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AS Running Costs and Suggestions Thread


Stanky

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Hi all,

 

Following on from the DB Issues thread and as promised, here is a breakdown of the current running costs of the forum. Apologies for the spreadsheet content

 

post-5525-0-48143200-1495574034_thumb.png

 

The costs are planned out over 12 months, the IPB licence is weighted up-front, but subsequent renewals are quite cheap. Hosting is a recurring monthly cost, as is the backup storage costs. Cleantalk is an anti-spam plugin which costs buttons and does help.

 

The FundRazr page can be found here. No-one is obliged to donate, though all contributions are gratefully received. You can choose to put your name, your handle or do it anonymously. FundRazr take a handling fee for donations, which equates to about 5% overall. This covers the cost of the card processing fees and a cut that FundRazr take to operate the service. It is fully PCI-DSS certified and uses STRIPE payment handling which is the industry-standard and is completely secure.

 

Going forward, we plan to implement SkimLinks in the ebay tat thread, which will generate revenue from click-through in ebay links. I don't know how much this will generate but will adjust the monthly donation target accordingly once I have a bit of a handle on it.

 

I'd also like to open this up for constructive suggestions for how we can improve the forum, or offset running costs without damaging the great community we have here. I am not in favour of paid-for advertising, and feel that the running costs do not justify it.

 

To be completely clear, I aim to cover costs as far as possible. The FundRazr page will be set up to close when the target is reached each month, and re-open the following month. IT ALSO ACCEPTS PAYPAL NOW!

 

Thanks for all of the ongoing support, the public comments, PMs, and general support over the transition have been really appreciated.

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It can be done, but not via GFM which is the biggest issue I have with the service. I'm not tied to the idea of GFM so if it becomes a chore then we can explore other solutions.

 

Paypal payments could be made to me directly, and I can update the GFM target manually.

 

If anyone can suggest a similar funding platform that does accept PP payments then I'm all ears! ***EDIT*** like this: https://fundrazr.com

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It can be done, but not via GFM which is the biggest issue I have with the service. I'm not tied to the idea of GFM so if it becomes a chore then we can explore other solutions.

 

Paypal payments could be made to me directly, and I can update the GFM target manually.

 

If anyone can suggest a similar funding platform that does accept PP payments then I'm all ears!

Happy with paypalling directly if that suits- but can understand why you want a "totaliser" function that can update automatically:)

 

Can you pap me a pm with the PayPal Addy and I'll send through?

 

Cheers

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Thanks for the feedback chaps, GFM binned off, and new FundRazr page opened which can be found here:

 

https://fundrazr.com/81F1r7?ref=ab_f6f8Y5

 

This accepts paypal as well as card transactions, is similarly safe but has a slightly lower cut. Original post now updated

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Thanks for all the hard work chaps. A new, brighter/beiger chapter of AS is ahead of us :)

 

It would be nice if a % of sales made via AS went to maintaining the forum. Even if it was just 1%, every little helps.

I think it could run along nicely on an honour system, rather than getting into silly things like charging for adverts etc.

Just an unwritten rule that if you sell your motor for £350 via AS, do the honourable thing and chuck £3.50 in the coffers.

 

Thoughts?

 

I'd be up for that, plus with a raffle if you only asked one person to put their 'ticket' money towards AS, it'd be worth it. Could also be a comment next to their name/number, if the person raffling the vehicle wanted. 

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Fantastic guys, sounds like tight ship is being run here. I have also done a PayPal. Just a small point though, I presume 'Ms. Davies' is the other half of one of the chaps in the driving seat here? Could be a bit alarming for No0bS like me when they expect to see something more relative to Autoshite when they make a payment?

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Yep, thats my wife :-)

 

And thankyou to all who have contributed, it is very much appreciated. We'll keep you all updated on the last bits of the changeover in the other thread.

 

If there are any suggestions for improvements please let us know.

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Thanks Dave, we'll have a look at that today. I'm not getting them on Firefox but will also check other browsers. Thanks for the heads-up.

 

From what I can see its not "autoshite only" threads, but it is on some threads with outside links. I get it on the ebay thread, the girls thread in the open forum and stuff like that, so probably problems with pages outside of the forum.

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post-612-0-61175800-1495623517_thumb.jpg

 

I'd feel just as happy if a decent contingency is built in to cover the unexpected. Quarterly caps may be better. The table is JUST FOR FUN - please don't take it seriously; but I have considered LT&C. This will, of course, be obvious to the financial bods here. A Leboncoin Tagora & Collection entry is a fine way of using up surplus funds.

 

As I say, just for fun - I'm bored at home waiting for a recovery truck to get my sorry ass Jag to change its nappy again.

 

But do try and take care of the cash-flow if there are annual costs to consider.

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