Feedback on a donation program/status?

[Viper007Bond]

XenForo has the cool feature of allowing paid subscriptions. I was thinking of using it to allow people to subscribe to the forums as a way to donate to help cover our costs.

In return, I was thinking they'd get a donor badge, the ability to set their own custom title, access a donor-only subforum, and whatever else I can come up with.

It would be via PayPal and my initial thought was $5/month but perhaps something like $20/year would be more acceptable? I'm not sure what people are interested in, if at all especially with the current low visitor counts.

I'm open to any types of suggestions.

 

[gaasc]

apart from the donor-only subforum, I'm all for it.

 

[Viper007Bond]

apart from the donor-only subforum, I'm all for it.

I was just trying to come up with some perks people would find worthwhile.

 

[avanti]

I would just go with a donate button, not even a subscription. People that appreciate and value the site will donate without getting anything in return in my opinion. Maybe a star or a title, but no donor only forum, what are people gonna talk about there, that there isn't already a forum section for? Its already quiet enough...

 

[Matt2000]

I'm happy to contribute, whatever form that may take. FG has been a big part of my life for 13 years and I'd like to help keep it around and give something back after all of the great work that has been done to migrate.

I like the idea of a little something for donors (for years I wanted the ability to set my own title until that fateful night in a tent in Germany where many tears of laughter were shed and many titles were changed) but I think a donor-only section would be too much segregation and I don't know what else would go in there either. I'd want a crown for Ringmeet and gold FG stickers, obviously.

$5 a month is more than I give each of the five people I support on Patreon and that already adds up, I'd rather drop a donation on a yearly basis.

 

[MWF]

I like the idea in principle however for that to be of real benefit we would need to generate a marked increase in forum traffic.

I know you tried a mass email which perhaps didn’t work but a more targeted approach, either in alphabetical groups by username, post count highest first or most recent logins might persuade more people to return and be more active in the FG community.

 

[Viper007Bond]

Great ideas, everyone. Thanks.

* Donor-only subforum idea is being ditched.
* I want it done via the forums rather than just a buttom to make it easier, but I can make it a one-time donation, or a reoccuring yearly donation, or whatever. I'll ditch the monthly idea and go with something like $20 for a year, or maybe just forever.

Great idea about the emails, @MWF. Rather than trying to contact everyone (47k) and running into the limit, I'll be a lot more selective and instead filter the list down to visited in the past X months and has over X post count. Can't believe I didn't think of that!

 

[Nabster]

Oooh, so it's time to fire up the paypal and donate to the forums again

 

[Redliner]

I'm fine with donating. It's only fair after all the time I spent here and all the fun I had.

 

[bone]

i hate monthly subscriptions
but i am willing to do a yearly donation

 

[CrzRsn]

Count me in for the "hate monthly but willing to go yearly" camp.

 

[Viper007Bond]

FWIW the monthly would have been automated via PayPal, but it's off the table regardless.

 

[Viper007Bond]

If anyone wants to give it a try: https://forums.finalgear.com/account/upgrades

 

[thomas]

If anyone wants to give it a try: https://forums.finalgear.com/account/upgrades

Done. I don't even care what I get for it, you know I'll help you whichever way I can

 

[CrzRsn]

Woo! Upgraded.

 

[Matt2000]

Done. Green is my favourite colour.

 

[Galantti]

20usd is fine ammount to keep this community alive

 

[Viper007Bond]

FYI I'm working on polishing up a database query to copy over all custom titles from vB to XenForo, so you might want to hold off on setting your own title for a little bit as it could be overwritten.

 

[Galantti]

FYI I'm working on polishing up a database query to copy over all custom titles from vB to XenForo, so you might want to hold off on setting your own title for a little bit as it could be overwritten.

yey, SUOMIBASS will continue!

 

[Eye-Q]

As long as I don't have to be an organ donor I'll donate whatever is necessary to keep this going. Thanks for the efforts, it seems it's not just me who appreciates that.