Financial Considerations
As one to always step on toes . . . here I go again: This is not from the site owners or operators. It is just me poking my nose in the tent . . . yet again, so I will begin:
In response to a couple of comments JtC stated:
hopefully as we grow we can survive on donations alone, especially if we get to 10,000 members. I absolutely hate advertising and would love to keep this site as clean as it is now. Thanks again.
then shortly thereafter Wink stated:
Everybody chips in $3 a mo. (or $10 every six if they can't afford the $3) would cover costs.
This has generated a subthread of particular interest to me. I have run services before so I know what's involved. True, my rogue servers were the authoritative portal to the university and the establishment did not like that (screw'm if they can't take a joke), and really wanted me to take them down. But, that is a whole different (but rather amusing) story. The point is, I know what it takes to keep C99P running, and I am impressed with what they have done with the place. And, I like their attitude about how C99P should grow.
I am an early adopter in this world, and have a deep history of advocating for universal access. So, may I humbly suggest an easily accessible indexed or browsable thread or directory wherein we can brainstorm how to best proceed.
Put crassly (Hey, that should be my middle name): Some of us are more able to periodically drop a fixed amount of money into the coffers than some others. So while personal details do not need to be shared those issues should be considered.
Comments
Just threw some money in the tip jar.
Under 'Tesla Fund'.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
LOL, but seriously...
I took a perverse pride in never dropping a dime over there, but have been the widow sending pennies from SS payments to Sanders. I recognized as one of the first wave of swimmers to this beach that we were taxing the site capability and did kick in a paltry sum. And that is what I want to continue, "from each..." and all that.
If enough are urged to send something, maybe site finances will be okay, without AdBlocker.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
I did the $3 recurring donation thing
Hopefully, enough people can do something along those lines so that it will add up to enough!
Thanks PriceRip...
and all who are donating, it's greatly appreciated and will lead to an even more enjoyable site experience as we add more features.
No toes stepped on PR, I hate asking myself and am glad you have stepped forward.
gimme me numbers, JtC - I don't know anymore if I had made
my first donations recurring or not. And then I donate at other places. So, I would really like to get a number of how many recurring donations of $10.00 a month the site would need to compensate for JtC's labor of love and the bills to pay to the server providers.
Come on, money is money, and it's needed, if you keep that private or not. I believe that people could be convinced to donate on a recurring basis, if they knew how many people need to make what amount of money with their recurring donations.
Don't treat your money needs like a young girl wanting to lose her virginity, but being ashamed to admit it.
As always I am blunt:
JtC, what is needed per month including a compensation for you? You can't hide this information from us and believe we will make a sensible decision on recurring donations.
mimi...
check your PM.
I'm In!
Thanks for the reminder!
I think that an ad-free site is essential to keeping our message pure, I really do. But websites are not free, so have a fiver from me in perpetuity.
Bernie is a win-win.
I am planning to pitch in
in a few weeks. June's finances are looking good at Casa Sillia; it has been tricky this year up to now.
I just set up a recurring contribution
Definitely worthwhile! Thanks!
“We may not be able to change the system, but we can make the system irrelevant in our lives and in the lives of those around us.”—John Beckett
There are more than one numbers here
There is "how much time did it take JtC to write this blog in the first place and what would be the going rate for that?" (Around 5K) Then there is "JtC has been upgrading and managing this blog for a year or so beyond that, what's the going annual rate for that?" (Hell, I don't know, but at least somewhere into five figures, assuming it's parttime). And then there is "how much does it cost to rent the bandwidth?" and "how much does it cost to outsource programming fixes?" ($480 for the reply notification module).
That's not even considering how many numbers of people are super invested in the blog, vs. fairly interested, or made an account and then left.
So, lots of numbers. Donating enough to keep JtC from being out of pocket should be fairly easy, but really it's more complicated than that. This blog isn't legally organized as a nonprof, but that doesn't matter much. What matters is that it's running like one, and people take people who run nonprofs for granted far too often. We tend to assume they are saints and independently wealthy and have no other significant demands on their time, none of which are the case here. Things tend to go much better when they get paid some for their work. Not necessarily going capitalism rate, but enough not to be insulting.
So, like JtC says: whatever you can afford. There are enough regulars here that even a few bucks makes a difference when multiplied by us all. I am not in favor of a mandated subscription because it creates a gate, and also, do we really need to be forced? Is that really a direction we want to go in?
Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.
I can give you some numbers.
For services requiring my expertise I would never accept less than $35/hr. For consulting as a "gun for hire" it's $1000/day plus expenses (more if the client is in it for the money), with court time set at $100/hr.
Simple annual rate should be from a low of $75,000 on up depending upon ancillary skills and expertise for each SysAdmin and SysOp. As these kind of things run on a blend of professional and amateur (from the Latin amator to love) talent the budget can be somewhat fluid. As I host a static site I would not be able to comment on the portal costs as the traffic picks up in this community.
I also am not in favor of creating a gated community and tend to tilt toward a "From each according to their means. To each according to their needs."
Thanks PriceRip, that's helpful
People here want to know what the real costs are of running this show, and the answer isn't simple. It's better approached with a bit of triangulation.
The same can be said of how to describe the real costs of many enterprises. What is given? What is taken? What is something creating, what is it replacing? What would happen if it went away, what does it keep from happening?
And, most importantly: what does it work to destroy?
So you have to measure how important all these things are to you, these things that might be created or destroyed, enhanced or revealed. This kind of thing goes on long enough, you're talking real money.
Stay on track. Stay in lane. Don't throw rocks.
I'll be hitting the donation box a month from now...
Feast Or Famine is the nature of my beast...
I will say though I wouldn't be opposed to there being ads on the site...
As we know AdBlock Plus makes them go away for us...
That said this site has a lot of "Content" and an impressive amount of "Traffic" as the stats have indicated...
I'll clue you in...
It's not all us...
If a small portion of those who come here on a search result, Reddit link, Twitter link, FaceBook link, or lurking, don't have a ad blocker installed on their browser, and decided to click an ad, I'm sure it would add up to more than enough to keep the lights on...
And enough to put some cash in JtC's pocket...
And pay for coding to upgrade the site...
I'm a bit biased on this though, I have several sites that I've got Google Adsense on and I'm an Amazon Affiliate as well. I've seen income from the sites ranging from $450 - $3,000 per month for around 10 years now...
This site has waaaaay more traffic than mine does!
I say hey why not take their 1%er money? It's what they offer... Right? LOL
All we have to do is run AdBlocker Plus on our browser and we'll never see them...
In addition if JtC was to set up an Amazon Affiliate account for use with the site, if we were discussing a book, movie, or audio recording, or any other product Amazon sells in a diary, we could add the product ASIN code, with some coding done on the site, and that product would appear in an embedded ad in the diary... All we have to do is momentarily disable the adblocker to see it and order or, not...
I'll order that Hillary for Prison 2016 bumper sticker...
Anyway it's just my 2¢...
In June I'll be making my contribution...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Old Fashioned Security Freak
I tend to avoid, whenever possible, ad rich environments. I do not trust any of the "AdBlock" sort of stuff. I do not trust (with respect to computer security) many people. Each of my computers is segregated, the only trustable firewall is a cut cable.
I would rather not have ads on this site. As always, your mileage my vary.
I hear ya...
I'm kind of the opposite...
Me and my MacBook have waded into some of the most awful hacked up and infested site so I could gather salvageable content to make sure it was clean to put up on a new website without worries... LOL
But I won't join FaceBook because it is a CIA Data Mining Project masquerading as social media...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,