Donations (domain name)

are we still wanting a domain name?

We've been using the hobbitmovieforum.com domain name for the past couple years, but we have to pay each year to renew it. We also have to pay to remove ads from the site. Those two reasons are why we continue to accept donations.

How much does all this cost?

bungobaggins wrote:How much does all this cost?

About $40 a year. It would be a lot more if we were hosting ourselves, but fortunately Forumotion is a really good deal. Donations are still very much appreciated, but they're not as essential as they were when I was 16 and unemployed.

Forty bucks isn't so bad.

"Donations are still very much appreciated, but they're not as essential as they were when I was 16 and unemployed" - Eldo

That doesn't mean you're supposed to pay to keep this place going all on your own Let us know when we're running low again. Keeping this forum the way it is today is well worth the money it costs

Well said Ringdrotten. I am right behind you, well when I say right behind you, I mean hiding in the pub having swallowed the key to my sporran. But well said.   

Thanks guys, that means a lot. Last year our costs were lower because Forumotion offered a renewal on the domain name for free since we'd been so active.  I don't know if that will happen again, though, so we will probably need fresh funds in about a month's time when the domain comes up for renewal.  I'll try to remember to bump this thread then.

I guess I could chip in.

Yep, if I give $25/year to wikipedia I will gladly give at least $5 for a service I use nearly as much. (Maybe more!   )

Pettytyrant101 wrote:Well said Ringdrotten. I am right behind you..

About 35 miles behind you.   

we will probably need fresh funds in about a month's time - Eldo

Of course, oh wait, did you say a months time? Oh well now would you believe it that just so happens to be when I send my sporran off for its yearly grooming. What an unfortunate coincidence!

I'm sure I paid 27 cents just four years ago!   

I suspect Eldo is storing away our funds!

... but if I have to come up with another 27 cents, let me know, Eldo... I guess..   

Providing I'm still around in a month I should be able to contribute something more meaningful than a hearty smile.

  

So - if my calculations are right - I now only have to come up with about 13 or 14 cents... makes it more within my budget, methinks...   

Well the domian name renewal came up early than I expected, but fortunately Forumotion offered it to us for free again because of our high level of activity.  I was also able to use the last of the money from the very successful 2012 fundraising drive to re-up the no ads thing.  So we're in the clear through mid-June 2015, though we have no money left in the forum treasury now.  If people want to donate now since the topic was brought up recently they are welcome to, otherwise I'll raise this issue in a new thread in a year's time.

PS We haven't done it before, but in addition to the domain name and ad stuff, there's an option to remove Forumotion copyright from the forum pages.  I assume this would remove the links to other Forumotion sites that are seen when viewing the forum without being signed in, and possibly a few other things as well.  I've never thought this was worth it, but if we ever find ourselves with a large enough surplus I might try it out.

PPS I had been thinking of handing out one or two @hobbitmovieforum.com e-mail addresses as an incentive to donate, if anyone is interested by that. I hadn't figured out the rules for such a giveaway, though.

I will have some cash to spend later this year, I hope, when I go back to Uni, but for now I am totally skint.

You need to be really careful about using anything Tolkien related in order to earn money.

I'm not sure I understand Forumotion's logic here. Let's say I grow watermelons for a business. I would never say "you use more watermelons than anyone I do business with, so I'm gonna give them to you for free."

A price reduction, yeah, but what do they gain by hosting us for free? Not that I'm complaining.

(maybe I should put this whole thing in encryption brackets so they don't realize they're not making sense.)

bang goes the Tauriel strip-o-gram   

{{{Shhh, Halfwise! But no, I don't know why they keep giving us the discount year after year either. It's awfully nice of them, though. }}}

Amarië wrote:You need to be really careful about using anything Tolkien related in order to earn money.

There are probably dozens of Tolkien sites that have asked for donations to stay afloat, and I've never heard of any of them getting into trouble. Regardless, in our case, I literally can't make money from donations even if I want to, because they all go through Forumotion's system and thus all I see on the back-end are credits that can be used to purchase extra features from Forumotion.

If you say so. A giveaway where people have to pay to take part is not quite
«just» donating to stay afloat. As long as you know what you doing when or if you do it.

It is not so strange we get to stay for free. We are a big(ish) thriving advertisement post, we both benefit from it.

Amarië wrote:If you say so. A giveaway where people have to pay to take part is not quite
«just» donating to stay afloat. As long as you know what you doing when or if you do it.

Do you want me to take a screencap where of what the admin panel looks like so you can see that I have no way of getting cash money out of this? I try not to read too much into stuff but your "if you say so" sounds like an implication that I'm lying about the money stuff.