The THN financial situation

[Ronin Storm]

Two little questions [...] did the old Black Amber theme we had yonks ago have a sort of "donate here!" section in the top right corner? And would it perhaps be possible to have something like that on the top level of the forums again?

In short, yes and yes. I'll have a look at this over this weekend. Thanks for reminding me!

I have no money at the moment but ill put some in when i get some.

Quoted as a stand-in for all those who have said a similar thing.

Thank you. We really appreciate all the help you guys n gals give to keep Promethius running. As thatbloke has said previously, donate or not you're all most welcome here and you'll never be treated as a second class citizen for not helping THN out financially. We're well aware that a bunch of you contribute in other ways and that's extremely cool too. It's just we've got ourselves in a bit of a pickle, pretty much as magos says:

For future reference a friendly reminder "Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge" that the server is need of funds before it gets to much would help

Yep. Duly noted. We shall not be so pants in future.

*It seems I didn't use the * option for the reacurring sub so will do that next month and create a proper sub.

We're going to do a couple of tweaks to the subscription options and information available on that page. Not finalised exactly what those changes are internally, yet, but I'm fairly sure they'll include a couple of non-recurring annual subscriptions that help THN out more (because PayPal gets less of your monies that way). Suffice to say that existing subscriptions won't be affected and you all have the option to cancel whenever you see fit. It's just about the way this board understands what you've done and giving people different options.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Keeping up with the updates...

Continuing thanks to everyone who has helped sort our funding out! The situation is assuredly improving. Here's where we are so far:

At this moment we have 16 subscribers (up from 15 previously), donating in the following pattern:

• 5 * £2.50 / month
• 3 * £5 / month
• 8 * £10 / month

Yes, that's two less £5 subs but that's because a couple of you have increased your support for THN. You rock.

That makes £107.50 in raw subscription monies, or £100.65 after PayPal have their cut (6.4% loss on the portfolio).

Further one-off donations of £95 (from 4 people). We're focusing on paying off the debt to Haven and Bob reports that we now only owe £125, which is a HUGE leap.

Using the same maths as before, that puts us in the following situation of needing £85.42 (£64.58 + £125/6) to pay server rental and debt to Haven in 6 months. Adding £50 / month for server hardware maintenance (£40 / month for 6 months, then £60 / month for 6 months), that puts our target to £125 / month. As mentioned previously, our minimum target to keep Promethius on indefinitely is £115 / month.

So, we're getting really close now! £25 / month more. Looked at a different way, that's 2 * £2.50 subscriptions, 2 * £5 subscriptions, and 1 * £10 subscription.

We've changed around the subscription options this afternoon. The well used £2.50, £5, £10 per month subs are all still there, but there are now options for £15, £30 and £60 per year subscriptions.

£15 annually is pretty similar (but much more efficient) to the now defunct £1 / month subscription and is pretty much the best value yet effective way of contributing to THN.

Obviously more is more, so the £30 and £60 per year subscriptions are just a way of giving more to THN (and are around £2 / year more efficient than the equivalent £2.50 and £5 per month subs).

Once again, thank you all for your support!

tl;dr

Doing well! Made around half the ground we needed. Need around £25 / month more to meet our targets.

 

[VibroAxe]

Obviously more is more, so the £30 and £60 per year subscriptions are just a way of giving more to THN (and are around £2 / year more efficient than the equivalent £5 and £10 per month subs).

Pardon my maths but the £30 and £60 subs equate to £2.5/month and £5/month (ish) and not £5/month or £10/month. Unless i've misunderstood the ronin-meister

 

[Ronin Storm]

Ah, beg pardon, that's exactly what I meant. I'll amend the quoted post to be correct.

 

[Angelic]

There ya go, 10pounds one-off donation

 

[HotStuff]

took out a £2.50 monthly payment.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Thanks guys. You're ace.

 

[waterproofbob]

Thank you all for your generosity, I can't tell you how awesome you all are .

Normally I'd waffle on for a bit, but for the moment let me just say you all rock.

 

[Xarlaxas]

So, for those of you not in the know, PayPal is having a weekly prize draw until the 5th of December where people with PayPal accounts who buy things or *send money to other PayPal accounts* will be entered into a draw to win £40,000. . . .

https://www.paypal-marketing.co.uk/win/ for more details.

Just thought this might be a little encouragement for anyone who's been on the fence about donating.

 

[VibroAxe]

Hmmm.

I'm not sure if it was THN which used to have this or not, but some site I have been on had a counter on the right which linked in to paypal and how many subscriptions/current balance/current outgoings information on it.

Something like this might help us avoid this situation next time.

 

[Xarlaxas]

Sounds like a good idea, would help to remind us all what the situation is, as it's easy to forget that THN needs money to survive sometimes.

Though the banners we have now also help to serve as a reminder.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Just for now, we've gone with a simple solution, which we'll probably add one more step to.

When a non-subscriber visits the site, they get a little prompt (once per session) that reminds them that we need subscriptions.

When a subscriber visits, first time only they get a thank you which they can dismiss and it won't display again.

When a contributor visits, they see something pretty similar to a non-subscriber but they can dismiss the reminder permanently.

It's not quite a block in a corner but it's a start. Not sure that's going to stay, yet, but experimenting with it.

The other thing, which will segue with the improved tracking of subscription and donation income, is that early in a new month we'll do a post saying where we're up to. I need to do a check around then to see what happened in the previous month and make sure user awards are all up to date so it's easy enough to post an update on where we are.

 

[Solemn]

donating at £2.5 a month, would love to give more but I'm flat broke at the moment =(

PS

Anyone wanna buy a tent ?

 

[Ashya]

Right, I'm now doing 5 quid a month. Hope it helps.

 

[Ronin Storm]

Indeed it does. We appreciate it. Thanks!

We're compiling some information to do an update, hopefully within the next week. Lots of IRL stuff has been making this a slow process.

 

[waterproofbob]

Thanks Ashya, as Ronin says we very much appreciate it .

 

[Ki!ler-Mk1]

Just for now, we've gone with a simple solution, which we'll probably add one more step to.

When a non-subscriber visits the site, they get a little prompt (once per session) that reminds them that we need subscriptions.

When a subscriber visits, first time only they get a thank you which they can dismiss and it won't display again.

When a contributor visits, they see something pretty similar to a non-subscriber but they can dismiss the reminder permanently.

It's not quite a block in a corner but it's a start. Not sure that's going to stay, yet, but experimenting with it.

Are you sure this is working, i've never seen anything like it?