The World of Layonara
The Layonara Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: RollinsCat on January 20, 2013, 02:13:13 pm
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Just about one year ago today, Orth posted (http://forums.layonara.com/1735931-post1.html)for assistance keeping Layo running. Per his calculations they'd have enough to run the servers for a full year. By my calculations, it's time for we players to pony up some Trues for another year.
Someone told me once about a "donate your level" thing, and so that seems like a great idea. To kick this off: Andrew, thirty-one plus Ty, fifteen plus Mari, ten = fifty-seven dollars donated to Layonara. Heh, should be fifty-six so one bonus dollar!
Links to donate from Orth's post:
Donate to Layonara in AUD (https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=n9qPucwlXiCR8pSI9lt9W31sIc2UNxd32RO4N7x664yfL2hqxAYtDdFa2Ba&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d0b7e678a25d883d0fa72c947f193f8fd)
Donate to Layonara in CAD (https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=z3ROgxcU0CTAAgBR9QzhwwkKGxFoR_PZbzCa2Nk9xbSKBRPHMPRMt-yf8Ei&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d0b7e678a25d883d0fa72c947f193f8fd)
Donate to Layonara in EUR (https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=zd9m1_GDcXjDuNmdHPi2Ghifcm8dgj-SeAv96dsZU0-RXXeyUg16x1W_2Em&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d0b7e678a25d883d0fa72c947f193f8fd)
Donate to Layonara in USD (https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=S9BYLcE_0N7poaR8aMlj6oJq-lILFPAOZzMPzsfVIsv22v9qNcNe7Pd6d3K&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d0b7e678a25d883d0fa72c947f193f8fd)
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what does donate your level mean exactly?
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Donate an amount of money that is the sum of all the levels your character have.
Time to go around and get a paypal account, I suppose.
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This is completely voluntary of course, but it does cost a lot to run the servers - see Orth's post linked below - and most of it we don't pay for. So any offsetting we can do of cost is a good thing.
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I have found it easier on my budget to donate a smaller amount every month.
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Three issues/questions from my point of view then:
1) Does anyone who doesn't donate get discriminated against in any way? Sorry to have ask this but in lieu what's been said thus far and begs the question.
2) How bad is the activity on the forums/game that you'd have to make this thread? I ask because I am also part of another community which runs its server/site completely via donations and those are 4 digit numbers per month and they have no problem reaching those goals within the first week or two of each month through anonymous, non-intrusive to gameplay, donations and before you ask, their active playerbase is around 2000 individuals but they have less less registered users than Layonara.
3)Why not have a a highly restricted highly monitored pay per view ad banner somewhere on the site to help with the running costs? I mean even if it were a pay per click those have a optimal pay out of around 20-30 cents per click... 2-3 clicks a day....365 days a year...that's ~150 USD per year per user with minimal discomfort to the user, hell for some they might even be interested in the ad itself so assuming Layonara has people that love it for what it is, which I assume it does otherwise it wouldn't have an MMO in the pipeline, you could comfortably be paying a part of the running costs at the least without the need to ask for donations (2-3 clicks, maybe some site browsing, that's 5-10 min per day or ~61 hours per year per user assuming said user dislikes what he/she the ad). And here to prevent a negative effect on the RP itself you could have the banner itself only show up in one of the subforums considered to be out of game and you just tell people that's where it is and those who want to help up with the costs can do so either via direct monetary donation or via a donation of time, either way the bills get a dent in them.
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This was a voluntary individual effort to help offset costs by me. It's been done by others in the past to contribute to the server costs. I am not aware of any problems keeping this service running as it's been around continuously for about ten years I think, but I am aware (per linked post) that there are a number of people behind the scenes contributing their own personal money to keep things running and as it is free to me and I use it rather often I am motivated to put some skin in and try to inspire others to do so as well. There is no obligation and there is no discrimination if you don't.
I am not a gm. This was not sponsored by the gm team.
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DB: 27 + Stephen 8 + Charlie 14 + Jo 10 = 59. Rounded off to 60 bucks, don't spend it all in once place! er wait.:)
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Three issues/questions from my point of view then:
1) Does anyone who doesn't donate get discriminated against in any way? Sorry to have ask this but in lieu what's been said thus far and begs the question.
No, not at all. No one even knows probably who donates and who doesn't except for me and those who say they do.
2) How bad is the activity on the forums/game that you'd have to make this thread? I ask because I am also part of another community which runs its server/site completely via donations and those are 4 digit numbers per month and they have no problem reaching those goals within the first week or two of each month through anonymous, non-intrusive to gameplay, donations and before you ask, their active playerbase is around 2000 individuals but they have less less registered users than Layonara.
Our active user base is under 100. Activity is quite low. The registered users we have on our site are mostly from our heyday back from 2004-2007.
3)Why not have a a highly restricted highly monitored pay per view ad banner somewhere on the site to help with the running costs? I mean even if it were a pay per click those have a optimal pay out of around 20-30 cents per click... 2-3 clicks a day....365 days a year...that's ~150 USD per year per user with minimal discomfort to the user, hell for some they might even be interested in the ad itself so assuming Layonara has people that love it for what it is, which I assume it does otherwise it wouldn't have an MMO in the pipeline, you could comfortably be paying a part of the running costs at the least without the need to ask for donations (2-3 clicks, maybe some site browsing, that's 5-10 min per day or ~61 hours per year per user assuming said user dislikes what he/she the ad). And here to prevent a negative effect on the RP itself you could have the banner itself only show up in one of the subforums considered to be out of game and you just tell people that's where it is and those who want to help up with the costs can do so either via direct monetary donation or via a donation of time, either way the bills get a dent in them.
We tried a pay per click with google and our account was terminated for fraudulent clicks. Again, we only have like 100 or so active users now, probably less. The math doesn't quite jive the same for ad revenue.
I'm not really sure what your point really is? Is this thread that disruptive? Do you feel like this post has guilted you into something? We have never pushed hard, we've just asked kindly to help out. A donation blitz once a year is that big of a deal or are you just trying to offer further suggestions?