A rant on site funding

Stop with that ignore list crap... soon you will have ignored every single user. You're just limiting the knowledge you can gain from forum regulars that way. And trust me the guys you're ignoring know a lot of stuff. (except me of course )

 

^^ i'm fine with that price, it turns out the ones in question (bar some FANTASTIC users of elite status) are worth blanking, i stand by the methodology.
still, if it ends up i'm blocking all the info but it came from tools, so be it!
i move on to other places, the SAME info can be found elsewhere!

 

Sigil, Insignia, emblem = graphical
Signature = text

Sigil would be better to describe your avatar.

 

hmm?
a graphic signature. makes sense. (olde english education throwback)
i'll try to use 'signature' instead!

 

This guy is actually threatening to add people to his ignore list. What a character.

 

I have donated to this site a couple times in the past, and gladly would again. Unfortunately, things are a little rough for me financially recently. As soon as things straighten out for me ill be tossing some money towards the site, probably about 3 weeks or so.

 

This is what happens when you not as active as you used to be

 

Oh that is cute, you are creating your very own language! Are you a wizard? Uh oh PLEASE ADD ME TO YOUR SHIT LIST....................

 

This sure has been derailed in an odd way. I'm actually curious to see if anything positive can come out of this now. I'll chime in with what I kinda picked up as the general sentiment: ads for guests. My relatively new-user opinion might not matter much, but that's a pretty solid way to facilitate founding and contributing members in continuing to make the site what it is.

 

Granted it's a wayyyy higher volume site, ads-for-guests works pretty well over at SomethingAwful.

 

It is a good idea, but I wonder how hard it is to configure the site to do something like that. Remember that Kevin doesn't have much time in his hands lately.

 

I kinda like that idea. Lurkin'? You get ads! Heck, maybe one could impose an "under XX posts" stipulation for ads, as well. Not sure if that would be necessary, though it would keep people from creating accounts just to bypass them. idunno

 

personally i would love the idea of some sort of raffle i.e get something cool maybe not all that expensive, say a prototype game for around £50 sell raffle tickets for £5 im sure you could easily double/ triple your money probably even more, plus release whatever the prototype game is so the people who donate/buy a ticket still get something in return, possible do bigger ones to build up a few months of server costs, i don't have much money to be giving out but i must admit when i saw the donation box last month i didn't hesitate to donate a bit of what i had sitting in paypal, the site is really useful with lots of cool info/advice i do think that for the majority of people to donate they would have to have the chance of getting something back from it themselves....but that's just human nature i'm afraid.

plus ad's for non members is a given

 

Problem with mass releasing a prototype build is it could generate more financial issues if lawyers come knocking. Most times than not they'd demand it be removed and links killed which would piss off people who felt they deserved to download since they may have actually been the ones donating. Then members would re-up their own links in which would cause obvious problems. It's a sound idea, I just would think it'd be more trouble than it's worth. My two cents anyway.

 

yeah i understand, suppose it could be a private link just for the donators and only kept live for a very short period, but even without a release it would still be cool to take part in raffles and possibly get something nice for your collection with a story

 

No disagreement here! I love getting my hands on a alpha or beta build, and that would be one hell of a prize in my eyes. But sadly, like I was saying, the risk outweighs the potential payoff.

 

I donated $10 in May 2013 and another $20 this May. If you want me to be honest, I support this site because I think the things that we do here are very important for the history of video games. There's so much useful information and activity going on, it would be an absolute shame if the site ever had to go down. That having been said, I donated Friday morning and the funding tracker said $35 of $120... and it still does. That means that my donation and everyone's donations since have not been recorded. If that's the case, what's the point of even having a tracker? And I haven't gotten a "Site Supporter 2014" rank yet either. I'm not complaining, I don't know you, Kevin, but from what others have said, I know you have a busy life. But these things create the illusion that the site is in disrepair and that nobody else is donating. I think we'd like to feel that our money is going towards something more than just keeping a message board from going down.

 

It's not that he's too busy, he is sick and hasn't been able to update it for a bit.

 

My tuppence worth as a (multiple) former, current and (of course!) future donator (not fussed re Site Support tags....iirc many of us sported the 2009 or 2010 one for what 3 yrs without an update?).

I think the shift to monthly targets was a bad move. It has positives in that it draws the attention of new members joining throughout the year towards site funding, as opposed to a one off yearly drive that was normally funded within a month or two. It also makes each target seem very manageable, as opposed to a more daunting yearly figure in one hit.

But it's that second point that I think can / has discouraged people from donating. Well it has me to a small degree since I've been more active here again. I'm struggling to articulate exactly what I mean...but...such a small target so often just doesn't seem as pressing or important to me. $120, easy money, of course that will be covered, where's the problem, I'll donate another month etc.

There's also no or rather less sense of being part of something bigger, something more beneficial, something longer lasting. There was a sort of pleasure in seeing the total costs this wonderful place needs to stay up another year, something satisfying in sending in some bucks, something wonderful in seeing the donation thread grow with posters doing the same, all part of the community here, all chipping in for the same reason, thanking each other, a part of something that seemed bigger. Hit the target, forums are alive another year, yay!

Whereas now...

I've just sent $30 over. Three other people do that in a month, that's a month covered. Hardly that sense of lots of people clubbing together to keep their loved internet haunt around, see you next month, no longer term sense of forum security etc. Sure, I could have sent $5 every other month I guess, but bleh.

As I say, struggling to really articulate what I mean, but hopefully you can understand!

(If I were to propose an alternative, I would suggest a drive for 1/2 the costs, twice a year. That way there are bigger goals for the community here to aim for, and a second drive six months into the year also captures newer members and brings the finance side into their thoughts too.)

As an aside, this has been an interesting thread, with lots of strong opinions! At the very least I imagine the site is now covered financially for a few months, thanks all! It's also been great to see the community is as it always has been, here for games, discussion, and intolerant of flaming and trolls.

(Although the icon is still criminally underused you heathen bastards!)