Forum running costs

General discussion about learning languages

If financial support is needed for the forum...

Poll ended at Thu Oct 26, 2017 2:18 pm

I would prefer to make an occasional donation such as a one-off gift or for specific projects
47
64%
I would happily make a small regular donation
19
26%
I wouldn't/couldn't make a contribution in the foreseeable future
6
8%
I would not want to donate full stop
2
3%
 
Total votes: 74

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rdearman
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby rdearman » Mon Oct 23, 2017 4:51 pm

Just a quick interjection about costs and possible expansion. At the moment the emails all run through my email system. You'll probably wondered why you get email from xgipublishing.com about private messages on this board. Now this isn't a problem for me, and I'm paying for server anyway, so I'm not looking for donations. However, it would be possible to setup a small AWS server with a full-stack email system which would allow emails to originate from this domain, and also allow us to turn on things like email checking / validation for new users. But a full-stack email really needs another smaller server, so you can send out email updates while working on the other one (for example) or if there was an outage.

I only mention this, because this is just a small example of what we'd like to get working over the long term. In the tech development thread are dozens of brilliant ideas, which would take either money, or contributions to code (hint, hint). Some of the suggestions for the Super Challenge bot need to be implemented, and I'll be doing that if I get a chance, but the php code is on github. So there are a lot of ways to help, and if you ever fancied learning to program... ;)
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby MamaPata » Mon Oct 23, 2017 8:34 pm

One of the concerns I have about donations (particularly monthly) is about currency. Obviously we are all very spread out and many of us will only have or have access to one bank account. While I would be very happy to make contributions, I don't want to be making donations in dollars for example, as I would end up being charged three times over. This may be totally avoidable, but having looked at contributing to other projects in the past, there was often only a US procedure.

What do people know about this/what are the options?
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby Bluepaint » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:07 pm

MamaPata wrote:One of the concerns I have about donations (particularly monthly) is about currency. Obviously we are all very spread out and many of us will only have or have access to one bank account. While I would be very happy to make contributions, I don't want to be making donations in dollars for example, as I would end up being charged three times over. This may be totally avoidable, but having looked at contributing to other projects in the past, there was often only a US procedure.

What do people know about this/what are the options?


Interesting post! Do the excessive charges occur even when paying via Paypal?
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby emk » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:13 pm

MamaPata wrote:What do people know about this/what are the options?

So in theory, it should be possible to pay with PayPal.

But more importantly: If you're in a country where it's difficult to pay, or if you live on a limited budget, or really anything else, just please don't worry. I want to cap donations at a low level, and we'll almost certainly be able to meet that level with a small number of people giving a small amount of money.

Non-monetary contributions to the forum are every bit as important!
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Tue Oct 24, 2017 1:07 am

Brun Ugle wrote: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.



It's great that all the people here think that it's good that the people who pay and the people who don't pay will have the same forum features. In my opinion that's extremely important and the only correct and nice way.

It was nasty on htlal that the posh pro members had their avatars and search etc, but the ones who didn't pay didn't. Then every time the people who didn't pay tried to search or read a page, a stupid advert exploded and wanted a lot of money in US dollars, about $40, or the text was in stupid fake Latin. This forum is wonderful, and I completely agree with the equality for everyone not only the wealthy people (I agree as well that it's important to remember that $5 isn't the same thing for everyone in so many different countries or for the students etc). I'd like to contribute, but for me it's better one contribution sometimes, not every month. I haven't got a credit card, but I think that Paypal is ok.
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby Bluepaint » Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:16 pm

emk wrote:
MamaPata wrote:What do people know about this/what are the options?

So in theory, it should be possible to pay with PayPal.

But more importantly: If you're in a country where it's difficult to pay, or if you live on a limited budget, or really anything else, just please don't worry. I want to cap donations at a low level, and we'll almost certainly be able to meet that level with a small number of people giving a small amount of money.

Non-monetary contributions to the forum are every bit as important!


Are we close to the Patreon launch?
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby emk » Fri Oct 27, 2017 6:14 pm

Rhian wrote:Are we close to the Patreon launch?

Relatively. I didn't like the first version, and decided how I wanted to redo it, but that's going to require some time this weekend. I don't mind paying extra until it's done; it's good motivation. :-)
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby alexkelbo » Fri Oct 27, 2017 7:42 pm

Oh boy, totally missed this thread!
I'll gladly donate $2-$3 dollars a month or so. I had suggested Patreon a while ago, and would prefer it over PayPal.
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby Bluepaint » Fri Oct 27, 2017 8:23 pm

alexraasch wrote:Oh boy, totally missed this thread!
I'll gladly donate $2-$3 dollars a month or so. I had suggested Patreon a while ago, and would prefer it over PayPal.


It is possible to recast your vote. I don't know if you need to or not.
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Re: Forum running costs

Postby basica » Thu Dec 21, 2017 2:26 am

emk wrote:Non-monetary contributions to the forum are every bit as important!


Bit late to this thread, but I am both happy to help out financially as well as technically. It seems that you and rdearman have things handled, but as a fellow programmer and once upon a time sysadmin I don't mind chipping in where/when I can.

Also, by the looks of it I am guessing a Patreon or Paypal account has yet to be set up?
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