I would like to thank the 18 people who have become Patrons here on the forums. The Patron system is a great way for members to support the site and help cover the increased costs of running a community such as this. To put things in perspective we had about $350-$400 in support from our PayPal subscribers, but that is all over now and even with these 18 supporters that still leaves us about $250 short of where we were at prior.
One of the main reasons I bring this up is that I will be a sort of a crossroads in terms of strategies for keeping this business viable (and yes this is a business for me). One is either more member support via things like Patreon. Or alternatively I can work to bring in more advertiser support. If there was enough member support I might be able to run the forums without ads at some point (and yes there will be ads soon - just as the old site had).
There is some rather nifty new āPatron Merchā that you can do via Patreon so when I get time I will likely explore that. T-shirts for patrons that they handle and deliver? Yes please.
Hi Jim, can I ask why you moved away from Paypal to Patreon? I note that there are now three different levels, and the lowest one is more than the old payment - will there be significantly differing levels of content access? And how does the Patreon service fee stack up against Paypal fees?
Iām all for supporting the site, but want to know where my money is goingā¦
On a very low amount like the 3.50 I was doing with PayPal they were keeping about 12% at minimum of the money. I think Patreon is a little higher at around 16% for the month I tested it on, but to be fair they actually are doing more to help contribute to the goal. Meaning PayPal didnāt have a web site with functionality for me to communicate with donors, etc. Also the forums themselves interface and do everything automatically so I donāt have to get involved in that from a code perspective. I spent a lot of time getting the old system to work and then PayPal broke it by updating to newer systems, etc. So yeah I donāt mind it being a bit more.
Also the reason I upped the amount was more a simple matter of inflation. It was originally based on what you could buy a cafe mocha for at Starbucks. Yeah those are $5.50 now.
Fair enough! But $5.50 for a coffee? Glad I never got the java habit, even if that and my disdain for cheesecake have led to my exile from the New York of my birthā¦
I would encourage everybody to consider supporting the site. When you weigh up the number of hours we spend here each month, the enjoyment, entertainment, education and interaction, it really is good value for money!
Just became a patron and am more than happy to support all the work
that Jim has put in on both the old site and now this new wonderful
version.
Thank you Jim for all the work you put in and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Just a note to anyone signing up for Patreon. We have noted that your emails must match on both sites for the automated thing to do āits thingā. So if your Patreon email is somehow different you can opt to either change it, or add it as a secondary email on your forum account. After that the automated scripts should pick up the match and activate your patron status here.
Well, I guess my post goes here - I was looking for a āsite topicsā category, but apparently these kind of things now go under āGeneral Discussionā. So I was wondering if anybody else received an e-mail in their āregularā in-box from Patreon, talking about new ToS and Privacy matters. Did anybody else get such an e-mail? I was very surprised to see it, and of course, after reading some of the links for a few minutes, I deleted the whole email. Thoughts, anyone?
Yes, I did receive the mail as well. Did the same as you, scanned it and deleted it. All companies update their ToS and privacy statements now and then. They are obligated by law to inform you if they do change their statements.
