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So you might have noticed I haven't been around a whole lot lately. Or maybe you haven't and the mod team are just that ʞ©$ɟing good! (Yea it's probably that one)

 

So uni and other ~things~ have kept me pretty busy and I just haven't had a lot of drive to be a part of the community and deal with development stuff. I've kept the server ticking over, loaded the site every now and then to make sure it still works and groaned at rollaclub related emails in my inbox. Over the summer break I might become a bit more active again, but that's likely to end as soon as uni goes back (plus work has a bunch of projects lined up for when I'm 'free'). I don't think that will really matter anyway. The site seems to be running just fine as things are (at least it looks that way?) and I can put aside a couple of hours to go through the admin email requests on weekends or something. But that's not really why I'm here.

 

 

Over the past 12 months or so the funding available (advertising revenue) to keep running rollaclub has been shrinking. There's probably a few reasons for this. Less site traffic, bad advertising market, adblockers (which I'm perfectly OK with people using) and probably some other things I'm missing. The good advertising revenue allowed us to have some pretty sweet hosting but is unfortunately hobbled a bit by the pathetic speed of the ad providers sites. But I stuck with it because the initial outlay of time and money was significant and the funding was there to allow it to continue. But it's now got to the point where the site is back operating in the red. In the past when I was working full time I probably could have subsidised it without too much of a worry, but as a student it's too much to of a burden.

 

Now, you're probably expecting me to ask for money at this point, but I don't feel that members should be making up the difference and putting up with advertising all over the shop as well (at least, those who aren't using adblock). Of course I could go full retard and dress the site up like a whore but I don't feel advertising should ever detract from the main goal of the site. This situation however has presented the opportunity for the site to go back to the old ad free days and survive on donations alone.

 

Going back to donations would obviously mean a reduction in the quality of hosting and would probably mean moving it offshore (probably Japan, because ʞ©$ɟ hosting anything in the US). The site will probably be slightly slower on its own, on my internet the latency is still very good but once you remove the advertising it will probably be about the same or slightly faster.

 

Funding wise I'm probably subsidising to the tune of around $100/mo at the moment (yea, our hosting that expensive... and then some, #'straya-problems). What I would be aiming for is something around $50/mo (or ~$600/yr) once monthly/yearly costs are taken into account. At that price level it's not so much of a burden if I absolutely HAVE to fund the odd month (but I cannot sustain it even at this level). It would be very easy at this funding level for advertising to carry the load but I feel that it's so trivially cheap compared to what we have now that we hopefully wont need to.

 

 

So, after that wall of text here's the tl;dr and what I'd like peoples opinion on:

 

Should we move back to an ad free, donation/crowdfunding model?

 

If so, should we do a wikipedia style, once a year donation drive.

Or should we go for a monthly goal with excess rolling over onto subsequent months.

Or... some other method, I'm open to suggestions

 

Ideally, from my perspective, the goal would be a funding method that is low maintenance and as open as possible so that everyone can see where the funding goes and what funding is available.

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Members dont see this ad

As a relatively new member, I would be more than happy to chip in where possible.

 

Would it be possible to have both small advertising revenue and a yearly based donation drive?

That would be my personal preference, as it would give me a kind of 'billing' period where I could sling spare money to the site once a year.

 

Thank you, by the way. Rollaclub is mad.

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Premium membership? Premium paid members area?

I am more than happy to donate money.

 

I thought about this but a bit like reddit gold, I don't really have a lot that I could offer people. I've tried to avoid hobbling or limiting the site for general members so there ain't much left to give! It's also a bit too businessy for my liking, not really a road I want to go down.

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I know its stealing the idea off Reddit, but donating premium passes to people for being helpful, like Reddit gold?

Premium area includes a sales section with no bumping rules.

Options to sell items in the premium area not on the main board etc.

 

EDIT: yup^

Edited by B.L.Z.BUB
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Do we know how many active users there currently are? Just wondering, because if we did the cruise idea it may only be those that really use the site almost every day (like myself) that would turn up and pay for the event, then your left with the free loaders (not that I have donated or bought stickers anyway...) that post in the "for sale" areas and don't contribute much else except clogging up threads with random useless gibber in an otherwise serious and informing thread. I'm not trying to be the fun police or anything, but some people just talk crap...

SO, rant over, IF we also had an annual fee of a small amount ($2~) for the hundreds of users either instead of or on top of the cruise, I would think that it would cover the cost of hosting, wouldn't it?

With that said, there could also be the areas for long time members etc etc like this

I know its stealing the idea off Reddit, but donating premium passes to people for being helpful, like Reddit gold?

Premium area includes a sales section with no bumping rules.

Options to sell items in the premium area not on the main board etc.

 

EDIT: yup^

 

Just some of my thoughts anyway as I know you can't force people to pay/donate as that may see numbers dwindle...

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Do we know how many active users there currently are? Just wondering, because if we did the cruise idea it may only be those that really use the site almost every day (like myself) that would turn up and pay for the event, then your left with the free loaders (not that I have donated or bought stickers anyway...) that post in the "for sale" areas and don't contribute much else except clogging up threads with random useless gibber in an otherwise serious and informing thread. I'm not trying to be the fun police or anything, but some people just talk crap...

SO, rant over, IF we also had an annual fee of a small amount ($2~) for the hundreds of users either instead of or on top of the cruise, I would think that it would cover the cost of hosting, wouldn't it?

With that said, there could also be the areas for long time members etc etc like this

 

Just some of my thoughts anyway as I know you can't force people to pay/donate as that may see numbers dwindle...

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Whichever direction this heads in I'm down to donate, pay and especially cruise. Rollaclub cruises are dead in Adelaide though!

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