Donations

One question - is there any way of double checking if a member donates without having to check the bank account or PayPal? It might make things easier and people more aware as well

Does this also apply to AdBlockPlus?

If so, will selecting the "disable on LFGSS.com" option solve the problem?

I don't actually know.

There are now many similar adblockers and hosts file solutions, and they've all been getting more aggressive.

It used to be that they only stopped display adverts, but now they focus on tracking cookies too.

Tracking cookies are an issue, this is where you view something on one shop and browse the web and are shown an advert on another unrelated site for the item you were looking at on the original shop. It's known as re-targeting, the hope of the advertisers is that they can convert "lost" customers into actual customers.

The problem for us is that affiliate schemes rely upon tracking cookies. When you click a link it needs to place a cookie to say, "This buyer, came from that site... pay that site a couple of %" (usually 2% nowadays, this is the change in terms as it used to be closer to 5%).

So when those cookies are blocked... by browsers, or extensions/add-ons like uBlock, AdBlockPlus, etc... we don't get credited for the sales.

Sometimes I try and correlate the items people declare in the affiliate thread... as I believe they're just about to buy them... with what is reported by Wiggle or CRC. And more often than not... the sales are not there, no affiliate revenue earned.

I'm attributing those uncredited sales, and general decline, to adblockers because it seems most likely. But it's hard to prove without (ironically) adding a whole load of code to minutely track every transaction we believe is going to happen.

Overall though... this is a trend. Affiliate revenue is dying a death due to a multitude of reasons, and for us it's almost dead already. Donations already cover the vast majority of our costs, somewhere around the 2/3 > 3/4 mark. It seems more sensible for me to try and ensure those don't decline further as the affiliates stuff is out of my control in comparison.

One question - is there any way of double checking if a member donates without having to check the bank account or PayPal? It might make things easier and people more aware as well

Yes... but it requires me writing code.

I can add a token to the donate link/button, and it will identify who is donating. Then I can add a PayPal callback, so that PayPal pings me info of new transactions... and that would include the token. Then I can use that knowledge to add "flare" to a profile, i.e. the old gold stars we used to have.

It's possible, but that code doesn't exist in Microcosm yet.

I can't do it based on email address as most people tend to use a different email on PayPal than their primary email for site registration, etc.

I've got lots to do, and need a hand doing it. So I've focused on cleaning the code up and getting it to a place that others can help me work on it. A few people have expressed interest in doing so, and it makes sense to help get others involved.

On the first of June I'll be setting up a monthly donation of a couple of quid.
I've always been one to just dump 10-20 quid in the coffers but I'm never consistent.
I pay monthly for Eurosport to watch bikes (and other sports of course) and now I'll pay to read/chat bikes.
Hope it helps.

It will help.

Most of the donation total comes from the £2-£7 per month regular amounts people do.

The one-offs really help when things crunch, but it's too inconsistent for me to predict and leads me to do this annoying "bang the drum" thing.

The regular few quid, whatever you're cool donating, is the best way for all. You don't feel it, we can predict it... everything is cool.

I'm one of those annoying one-off donators. Alas the way I have my accounts set up it means that I'd likely screw up scheduled donations and end up hitting myself with stupid bank fees.

However, if I were prompted, as I was by the appearance of the new donation button, I'd probably make a biggish one off donation on at least an annual basis. I just need reminding about it so I don't conveniently forget this stuff.

To avoid drum banging, I'd be really happy to use an opt-in automated reminder service that sent me a PM telling my it's donation time. Obviously that's a coding job for you and I have no idea of the scale of burden, but if it serves a core of people like me then it could be worth the effort. The functionality could also be extended to other scenarios as well such as subscription alerts for making entries to polo tournaments and other events. That's my suggestion for making it easier to solicit donations from awkward sods like me.

Me too: no fixed/steady income.

I'd use a "it's been xx days/months since you last donated" reminder.

Yup, I want to add that.

I want to have donations expire over time, so a small donation (below £5) lasts a month or two, a medium donation (below £25) lasts 6 months or so, and so on.

That way I can have some schedule by which a reminder PM can be sent.

It all requires coding... which I'm getting around to again.

I thought as much.

If it's feasible, it might be good to be able to have some schedules public and for people to opt in. That way we could all be prompted to send dancing james the same picture of Taylor Swift at the same time. You know, for the lols.

I'll try up my monthly donation a notch. That should help with the consistency.

leads me to do this annoying "bang the drum" thing.

this is really useful for me btw*, and I don't think it's annoying at all when it's in the Donations thread. when things get a bit more desperate and it turns into a top-of-page banner, well, everyone understands that too.

(* my Paypal credit card's about to expire and it makes it more likely that I'll actually remember to switch it sometime sooner rather than later. that only happens every few years, but there's always something, and it's useful to be reminded even if you are a regular donator, to check the amount is still appropriate, could it go up a bit etc)

Just put my one back on, somehow my recurring one disappeared.

somehow my recurring one disappeared

Yeah, this is what PayPal does by default.

If your card expires, or there wasn't funds on some occasion... just anything at all that is an issue. Then they cancel the subscription.

They do email people, it's somewhere in your inbox (or spam). And of course, LFGSS has no right to donations. So I don't individually hassle or guilt anyone by emailing you in addition to the PayPal email.

This month, well it's the 26th today and we've had 32 subscription cancellations. Ranging from £1 donation per month up to £10 per quarter. Around £70 in monthly donations cancelled through attrition this month alone. Though it has been speeding up, so I figure these are mostly old debit cards that originally subscribed around 2 years ago.

Mine expired in November without me noticing. Have reactivated and backdated.

Just changing the donate logo to local, as I spotted that serving it from PayPal meant that they could place cookies and track people and I do not want them to do that.

1 Attachment

Monthly donation (re)activated @velocio..

It's been ages since I donated.

I've just done this^ too.

Updated my somewhat stingy biannual donation to a monthly.

Tried to set up a monthly payment instead of randomly donating as I've done a few times earlier. Couldn't figure out how on the phone though, will give it a go on the pc later.

8 minutes later: bingo. Feels good.

Setting up my monthly donation again.. cheers, matt

EDIT - does anyone know how to do monthly recurring donation? Paypal seems to gove the option for a one off.. Maybe because i am on a tablet?

Ill try in the morning on a PC

Yep, see my post above, couldn't work out how on the phone but the desktop site showed an option for it.

Thanks Russ - don't know how I can have missed that!
D'uh..

Bump for donations :-).

There has been a sudden uptick.

Not sure why, as I see no chatter. But in the last few weeks the flow of those whose donations expired has finally stabilised, we got to a low of ~70 donating on a regular subscription, but this has now picked up and we're back to ~100 with most giving 3.50 each month.

Basically... woo, the site is in the black and staying there even though we're heavily into the off-season.

have forgotten to donate for a while

many thanks for keeping the place going