AS Running Costs and Suggestions Thread

[Stanky]

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

 

 

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.

[320touring]

Nice! Thanks for sharing the costs and explaining what the expenditure is for, much appreciated!

 

Quick question though - is there no longer the opportunity to pay via PayPal?

[Twiggy]

Nice! Thanks for sharing the costs and explaining what the expenditure is for, much appreciated!

 

Quick question though - is there no longer the opportunity to pay via PayPal?

 

+ 1

[Stanky]

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

[320touring]

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

[Cavcraft]

I think the option of Paypal is definitely a winner, if possible.

[KruJoe]

^This.

We can use PP for free, for this purpose, right?

Sounds better all round if we can save 8%, provided it'd not a ball-ache for our volunteers to administrate.

[beko1987]

[email protected]? I'm going to donate more regularly I think, I do like a good spreadsheet!

 

Also like the earning revenue from the eBay tat thread, if we all clicked on every link just for a laugh we would probably self fund the site that way!

[Stanky]

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

[clayts450]

I'm too fucking lazy to walk out to the hallway to get my debit card and type numbers into the funding page. Give me a throbbing Paypal button and I'm all yours

 

 

Might you be able to do collect via Paypal on a monthly subscription basis ?

[Stanky]

Please let me know if there are teething issues with payments - though this looks like a much better solution!

[clayts450]

Ah, the button it throbs

 

There is an option to pay monthly but it's shagged, so I did a one-off for now......

[320touring]

Link works OK, cheers:)

[Ghosty]

I like that idea! I think some people do do that anyway tbf. Some people have been doing that with the odd pounds from roffle sales and the like.

[Cavcraft]

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. 

[taxi paul]

Done my PayPal thing. Much easier for us old farts to do. My debit card doesn't do Internet stuff. I have to do a password that I can't remember. Right off to find my teeth ,again.

[Split_Pin]

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?

[Stanky]

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.

[chaseracer]

I'm a sucker for a THROBBING BEIGE DONATE BUTTON, me... 

[dave21478]

Not sure if this is the correct thread for it, but I am suddenly getting phishing warnings from Chrome on certain autoshite pages. Someone else in a thread on the open forums mentioned the same too.

[Stanky]

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.

[Liggle]

Good idea, nice to have a bit of transparency - no-one minds helping out and/or donating then. 

 

Donated. 

[Stanky]

Because I was a bit drunk and in a rush last night I forgot to put a cap on the donations, so we're now over target. I'll adjust next month's target accordingly, but I can't cap the current one now that donations have been received.

 

Thanks all.

[dave21478]

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.

[inconsistant]

This is all excellent stuff. I'm now on the look out at the dump for more shite cassettes to sell.

[dollywobbler]

Because I was a bit drunk and in a rush last night I forgot to put a cap on the donations, so we're now over target. I'll adjust next month's target accordingly, but I can't cap the current one now that donations have been received.

 

Thanks all.

 

I'll put in next month then!

[RobT]

^Likewise.  Thanks for all your hard work folks.

[ChinaTom]

 

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.

[stephen01]

​I love this place, target already hit to cover costs for first month. Great stuff.

[Lacquer Peel]

Competence and transparency, superb!

I will donate next month if I can.