Platinum Sponsors

[Mike]

To recognise those members who have been able to provide their financial support more than once, I asked jnridgway15 to create a new "Platinum Sponsor' badge for us. I'm sure you'll agree that he's done a good job in helping add a nice touch of class to the award. Oh and whilst he was feeling inspired, he also re-did all our other badges.

At this point, I've been able to identify the the following members with a second and even a third donation, but if you've shown your generosity more than once and I've missed you and you're missing your new badge, please PM me and I'll fix it ASAP.

ancall
djhampson
gibbo9000
EPGStream
jnridgway15
patricio
aswigon
eepunk
and here's the badge:

Thanks again to these guys - and an extra thanks to Josh for taking the time out to help with our new badges.

Mike

[DDH]

Great idea Mike. I'd been thinking, that as one who has hung around a while, I should probably "re-earn" that "sponsor" badge. Today the $ are where the mouth is, another donation has been made.

Not looking for any thanks, more trying to encourage others to re-donate to keep one of the best communities around healthy.

So, it doesn't matter if you donate because you enjoy being a community forum member, or because you feel its great value support from other community members, JFDI and donate regardless if you have the capacity to.

[supafly]

well i guess i should buy one of these badges then. lolol

[Auldar]

Great idea, although I would have thought it would make more sense having a threshold.. ie donating over a certain amount rather than donating multiple times..

Someone who donated $100 once has certainly contributed more than someone who donated $5 twice..

It would also encourage those who are below that threshold to reach that threshold, which would ultimately generate more financial assistance for the website than people donating $5 more..

[supafly]

could also offer something for ongoing subscriptions, i.e. $2 month, $10 month, $50 month. i dunno what you could offer but it could be incentive, hell to be honest if you had the option of automatically monthly deduction id probably consider it

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Auldar

Great idea, although I would have thought it would make more sense having a threshold.. ie donating over a certain amount rather than donating multiple times..

Someone who donated $100 once has certainly contributed more than someone who donated $5 twice.

Your point is well made and not without merit - but in reality, there's no ideal methodology for "getting it right" in this scenario.

For those who donated $5.00 or even less, it might have been a bigger imposition on them than on those who were able to to throw in $100 or even more - I can't be the one to judge that, nor is it reasonable that I set a threshold when we're all in different financial circumstances. It's all about the spirit of the donation, that's why there's no threshold to qualify for a Sponsors' badge in the first place, I mean one guy donated $300, does that mean that all the $50 contributions are less significant? - no of course it doesn't

Other sites require a periodic subscription to maintain Sponsor status, and whilst it might be an attractive option to webmasters to try and predict and control income levels - I can't come at that because I question the ongoing value to our members. It would be easy to restrict downloads (for example) to Sponsors, but that's never been considered because making money out of this community was never its "raison d'être" - although I confess, it would be nice to have enough at any point in time to be able pay the bills a few months in advance.

The only reason I've created this badge is to encourage another round of donations in advance of our "new" financial period in September, we're a bit "line-ball" at the moment, and in anticipation of another mortgage rate increase next month, my own finances are tightening up, so I figured that this might help raise a few bucks.

I'm currently involved in discussions with someone about a Sponsorship deal which would help ease the pain by them contributing a big chunk of the costs every year, but if that doesn't come off, I'm gonna be forced to embark on a "significant" fund raising program to enable us to get into a new server and pay for (preferably) a year's hosting in advance.

So fingers crossed on that one, but for now, I need to be able to make it through to the end of August.

Mike

[GlenR]

Well, this prompted me to put a couple of dollars into the kitty again. Something I've been meaning to do for a while but never quite got around to.

I guess if this new badge gets a few others to remember to chip in a bit more then this has done its job.

[Auldar]

Originally Posted by Mike

Your point is well made and not without merit - but in reality, there's no ideal methodology for "getting it right" in this scenario.

Fair enough, I just thought I'd suggest it :P


By the way - does anyone else find the Platinum names very similar to the standard black names? Personally, I think the standard sponsor colour stands out more.. I guess there's still the badge next to the name, but I just don't find the new platinum colour as eye catching..

[eepunk]

Thanks Mike, this site has been a source of a great deal of enjoyment for me. I don't post as much these days as I used to (thanks for the reminder banner ), but then most of the answers are already out there.

E.E.

[JNRidgway15]

Originally Posted by Auldar

By the way - does anyone else find the Platinum names very similar to the standard black names? Personally, I think the standard sponsor colour stands out more.. I guess there's still the badge next to the name, but I just don't find the new platinum colour as eye catching..

Platinum is the New Yellow its all the rage in europe