The most important Forum Post ever

Hi all,

The title of this forum post is not misleading as it's really is important.

Lfan and I have been in discussion for some time and we are looking to you the membership to solve the problem that has bugged us for some time.

As you all know we have had problems with the hosting of the site and we are looking at moving the site from the current host to a better one, not this is where you come in.

We would like to know what, if anything you would like to contribute to a fund to pay for additional hosting. We are going to call the fund "Help SWM fund", catchy isn't it. We would use the fund to pay for VPS hosting to improve the site, with any left over at the end of the year to pay for cash prize workshop or special content commissioned for SWM (e.g. themed galleries or audio stories).

So what I’m needing from people is how much you are willing to pay, how often and how you would like to pay.

so for example

$5 per month via pay pal

the alternative is to go the advertising route with pop up and pop under adverts and lots and lots of averts.

Lastly what ever you contribute to the site will be for the site, no one will run off with your money.

Please reply to this thread with your answers.

Fats

How much do you need? I'll pay whatever it takes to keep the site free of ads! 5 bucks a month sounds more than reasonable for something I use every day. PayPal is probably the easiest method of payment for me.

I don't think it should be compulsory. I'm willing to pay, and judging by the overall response I think a large number of people are. I don't think members should be kicked out if they can't afford to contribute financially. I'm pretty safely employed right now, but what if that were to change? I might need to stop donating for a while, and would hate to think I'd loose access in circumstances like that.

What really interests me is the special commissions that could be generated by this idea. If enough of us support this idea it could lead to some awesome new content.

Oh boy ... this is rather of bad spot for me.
Am I willing to support SWM? Yes.
Do I have the capacity to do it ...? I don't know.
5 $/Month is quite cheap -- especially compared to many other websites -- but my bank avvount reminds me that, being only occasionally employed, I have to manage my money rather carefully. So, I'm definitly willing to support, but I would advise to add some extra options like a yearly membership that runs for 50$ instead of 60$ and so on.

Perhaps do what devianart does. Allow full access to the site with ads for free, and make them disappear for paying members.

The amount that people can give should be something that they can afford, for those who can and are willing that's great, for those who can't which includes me as I've been laid off then that's ok as well.

So far with all the people who have said that they can and willing we can move to a VPS server.

One thing that i would like to make clear, if you can not pay you will still be welcome here, we are not going down the route of being a subscription only site.

Fats

deathgeonous wrote: Ok, I'm glad to hear that if/when the pay stuff comes, us cheep and or broke guys will still be welcomed. That said, I like the idea of ads and pay for guys get to have them removed, and I also liked the idea of a yearly subscription to the site. As weird as it may sound, if you accept a yearly payment plan, I, personally, am more likely to be able to pay. It's the one lump sum thing. Since I have so very little left in a month after making all my necessary to live and not be homeless payments, taking another five out of that seems bad. But... I could maybe afford a one lump sum once a year better. Weird but true.

the $5 per month was a idea, if someone wants to put in say $50 as a one off payment at say xmas, then go for it.

btw the $50 is suggested amount if someone wants to put in a ^larger or _smaller amount then go for it

fats

fats wrote:

deathgeonous wrote: Ok, I'm glad to hear that if/when the pay stuff comes, us cheep and or broke guys will still be welcomed. That said, I like the idea of ads and pay for guys get to have them removed, and I also liked the idea of a yearly subscription to the site. As weird as it may sound, if you accept a yearly payment plan, I, personally, am more likely to be able to pay. It's the one lump sum thing. Since I have so very little left in a month after making all my necessary to live and not be homeless payments, taking another five out of that seems bad. But... I could maybe afford a one lump sum once a year better. Weird but true.

the $5 per month was a idea, if someone wants to put in say $50 as a one off payment at say xmas, then go for it.

btw the $50 is suggested amount if someone wants to put in a ^larger or _smaller amount then go for it

fats

Maybe we should consider a Kickstarter style contribution.

BTW, Dru's idea of using DA style adds isn't bad either.

shadar wrote: To stay ad free for $5 a month is well worth it in my mind. Ads are the scourge of the Net. A plague. SWM today reminds me of the glorious days of the Net before advertising crawled out of its slime pit and stunk up the neighborhood.

Say hello to my friend: AdBlock

Thanks for the posts and support guys! We're looking at options which includes everything from a Paypal button to a Patreon type of contribution model. Fats and I just wanted to test the waters and see what people's general reaction was/is. As he said, 100% of the contributions will go to the site hosting and enhanced content. I have some content ideas for contests and would like to lure some "big guns" (artists, producers) with the carrot of bigger cash prizes, as I cannot simply continue to shell out the money needed for commission prizes and such.

There is NO WAY (while Fats and I are running it) that the site will be for paying/contributing members only. All contributions are welcome, and I understand budgetary constraints as much as anyone, which is kinda why we're going this route... There will be no backlash or bad feelings for anyone unable to contribute!

We just wanna keep our little corner of the interweb going, and with maybe some more cash, make it even more satble from a hosting perspective and content-enriched......

Peace!
ElF