Ability to purchase an upgrade/VIP

29386
I really like this forum, and would buy an upgraded membership, but I haven't seen
an upgrade section anywhere, so I thought I'd make it a suggestion!

This would probably help out the people who manage this, so they can pay for hosting,
servers, etc.

Price should be around $7-10 depending on features, but that's for the admins to
decide!

Anyway
Just thought I'd make this thread because I'd like to support the site.

I remember talking to @Senpai about this awhile back. I'm fairly sure he said that he wanted all features to remain free to all, so I'm not so sure that this'll happen. I'd definitely donate though.

Naw.

I've always been a fan of what I call "butte organization", which means everyone's on the same level save a handful of mods. The option to pay for special privileges will induce the formation of a sort of "outer core" group of Lewd's most dedicated users. In my experience this leads to a separation in the userbase, and could even disenfranchise some of the old guard while dissuading potential new ones from joining in the first place.

At least, those are my two cents. While I wouldn't mind donating or having some unintrusive ads, I'd imagine segregating one's user base is an incredibly bad idea. Besides, what sort of privileges could we have anyway?

I think that donating to the site is nice, but I don't see the point in any users gaining features that "free members" otherwise wouldn't have access to.

Donator forums don't get used for anything except the same shit as 'Forum Games' forums except on the largest sites (IGN and the like, with hundreds of millions of people).

If lewd should allow donating for anything, it should be for ad-removal and to cut down the cooldown time between posts/pms/other stuff(but not email)

@Senpai

I think @Senpai should allow donations so that he can buy new servers or whatever he likes with the money... He is senpu after all..

And a contributor/donator userbar/icon would be a nice touch too.

But senpu has the last word. Yes, yes.

I like the idea of donating and getting an icon next to your name kind of like the staff's icon but then again, it'd make people feel more important than others and one good aspect of this community is that everyone is equal.

That's a terrible idea, class war now

Image no longer available

I dislike the idea of upgrades because of experiences on forums in the past, where people assume the role of being "better" than someone that does not have an upgrade. Everyone on Lewd is equal, I'd prefer to keep it that way.

I don't like asking for donations at all, because unlike most other forum owners, I'm not hosting the forum to make money; and milking money from my friends is something I never want to do.

Also.

29417
If lewd should allow donating for anything, it should be for ad-removal

Lewd will never have ads, so I don't see how ad-removal would be a good perk for donators.

29650
Also.

29417
If lewd should allow donating for anything, it should be for ad-removal

Lewd will never have ads, so I don't see how ad-removal would be a good perk for
donators.

perk should be the satisfaction of supporting something you are a part of

Victory wrote

29386
I really like this forum, and would buy an upgraded membership, but I haven't seen
 an upgrade section anywhere, so I thought I'd make it a suggestion!
 
 This would probably help out the people who manage this, so they can pay for hosting,
 servers, etc.
 
 Price should be around $7-10 depending on features, but that's for the admins to
 decide!
 
 Anyway
 Just thought I'd make this thread because I'd like to support the site.

I remember talking to @Senpai about this awhile back. I'm fairly sure he said that he wanted all features to remain free to all, so I'm not so sure that this'll happen. I'd definitely donate though.

He doesn't want anyone to not be equal

29648
I dislike the idea of upgrades because of experiences on forums in the past, where
people assume the role of being "better" than someone that does not have an upgrade.
Everyone on Lewd is equal, I'd prefer to keep it that way.

I don't like asking for donations at all, because unlike most other forum owners,
I'm not hosting the forum to make money; and milking money from my friends is something
I never want to do.

If you don't mind my asking, are you currently paying for the hosting out of your own pocket? If so, why not just add an annonymous donation pool? No benefits, no perks, just people helping if they can.

That already exists though lol

29648
I dislike the idea of upgrades because of experiences on forums in the past, where
people assume the role of being "better" than someone that does not have an upgrade.
Everyone on Lewd is equal, I'd prefer to keep it that way.

I don't like asking for donations at all, because unlike most other forum owners,
I'm not hosting the forum to make money; and milking money from my friends is something
I never want to do.

I understand your opinion about not milking your friends money but donations are donations to keep the site, not to make bank.

But, unless you're rich or have enough money not to care about paying this you'll need to do something. I mean, I have a group of friends(Internet), we've been together up and down for around 4 years. Basically it was a game private server, happened to be popular and good in glory days, stable through donations etc owner profited back then.

Anyways. The servers died and only a small group of us are left (Around 20). Right now there are some months he can't pay it, others where we pay it. Either way, he's not making any money from it yet we're the reason the site WAS still up (The forums got closed a month ago due to no more money). It was a thing that went both ways

I mean, you can ask for donations. As you mention, FRIENDS, are there to back you up. If you're going out to eat with friends, I'm sure plenty of times you all put in money to pay the bill or cover someone who doesn't have enough money. Donations would work here that way, it'd be the way for your friends help you pay something which we all use because it wouldn't be fair going out with friends and leaving you pay everything, right?

You could just add some awards and a custom userbar for donations.

Victory wrote

If you don't mind my asking, are you currently paying for the hosting out of your own pocket? If so, why not just add an annonymous donation pool? No benefits, no perks, just people helping if they can.

Yep, I am. Costs me ~$85 USD a month to host (only because I like to keep lewd on a dedicated server), which isn't too much for me to handle. I've considered having anonymous donations in the past, but as I've said previously, I'd rather not take money from anyone. Money complicates everything.

tn5421 wrote

That already exists though lol

no. anonymous donations for pomf.io exist, but i have never accepted a cent for Lewd.

Eros wrote

- snip -

I understand where you're coming from, and I really do appreciate it that so many people are willing to donate towards the site. But I really wouldn't feel right accepting money from anyone for doing something I love doing.

Vlad wrote

You could just add some awards and a custom userbar for donations.

I would rather not.

30410
No offense everyone, but if Senpai has firmly decided not to do this, why is this
thread still open?

Because we want to give Senpai our money, Duh.

30403
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Oh well, it's nice to see people like you around willing to do things regardless of the posibility of profit. It's just kinda worrying that you're taking the whole debt together.

I do believe that in a future, if this community keeps growing you'd have to start accepting donations or something as you'll need better servers and there'd be more data around thus even more expenses.