and I feel like I get screwed over.

 

Now, I am willing to give away my money, but I don't have necessarily 10$ a month. ( Yes I am that poor. ) This is where the Idea of Micro Payments comes in. I would buy things like a custom usertitle for 5-8 Dollars, but it would be permanent. Or perhaps a larger avatar which would be 10 dollars? Sure you don't have a recurring amount but you still get money, money you wouldn't get else.

 

So those are just my two cents ^^

[Twilight Sparkle ✨ 8,526]

It might seem a little pricey, but this was never meant to be a "service" to begin with - donor benefits were only added by popular request to begin with back in October - and the truth of the matter is that MLP Forums has expenses that need covering. I posted a complete breakdown of these over the weekend.

 

At the end of the day, the purpose of the donation system is to cover the site's expenses, not to sell anything. It is structured in such a way as to encourage recurring donations, because the majority of our expenses are also recurring (we currently have roughly $1460 in various bills and invoices to pay on an annual basis, and this will only increase as the site grows). Handing out a "permanent" account benefit to donors would imply that the effect of their donation was permanent - but really, $10 covers less than 10% of a single month's expenses.

 

MLP Forums is a non-profit fan site that already offers a variety of features to its regular, free members - features that most forums either don't have or limit to paying users. We're a bit of a luxury forum in that we offer huge PM inboxes, unlimited attachments, and ad-free browsing to everyone to begin with. It's a little difficult to come up with much more to offer beyond that without offering anything permanent. I did initially offer @mlpforums.com email forwarders and accounts to donors (which last indefinitely, and will not be taken away) but each one had to be manually set up, creating an administrative hassle every time someone made a donation.

 

Micropayments aren't bad at all, and plenty of companies make a hefty profit with them. They don't quite fit the MLP Forums "business model," though, and I'm concerned that handing out too many permanent benefits might kill our stream of recurring donations. While Zynga can keep drawing new guns for you to buy in Mafia Wars, there aren't that many features on the forums that I can grant you access (or further access) to, considering that free members already have access to most of them.

 

You are welcome to make a donation and request that you do not get any benefits for it, Neikos, if that makes you feel any better about it. There is also no requirement to actually make recurring donations - there's nothing wrong with one-time contributions or letting your donor status expire. But do keep in mind that the reward for donating is intentionally modest, as it was only ever meant to be a thank you for helping us pay our bills from the administration, not a get 20 more site features and priority access! "premium membership".

 

While I do not intend to implement any one-time micro-payments at this time, your post still brings up an important point - could the current system actually be discouraging potential donations? If there are any changes you could suggest that would make the current "subscription"-based system more attractive in your eyes, I'd be more than happy to listen.

[Neikos 968]

Of course I used the term micro-payments as the literal word and not the business model. And I think I might just do that, donate without asking anything. ( I'm a bit of a everything or nothing guy )

[---------------------- 1,645]

You should donate because you want to help the community and want to help it stay alive. As feld0 has mentioned, the "services' are just a little "thank you" gift. I think it's actually more then enough, the only thing more he could add would be to make donators, moderators... and that's the most stupendous thing some pony could do.

 

EDIT: I ment to say... stupidest...... not...stupendous... GO ME!

Edited February 16, 2012 by marco23p

[Ezynell 2,037]

So I would like to donate, but just giving away money doesn't really rub me the right way. And the way donations are setup right now just feels bad. I don't want to pay for a 'service'. Especially with such a price.

 

 

 

That is 118 dollars a year just so get a golden username, a larger avatar. Too much in my opinion for too little. I know I sound like a jerk, this is meant to be a donation, there is no need for anyone to give me back something, only, here I do get something and I feel like I get screwed over.

 

Now, I am willing to give away my money, but I don't have necessarily 10$ a month. ( Yes I am that poor. ) This is where the Idea of Micro Payments comes in. I would buy things like a custom usertitle for 5-8 Dollars, but it would be permanent. Or perhaps a larger avatar which would be 10 dollars? Sure you don't have a recurring amount but you still get money, money you wouldn't get else.

 

So those are just my two cents ^^

 

I remember a few months ago when I made a thread about the same thing I ended up donating for a month of user benefits anyways and am planning to donate again. You can just do it whenever you feel like as the money rolls in for you. If you just want to donate once, then go ahead, and as Feld0 said, these donations were not meant to give user benefits in the first place, there supposed to be something from your heart to keep the place you know and love alive.