Forum running costs

[Brun Ugle]

I'm glad that all features will be open to everyone. I like that everyone can stand on equal footing as a member whether they can afford to pay or not. I think it is especially important on a site dedicated to language learning that we be as accessible as possible to people from everywhere. And it's important to remember that $5 isn't the same thing for everyone. There is a great difference from country to country what that will buy.

Anyway, if all you need is $40-$45 per month, that's only 8-9 monthly contributors at $5 each, so that should be easy enough to achieve. I think we've had that many volunteers already.

[Bluepaint]

In my mind there has never been any question of differentiating between those who donate and those who don't. Donation is done as a form of goodwill, not to obtain perks or favouritism. Otherwise you'd become paying customers or bribers (incidentally what is the word for a person who pays a bribe??)

HTLAL took subscriptions I think as a mixture of sustenance and profit. It was still very much FX's site and he wanted that as a business model.

Llorg is a community that simply needs to sustain itself and recognises that money is just one of the ways in which we need support. Accordingly, we don't & will not view a donating member as any more valuable than another member.

[Elenia]

This is making me a bit tearful. I love this community!

[Serpent]

HTLAL took subscriptions I think as a mixture of sustenance and profit. It was still very much FX's site and he wanted that as a business model.

I also wonder if it has to do with how the internet has changed. For example back then it was a given that any business that wants to attract/support its customers over the Internet needs its own homepage. Nowadays smaller companies just use social media.
Besides, FX put a lot of effort into customizing the forum for language learners (profiles, skills, wishlist, tandem search, tags, logs automatically listed in the profile). Ultimately it all didn't turn out to be worth it, due to the trouble with upgrading, but we know that now because FX has tried that before. I think that being somewhat geeky he underestimated just how many people simply want to write a post and get replies (and how instead of being grateful for what's there people would be frustrated that their language isn't on the list).

[IronMike]

(incidentally what is the word for a person who pays a bribe??).

bribee, maybe?

[Ogrim]

I voted for occasional donations, but if it is easier to handle small regular donations of a few euros/dollars every month then I am happy to contribute in that way as well. And I ad my songs of praise to emk, rdearman and the moderator team for all the splendid work they are doing to the benefit of all of us. I now understand how much work takes place "behind the scene" to make a forum like this work smoothly.

I also totally agree that there should not be first- and second-rate memberships, and I highly appreciate that you manage to keep it ads-free.

[Bluepaint]

(incidentally what is the word for a person who pays a bribe??).

bribee, maybe?

That crossed my mind! Quick, where's a non-native speaker, they often know stuff us natives don't!

[Elenia]

(incidentally what is the word for a person who pays a bribe??).

bribee, maybe?

That crossed my mind! Quick, where's a non-native speaker, they often know stuff us natives don't!

Surely the bribee is the person receiving the bribe, just as the employee receives employment and the tutee receives tutoring...

A quick wikipedia lookup reveals that bribery can be any of offering, giving, soliciting or receiving a bribe. So, um. Yeah. Non-native speakers? Any insights?

[Bluepaint]

(incidentally what is the word for a person who pays a bribe??).

bribee, maybe?

That crossed my mind! Quick, where's a non-native speaker, they often know stuff us natives don't!

Surely the bribee is the person receiving the bribe, just as the employee receives employment and the tutee receives tutoring...

A quick wikipedia lookup reveals that bribery can be any of offering, giving, soliciting or receiving a bribe. So, um. Yeah. Non-native speakers? Any insights?

What an English fail on my part. Can I blame only getting to sleep at 8am? Please?

I'm going to create a new thread as I'm derailing this one aplenty!

Edit: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =17&t=7134

[emk]

Llorg is a community that simply needs to sustain itself and recognises that money is just one of the ways in which we need support. Accordingly, we don't & will not view a donating member as any more valuable than another member.

This is a really important point: We all support this forum in many different ways. We answer questions, write blog posts and language profiles (hint, hint ), and provide a sense of community. And community is really important—many of us live in places where most language learners give up and fail very quickly. And so it's incredibly helpful to be able to surround ourselves with people who take it for granted that success is perfectly normal, provided we put in the effort.

I have the temporary, short-term donation system almost ready to go, with the goal of raising US$20 to $40 a month—no more than we need to meet costs. And anything we don't raise, I'm perfectly happy to support out of pocket. But symbolically, I think it's really good to share the costs.

The reason I'm saying "a temporary, short-term donation system" is that for the moment, I'm going to handle the cash. And I've requested to not handle any more money than we actually need for monthly expenses—and we'll do it in a way that allows everybody to see what being collected each month, and what's being spent. In the longer run, we hope to set up a real legal entity, but that's going to require both time and money. Once that's done, we'll transfer everything over there. But until we do that, the rule is "no more money than we need to meet monthly expenses."

Surely the bribee is the person receiving the bribe, just as the employee receives employment and the tutee receives tutoring...

Can I just say I love this place?