Donations

[bms]

Great to see a donate button (albeit a little small and no information about what the donation is for - yet?), but why is the donation in Euros not British Pounds?

[Justin]

Because I'm just installing it!

[Justin]

As Martin has pointed out. I have now installed the Donate button, simply put this connects to PayPal and you can choose the amount you want to donate. If I have particular projects for us I'll post a progress bar that shows how far off the target we are.

In the meantime any donations made will be put towards running costs. All costs are up to date as I've just paid for this new forum and a years hosting so any donations will be kept in PayPal.

[Paul]

albeit a little small and no information about what the donation is for - yet?

VB script just costed Justin about £150 so would be nice if that would be covered via donation plus usual costs of hosting etc I think.

[JSR]

As Martin has pointed out. I have now installed the Donate button, simply put this connects to PayPal and you can choose the amount you want to donate. If I have particular projects for us I'll post a progress bar that shows how far off the target we are.

In the meantime any donations made will be put towards running costs. All costs are up to date as I've just paid for this new forum and a years hosting so any donations will be kept in PayPal.

I think you should put up progress bars anyway. One bar should show what you've paid out so far, and the other should show how much we've donated. That way, everything is easily understandable.

Just saying that you've paid for the new forum and a year's hosting gives the impression you don't need any more right now but, as Paul said, you've just paid out £150 that needs to be paid for by us.

[Justin]

OK, I'll put up the progress bar and see what folk think. I don't expect to recoup all that I've paid out but any donations will always be used to enhance the forum further.

[JSR]

OK, I'll put up the progress bar and see what folk think. I don't expect to recoup all that I've paid out but any donations will always be used to enhance the forum further.

I think that would be better because otherwise new people here will just think that any donations go into a bottomless pit. If they can see the costs and work involved with a progress bar or two, then they know what they're contributing towards.

[mrs maggot]

done, and without going over old ground again, i agree with JSR. the cost of the forum hosting should be covered by members, but whether more needs to be spent on "enhancing" further should depend on how deep everyones pockets are. on another forum i belong to we put out the pot once a year 2 months before renewal of the site is due, and we put it away after the renewal has been done, over 7 years its clear that its the same people year after year who pay towards the site, but thats not the point, the point it, put the pot out only when you need it, otherwise people will stop

[JSR]

OK, I'll put up the progress bar and see what folk think. I don't expect to recoup all that I've paid out but any donations will always be used to enhance the forum further.

I think you also need to get your logo hosted on a secure site. When I went to donate, I was warned about unsecure content on the PayPal page which turns out to be your logo (because it comes from http://www.dyesubforum.co.uk/vbforum/im ... oSmall.gif which isn't behind SSL - so the browser alerts the user).

This alert/warning may put people off.

[JSR]

the cost of the forum hosting should be covered by members, but whether more needs to be spent on "enhancing" further should depend on how deep everyones pockets are.

I agree. I was a member of a forum once which relied on donations. The owner urged everyone to donate, saying that the site wouldn't be around if we didn't. We all duly donated to keep the site, and then the owner went and spent the money on ten years worth of the domain registration fee. That was his choice and it made sense to save money that way, but he then immediately continued to say that the site wouldn't be around next year if we didn't donate to the hosting - the very thing we thought we'd been donating towards.

Needless to say, this got everyone's back up. Transparency is key. People need to know what they're contributing towards at every step of the way.