The Future of Our Community and Its Funding

[chronicthehedgehog]

What does Patreon offer over the current donate button ? Aside from much higher fees and maybe subscription?

Nothing much I suppose, except I can set it up and forget about it, rather than thinking "I'll go downstairs and get my wallet" and then completely forgetting about it.

You might also get more if people could make regular small "micro-payments".

On the upside, you'd have a better idea of whether you could cover upcoming hosting fees or whatever.

[Gargoyle]

What does Patreon offer over the current donate button ? Aside from much higher fees and maybe subscription?

Nothing much I suppose, except I can set it up and forget about it, rather than thinking "I'll go downstairs and get my wallet" and then completely forgetting about it.

You might also get more if people could make regular small "micro-payments".

On the upside, you'd have a better idea of whether you could cover upcoming hosting fees or whatever.

It would be good in the respect that you can have a kind of central funding hub, which is easier to link others to. Like what chronicthehedgehog is saying, with a dedicated Patreon page it's more convenient for people to set up smaller ongoing auto-payments. Also the more people are visibly contributing, the more it may encourage others to do the same. I guess you do have to weigh it up though like you say, with how much it may cost to do that etc. Maybe ask some of the larger ST Facebook groups too, just to get a gauge of how many would contribute from there?

[exxos]

Nothing much I suppose, except I can set it up and forget about it, rather than thinking "I'll go downstairs and get my wallet" and then completely forgetting about it.

You might also get more if people could make regular small "micro-payments".

On the upside, you'd have a better idea of whether you could cover upcoming hosting fees or whatever.

I have set up a subscription-based link on the donate page. I'm not sure if the wiki script will pick up on the subscription donations until its tried out, I may have to tweak it to list the names coming from a different payment link..

[exxos]

It would be good in the respect that you can have a kind of central funding hub, which is easier to link others to. Like what chronicthehedgehog is saying, with a dedicated Patreon page it's more convenient for people to set up smaller ongoing auto-payments.

What I can tell with Patreon , you have to actually "sell something". But from my perspective setting up and dealing with another payment system isn't really something I want to invest time in when I already have a payment system in place..

Also the more people are visibly contributing, the more it may encourage others to do the same. I guess you do have to weigh it up though like you say, with how much it may cost to do that etc. Maybe ask some of the larger ST Facebook groups too, just to get a gauge of how many would contribute from there?

The donate button can be easily linked to, it does go to the wiki, they payment links are there, and can be posted separately, but I think I would just prefer the wiki page being linked in case someone tries to pull a scam on payment links..

I certainly don't expect all the hosting costs to be covered by donations. But aside from I literally spent several months working on the server in one respect or another like recovering the wiki database, daily fighting spam etc etc the costs of things are just creeping up all the time. Like I had to pay for Cleantalk now to deal with a lot of spam issues. I'm having to pay $20 a month now for ChatGPT4 to help me with all the work and typing as can barely even use a computer these days.

For example it wrote me this script a few days ago when the forum was 502'ing due to the attacks.

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I would have no idea how to program such scripts, it would likely take me weeks to figure it out by which time Everything would just be too late / to slow. The only way I can keep up is explaining the problems to the AI and have it churn out loads of code for me. But even that results in generally a few days of work in coming up with solutions and looking for the problems to start with. It is literally all I have done for the past few months. I don't even have time to read many posts or reply to messages on the forum any more. Never mind work on stuff for the store.

I may have to look into DDOS protection next, but that's another £5 a month... I don't have unlimited funds and because I've basically been out of work since the whole pandemic thing, I don't have as much disposable income as I have done in the past. While I have taken cash from store sales, thats not really a long-term solution as sales are always declining and with more people doing upgrades, parts becoming harder to find/more expensive etc etc.. there has to be something else put in place to fund the forum independently.

[chronicthehedgehog]

I don't think anyone would expect you to produce anything new for Patreon, the website, investigations and admin covers that.
Perhaps you'll think of something to monetise for an ultra-top tier
Estimate how much cash you need, take a guess at how many people might subscribe and set a few payment tiers. Probably worth a trial at least.

[stween]

What I can tell with Patreon , you have to actually "sell something". But from my perspective setting up and dealing with another payment system isn't really something I want to invest time in when I already have a payment system in place..

Some folks on patreon do tie producing content to membership: like $1 per video or whatever.

But most folks I subscribe to set up monthly "tiers". Big Clive, for example, I subscribe to him for $2/month. His videos turn up on patreon before the general youtube channel I think, but he could put zero content up on patreon and my subscription would still be $2/month.

Main advantage for me: patreon has my credit card details and new subscriptions/cancelling subscriptions is easy.

[szeremiocki]

Well I’ll chip in literally and figuratively.

When I spoke for Patreon, I didn’t even know about „Donate” button — on smartphone it is hidden behind „hamburger” menu; when you wrote about it, I found it but there was no subscription payment and I still considered Patreon a better option.

But, now that there is a subscription option, I am _all_ for promoting this method if it is more efficient (cost, maintenance) — subscription resolves important dilemma when donating: even small amount seems OK because it will accumulate…

[exxos]

Well I’ll chip in literally and figuratively.

When I spoke for Patreon, I didn’t even know about „Donate” button — on smartphone it is hidden behind „hamburger” menu;

From what I can tell the menu bar disappears other than FAQ, I think this is what you are saying ?

But, now that there is a subscription option, I am _all_ for promoting this method if it is more efficient (cost, maintenance) — subscription resolves important dilemma when donating: even small amount seems OK because it will accumulate…

Absolutely, pennies make the pounds as the saying goes...

[machapman]

I missed the donate button too.. Can confirm it works fine. Perhaps needs a bit more promotion and reminders in future.

[szeremiocki]

From what I can tell the menu bar disappears other than FAQ, I think this is what you are saying ?

Well, this is how i can reach Donate button — and earlier I didn’t have the need to expand menu button; collapsed, it hides all options, even FAQ (on my screen, maybe it depends on screen size)

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I don’t know how many people use phones for day to day exxos browsing — but anyway maybe this button could be exposed more