Forum changes

[Tweak]

! A new advertisement provider is being trialled. This will hopefully help with costs as my bank account is very low.

[anoni]

Just want to mention that the same advertiser gave me an add for "Sexy asians in your area who want to chat!" 

[Timmy Fox]

I've been seeing a bunch of casino ads... seems like it's the only ones available in my area

That's....probably the worst ad for me, being a poor student and honestly having better stuff spending my money on than casino

[Beatnory]

I think it would be fair to tell you all that I use add blocker.

is it not better to use google ads?

[Tweak]

We used Google Ads previously and they didn't work out as expected.

[Timmy Fox]

I think it would be fair to tell you all that I use add blocker.

is it not better to use google ads?

I also do, but I've set an exception rule for the forum

[JoJoJoshua]

Should I see mine up there? o.o

[Tweak]

It's there, will just be random with the others.

If anyone has any suggestions for gaining income for the forum costs, please let me know.

[anoni]

You could work more on donation drives. Maybe set up a sort of fun-raiser, have people willing to donate.

A really good system to use is have a level of degree for donators.
The system my clan uses is this:

Donations are not reset, once you have donated those donations are added to your tally for life.
$5+ = Get a donator rank, get two permissions on the TF2 server, get your name mentioned on the front page and in a sticky post.
$20+ = Get a donator+ Rank, get six permissions on the TF2 server and some permissions on Gmod.
$50+ = Get sponsor rank, get 10 permissions on TF2 server and more on Gmod.

I realize you don't have game servers, so the permissions will have to work a different way, but having different ranks for different donators depending on how much they pay can be a good incentive.

Also, when someone donates and you do get a sizable donation, publicly thanking the donators can make other people feel more inclined to donate so they get thanked as well. Having a sticky thread of all the people who have donated and how much they've donated (ranked most being on top) can also be very helpful.

I also think being more public about the raffle would be a good idea. Maybe put something about it on the front page? Another thing is, if you are actually in financial trouble, doing a public post that you need donations, although is a bit iffy (as in yes, it does make you feel bad) but it will get you a few donations.

My clan does it and we've made over $450 in the last 3 months, purely in donations.

Also an idea we will be implementing to the clan soon is forum achievements, you get achievements for posting x amount, going to x boards, being online x amount of times, posting secret messages and donating . We haven't implemented it (or made it yet, we're going to use an original program made by our web development team) but it should be good, increase activity and donations for those who want all the achievements.

[Beatnory]

sorry anoni but if you donate something you do this becouse you want to help Tweak and this forum and not becouse you want to have a higer rank.
this way you make people how have money more important then people how don't have (much) money.
the hole fandom is about respect each diffrent and being yourself.

I am a supporter that donors have more rights. but not that they are made ​​publibelijk important.

[anoni]

Unfortunately Beatnory, I don't think TFF is getting enough donations because of that. The donations are because Tweak is running out of money and if he runs out of money we will have to find someone else to run the site or, dare I say, the site will go down.

  I think in times like this, when the actual fate of TFF is at stake, doing what I suggested would be the best way to get more donations. It's not bad, your not charging people to do services that they could normally do for free and your not forcing anyone to pay anything. You're just encouraging more donations, not because we want more money, but because the server needs more money to be up.

[Beatnory]

it sure will works. it's more how. you put people under social pressure to donate. it makes people unhappy.
but I understand that there is no other choose. I'm against it but I won't complain when there will come so system.

One thing. I would be happy if there is also a possibility to donate without to be a part of this system.

[WingedZephyr]

Thank you for the suggestions, Anoni. Whether or not we can implement something similar, we appreciate the help.

[Otebon Albrecht]

In a way, you are both right.

Donators should offer their hard-earned money because they feel it is a good thing to do, but some do it for the perks associated with being a donator. The way I understand it works now is that if you donate at all you receive "Donator" status which changes your profile name's color to purple (assuming you aren't part of staff), turns your paw prints purple and gives you one to show that you are "Rank 1" of the Forum, gives you a few added features like the ability to save your posts to draft and play more games in the Arcade, enters your name into the monthly raffle (which is linked to on the Portal Page in the top three posts when it's updated), and writes your name in a Donator Page that I've forgotten where it is (>_>).

When you donate, however, you don't (by any means) HAVE to have your name proclaimed for the world to see as you can have it all appear as Anonymous (Tweak and WZ can still see your name as they still enter you into the raffle and give you the donator perks).

I could be wrong and I encourage people to do their research and double check me, but that's how the system works as I understand it currently.

I guess the thing of it is, when people do something nice and they see that others know it, that encourages them to do it. When I was learning to become an instructor for martial arts, my Master told me to "Punish in private. Praise in public." What he meant was that if someone does something that you have to punish, don't chew them out in front of everyone as that is overly embarrassing. But if they do something worthy of praise, tell them in front of others. It gives everyone around the notice that such-and-such a behavior is acceptable (and worthy of praise) as well as gives the person receiving the praise that little added boost as they know that they did well, and so does everyone else.

I'm a big fan of Donator Perks as I find it follows that system.


In other news, I'm free to help raise money for the form Tweak. Although I may not really have any ideas worthwhile (I guess I could do a fundraising project like Puncia did... but I'm worthless for designing avatars. Perhaps I could do story commissions for charity?) I'm available to help if you give me a job to do.

[Timmy Fox]

I'm okay with the donator drives stuff until' it comes to the point of "pay this and get this awesome thing". I mean more, sure donating your hard earned money is of course something to be encouraged and being featured as a donator is nice, but when it becomes a "donate to get more content!" as in "donate to access these boards!" or "donate to get these much better privileges!" is where I'd cross my line. Being an underage student and quite broke, I swear, if I had the money I would donate a LOT to this forum, but I barely have $10 for myself currently and much less have I been able to use paypal (I just were able to get it few months ago). I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation and while I wouldn't mind to see people donating and getting nice thank yous for that, from my perspective it's less fun to see those that are able to donate get better things and priveliges because they donated.