so, where do we go from here?

edX

edX

mac shaman
well?? what can we do to improve the site for you?

let's be real - money talks and bullsh*t walks. and since everybody here has helped out with a contribution, what can we do in return? obviously we can't please everyone, but what are some things that:

1) would make nice perks for helping to support the site so that others can enjoy it?
2) would improve the use of the site for everyone?
3) would be other related services you might be interested in supporting with your money?

i bring up #3 because there are certainly some ways this site could grow and help support itself by developing products and services that people have need of.
 
I think one thing would be a money counter at the top of the forum, giving us an idea of how much is needed at the current time to run the forum at a no loss cost..

another, i'd like to have the quick reply back, i miss it ;)

other than that i like what we got just fine :)
 
Before you talk about perks, how about getting enough $ to pay the bills.
I like Jason's idea of letting us know how much has been collected and how much is needed.

An idea: Different smilies for the contributing members.
 
I think we need to find sponsors. Good ones like Small Dog or Version Tracker. I hate ads but if we had good ads, that were not annoying, we could bring in more money.
 
Then, even macosxhints and versiontracker ask for donations. Maybe something could be done done exchanging banners with sites like them though. :)

I like the poll thing. So you / we can post polls, the others cant. :D

Maybe more smiles.. ;)

Hey, by the way - join the room macosxcom in iChat. You can meet many of us there.

:D

Gia.
-Elitist anima-
 
twister - thanks for getting us started.

mods - you guys already have a place to discuss this. i am interesting in hearing what the site supporters have to say in this thread. please be silent for a bit and let THEIR voices be heard. of course, if you're a mod and a supporter, feel free to speak up here.
 
I have no intention of adding more banners to the website, I hate ads as much as everyone else.

Starting Tuesday morning, we won't be asking for donations anymore (via the announcement) process, and will just leave the door open for general donations. Hopefully, over time we will reach our goals.

Currently, we are around 68%. Not bad.

As for "features" we can ad for those who contribute, it's easy for us to change your TITLE, but I really don't want to take the avator function away from the general user base and only limit it to those contribute. By making a "contribute" only avatar, we have no way to enforce whether or not someone is a legit supporter or not. We can do this through the "title" feature.

Polling is something I think is a fine issue for those who contribute can have access to, while those who don't, can't. So that is already in place.

My goal is not to tie people's fingers in place to force them to donate, my mission is to create incentives for people to donate (up and beyond the forum itself) and provide those who do donate, some extra "features" as a THANK YOU.

Creating additional Theme's for those who contribute is a little more of a programming hassle than opening up that for everyone, should I choose that route.

Coming very soon is "Donation Wall" which will show everyone who has donated or is a site contributor.

I have my thinking cap on, so hopefully through my thought process, and your suggestions, we can come up with even more.
 
I would just like to say Scott that you got your work cut out for you on this subject. I have been spinning my wheels in my head over this and can't think of anything that would be a fair choice to give supporters as a perk. As Giaguara mentioned, adding additional smilies would be a good idea. That way everyone can still use them, but supporters would get an extra set. Once you create something that only supporters have that nobody else can use, it would look bad. I think taking a function or service that you can provide to everyone and expanding it to greater functionality for supporters would be the only reasonable thing to do.

An example of what not to do: MacFixit is a great site, I don't mean to talk bad of them, but for this example it fits.

MacFixit used to be a fully functional site to search and read up on troubleshooting issues for the mac. Then one day decided they too needed money to support their cause. This is where they went wrong. They turned into a subscription service that only allow subscribers into many places that were available to everyone before. So now I only go there to read the daily news on troubleshooting issues. If they still provided a limited access into the other subscribed areas for me, I would visit more frequently.

You can't convert everyone into a paying customer. Try not to forget about the little people. If they hang around enough and enjoy the site without feeling like a OS9 user in Panel Mode, they just may contribute. Shutting them out of services will make it twice as hard to convert users. It just like this part of the forum. Everyone has access to the forums, but you have set aside this little section for us. If you have a mail account, maybe supporters can get a slightly larger mailbox. Sometimes it's just the little things that count.
 
You could give us flash or image signatures. Course that'd probably increase bandwidth so it wouldn't help much.
 
Get your MacOSX Tshirts
Get your MacOSX Lunch Box
Get your MacOSX Back Pack
Get your MacOSX Stein
Get your MacOSX Pantys or Boxers

Ok you could set up a shop. I haven't gone to far into this but a kid at school set up his own store. Check it out http://www.cafepress.com

Basically you set up a shop ( some are free ) and then you sell whatever you want. The site will keep a base price and you keep the mark-up. Just like Target. :D
 
Think we can get a links page ? Usually I read about app in these forums here and there ---- But would be nice to have a links area broken into sections


THX

Keep up the awesome forum!!
 
I was just saing we could sell stuff. Course we'd need a real logo then. Or have a design contest.

Panties. He He I just thought that was funny! :p
 
1) would make nice perks for helping to support the site so that others can enjoy it?
Click to expand...

You do a decent job on asking about about site looks (icons,etc). Monthly email/site list for members only, listing site statistics and upcoming events.

2) would improve the use of the site for everyone?
Click to expand...

Put a login at the top of the front page. It just seems illogical to have it at the bottom.

3) would be other related services you might be interested in supporting with your money?
Click to expand...

An apparel store selling macosx.com clothing.
 
Just keep the site running. Personally, perks don't matter to me. Maybe start a review section for hardware and software. Get a partnership with companies that actually sell the product to get a small kick back. You can probably do this with amazon.com, at least I've seen sites asking you to buy stuff through them, just not in the combination of reviews.
 
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