Fundraiser results for 2011, final results of 2010

I'm glad that there is a breakdown of how the money was collected and spent. Personally I have the same sentiments as LeGit does as this year I had to scale my donation back. It's nice that some people have something to give, but sometimes you always see the same people digging in - even if they don't have a lot to spare . I totally don't blame people if they need to scale back next year, or not at all.

Hopefully there will be lots of perks for donors over this coming year, so people like LeGit don't always feel like their stepping up for freeloaders.

 

I have read through the related threads (this and the actual fund raising thread) and have an idea that may work to address some of the concerns.

I noticed that many people mentioned the following:
o The timing was not right financially
o Worried about contributing too little
o What is the money being spent on
o Eager for a drive update on what we have collectively raised

Perhaps we could have an ongoing drive with a related sticky to detail site goals, amount raised and monthly recognition. Give me a moment to expand a bit on this before the admin police (Kevin) come and take me away...

Before I get started, I do understand the effectiveness of a consolidated push for yearly funding in contrast to an ever present "Keep ASSEMblers Alive" PayPal button graphic. That being said, the latest statistics from our last drive scream that we as a community need some sort of change. Having 0.24% of the total unique visitors contribute 90% of the site's funding is not healthy at all. The following is an idea for everyone to chew on/modify/etc. to decrease ASSEMbler's vulnerability in this funding arena.

1. Create a forum dedicated strictly to site fund raising
2. Have a dedicated sticky to detail site yearly financial goals and how it would be allocated. Run the yearly drive from April through March to avoid the holidays and take advantage of tax returns (USA).
3. Have a dedicated sticky to acknowledge contributors updated on a monthly basis. Quarterly updates would be too long IMHO - new members like to see their name posted and receive credit for their financial support (regardless of the amount). Administratively you would need help on this (I would hope). Perhaps a Mod or two could assist you in this? I like the idea of getting a few perks for contributing (as you previously mentioned).
4. Have a dedicated sticky for the Contributor Avatar award. You had a great deal of success running the last one in 2009 and you would definitely get a number of great entries. Since you already have a 2009 one going, maybe this one just needs to be augmented with the years that a member contributed i.e. 09, 10, 11, etc.).
5. Create a graphic similar to a thermometer that measures the percent achieved of our financial goal. This would again be updated monthly to ease the burden of you and/or Mods. This graphic would permanently reside within the header section of the forum and hyper-linked to item 2 in this list. Everyone likes graphics and a quick visually snapshot on how we are doing.

The preceding is just a starting point in an effort to not only diversify our benefactor pool, but also to improve the convenience of community contributions and related communication/recognition.

Feel free to beat up/modify/suggest these ideas as much as you'd like. In the end, this had to be administratively feasible with a low time investment involved (for Kevin / Mods sake) in addition to covering site expense.

Thanks for allowing me to ramble and brain dump a bit.

Terry

 

I guess I was the other person. Sent you a PM with the details.

 

I agree with Terry's great idea.

 

Kev, please remember my donation. :thumbsup:

 

its a bad time and some of us are unemployed or/and have problems to pay their monthly fees. im sure a lot of people would give more if possible.

 

Sorry mate.
I have sent you a PM on the last day of the donation, but seems you did not received it.
I should have tried to contact you again. But I totaly forgot.

 

No problem my friend :thumbsup: I actually did received it, but was waiting on your answer on how much would you donate (since you would participate on the other fundraiser as well).

But like i said, i'll donate an extra next time you help me getting some stuff through paypal.

 

what about "allow only to donors to access marketplace"? even a 1$ per year for all the people that use it would be more than enough i think

 

As a positive side-effect that would also keep viagra/cellphone-wholesale spammers away...

 

Hmmm, that is interesting as well. :nod:

 

Marketplace should only be for subscribers/donators IMO. Seems odd that people make money off the site yet don't actually contribute to it financially.

 

Aren't we all "subscribers"?

 

Sorry, I meant paid subscribers. Like when you subscribe to a magazine or Netflix or whatever.

Everyone else I would term as a "user" or something. Subscription to forums does actually work and can make it a nicer place. Look at Insomnia.cc for example. All members must pay 10Euro per year for access. Cuts down fake accounts and trolling massively.

 

The downside is that there are those of us who contribute knowledge that helps bring people together anyway. What cannot be given financially (regardless of whether its $1 or 1000$) is made up by the stuff that gets posted. And who would want to see "The home of the Obscure" become the "Home only if you pay the fee"? Lots of cool stuff comes up, and limiting people wont do a thing anyway.

 

I agree; I was just giving an example.

Perks for paying members is the best way to do this, IMO, with marketplace access being one of them.

 

Is the fundraiser results for donations this year or ones that happened last year as well? I did donate some money last year and would donate some money this year too once Paypal stop messing with my account and the few tens of dollars in it.

 

i was talking about marketplace access only, not like it would limit knowledge in the forums.

 

Just think of the donation as a one-off ebay fee. If you were to sell a couple of hundred pounds or dollars worth of stuff there your fees would be somewhere in the region of 20 £/$'s, here you could pay say, $10, and not have to worry that the buyer is scratching his head trying his damnedest to think of a way how to keep said item as well as trying to scam his money back too.

 

I'm sure the paid access to marketplace issue has been discussed before.

An issue was that it can discourage people from joining / contributing when they have nice betas to sell. As anyone can buy from there, it helps people get a foot hold in the forum, and once they hit 50 posts (with exceptions) they can sell. I'm sure few people would want to risk missing out on nice stuff just because someone is put off by the whole pay to access position.

Anyway, thanks to all the other donors for keeping AG safe for another year!