Appeal to Support EN World! - Page 6

underthumb · 30th September 2009, 08:47 PM

I enjoy EN World, and I think it's perfectly reasonable to offer new (for-pay) services and products. However, I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the request for donations in combination with these offers. That is, is EN World a business or a charity? Trying to be both creates dissonance. It shouldn't be necessary to appeal to people's good will if you have goods or services that are valuable. Doing so makes me feel uncomfortable as a potential customer. My suggestion is to focus on one or the other.

Henrix · 30th September 2009, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by underthumb

However, I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the request for donations in combination with these offers.

I find that to be a very weird argument, really.

Why is it problematic to offer to pay to help support something as well as have a regular payment? One time donations or monthly recurring ones that gives you small perks.

Many non-profit organisations* have such things, and En World won't be making any profit - we hope that it'll be able to pay Morrus for his work.
I have no idea what form of organisation EN World is, or will be, but it won't be a new WotC - at least not for quite a while and quite a few changes.

I don't know how it works, but I suppose that if EN World became a NPO it would be tax exempt in the US, right? (I have really no idea how that works, in particular if it's a british NPO. It just struck me as Escape Artists (the people behind EscapePod, PseudoPod and PodCastle) are undergoing such a change.)

* And non-profit organisations aren't just 'charities'. It's basically a form of company that delivers no profit to it's owners. (But like all companies it may, hopefully, pay those who work for it.)

(My ignorance of US and British law may have muddled this, please excuse me in that case.)

Bold or Stupid · 30th September 2009, 11:33 PM

Well since I seem to spend half my like lurking here, so as soon as my finances have settled (buying a house, aaaargh) I'll be getting a monthly subscription.

Nifft · 1st October 2009, 01:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by underthumb

I enjoy EN World, and I think it's perfectly reasonable to offer new (for-pay) services and products. However, I'm somewhat uncomfortable with the request for donations in combination with these offers. That is, is EN World a business or a charity? Trying to be both creates dissonance. It shouldn't be necessary to appeal to people's good will if you have goods or services that are valuable. Doing so makes me feel uncomfortable as a potential customer. My suggestion is to focus on one or the other.

Eh, think of it more as an invitation for those who may have a few extra bucks to throw around, and less as a tax write-off (which it isn't, because EN World is not a charity).

Cheers, -- N

dogoftheunderworld · 1st October 2009, 02:32 AM

I've been meaning to re-up for a while, and the $3/month model works well for my budget needs. Thanks again Russ for this site and all you do.

freyar · 1st October 2009, 04:55 AM

Ooof. Any chance you could add a Canadian dollar option to the payments? (If that costs you, don't bother!) Long story short, my bank just made USD purchases a lot less convenient for me, so switching to monthly makes it tougher to re-up (which I was just about to do).

Kirnon_Bhale · 1st October 2009, 07:23 AM

Just couldn't stop myself - especially since I come here daily.

jeffh · 2nd October 2009, 05:30 AM

I too come here nearly every day, though according to my stats I only post, on average, about once every three days. So subscribing is the least I can do.

Why did I wait until just now, instead of doing it as soon as I made my previous positive remark about the subscription model? Just to time it so it hits on the first of the month.

Mathew_Freeman · 2nd October 2009, 01:33 PM

Hi Morrus,

Having seen that you've just abolished the year long subscriptions a few days after I bought one, I'd like to change to the monthly payment system. I've only just bought the 3 year subscription, so hopefully this can be sorted out easily.

I'm forwarding back the PayPal receipt to your gmail address and we'll go from there. I'd rather be one of the people giving you a steady income, it seems the best thing to do.

Taking this on as a business is a huge proposition and I wish you all the best for it.

Have you thought about attending UK Conventions (or getting volunteers to do so) with an ENWorld stand, giving info on what the site can do, acting as an easy place for UK D&D players to meet outside of the RPGA, etc? Getting Charles Ryan on board with that kind of thing could help UK D&D a lot. Not sure about the costs but advertising the site in that kind of way could help get more supporters.

thanks,

Matt.

jasonbostwick · 3rd October 2009, 04:48 AM

Would it be possible for Community Supporters to have the ability to turn off the newly introduced ads that appear horizontally in between posts in threads?

Fewer ads was the major draw for me to get a CSA, and these in-line ads are far more intrusive than the header and sidebar ads I can disable - frankly I'd take those back if it meant I could disable the in-line ads.

Longtooth Studios · 4th October 2009, 02:23 AM

I still owe you a set of boards! : )

Enworld has our support! This site is THE central hub of the online gaming comunity, and as such deserves the respect and support of any of us who have benifited from its popularity. Our banners will be going up here for a long time to come.

Mathew_Freeman · 4th October 2009, 12:04 PM

Something that occours to me - are you looking for any new moderators to help take up the load of running the forums, day-to-day?

Mustrum_Ridcully · 4th October 2009, 01:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mathew_Freeman

Something that occours to me - are you looking for any new moderators to help take up the load of running the forums, day-to-day?

What occured to me - have you looked into sharing the responsibility with others? Maybe some people would want to step in and be more than just admin, mod or community supporter, willing to help out financially and organizationally/administratively.

I suppose if someone was strongly interested in this, he might have contacted you already, but who knows, maybe someone first needs to put out the idea.

Quartz · 4th October 2009, 09:46 PM

Perhaps a silly question, but have you broken down your costs and analysed them for savings? For instance, I'm sure bandwidth has to be a major cost, but have you analysed what exactly is eating up the bandwidth? For instance, do you pay for the bandwidth used by your sponsors' ads?

PIM68 · 5th October 2009, 10:40 AM

From experience, the Google Ads do not consume the site bandwidth allocation as they are served up from Google's own servers. (Though direct sponsor ads are.)

As for cost savings, I imagine the total monthly site bill is a minority part of the target total. Im sure that Morrus & co will have done whatever they can to minimise monthly site costs over the years.

From what's been described the plan is to generate enough revenue to make EN World a full time job. So the question becomes, more of "Do you want to support Morrus in making some kind of living out of EN World?". Whether the inference is then, "if not, adieu" only Morrus can say.

$3 a month is not a lot at all for everything that ENWorld offers and has offered over the past decade!

Obryn · 5th October 2009, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonbostwick

Would it be possible for Community Supporters to have the ability to turn off the newly introduced ads that appear horizontally in between posts in threads?

Fewer ads was the major draw for me to get a CSA, and these in-line ads are far more intrusive than the header and sidebar ads I can disable - frankly I'd take those back if it meant I could disable the in-line ads.

He's working on it.

If you're able to, you can always use Firefox + Adblock Plus, though I'd recommend leaving ENWorld whitelisted in Adblock if you're not otherwise supporting the site. It's the courteous thing to do.

-O

TheYeti1775 · 5th October 2009, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Obryn

He's working on it.

If you're able to, you can always use Firefox + Adblock Plus, though I'd recommend leaving ENWorld whitelisted in Adblock if you're not otherwise supporting the site. It's the courteous thing to do.

-O

The Adblock works great. Enworld the Community I would consider leaving it whitelisted, but now that it's gone business I'll treat it just like other sites when I'm at home using Firefox.
---------------------------------

Congrats on trying to make it a business.
I wish you luck on it.

Hate being the fly in the ointment, but as far as getting my $$ out of my wallet and sending it in, I don't see it happening.
I didn't get into the MMO's because of the MONTHLY fees, just like I don't get into the DDI for the same reason(that and I didn't make the 4e switch). Even the freebie downloads aren't going to draw me in for it. There are too many sites out there that one can go to for free. While yes this is one of the largest out there (and one of the better ones), it isn't a lock on the gamer niche by a longshot.
Most of the time I just lurk here anymore, the server lags have drove me other places to get my 'fix'.
The large ad block for the community support I just scroll past now. Was annoying the first few times it couldn't be closed. O well I deal with scrolling past, same with the inline ads when I'm at work.
The 138 current subscribers at $3/mo should be just enough for basic forum running for a large site to keep ya from being to far into the red. But your definitely going to need that full 1000+ if your thinking of making this a full-time thing and that won't include keeping an on-staff programmer for the site.

Again good luck.

**Morrus** · 6th October 2009, 12:21 AM

Just a quick note, guys. We've sold 4 CSAs in the last 3 days (and the necessary target is 10 per day). If you were planning on getting one but putting it off, I'd urge you to consider doing it as soon as you can!