Donations; The Good The Bad & The Ugly

[wildman4sure]

I am a mere day or two from going live on a server that we (my team and myself) have worked hard on for a good 5 weeks...

As many, I am hoping that donations will bear much of the financial burden of running a high end populated server...

As we all know, there are pluses and minuses that go with anything we do...

This thread is to discuss them...

Let's talk about the drawbacks of donations here...There are a few...And let's talk about ways to combat these drawbacks...

My original thought was to just pick the brains of some of the more successful server owners and see what kind of information I could glean...Then I thought, why not post here so we can all share and maybe all benefit from this discussion...

1. Accepting donations, I am sure is just another reason to piss off the powers that be...Or is it?

2. Chargebacks...We will all get them, however, I am sure there is a way to lessen the impact of these...Discuss

3. How much is too much? I mean, there must be a line drawn in the sand somewhere as to how many items are made available "Only By Donation"

That is all that comes to mind at the moment, but I would really like to see some input from some of our more qualified and experienced server owners as well as an open format for those like me that just wish to address some of the hidden evils of accepting donations

I don't have much rep power but I am always willing to give what I have to those that provide us as a community a better way of doing things...

Rick

[warsheep]

First of all, please, stop with the ....
after every sentence....
don't you see it gets annoying....
using .... is for expressing a point, not to end a sentance....
and it's not really attractive to read anything like it....

Back on topic, as far as I know, the reason the devs of Ascent got annoying because
of donation was because it was a store; buy items, buy levels, etc.
Donation rewards are ok, like, donate and get a buff or someting, but as soon as it's

2$: 1 level
5$: 1000g
etc, then it's not allowed.

Chargebacks, would only be a problem if you ran a shop, as far as I know, when you
use the word donation, you mean donation, not a store. However, looking at your next
question, what you mean with donation, is a store.

If I donate to a good cause, I do not expect to get sommething in return. If I was,
that would either be a reward for donating, or actually buying the goods.

Look, if you could run a server, by donations, which not run like a store, I am sure allot
of people would have respect for you. Please, don't become one of those guys who
runs a store off emulation.

[Sounddead]

Warsheep, you, use, commas, too, much. lulz

[Broken Shadows]

Sounddead that was not related to the thread.

[Greed]

What is there to discuss? dont QQ about donations take them or leave them, if people recall there donation, delete their character, solution

[Gunzarles]

Dont use paypal for it. Beyond got like 40k chargebacks that way because of the Instant donation system. Use google and get donation GMs. Slow but safe.

[Sounddead]

Sounddead that was not related to the thread.

It may of not been related to the OP, but it was related to the thread..

But yeah, donations are cool.

[Hellgawd]

Mere donations, rather than a ""Donation Shop"" as they call them, is the best way to go. Not as many people will donate, but the money you get will be legit and no one can bash you for it.

[TheSpidey]

Using donation money for personal gain is the fastest way of becoming a douche. Using donation money solely for the server is just fine though

[Kalash47]

Mere donations, rather than a ""Donation Shop"" as they call them, is the best way to go. Not as many people will donate, but the money you get will be legit and no one can bash you for it.

Using donation money for personal gain is the fastest way of becoming a douche. Using donation money solely for the server is just fine though

If used for legit, then a donation shop is just a way of receiving benefits for donations that are given. Trust me, there have been uglier things in this world than donation shop when misusing software.

Burlex just distorted this idea a bit, and said Donation Shops were bad, bad, bad. Guess who he is coding for now? The premier, the highest and the mightiest cash cow server of them all. I do not claim that they steal donations, but there is no need to worry for your 100 man server.

[TheSpidey]

Burlex just distorted this idea a bit, and said Donation Shops were bad, bad, bad. Guess who he is coding for now? The premier, the highest and the mightiest cash cow server of them all. I do not claim that they steal donations, but there is no need to worry for your 100 man server.

Doesn't make it any more legit or honorable

[Kalash47]

Doesn't make it any more legit or honorable

What's not legit? You don't know what goes on with that money and neither do I.
Donation shop or not.

PS: I think this needs to be clarified. I agreed with your point, I disagreed with Hellgawd. Donation shops can still be used to make money solely to pay for the server.

[TheSpidey]

You suggested that they've been using donation money for illegitimate purposes

[Kalash47]

You suggested that they've been using donation money for illegitimate purposes

I'm not sure what you are referring to, please explain.

What I was talking about was how this whole bloated donations argument really took off around the time that Burlex started ranting on about WoWscape and their supposed misuses of donations. This is when people started to think donation shops are a "bad" thing.

My argument is that donation shops aren't a bad thing. The fact of the matter is, you don't know where that money goes, if you DO find out that it was used improperly, you do whatever you can to make sure this never happens again and that this person is punished for misusing your contribution.

On another note, I like to keep donations as far away from affecting regular players as possible, so stuff like 1000g would really mess things up. Be more creative with your donations - try and make it seem so that regular players don't even know a donation player from a regular player. That is a good idea for donations in my opinion

[volitle]

lol wtf make donation thing seem like they are donated for how the hell you gonner do that people will still ask how did you get that or something like that then they will just go oh i donated.