Donations Vs Paid Membership

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Been getting a few messages about this Paid Membership thingy we been discussing recently - nothing concrete has been decided yet..alot of people are saying why not opt for Donations instead!

and each project we run is funded by itself i.e to run islamicboard the funds generated by islamicboard only keeps the place going......

Now things im a bit confused as to how to word this

Donations - this to me implies that it be a chartable cause in our case MuslimDot we not a charity of anything..we can be inclined in someway or associated with "Business" since we do generate revenue from Products ./ advertising etc etc..thats why im a bit reluctant to introduce donations since people may think........hang on a minute Islamicboard is run by MuslimDot and they already Generate revenue from CD's, Web hosting etc etc why do we should we donate..and it could act and raise a few eyebrows with people thinking we are Wording it as Donations to cover business Costs! Which we dont want to do!

See where im coming from..kind a grey area here!

HOWEVER if we introuduced PAid Membership - this we can class as just another "Product" that we are selling...in which revenue generated would go back into covering costs for Runing the Server etc

What do you all think?
 
Wassalam

Things like Large Inbox Space, Free Gift, Large Signature Image Space(If we were to disable images)discounts off products from Islamic stores. and other things that gotta think of
 
Like i mentioned No on is Obliged to pay to join paid membership = premium membership meaning u get extra features!!!
 
I get what you are saying. "Donations" would seem as if it were going to charity. But I think that if explained people would understand what it is for. Maybe any extra donations to the site at the end of the year could go to charity. Maybe be sent to the Palestine orphans.
I think that a problem (just guessing) that some members have with being a paid user is that is implies that people who pay care more about this site than the members who don't. Which is not the case at all. Many of our members are young students with no extra money to give. That does not make them less important to this site. Also, there has been no mention of how much this membership would cost. That could be turning people off to it. I think that if it comes to this site closing or asking members to pay, there are many that will pay. But then again most won't because they simply don't have it.


Another option that I was thinking of is a type of fundraiser. There could be a set amount that members are asked to raise. You could ever keep a counter at the top of the home page to show the progress. Or you could do an online raffle. Get a collection of books ect. that people buy raffle tickets for. Then after a certain amount of time, a number is drawn and they win the set of books. Just a thought.


I guess what I am trying to say is this. Why not give members a chance to help pay for this site before implementing paid membership.
 
Is there anywhere ont he forum which informs of the finances of the site? For example the annual cost of hosting the site and cost of servers etc?????

I think the creation of a paid membership option may not be helpful. As the perks of for example, "Large Signature Image Space" would be as boastful and as tomtomsmom points out will udermine those who can not afford it. I am in favour of the recieveing of discounts as this will be helpful.

The 'geographics' of LI is huge and the members come from all over from different financial backgrounds. The issue of meritocracy comes in, would a paid member be treated any differently- would he/she get less warnings than a non-paid member? If he/she got banned will they be refunded?

Therefore it is vital a healthy discussion takes place before any go ahead.
 
Well monthly costs are around $130 per month + $85 per year for Vbulletin License plus any extra costs we may incur during the month such as going over bandwidth limit etc..

Good point @ tomtom if we were to introduce this membership it prolly be the equivalent of £1 per month or $2 PEr month or something we got something like this going at Ummah.com/forum and is working quite well over there not as if we will charge extornionate prices or a nything and certainyl we dont have the idea of People being favoured against overs!

Good points aswell minaz thats why im posting this to get more feedback from you - if you all think its a good idea then yeh we may implement it - if you all disagree then we wont and we wil think of something else
 

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