Donations

I'm not sure, but I think the donations page is telling me that my one-off donation has caused the immediate expiry of my auto-refreshing donation. Is that the case? If so, I guess I can just set up another auto-refresh.

PayPal cancelled my recurring donation when I changed the card that was registered with them, somewhat annoyingly.

I have had some cancellation notifications. PayPal are weird.

It's plausible that they consider it a game of trumps and that a one-off donation trumps (ends) a subscription.

I posted two links earlier to the PayPal pages that deal with various subscriptions. If the subscription is still "Active" in your PayPal, then it hasn't been cancelled.

If it says anything other than "Active", then it's been cancelled.

Unfortunately PayPal is partly a blackhole to me. vBulletin processes callbacks but doesn't store records of the transactions. And the PayPal tools are not fit for purpose for helping me view things by person and over time (including subscriptions).

Donated too again, sorry don't like recurring ones.

BTW, I think you should leave the Donate banner forever or a Donate button forever somewhere on an header.

I didn't realise it was so close every month. I've been using this forum since 2007 and have never read the threads about running costs, sorry. I've put a subscription donation on now. I hope it helps.

Brace yourself. I'm trying to register a middle-eastern credit card with Paypal.

Naturally mine.

I'll have to come back to you on this. PayPal are being bell-ends.

Donated a little more.

I agree with the changes to make the Affiliates link more prominent. I too always forget that they exist until it's too late.
I appreciate that it's a sticky already but it's also tucked away on Classifieds >> Discussion where fewer people navigate. Is there a case to be made that its importance to the forum warrants it a more obvious sticky location at the top of the Classifieds threads list?

Donation subscription done

I shall remove the word nice.

Plonk = £6.
Fine wine = £15.

That's about right... though I realise there's no upper bounds on these things.
Box of goon would be good, for the Aussies or skint among us :)

I didn't realise it was so close every month. I've been using this forum since 2007 and have never read the threads about running costs, sorry. I've put a subscription donation on now. I hope it helps.

It didn't use to be.

Back in 2009 we had a glorious 6 months of future cash in the bank.

But the big income came from T-shirts (which we haven't done in a while), and more recently affiliate revenue crashed and donation subscriptions have been reducing naturally (as debit cards expired, etc).

In the last year it's been month to month, but in the last 6 months we've run a loss. I knew I could ask for help, but really want to wait another month to see if the affiliate revenue recovered in time to make it a non-issue. It didn't .

Donated, will chuck in more come payday next month

Really sorry to read this, specifically because of the implications for microcosm.app (which I support whole-heartedly)

I've actively not made a donation because I thought the affiliate revenue was enough to cover costs, I'll sent set up a regular donation now that the immediate troubles are over.

When LFGSS moves across to microcosm.app (and i'm interested in that because I'd like to use the port scripts myself) will the revenue/costs become part of the startup's bottom line? i.e. supported by cash raised by funders?

Also: I saw this because of Corny's FB post. Share the sh*t out of it.

I didn't even know there was an affiliates link, how does one find it?

http://www.lfgss.com/thread52983.html

I agree about highlighting the affiliates revenue stream much more too.

I've been on here for 2 years and never heard of it until now.

I use many of the sites listed - as I'm sure lot of regulars and newcomers do to - so would definitely be worth promoting further.

Maybe, you could consider including details in an automated "Welcome to LFGSS" PM when people join?

I've been on here for 2 years and never heard of it until now.

I use many of the sites listed - as I'm sure lot of regulars and newcomers do to - so would definitely be worth promoting further.

+1.

Also donation subscription made.

donated. not much, but a bump in salary will mean a bump in donations...

can't let this forum suffer.

Upped my donation.

Agree with making the affiliates more prominent. Would adding it to the links next to Donate be worth consideration?

Saw the banner and donated.
Didn't know about the affiliates thing - will use in future.

Really sorry to read this, specifically because of the implications for microcosm.app (which I support whole-heartedly)

I've actively not made a donation because I thought the affiliate revenue was enough to cover costs, I'll sent set up a regular donation now that the immediate troubles are over.

That used to be the case, but isn't presently. It may recover, but I don't know that for sure.

When LFGSS moves across to microcosm.app (and i'm interested in that because I'd like to use the port scripts myself) will the revenue/costs become part of the startup's bottom line? i.e. supported by cash raised by funders?

Microcosm is relying on two things, one more than the other:

1) That we can massively drive down the costs by being a platform, and just doing things more efficiently "for the cloud".

2) That the affiliate and transaction revenue will be more optimised, and fewer dollars left on the table.

#1 is the key one though. LFGSS costs a lot to run, and I've always known it should be a significantly lower number. If the software and architecture were better, the savings would be considerable. Even today, LFGSS would have been fine on the revenue it has if the costs were half of what they are.

The other optimisation that reduces costs is simply that Microcosm lets a lot of sites run on the same hardware. There's less waste, so for the same revenue (active users on multiple forums), there is less overhead.

Even at today's revenue, Microcosm would be fine.

Though obviously, it's not as super-attractive as this time last year when the affiliate revenue was double. And that certainly is worrying for long-term profits.

But on the upside of that, Microcosm wants to help sell tickets to track days, and to manage classifieds listing... so revenue LFGSS doesn't get today, Microcosm will see a small bit of in future.

An important point: No donations end up in Microcosms account. Donations are purely for LFGSS; to cover debt (now that we have some), costs, and if when it moves to Microcosm there is some money left over, then we'll figure out the best thing to do with it (treat it as a club donation to help fund LFGSS rides and activities?).

Also: I saw this because of Corny's FB post. Share the sh*t out of it.

I'm not on Facebook, no idea what he said.

VB, basically just spreading the word to those who I'm connected with and also the forum facebook page to let them know that the forum was in need of their financial contribution.

words are below, most of them are yours..

Everyone's favourite Fixed Gear forum needs your help. Time to pony up some cash and donate to keep it going.
LFGSS needs to recover the revenue we've lost through donations... which means either:
1) Encouraging more people to help out
2) Encouraging those who are helping out, to help more
3) Some generous sod has a couple of grand spare just to put us back to above zero and cover the shortfalls of the last few months
My personal view is always going to be the "keep donations low, and voluntary, and encourage more people to help out".
So I'm going to change the site header and basically do a pledge drive for most of May.
But if you are donating already and can afford to up the amount or frequency (i.e. from a beer a quarter, to a beer a month)... then that would be incredible.
You can donate here...
https://www.lfgss.com/payments.php

ive been here nearly 5 years and have never made a proper donation, (i've bought caps and tshirts etc), this fact greatly embarrasses me, i have donated.

would a run of caps help bring in some revenue

You know perfectly well that they'd just get switched to lower case.

Can you not make the donation banner a bit more prominent, have landing page or a pop up message when you log in?

Just increased my donations.

Agreed that the whole affiliates thing needs WAY more visibility, and also emphasis on its importance to the forum. I only stumbled on it accidentally, and even then, I often forget to use it regularly. I will do so in future.

More donation made!

Felt like I didn't even deserve the gold star when I checked my meagre one-beer-trimonthly subscription.

It is a bit sad when you think how much money changes hands through the classifieds section and some participants can't donate £1 or so of the £££££'s they've saved on eBay fees etc, let alone the fact that this by far is the most user friendly and enjoyable out there!

Donated
Plus agree with this

Is there a thread somewhere with a list of merchants that you have an affiliate account with, VB? Could it be more prominent if so? I basically always forget affiliate deals exist so you're possibly not getting as much use out of it as you should.

These affiliate links should be bold as brass and in a prominent place. The amount of times I have ordered something by typing in a URL instead of ordering via a link on here.... I could have earned you some cash.

done and done

Done.