DGN Goes Offline Due To Lack Of Funds

[Troy Spiral (13)]

is there a way for non-paypal users to get donate in?

There is a P.O. box listed up on the donations page. =)

[torn asunder]

posted this in the "donate here" thread as well, regarding the "donate any amount"-type button...

still not working for me and i'm using firefox 3.5.5 here at work...

[dragonluv]

Hello,

I just sent an extra donation.

I will continue will my monthly donations of five dollars. That is all I can afford at the moment.

Thank you and the moderators for all of your hard work.

If I may, hugs to DGN workers,

april

[Troy Spiral (13)]

We have had some very helpful donations in response to this, which is great!

Unfortunately we are still below what we need for it the board to not go offline at some point here again (it will probably be at least a month or perhaps two, but it is still an eventuality if the current monthly donations stay as-is). That is, there are various types of payments to keep DGN afloat, and they all hit the DGN account at different times, there needs to be a "buffer" in the account so that when there is an alignment-of-the-bills there isn't a shortfall.

I know I'm part of the problem. I'm really bad at asking for help. If the "WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT" message was more in-your-face I'm sure we would have more help, but soliciting money from people has long been something i really hate doing. I often just scrap the bottom of my pocket for money hoping to squeeze water out of a stone for one more month rather than ask for donations. I did a lose calculation awhile back and I've probably got at least 5 grand invested in DGN in actual cash, along with whatever we want to value the 1000s of hours at. I'm trying, believe me I am.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

I know some people prefer not to sign up for a recurring "subscription" donation (even though these types of donations work perfectly in terms of keeping us online but ANY donation is much appreciated. Especially decent sized one-off "any amount" donations.

[~Tszura~]

Not a bad idea. I know times are hard and a lot of folks have families to feed... I'm not talking to y'all. But... a lot of folks are not doing too badly, don't have chick nor child, and spend plenty of loot on nights at the clubs, pricey clubwear/fetish gear/whatever. Come on people... $5 a month, that's what, one less fancy stimulant brew? One cocktail at City? Auntie Hille sez, if you can manage it, you should do it.

And quite possibly one less embarrassing moment due too much of that brew, lol, which would be my curse I totally agree with you Pomba! We can manage a little extra this month, so we will be sure to spread the love this week

$11/month is cheaper than e-Harmony, and I found me a wife on DGN. Seems like a good investment to me.

Thats where I found mine too!!!! FTW.

+1 Me too!

[freydis]

If donations are that low, have you thought about reducing the hosting package with Invision? That way, rather than going offline altogether, the board may be handicapped a bit, but it would stay online.

You haven't posted the hard numbers in awhile. Maybe if folks knew how close or how far away the totals were from being ok, it would ultimately benefit the board full time by not only keeping things completely transparent, but it would be know how much or how little would be needed to bridge the gap at any given time. Totally list everything, and when all that's needed is a little "push", it could motivate people to bridge the gap as needed. Or, when it's a larger gap, they'll know the size of the task.

I also think it would help folks to know exactly whats going on.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

The site went down temporairly (actually didn't go down totally, just part of DGN went down) due to lack of funds for one of our bills. You'll currently notice some glitches here and there due also to a lack of funds. At this point DGN wont "go offline" totally due to lack of donations, what will happen is it will limp along (and prehaps go offline for a period of a week or so) and then limp back online once the funds in the account build up.

Currently DGN is running in a bit of a "crippled mode".

If we split the cost of DGN between all of what I'd call the "active" users we'd have twice the money we need if all the posters that post more than once a month donated $1 a month. Unfortunately without a more "in your face" donation solicitation, that is unlikely to happen.

[freydis]

The site went down temporairly (actually didn't go down totally, just part of DGN went down) due to lack of funds for one of our bills. You'll currently notice some glitches here and there due also to a lack of funds. At this point DGN wont "go offline" totally due to lack of donations, what will happen is it will limp along (and prehaps go offline for a period of a week or so) and then limp back online once the funds in the account build up.

Currently DGN is running in a bit of a "crippled mode".

If we split the cost of DGN between all of what I'd call the "active" users we'd have twice the money we need if all the posters that post more than once a month donated $1 a month. Unfortunately without a more "in your face" donation solicitation, that is unlikely to happen.

Please, please, please please.

ORGANIZE.

Any organization that runs on donations at the least makes a statement of needs that is specific enough to give people a goal.

What is DGN's exact monthly needs?

Who is signed up for a regular donation? What does that add up to per month? What is the shortfall?

Make it public.

Vague requests for cash without knowing what the need is does not encourage action.

For raising money, sites like livejournal have a very effective program in place. Free accounts are bare-bones accounts. Paying accounts get appreciable extras--avatars, extra abilities and tools. Any permissions you can take from free accounts--DO IT. Make those "extras" part of $2/month accounts. Simply making the posting interval go away for paying posters is not enough. People will wait 45 seconds with not much complaint because its not something they are willing to pay to make go away. Instead, value-adds are something people will pay for. Take features away from free accounts. People wont have trouble with $2/month. However--livejournal also has another great feature. You can *gift* featured accounts to others. This will also create more options for payment streams.

Clean up non-active accounts.

However, a note:

Until DGN gets better organized and open about this, you're going to have a hard time raising funds no matter what. So, even if you put the ideas to use to restrict non-paying accounts, until you are transparent on how the money is being managed (i.e. the basics--what are DGNs needs, what does DGN have, and what is the shortfall), there will always be the problem of confidence. If I knew there was an effective system in place to deal with DGNs finances, I would gladly pay my $2 a month, and encourage others to do so as well. But as things stand right now? I don't have a whole lot of confidence that even one time bulk donations would do much good in the long run. You need to get organized. You're only one person. Delegate this to someone who can devote the time to it you're not physically able to give.

I have met many friends here, I would prefer to see DGN stick around. I've come to like the place. Please, please, please do something to ensure it stays around by doing something more effective than this thread. ORGANIZE. Make a plan, put it in action. Otherwise, people will visit this thread, commiserate over how much they would *like* to give something to the site but have no money. A lot of talk will continue to happen, and DGN will continue to cough and shudder along with bandwidth outages. I don't want that. You don't want that. Nobody wants that.

[Lillylu29]

I agree with the above statement.... you know we are hear to help Troy...

[phee]

As do I

[Reaper]

Might help if we deleted some very old threads and photos. If there was a way, maybe we could use some of my website to host photos? I have an unimaginable amount of free space through my website for photos. I am laid off and hoping to be able to stay current on my house and other bills and may end up working locally which will cost me a lot to do. So I might not be able to throw a lot of cash into the pot to help get it back up.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

The monthly costs of DGN (some bills are quarterly , some yearly so there isnt an EXACT montly cost.) but on average it works out to just under the goals stated here (and has been there and stated for years)

http://www.detroitgothic.net/index.php?showtopic=15673

For DGN to stay up with no frills, no promotional tools, nothing, the base cost is around $45 a month. Actual average cost is about $80 a month. NOTE: This is not just for "hosting" which anyone with a pulse can find from any of the major hosts. Between 4-500+ "active" users, the cost is (or should be) negigable. I've had a "montly goal" of $90 a month just to slowy build up some extra funds (which never happens) Anyone with 5 minutes on their hands can find "a host" but that is not what the needs of DGN are.

The idea is not to just have a half-assed website that is "on a box in somones house hosted & supported by joe-blow" but actually have a full-fledged online destination with professional support of the actual IPB software 24/7 by the people that know the software in and out and can guarantee the security of the database (and thus everyones personal information) Thus, IPS is the only game in town for that. Which is fine.

Even though donations have been a bit tight in the past, they've never really been much of a big concern, as the donations always were fairly adiquate. Due to some hiccup in the donaton cloud, they are not at the moment.

If there were even , count em, just 4 more monthly benefactors, donations would be a non-issue. (Many of the people who's names you see "benfactor" after have that title via other means than being monthly , monetary supporters)

If i was still working I'd just throw in the $40 a month myself, but I've decided since DGN has become a "Job" (an unpaid one) that I do mostly because I assume people like DGN and want to see it continue, if between several hundred people, we can't come up with this small amount of money, the interest level in DGN is too low for it to justify all the hours put in to continue it.

[Brenda Starrr]

As soon as I can, I will contribute.

[torn asunder]

troy, to be honest, i'm sick of trying to donate and getting rerouted back to the original page. i wanted to donate a different amount than the standard options offered, but i can't. i've tried, maybe 15 times - unless/until i can either figure it out or it gets fixed, i can't/won't be donating.

makes me sad, but i'm tired of fucking around with it.

[Rev.Reverence]

troy, to be honest, i'm sick of trying to donate and getting rerouted back to the original page. i wanted to donate a different amount than the standard options offered, but i can't. i've tried, maybe 15 times - unless/until i can either figure it out or it gets fixed, i can't/won't be donating.

makes me sad, but i'm tired of fucking around with it.

Interesting idea...they came up with it, quite along time ago...they called it mail...see, there is a box, in front of every building & home; into it, you can place things, & a mailman (redundancy alert) will come & take it to the place described on the front of the envelope...it only takes three day, under regular circumstances.....oh, you HAVE to put a stamp on it...they are less than $0.50.

[freydis]

Ok.

So it's 45 a month for the IPB package.

Anything else is incidental costs.

Or, if you think about it, wanting 90 a month is like wanting the next month in reserve, just in case.

That makes sense.

So... some of the ideas I talked about would actually make DGN sustainable for the forseeable future.

Hell, it might actually raise surplus funds. Maybe even enough for extra bandwidth.

So, is DGN going to organize a bit? Obviously the way it is right now, it's a problem, and it's not working.

[Bernadette]

so if i've been paying monthly thru auto paypal - is that still working ?

[torn asunder]

Interesting idea...they came up with it, quite along time ago...they called it mail...see, there is a box, in front of every building & home; into it, you can place things, & a mailman (redundancy alert) will come & take it to the place described on the front of the envelope...it only takes three day, under regular circumstances.....oh, you HAVE to put a stamp on it...they are less than $0.50.

not sure if you meant it this way, but this came across as a bit smart-assed, and i'm not really in the mood for that. i want to make a monthly repeating donation, but there's no way i'm mailing cash or a check every month. i wanted to have it directly taken out of my account, but i'm not about to jump through hoops to do it, so i'll wait until it actually works.

[freydis]

not sure if you meant it this way, but this came across as a bit smart-assed, and i'm not really in the mood for that. i want to make a monthly repeating donation, but there's no way i'm mailing cash or a check every month. i wanted to have it directly taken out of my account, but i'm not about to jump through hoops to do it, so i'll wait until it actually works.

Unfortunately, I think the board will continue to operate (or not) on the donations of a smaller group of people. As long as no one is concerned enough to make changes and fixes for efficiency, and none want to motivate or plan for effective fund raising, things will remain as they are.

And I guess that really doesn't bother anyone.

[Raev]

Unfortunately, I think the board will continue to operate (or not) on the donations of a smaller group of people. As long as no one is concerned enough to make changes and fixes for efficiency, and none want to motivate or plan for effective fund raising, things will remain as they are.

And I guess that really doesn't bother anyone.

DGN staff is weeks ahead of the public discussion on various aspects of the funding issues.

Angel is working on a fundraiser with moderator blessing.

[Slogo]

if you sign up for the 5 dollar money thing is it my responsibility to do it every month or do you take it off my card automatically.

Because I would donate $5 a month but some points in the month I don't have any money in the bank and sometimes I have quite a bit. I'll sign up for it if I decide that it goes in on payday

[Raev]

if you sign up for the 5 dollar money thing is it my responsibility to do it every month or do you take it off my card automatically.

Because I would donate $5 a month but some points in the month I don't have any money in the bank and sometimes I have quite a bit. I'll sign up for it if I decide that it goes in on payday

I believe if you sign up for the recurring donation, that it goes on that date each month.

[Slogo]

I believe if you sign up for the recurring donation, that it goes on that date each month.

What date would this be?

[Rev.Reverence]

What date would this be?

The day you sign up...he thinks