AS Running Costs and Suggestions Thread

[JeeExEll]

Skint for the time being. But not forever. Glad to just have an internet connection some months. Many thanks to all who make this site possible.

[Bobthebeard]

Would like to lob in another donation to the cause, but the link seems to keep directing me towards Facebook.

I deleted my Facebook account owing to being jolly fed up with Facebook and the attendant puerile nonsense.

The link seems to require that I log in/reactivate the account.....

Is that correct ?

Ta!

 

Edit. Found my way around the Facebook request.

Donation is now donated.

[andy18s]

Maybe we could build up £1000, then at some pre determined date the top 5 hardcore shiters have to get together and collect a future AS bike from foreign-land? Complete with a top quality collection thread, get some shonky stickers made up and have the car attend all the shonky shows

How shite would sir like his shite to be?

[Guest Hooli]

Bloo pickup please

[Sloth in a bowl]

This may be a hassle, but I will ask before donating.

 

Because Dave had a paypal account I could set up a monthly donation from my account to his, this meant that I set it up once and could forget about it.

Do we have a current regular donation method or not?

 

If not, not problem, I'll just lump in a couple of times per year.

[Stanky]

@Sloth

 

Yes there is a function to do this, when I will do at the end of the current funding campaign (23rd June) is have a longer period for the campaign to be open - maybe the next quarter perhaps as suggested by ChinaTom, then the recurring donation mechanism in paypal will work. its screwed up because of the way I set this one up - completely my fault.

 

Just want to say a huge thankyou to all who have donated - it really is appreciated.

[stripped fred]

@Sloth

 

Yes there is a function to do this, when I will do at the end of the current funding campaign (23rd June) is have a longer period for the campaign to be open - maybe the next quarter perhaps as suggested by ChinaTom, then the recurring donation mechanism in paypal will work. its screwed up because of the way I set this one up - completely my fault.

 

Just want to say a huge thankyou to all who have donated - it really is appreciated.

Thankyou for all your hard work. It's much appreciated.

[AMC Rebel]

Lobbed a bit in.  Thanks to all for all efforts.

[michael t]

Donation incoming, haven't posted on here for a while but still 'lurk' regularly. Excellent work by everyone who's keeping this place alive and kicking!

[Noel Tidybeard]

maybe we need a graphic of a shonky smiths fuel gauge to show fund level

[Pillock]

Is this fundrazr place working for anyone else? I guess it must be but I'm getting some proper weird behaviour.

 

It wants me to pay Huw - but then it says "Payment Summary - Lindsay Davies £5"

Who is Lindsay? I'm confused!

Regardless, I tried to pay by paypal but then it said I had no money in my PP account (well duh, I never do) but wanted me to tap a credit card number in instead of using the card I have linked to my account which is where it normally takes stuff out of.

 

It was weird enough to make my change my paypal password in case there's some sort of oddity gone off - not deliberately by you guys here, but something about the paypal site it sent me to felt wrong.

[320touring]

Lindsay is Huw's partner (think it was explained earlier?)

 

I has no problems using paypal- it let me pay using my bank card that is already registered.

 

Just checked my PayPal acc and no odd transactions since I paid. Sure its not summat on your PC?

[loserone]

I get the same thing as I have no bank card registered to paypal.  Seems to require one.

[Pillock]

I've got a bank account tied to my PP, but not a card. It's never asked me before, hence my concern.... I'll just use the pay with card option later. Sorry didn't read the bit about Lindsay, just skimmed through.

[Stanky]

Sorry just seen this, yes thats my wife and its a joint paypal account we both use. FundRazr emailed me last night to say they'd had some downtime due to a bad update earlier in the day which might be the cause of this. Certainly there was a holding page on the site at about 10pm last night.

 

Sorry for the confusion - hopefully its sorted out now but let me know if there are still issues and I'll pick up with the Fundrazr support team.

[Guest Hooli]

maybe we need a graphic of a shonky smiths fuel gauge to show fund level

 

Something like this, but much worse.

 

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

[Noel Tidybeard]

Something like this, but much worse.

 

http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/index.php

 

omg yes!

[doobietoo]

May I suggest that once we are through the change over our two heros treat themselves and their families to at least a day out and a slap up meal at the forums expense. ..

[Guest Hooli]

A walking holiday to town & a happy meal each?

[Guest Breadvan72]

Are we in to the next funding round yet?  I have some e-doubloons here ready to deposit in the Bank o' Beige.

[Stanky]

Thanks for the continuing donations all - we've covered all costs for the up-front costs (IPB, Hosting, Backup storage) for both this month, next month and half of the month after. The kitty is currently at +£135.60 after the FundRazr cut and is sitting in a dedicated high* interest savings account.

 

This current FundRazr page will stop working after the 23rd June. We can decide with a poll what do do after this is over Options include (but are not limited to)

 

1. Open a new FundRazr for the next month

II. Leave it until the money runs out then put up a new FundRazr

c. Create a longer-term FundRazr - perhaps to fund costs up to the IPB renewal in December?

2². Blow the kitty on something irredeemably shit on ebay

v. Coke & hookers

6. Concentrate and ask again 

 

any other ideas are more than welcome. I'll keep updating on the funding situation as time goes on.

 

* High interest being a relative term, it is positive, just.

[Guest Hooli]

I vote v.

 

But you need to get them to shitefest tonight...

[fred]

How about a 10 percent donation from the Roffles ?

[Rod/b]

Is it worth having a pinned thread with a link to the funding page for the likes of me who only ever look at AS on mobile?

[Stanky]

In order to diversify income and hopefully reduce reliance on the generosity of fellow members, it has been suggested that we implement skimlinks on AS.

 

What this will do is add tracking cookies to posted links which when clicked on by members and purchases made will give a 'kickback' of a % of the sale value to the AS kitty. This will be all but invisible to members.

 

The idea is that we will trial it and see how we get on, I don't expect for this to completely cover the costs of running the site, but it does monetise links, so for exampe if someone posts up a link about a particularly good MIG welder, or new magic snake oil, another member clicks through on that specific link and buys the thing, we get a cut of the sale price.

 

I see this as everyone winning - the seller gets a sale out of it, the person buying the thing gets what they wanted at the price it was advertised at, the AS kitty gets a small top-up of funds out of the seller's pocket.

 

Does anyone have any violent objections to this?

 

Skimlinks operate various tiers of 'links' - this one being the most basic. They have others which will detect keywords and automagically insert links into 'normal' posts but I feel this is too intrusive and spammy. The option above should not intrude - the main thread that this will affect is the ebay tat, though members post up about new things often enough (e.g. Li-Ion jump packs off of Amazon) for there to be value in this.

 

Over to you for thoughts and opinions.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Sounds like a realistic and understandable move. Ultimately this is a free forum for users, with the option of donating, which many of us have done at some point. However, this is likely to be sporadic given people's monetary situations, time online, etc.

99.9% of forums which are free to use have some form of advertising to help create revenue.

The way this place was previously financed clearly wasn't a long-term, sustainable solution. Change needs to happen in some shape or form, and your suggestion doesn't sound particularly intrusive, which, from a purely selfish point of view, is great.

Thanks for the work done so far.

[Guest Hooli]

Makes sense to me, go for it.

[Zantimisfit]

Token of my gratitude sent. Thanks for all your hard work

[Rod/b]

I hate forums with Viglinks installed generally speaking, especially when the redirect opens 2 or more windows. But they're not as bad as those in-line fuggin links, they're bloody awful.

[DeeJay]

Seems like a win win situation.

Maybe a separate thread for all recommendations.

I don't want to say "Pinned" because there's enough of them at the moment.