Free-DC & Money

Free-DC as an entity really has only a couple of small expenses (aside from bandwidth which I don't really worry too much about), one of which is the cost of domain registration. With the current registrar, that's about $55 a year and it's coming up soon. I know you can register domains much more inexpensively than that (IB originally bought us the package with all the bells & whistles & I just renewed instead of moving it last year ;)), but it's been working pretty well so I've left it be.

Now, $55 doesn't really affect me personally one way or the other, but it would be nice if Free-DC was self-supporting, if you know what I mean. With that in mind, I'm considering setting up a PayPal account in Free-DC's name for paying the domain registrations & any other small expenses that may come up in the future (i.e. the vBulletin support contract comes due, or IB's super computer server needs a new hard drive, or we decide to purchase some other piece of software for the group's use). Donating to this account would be completely voluntary, and it's something I'd like to put a cap on (i.e. nobody pays more than $10 or $15 at a time). I don't want any one person footing most of the bills around here.

Up until now, IB & I have been paying for these kinds of things out of pocket, and I certainly don't mind continuing to do so if this turns out to be infeasible or a bad idea. However, if people want to help out, I'd like for them to have the means to do so. What I'm looking for here are opinions. Does this bother anyone? Does anyone have a better idea? Can anyone see any potential problems? What does everyone think?

I think it's a fine idea, but you might want to consider providing some means to contribute besides just online- say a P.O. Box where people could send a money order or something.
Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I try to keep my financial dealings off the 'Net ( getting harder to do these days)
Just a thought....:thumbs:

Give me the paypal address and I'll be happy to cover this. It's the lease I can do for the entertainment this place provides along with everything else.

:tempted:

:evil:

:cheers:

/me rifles through Fozzie's wallet, extracts a few quid and throws them on the table...


Give us a PayPal link...

I would like to support Free-DC with a PayPal-payment, but:
- I don't have a PayPal account
- I don't know if it is possible for an Austrian to register for PayPal

If I would support Free-DC with an PayPal-payment, I'd like to know where the money is going to: so a up to date page were the investments were listed. This shouln not mean that I don't trust you, but I'd like to know where the money is going to.

Something like a "Help us out"-section on www.linuxiso.org would be cool on our frontpage.

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Originally posted by Dyyryath
Does anyone have a better idea?

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bake sale


:lmao:


i'll chip in $10 :drums:

Hi,

MK, it is possible to open a Paypal account for us (I've opened one two years ago or so). I was not able to transfer money on it (I got no credit card, and it seems to be rather hard & expensive to transfer money from a bank account).

I'm working on this issue; as far as I can read from the paypal help it is possible to register Austrian bank accounts with PayPal and to transfer money to paypal then.

Wirthi

First, let me say that I'm not the least bit surprised that our members are so willing to help out. Our little community is just fantastic. :thumbs:

Second, let me make sure I've stressed this: I don't want any one person footing the bills. cygnusshpere, you rock man! I appreciate the offer, but it's truly not about the money (I'm fairly well off). I just want things to be as democratic as possible and I want everyone to feel like they can contribute if they want to, regardless of technical skills or time. I've said it a couple of times before, and I'll say it again: "Free-DC belongs to us all."

With that in mind, I think the-mk's suggestion is a good one. If we decide to pursue this, I see no reason that we can't setup a place on the site or in the forums where we account for every dollar contributed and, when money is spent, where it goes. I can even foresee votes on the purchase of new services or software that may be of interest to the group.

I'm not sure why I like this idea so much, but it really appeals to me. One of the things that I really like about this place that I didn't have at Ars was the feeling that the community was in charge of it's own destiny and was responsible for itself. I suppose this is just an extension of that.

Finally, I realize that Paypal may not be the perfect answer. I'm certainly open to suggestions. I don't see any reason that we can't handle offline donations in some form or another in addition to Paypal or something similar. MrTRS had a pretty good idea in this thread, which may also bring a little money in while letting users get something neat in the process. It's certainly worth looking into.

There are other ways to pay besides Pay-Pal.
Amazon Honor system

Yes I think a FDC paypal donation option would be outstanding. Of course I'd be willing to chip in! :cheers:

I love the idea of us all chipping in, if we choose. It makes us more of a team. I also like the idea of capping the contributions. My favourite Detroit city council member has an average donation of US$10. This means that a lot of us have "bought" her, rather than some large corporation. Free-DC would be all the healthier if most of us "owned" a small piece.

However, I'm not enamoured of the idea of using PayPal. I have an account there, and will use it occasionally, but their privacy policy is an abomination. I'd much rather send a check somewhere, or a postal money order.

I don't mind a running total, and very much would like to see a simple accounting of where the money goes. I'd rather not see a list of donors with amounts. A list of donors I could live with. There should be the option to be anonymous, if one likes.

If FoBoT does $10, I'd go in for at least $7.50. :p

Ditto QibHom's comments re PayPal. Give me a mail-in option.

PS. I don't care WHAT you spend it on!

Exactly what they ^above^ said.

Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to list who submits how much. A list of donors sans amounts sounds like a good idea, with the additional option of complete anonymity for those who are so disposed.

I'll look into the differences between Paypal & Amazon. It sounds like we'll also definately come up with a way for users to send things via regular mail.

We're making good progress here. Anybody else have an opinion?

You might try one of those thermometer type graphics showing how much you receive and whenever an expense comes along, showing it deducted and why.

You could also put in needed annual costs if the funds drop below what is needed to pay them.

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l l $55____All Annual Costs
l l
l l
l l
l-l $25____Present funds
l l
l l
l l
( )
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pay-pal and offline donation capabilities are good ideas, I like the idea of tracking it for the members to see cause we know how easy it is for "D" to get carried away with Zena tapes and hot pockets :D

and I am willing to forgoe medications for a week to donate to the cause.

the freedoms and benefits I have been afforded here are worth it :cheers:

I'm fairly certain that there is a direct correlation between the quality of the site and my supply of Hot Pockets & Zena tapes, thank you very much. :smoking: :D

I'll chip in. Would prefer offline donation unless paypal is more convienent for you.

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and I am willing to forgoe medications for a week to donate to the cause.

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You take cheap meds, man. I could forego a single pill and cover the expenses :D

I suspect that, if you were to hook up with one of those instant mug and tee shirt shops, and offer the Free-DC logo on shirts and mugs, the profits would very quickly cover all of your expenses. That could make Free-DC self supporting - a couple of new members per month and things are covered.

I'd buy at least a couple of shirts and a mug - there's like an instant $4 in your account, without even having to lift a finger. I get to have a cool Free-DC tee-shirt, and you would get to have some profit from each sale. Seems like a painless way for peoples to donate to the cause....

I think rsbriggs's idea has merit and covers the t-shirt thread all in one swoop.

First we can find out how much for start up inventory of FreeDC swag and start with the initial orders for stuff with an agreed apon profit margin say 30% to build for covering the main FreeDC exspences.

Then we can appoint the minister of swag (someone with space a to store stuff and a good way to ship stuff) for future transactions.

For that matter I'm not so sure that there isn't some enterprising business out there that would handle all of this and send part of the profits to a "fund". Kinda like the fund raising program that Baja Fresh franchises do.

:idea: Oh Oh how about we launch the Distributed Computing swag and goody service and offer to handle it for other Teams as well and .... errrr well mister salesman is getting out:bonk: ok something to think about :D

:tempted:

:evil:

:cheers:

MrTRS suggested this in another thread with a particular shop in mind. I looked into it some and it costs us nothing to setup and use. All of the costs are covered in the 'base price' of the items (which are created on demand). Not a bad setup, actually. To test it out, I just created a mouse pad with what I think is going to become our new logo on it:

http://www.cafeshops.com/freedc

I've purchased one for myself to see how well they shopping went (it was a pretty standard online shopping experience) and to see how the product does. When I get it, I'll let you know what I think. I'll probably also put a t-shirt & mug design featuring the new logo up there sometime today if anyone wants to get one & see what they think. I'm generally setting the markup (the amount that Free-DC makes off each item) at about $4 or $5.

Of course, not everyone may want a mug, or a t-shirt, or a mousepad (or whatever) for $20, so I'll probably still setup both an online & offline way for people to send $5 or $10 donations if they'd like. I'll be setting up a place on the site which tracks what money comes in & what we do with it as well.

Mousepad seems a little pricey - might want to drop the margin on that down to a buck or so.

I'll order TShirt and Mug as soon as they are available. :D

And, given Dyy's graphics skill, you could come up with all sorts of interesting shirts, like one that has our logo leaving treadmarks over the ARS logo, and "WE RULE DF" text, or something along those lines :D

$$ Potential income only limited by everyones imagination and graphics skills. $$

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Originally posted by rsbriggs
Mousepad seems a little pricey - might want to drop the margin on that down to a buck or so.

I'll order TShirt and Mug as soon as they are available. :D

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Yeah, I was thinking that, too. The base price on that is $10.99. I think I'll make the final price $13.00.

I've got to run out to the data center for a bit to fix a misbehaving server. When I get back, I'll set up the artwork for a t-shirt & mug based on the new logo. I'm always happy to entertain ideas for new t-shirt & mug designs as well as other products people are interested in.

I'll probably add a hat (since I want one). ;)

Dyy,

In your post above where you mention cafepress your link has
cafeshop in it.

The correct link is Cafepress

Ohh... Ohh.... Ohh....... I want a Free-DC hat, too. Ohh....

And I'd buy a T-Shirt with the new logo, the old logo, and/or the fancy metallic gold logo you did, too....

Hat looks great - would it be possible to do a Black T-Shirt with a White logo, like the hat? Or at the very least, gray ?

I didn't think much of the hat, honestly. It comes with a screen printed patch sewn onto the hat. Kindof clunky, I think. See this thread for a better idea & black shirts!

Guys, I was thinking that why don't we put up one, maybe two ads to cover expenses that Free-DC is currently incurring.

Dyy could set up a Google Adsense and over time, this place could pay for itself since it gets a pretty heafy pageview a month.

This is just a suggestion, but with the overwhelming support in this thread, I guess we don't need ads. :thumbs:

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I was thinking that why don't we put up one, maybe two ads to cover expenses that Free-DC is currently incurring.

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I think that community building is more important here than just getting the cash to run the place. If we can chip in, we will feel more a part of things.

It is fair that we pay part of the costs. But, it is a healthy group that pays it's own way, rather than relying on the largess of a few volunteers.

Quote:

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Originally posted by rsbriggs
And, given Dyy's graphics skill, you could come up with all sorts of interesting shirts, like one that has our logo leaving treadmarks over the ARS logo, and "WE RULE DF" text, or something along those lines :D

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Considering the history of the DF project, I would hesitate making such shirts :p ;)

I'd say you guys have your hands full with SETI for the time being. I felt moved enough by your front page plea to almost come back and crunch some SETI for you guys...

True...

That frontpage pimp really paid of. Just the fact that Troglodytes (#1 on TER) joined with his account helped quite a bit. He's crunched Seti before he started crunching for TER. He joined with 276K WU's :)

TLC got more than 600 new crunchers - that's a lot!

Ahhh... the power of the Ars frontpage pimpage. :scared:

I'd chip in some dosh in via paypal...

Just add a donate button, they're small and don't get in the way..

and would be up for a hat and T-shirt, that's if I have any dosh , left after Chinasaur rifled my wallet. :spank:

Paypal is fine for me.

Fozzie,

"Don't ask us what we want it for....
If you don't want to pay some more..."

And remember Fozzie...I KNOW where you live!!!! :D


Muahahahahahahahahahaahah!!


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Dyyryath!!! How about a Pimp link for the store under the Top Left DF Logo? Get a LOT more clicks that way and it wouldn't have to be very big to be noticeable.

JAT