Donate button or not?
- Thread starter Pinky
- Start date
naughtymonkey
Resident
Well the donations on mine went towards removing ads and keeping the forum ad free and was able to get a .com and I have some ideas for where the rest of the donations will go.
I think I have to agree with a lot of earlier posts that have been put into this topic. While I don't think that a donate button is always necessary, I can't think of any situation where it can be fully advised against. You'd be surprised with the situations wherein people want to give back to a community and don't mind helping out with a little bit of cash.
A donate button is a great way to allow members to contribute in a real way, and I think most users appreciate that. For those that aren't interested in donating it's like another ad to them.
Just be sure your donate button is not interfering with content. Believe it or not I have seen this before, popup donate buttons on every page that you have to manually close. It's irritating.
A donate button is a great way to allow members to contribute in a real way, and I think most users appreciate that. For those that aren't interested in donating it's like another ad to them.
Just be sure your donate button is not interfering with content. Believe it or not I have seen this before, popup donate buttons on every page that you have to manually close. It's irritating.
I have a donator group system for my new forum and if they do not want to pay $3 for one years access and benefits of:
Then they do not have too. It is there for people if they want a bit more permissions and such for their account. Plus to be known as part of what makes the community run.
Then they do not have too. It is there for people if they want a bit more permissions and such for their account. Plus to be known as part of what makes the community run.
Destructoino
Reputable
I don't use one, if I can see a donate button anywhere, i won't click it, unless i absolutly love that forum and it's getting bancrupt, thn i might when i'm older.
They do put me off a forum though, it's just another way of saying, "Hi, I'm poor! And I can't be bothered to get money myself, so I put a donate button on my forum, to get money!" So no.
They do put me off a forum though, it's just another way of saying, "Hi, I'm poor! And I can't be bothered to get money myself, so I put a donate button on my forum, to get money!" So no.
naughtymonkey
Resident
Destructoino said:
But a forum is a community, if only one person creates and pays for it. I don't think is fair. People don't have to donate but its a way to help out. I have donated to a few forums before for this reason.
jenna appleseed
Acquaintance
As long as the forum is offering something to it's members i.e is a good community,and it's clear where/what the money's going on, & members aren't forced to donate in order to stay a member, there shouldn't be any problems with it.
If you've got loyal members they'll probably be willing to support you without any reward but if offering extra privileges is more suitable to your type of site/forum then do that instead.
An entirely new site or forum begging for money or one that's already covered with ads and sponsored links would look like they only care about getting money out of their members but otherwise it's fine.
I've repeatedly donated to one forum purely to help them keep going and to keep it ad free, because I feel at home there and I trust them & to another one for similar reasons + the offered bonus.
If you've got loyal members they'll probably be willing to support you without any reward but if offering extra privileges is more suitable to your type of site/forum then do that instead.
An entirely new site or forum begging for money or one that's already covered with ads and sponsored links would look like they only care about getting money out of their members but otherwise it's fine.
I've repeatedly donated to one forum purely to help them keep going and to keep it ad free, because I feel at home there and I trust them & to another one for similar reasons + the offered bonus.
Zawazuki said:
Some forums can cost a lot of money, depending what they have on it. A donation button could be for raising money for competitions or to buy custom things to make the forum more unique and better.
It wouldn't bother me if I saw a donation button.
GamerPerfection
Resident
Hmm so the donations helped you remove the ads. So basically you had to decide how much the ads were worth, because at some point whatever donations you got over time your ads (if you still had them) may have generated that for you.naughtymonkey said:
So if the donations for some reason stopped completely then you wouldn't bring back ads right? Or would you?
When I run a forum I never put a donation button. I never want to gain anything out of running a forum because I do it for pleasure. I know there a lot of people out there that open forums just to make money and that's not right.
GamerPerfection
Resident
And when people start a forum for the purpose of making money then it will fail every single time. Why? Because the people running the forum focus so much on trying to make money out of it that they neglect everything else, inluding the content.
I had visions once of making money from my forum, but now I run it for the people and even put my own money in to it.
I had visions once of making money from my forum, but now I run it for the people and even put my own money in to it.
Rocky said:
While I agree that its very important to put the users first, I can see where they are coming from in wanting a donation button.
Its not free making and sustaining a forum (especially if it gets big) so that money needs to come from somewhere. Some people have the means of using their own money, but others don't have the luxury of being able to sink hundreds of their own dollars into a forum with no hope of a return of any kind.
With that being said, I believe its ok to have a donation button, so long as the users know that it is -
1. Fully optional (not donating will not interfere with how they can use the forum)
2. They know what the money is going to (No one wants to donate money blindly)
BUT I also believe a little bit of extra ness could be added to encourage donations. Ive seen things like different coloured and animated usernames, larger signature (or other things relating to signature), access to things like a VIP forum, etc.
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