Idea for member discussion (donations and hosting fees)

[Zak Arntson]

I'm all over the donation thing.  I was thinking about doing that with harlekin-maus.com, with corresponding goals (like um, one donation a year as my goal :)

As for the Forge, it's got enough readership, that I bet you guys could get some groovy donations. I know I would. But I could just drop by Clinton's pad and drop it off ... save y'all the PayPal fee.

And the CafePress thing is neat, too.  Mugs for the office, shirts for dress-down fridays .. all sorts of coolness there.

Another idea: Some kind of fun gaming jam, where prominent game designers of the Forge all get together and write a book or something. Essays, little games, thoughts, something.  And then it's sold, all profits to the Forge?

[Bailey]

Two comments regarding donations.

A nice way to recognize donors is to put up the name of the most recent donor and allow a little two line message that will be bumped when the next donation comes in.

Ext is there's gotta be an option besides paypal.  I've done been burned before.

[Armin D. Sykes]

I'm someone you wouldn't normally hear from, but I'm in a posting mood today.

Honestly, I can't fathom why anyone would have a problem with a donations page being available. Plenty of sites do that these days, and it seems to work pretty well for many of them. I also don't think any public listing of donors is necessary.

Armin

[Chris Passeno]

The ideas expressed so far are great.  I'm fine with the donate if you want plan.  I do feel that a donation should have some reward, but not public recognition.  Don't get me wrong, the Forge is a very good reward.  

PBS stations give away something at different levels.  Promotional items can be really inexpensive.  How about giant d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 & d20 stress relievers.

I would participate in the PrintCafe designing.  I've been curious why there hasn't been promo-wear available already.

later,
Chris

[Le Joueur]

Thanks for commenting. So far, the comments have all come from strong pro-Forge regulars, and while I appreciate that, I really wanted some opinions from people I wouldn't normally hear from.

Any time.  You know, in my occupation as Executive Regional Field Director for the Mid-Northwestern Devil’s Advocacy Department (at Large), this is a service I am bound to provide.

Fang Langford

[Paul Czege]

A nice way to recognize donors is to put up the name of the most recent donor and allow a little two line message that will be bumped when the next donation comes in.

I like this better than almost any other suggestion for recognizing donations that I've ever heard. How about a little non-obtrusive sidebar box on the main Forge page to display these things. When someone makes a donation, the default text is something like, "A donation to The Forge has been received by Paul Czege," but it's an editable input box, so if the donor wants to put in "Happy Birthday John Wick," instead of receiving public acknowledgment for the donation, that's fine too. And they would expire from the box after two weeks or so.

I think what you don't want is a bunch of people in the memberlist labeled as donors. I don't think you want people to feel like they bought something. "I donated to this damn site, so playtest my game you dickheads," is a scary post to imagine.

Paul

[Trav]

I know that I'm fairly new here, but I don't think that it is offensive to ask for donations.  This site is full of useful goodies, and I'd be happy to donate.

[Zak Arntson]

The only problem I'd have with just a single message with the last donation would be your message could get trumped.  I guess that would be incentive to donate more ...

But if we are going to have donation messages, why not the _latest_ message be displayed prominently (on the main forum page would be cool), and there could be a list of all donation messages somewhere?

That way happy birthday announcements and things like that won't disappear forever, and be replaced by something like "Anonymous donor donated." (or whatever the default message would be).

I think a page that lists donors and their messages would be great.  Especially if we could get some indie companies (or even talk some of the bigger companies) donating.  Wouldn't that be neat to see ... lists of donors, sorted by donation range.  Not exact donations, but list all the $50+ donors at the top, $10-49 next and $1-9 donors last or something.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

That sounds neat, but actually starts creating a chance for class strife again.

Ron and I have talked it over, and we're going to go with a completely anonymous scheme. You will get a message from us - I'm actually thinking about printing up some Forge stationary to send out snail mail messages on - but there will be no public recognition.

I think I will put up a little meter on the donation page showing how much server costs are for the year, and how close we are to that goal.

[Zak Arntson]

That sounds neat, but actually starts creating a chance for class strife again.

Good point.  I forgot about the equality thing :)  I guess I'll have to throw my 1,000 bucks elsewhere.

I think I will put up a little meter on the donation page showing how much server costs are for the year, and how close we are to that goal.

YES!!  This is my eventual plan for harlekin-maus.com. A little meter will not only show people that you have a concrete goal, but that it's possible to achieve. I think the incentive would be far greater when people actually see the difference they make.

[Paul Czege]

You will get a message from us - I'm actually thinking about printing up some Forge stationary to send out snail mail messages on

That sounds nice, classy and professional.

Paul

[Matt Gwinn]

I'm fine with the idea of donations. The questions about anonymity and potentials for elitism have got me thinking.  

How is acknowledging donators from non donators and different from listing how many posts each member has?

I know for a fact that there is somewhat of a competition between members to have more posts than oneanother.  The number of posts I have often makes me feel a tad insignificant when compared to Paul or Mike (or maybe it's just their keen insight).

Not that I think this is a problem, but I don't see how things sudenly become touchy when money comes into it.

,Matt

[greyorm]

A little late on my part, but I agree: why the worry about donations?  It's a great idea, and I've been wondering why it hasn't been implemented yet.
I'm also interested in the cafe-press idea...never actually heard of the term before but I would be interested in helping out in that area graphically.

One note: I do think the wording on the donations page could be a little better (as written, certain short passages sound a little close to what might be called "self-gratifying" or "martyrdom," though I KNOW that isn't the intent of those passages).  I'll send a note Ron's way with a possible rewording for perusal.

Finally, the meter is an excellent idea, better than a "donor list," and serves the same purpose without glorifying any particular individual(s)...in fact, it supports the community-style of the Forge much more directly by showcasing how close WE are to OUR goal than how much person X or Y put us closer to the goal.
In other words, when the don-o-meter goes up, we can all be proud -- the entire Forge -- instead of just one person.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Thanks for your support, everyone! The donation page is up - check out the main page to find it.

Also, much thanks to Raven for helping out with a needed re-write of the text. I think it's much better now, thanks to him.