What's TFP worth?
 

So, it gets harder and harder to earn donations from people. The TFP has been around for more than 4 years and it has existed primarily because it's users support it with funds. Some users have donated over $400 over the course of these 4 years. There are a few people supporting the site financially with big chunks of money, while others throw in a few bucks here and there. Well, the problem with this model is donor burnout. I can only ask so much of the same people over and over. New donors have to step up. There are some people who have been browsing the TFP for all 4 years and have not given a cent. There are new users who really love the TFP, but who have not yet been through one of these donation rounds and dont even know how this site supports itself.

We're in a bind and the alternative to all of this is to charge a subscription fee. People have been suggesting it for years, but the donations have been sufficient. Sufficient, but with diminishing returns.

Why should you donate? Isn't the internet supposed to be free? Well, you have to take responsibility for your pleasures. If the TFP is one of your pleasures and it's struggling to make ends meet, then wouldn't the right thing to do be to pitch in?

We offer a site with great information and discussion, a soap box for you to voice your opinions, and thousands of members to interact with - all free of trolls, kids and advertising. None of it's very flashy, nor hi-tech, but it still costs a lot of money to maintain. We need help from EVERYONE, not just the same people over and over.

Please donate!

my problem has always been the lack of a credit card, and therefore, the lack of paypal

if donations were accepted through other means I would donate, but you've repeatedly said that paypal is the only method of donation.

I don't know if this policy has changed, perhaps you could inform us.

I chopped up my credit cards years ago. All you need for paypal is a checking account. I'm sending $$ to my paypal from my checking right now. I should be able to donate within the next few days. You can also send a money order to Halx.

hey hey,

I am also very hesitant about using Paypal for things, until I remembered about checks ! I sent a personal check out to Halx (got the information from him) and it was all good. :thumbsup:

If Halx doesn't want a suddent flood of checks (although that probably isn't that bad of thing) or do not have a checking account, you can go with a money order as well. Most banks offer them for nominal fees, or some (like mine) give you a few/year as a part of doing business with them.

Also, for those in the USA, you can get them at your local postal office [ http://www.usps.com/money/sendingmoney/welcome.htm ] , for only 95 cents. That's probably less than what paypal charges :cool:


Halx, (forgive me if this OT) but how much of the bandwidth costs attributed to the TB ? Just wondering if you're considering freezing that, as it was in the past during financial pinches (IIRC).

Catcha back on the flipside,
keyshawn

I have no problem ponying up my fair share of the cash when I have it. The problem is that lately I haven't had it. But I am proud of my "donor" tag and I will continue to donate as long as I can spare $10-$20--that moment just isn't right now, but probably will be a month from now, maybe more.

And I really do urge those who can afford to donate to do so to help keep this site running not just for yourselves, but for the community at large.

I think friday I may have a few dollars to spare.

I'm chagrined to realize that the last time I donated was probably more than two years ago...

Sorry, Hal. It slipped my mind, so thanks for the reminder. A little sumpthin-sumpthin is headed your way right now.

If you PM Hal he will give you an address to SEND a check to. You do not NEED to use paypal!!

Does Paypal take out any fees if it's just a person to person transfer?

Havent used paypal much and I just donatted but I think I donated in Aus dollars. Hope this still works out ok for TFP, I will check what currency i am using before I donate next time:-)

Yes they do.

Mine's on its way...

Well my dear, if you had read the announcement like it was designed to make you do, you'd see that I listed my mailing address for you to send naked pictures and personal checks to.

They take out fees on my end, only because my account is set up to accept credit cards. If I left it as bank account only, then there would be no fees.

There you are Halx :D

Thanks for all your hard work keeping this community up and running!

without TFP where would i post nude pics?
my $25 sent.


:)

Come on ppl... give if you can...

AND i'll give you a kiss for it :D

Who wants kisses? If you donate... i'll give you a kiss :icare:

sweetpea

Heh. Sent my $45 before I saw this here....you'd think with all the users, if everyone sent in $15, there'd be...uh...hm..well, enough to run this for a long time :lol:
Here's what I do and it would probably work for everyone: When you get your tax refund (and we know you will get one, you're all very savvy TFP'ers), give 2%. Ok, if you're only getting back $10, just send half that, but if it's a goodly amount, you won't miss that 2%-you'd probably just spend it on something really dumb. Right?

I'd like my sweetpea kiss, please. :)

TFP's traffic ranking on Alexa.com is 57,676 or so of all websites. That's a very good ranking. With a little know how you can turn that into serious sponsorship dollars.

Call me lame, but I don't think my users want to log in to ads all over the place. Even when we were in the 6,000's for a time, I have never considered it.

:icare:

Thanks for donating to this amazing site :D

sweetpea

as usual... Halx is wise.

sweetpea

It's been about a year since my last donation, and since that time I've gotten a nice job, so I sent $100.

Subscriptions would be an easy way to avoid needing to do fundraising like this every so often. Unfortunately, it might cut out some college students who don't already benefit from TFP as much as they can. Perhaps what we could do is have subscriptions, but allow people to have a free subscription for the first 3 months or so? Thing is, at $5 a subscription you'd only need 80 of them to cover the monthly bill.

I think a free subscription followed by a fee is a good idea. In 3 months (even less) one should be able to get a good feel for this place.

Cheque will be in the mail shortly after the tax refund goes into my bank account.

-Tamerlain

I'm sorry about not donating anything in a year. I had a crappy job, and now no job... But, I'll be sending what I can Friday. I personally love this place, and wouldn't find the net as interesting without. Once I get my unemployment check, I'll send $50.00.

But the whole point is for TFP to be free i believe.

We SHOULD be able to support it with all the members we have... if we'd only donate a little more often and without getting a kick in the ass about it.

sweetpea

I have the same point of view. Which is why I choose to donate to the community, rather than having to pay a fee for subscription. I feel that a subscription will take something away from the general feel/experience. It's kinda hard to explain. :confused:

But anyways...

I'd like to send the money via snail mail, but I'm not sure what the best way is to go about doing it. I've heard the postal cheque/money order idea, but I'm not sure if it'll work since it's foreign currency and being sent internationally.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

healer

I understand the dilemma of many of our members. I AM the college student that some of you speak of. Money is ALWAYS tight, but if you will notice at right, I DO have a donar tag. I know, I know. You're all thinking that I am a hermit that never leaves his appartement and is really good with money right? HAHAHA. Donate what you feel you can afford. This IS a place worth keeping around and FREE!

Heh, I donated a hunjie last time and still haven't received the donor tag. Had slipped my mind until now ;) Want a copy of the receipt, Halx? :)

Heh. Forgot about the 'donor tag'....I feel so 'speshul' now ;)

I've been here for a while, and I will freely admit I haven't donated before now, and what I did send I hope isn't worthless with the fees...but it's what I and asshopo could do! I hope it helps maybe just a little bit!

Thanks to everyone who has helped keep this place alive and to Halx for the reminder of how we are all working together to keep this place what it is...and not just in terms of money!

I'm really confused about why this site costs $400 a month to run... are there not really cheap hosting solutions out there?? Don't get me wrong, I sent my donation, and was happy to do it...

and don't yell at me for never donating before, because before two months ago I really only dropped by TFP a couple times a year, and i've only been a regular visitor/contributor to TFP for about the last two months despite my join date...

anyway, i'm getting sidetracked... how much bandwidth does this place use? I mean... there are really great hosts out there with dedicated servers, 80GB hard drive, 1.5 terabytes of transfer per month for $200... surely that would be enough for TFP, right? Or is TFP really THAT huge?

Okay, that's enough out of me.

It seems like every site I’ve been on has had the discussion about cheap servers, cheap hosting etc. All of those sites have gone to subscription (which absolutely KILLS a site), or have become unworkable with ads or spammers.

Yeah, you can do it a lot cheaper. Go look at peoplesforum.com. Still free, but un-moderated or administered, except for when the site owner gets around to weeding through the thousands of reported posts. And filled with asshats. If it takes $400 a month to run a moderated board like this, I take it as an article of faith. There’s nothing else like this forum.

I asked and PM’ed for donor info without paypal, because of some shady meanness they committed recently. Now that I know how to send some ka-ching, I will. I promise.

So which is it that you want? Dollars or naked pictures of Astrocloud?

Money comin' your way ASAP, Halx. :thumbsup:

/toddles off to locate checks... should I just put my user name at the bottom?

EDIT: PayPal is easier, gonna do that.

With the pictures and such that many put up, lots of bandwidth gets used. There are ways to reduce individual picture posting though: Link instead of upload. If you must upload, 'save for web' first and make the picture about 400width or less-that will greatly reduce its 'weight'.(that also prevents 'theft' as the picture will pixellate so badly as to be unusable to the thief, but looks fine as a post). Don't ramble when replying or post entire linked articles-paste excerpts and link the rest. This all sounds like pittance on an individual level, but when you have 100 or more here a night, posting, reading, etc., it really adds up.

I made a donation yesterday, hope you got it Hal. My Paypal doesn't use my little_tippler email so you might be wondering who that's from. I'll try and donate more regularly from now on. I can't believe that soon it'll be two years that I've been on TFP!

Halx,

Can y'all set up something like a bi-annual reminder, or quarterly or something? Something like those little mandatory messages we get - or a reminder over in the corner on the front page? I don't know if it would bother people or not, or if you feel it would come to close to whoring the site out. Just thought it might help if there was a reminder every so often to make a donation for those of us who would donate anyways.

To those wondering about the TFP's performance... it actually runs on 2 servers, whose hosting space makes up the bulk of the cost. The bandwidth it uses IS substantial, but people don't normally realize that we do use 2 servers.

Ok, I must confess... I've been a lurker here for quite a while now.

Haven't been on much the past 6 months, but I've missed it, so I'm back now.
And with my return will come a donation!

I'm currently broke, but next week some money will find it's way to you Hal.
I also hope to make regular (bi-monthly or so) donations in the future if this PayPal thing works out. (I'm new to PayPal)

I hope we can all chip in enough to cover the costs!