Just a quick update regarding something we talked about on Saturdays VC YouTube show.
As most of you were already aware, the regular donations that a lot of you generously gave last year was stopped due to the whole Paypal debacle, So apart from a few manual payments that were very gratefully received, the pot went dry a couple of months ago, so the forum and Calc has been paid for by the three of us ever since.
Donations keep the lights on essentially, running these things is not cheap, If it was, anyone would do it, which is why we were incredibly grateful to all who donated, especially those that set up regular donations, no matter how big or small they were, every little bit helped us continue to develop and grow, and knowing that we had enough money coming in every month to cover the bills was a huge weight off our shoulders, especially these days.
SOā¦
With everything still remaining the same as far as Paypal goes, we have decided to turn to Patreon to try and support the Forum and Calc, Weāre still trying to come up with ideas on what to offer the different tiers in terms of bonuses & access etcā¦ and we are open to suggestions as to what kind of things you would like in return for your generous donations, but for now, Iām just going to link you up in the hope that we can get the ball rolling for now, Just hit this link and it will take you straight to our Patreon Page
Like I said, please feel free to offer suggestions on how we can reward people, or even if thatās necessary? ā¦weāre new to all this so, weād appreciate the feedback.
Nice ideas man, but unfortunately a bit elaborate I fear, things like actual items are expensive to post out as well as to make, smae with shortfils, weād have to actually buy them first, which would kind of defeat the purpose of trying to raise money for the forum, as the items would cost more than the donations.
Rewards for different tiers etc usually come in the form of Patreon access only areas etc, access to certain recipes that kind of thingā¦weāll think of something
Yeah I get the cost thing, sorry I wasnāt very clear there lol.
I mean like people actually have to buy stuff but like only if they are patreons, like limited edition kinda things as an insensitive?
Itās ok just chucking ideas around
Hmmmm, so the idea is to have tiers that exclude people who canāt afford to support you at higher levels? To me, that would make things seem somewhat elitist. My current situation financially would keep me as a āfreeā member, so would that mean I get the lesser āfreeā experience on the forum whilst, no doubt, watching you guys talk about the wonderful things happening for the elite members?
I do like Brianās (@whthek) ideas though. Not exclusion based but adding a incentive to be seen or promotedā¦ makes more sense to me and could benefit those who can afford the upper levels of support.
Just my 2 cents, about all I can afford at the moment anywaysā¦
well absolutely, the last thing we would want is for people to feel left out of things purely because they have less money to give, that would suck and goes against pretty much everything I believe in.
The PMās I received about this from current members all said he same thing, they donāt want anything in return other than the Forum and calculator to stay alive, which is testament to kind of people we have here, I think your point is a valid one, but then again, there could be people who would benefit from more and exclusive exposure, yet still canāt afford to donate anything, through no fault of their ownā¦
In a perfect world, everyone would be on the same level and have access to exactly the same amount of benefits the forum and calc has to offer, and people who can afford to donate and are willing to do so, will just do it for the love of the forum, unfortunately the world is rarely perfect lol.
The goal here is to keep the lights on and for everyone to be happy, so all ideas will be discussed by us and then passed on to you guys, so thanks all for giving your time up to think about it, we really appreciate it
I personally donāt think there needs to be any benefit from donating itās all about keeping it going, the forum and calc are awesome having a few beers on a Saturday night and getting insights into the vaping community and generally taking the piss out of cheesecake bases is plenty enough for me
Iāve thought about this Pugs, and honestly couldnāt come up with anything. As others have probably said, rewarding those that can afford to donate may be unfair to those that cannot (although I think there are probably some that can even if a little, but donāt)
Now on to my question, I see there are different tiers for donators:
Those labels are standard to Patreon I think, Grubby set it up but I donāt think he named them, soā¦at the moment no there isnāt any difference.
I have noticed that on other forums they tend to use ādonatorā badges, or VIP badges, or āGold donatorā badges etc etcā¦but hereās the thing, those of us that have been around long enough will remember with a certain distain what badges did to ELR, basicallyā¦anything you use to make you appear different from anyone else with regards to how they are valued by the forum, just pisses people off, sureā¦itās nice to have something that makes you feel like you are valued, butā¦youāre all valued by us, and a community (to me anyway) is everyone on the same level, which is already as high as it can be (except us obviouslyā¦weāre quite clearly Gods here )
What so Iām not getting a big shiny medal for going to aaaalll that trouble of downloading Patreon and pressing several buttons
nah just messing
I think itās worth a donation for the calculator/ recipe list / flavour stash abilities alone. And this lovely forum is the icing in the vape
Hmmm reminds me of a film of a book about a farm with animals canāt remember the name of it though
ā¦weāre new to all this so, weād appreciate the feedback.
