donation and subscriptions

[dil 0]

whats the deal with subscriptions? do you get any benefits, don't mind if i don't, just wondered what the difference was between making a donation or subscription.

[VR6 0]

Donator = warm and fuzzy on the outside

 

Subscriber = something warm and fuzzy on the inside :norty:

 

Serious answer, donator is a one time thing, subscriber is a monthly sub. You get a different status depending on which you choose but generally it's about helping towards running costs of the forum.

[dil 0]

Lol one of the funniest openings lines on a post I've ever read.

 

So if I select 10+ subscription , is that £10 a month?

[Portent 0]

Thought I was subscribing with a small amount each month... Yet I'm a donator?

[VR6 0]

One off donation:

http://direct.the-corrado.net/misc.php?do=donate

 

Recurring monthly payment:

http://the-corrado.net/payments.php

 

Andi handles the user status updates and I presume he still differentiates between donators and subscribers ...

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

You need to be a donator to sell in the Breaking thread, and it will also allow you to attach more files to posts, and have an unlimited PM Inbox.

Also, as a 'newbie' it means that your first posts won't be Moderated automatically (as spammers don't tend to pay..!).

If there were other things that you'd like to be offered as a donator or subscriber, than please let me know and I'll see what I can do! I did offer picture hosting and more space and other things like that, but they were rarely used so it wasn't worth the extra time for me to maintain them.

 

The setting of the status is manual - so if it's not done, give me a shout and I'll sort it :) Portent - when was your last payment and I'll trace it to check.

Remember I get emails from Paypal from "Dave Smith" and then you're on here as user213983 - sometimes I can't guess who's who! I normally manage to tie them up when I get them through.

 

And yes - it does genuinely all go towards the hosting costs and license fees for the vBulletin software - of which I'll need to spend another $209 soon for the next version.

Last week, the site received 1.85 million hits - so it's a very busy server! We are currently running on a distributed system, with asynchronous SQL database backups, a fall-back, plus off-site full backups. All needed so you get a perfect experience any time of day and over 99% uptime.

The site also deflected 1236 hacking attempts last week.

 

So - you're money really does help, because we're kinda busy behind the scenes.

[dil 0]

i'm sure before christmas i set up a recurring monthly to be taken, but it doesnt seem to be happening?

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

Your status will automatically change to 'Donator' if you completed the whole setup.

Most common thing I've noticed is that people don't complete the Paypal part, so the transaction doesn't complete...

Nothing I can do this end - just apply again :)

It's all completely automatic now - I don't have to validate donations any more.

[OllieVR6 0]

Andi, I've asked before but don't think I got a response (or perhaps you don't know or you did and I didn't see it), is there a statistic for roughly how much it costs a month on a per user basis? I appreciate the registered user count is far less than the monthly visitors, but if you took running costs and divided it by registered users for a month, what would you need to break even? I make a monthly donation which is probably a bit stingy, I'd like to know that I'm at least covering my own costs.

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

Running costs plus licenses, etc it works out roughly £100/month - and that's excluding my time, Mods time, Toby (the server admin)'s time - that's all 'free'!

There's probably about 300-400 active members? That's a guestimate... If you all gave 25p/month, it would break even perfectly!

Doesn't happen like that though.. Subs & one-off donation wise, I occasionally break even but it's normally around the £50-60/month mark.

I do make some money from advertising though, so I'm not out of pocket.

 

I am starting to do more sponsorship deals with companies - you'll start to see sponsored areas of the site/forums soon - when this takes off, there will be far less a need for user donations.

 

But I have been running the site for 10 years, and its only really been in the last 18-24 months that I think it's broken even... Not that I'm complaining or fishing for more donations, though. If I was in financial trouble, I'd be asking for subs far more, don't worry! :)

[OllieVR6 0]

Thanks for the info Andi!

[mic_VR 3]

Any chance of getting my donator status restored? I'd like to read so e of these PM's I seem to be missing.

 

Ta!

[Dox 23]

I've just noticed my donator status has gone, any idea why?

[Andi 2,147,483,647]

Yeah, Paypal messed around with the API and vBulletin has lost a lot of the 'connections' with the subscriptions so no longer knows if you're a subscriber still or not.

A royal PITA.

 

I've re-enabled yours, though! So hopefully ok now :)