Donation System - Pledging - Ect

[ngsilver]

I know there has been talk about revamping the donation system. So I figured a thread to discuss just that would be good as well. I know we should think about perhaps how the donation system should be changed, re-worded, made easier, ect. So let's do that.

I have more ideas, and I'll post them when I have time. However, I wanted to put down what got me thinking of this topic. Reminders.

Basically, right now there isn't any reminder system setup to remind a donator that their status is about to expire (that it's been a year since they last donated). I realized this because as always happens to me, I log in and whoops, I can't view the donators forum. I'm like huh? Check my donation stats, and find that yup, it's been a year. So I then go through the process and donate again.

What I'd love to see, and it's a feature I'd love to see now, is a reminder of some type, be it a PM, email, announcement (like the one that apears on the members main menu when you pledge but haven't paid), that let's you know that your donators status is about to expire and then gives you a direct link to renew. Perhaps the timing could be 2 weeks before it expires.

I know I have payment reminders all over the place. Like for my domain and hosting I'm reminded via email 1 month prior that I need to renew. Magazines do it. So, as a way to help remind people that they should donate perhaps it'd be a good idea to set up a system like this.

[dokidoki]

There is one.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members/alerts/edit.php
But it's affected by the problem that's blocking email from getting to certain users.
(dero hasn't replied to my PM last week about it)

[dreamawake]

I move we get rid of the fucking donors forum and just bring back OT, seriously.

[godix]

My first suggestion would be to set a minimum for donor features that actually covers the orgs costs. Last year there was a donation drive IIRC because the regular level of donations at $12 a year just doesn't cover it. So run the numbers and raise that $12 to whatever is actually needed.

Secondly, just ditch the entire stupid pledge system. All that's really needed is just a simple 'have you donated, yes/no' system. The pledge stuff just makes it all a giant mess.

I'd like reminders as ngsilver mentioned, but as doki pointed out that's a different issue entirely actually. However, it's default could be set to make a new alert on the front page, send you a PM, and send an email. Well, perhaps not all 3, but there's more ways of alerting someone than an email.

The rest is cosmetic. It's been awhile since I've seen it, but IIRC the donation note for downloading videos, pledging, etc. is a massive wall of text and overly complex. It should be shortened, simplified, and directly mentioning some of the benefits to donating. Perhaps that's been done, I dunno, like I said it's been awhile since I've been a non-donator.

[Knowname]

Donors forum lol. How much more appropriate

[Nya-chan Production]

My first suggestion would be to set a minimum for donor features that actually covers the orgs costs. Last year there was a donation drive IIRC because the regular level of donations at $12 a year just doesn't cover it. So run the numbers and raise that $12 to whatever is actually needed.

It might be just the opposite - lowering the minimum might bring more people to donate which can actually bring more money.

But that would need some serious looking into.

[godix]

My first suggestion would be to set a minimum for donor features that actually covers the orgs costs. Last year there was a donation drive IIRC because the regular level of donations at $12 a year just doesn't cover it. So run the numbers and raise that $12 to whatever is actually needed.

It might be just the opposite - lowering the minimum might bring more people to donate which can actually bring more money.

But that would need some serious looking into.

Look at the experience of Radiohead, NIN, and other web release experiments. When people are given the choice of downloading the music and paying whatever they think it's worth, even if it's just a penny, the majority of people still choose to pay nothing. There's probably a variety of reasons, complexity of micropayments being a big one, but still, when given a choice of what to pay many will pay nothing at all regardless of what you do.

The other factor is that by setting a lower limit on donations, the site is sending out a signal that is all it needs. I'm willing to bet that a look at donation stats probably would show that $12 is the most common amount given. It's not because we users want donator perks and that's the minimum, it's because that's what the org indicates is all it needs from us. We do not have any info on the financial aspects of the org. So when we decide to support the site and give what would be a 'fair' amount for our use, we have no idea what that amount is. The org has always told me that amount is $12, so that's what I go with.

On the org, people can get what they want for free. Donating is a feel good thing to support the site mostly. The perks are nice and all, but I doubt they are a major motive of donation for most people. So if you lowered donations, experiments done by some bands show it probably would not increase the number of donators all that much. Not enough to cover the fact that me, and many people like me, would also lower our donation amounts since the org would be saying it doesn't need a full $12 from us.

Long and short of it, if you need $20 or whatever per donating member to keep the site going without an occasional pledge week, tell the users that.

[BasharOfTheAges]

I thought the minimum for all perks except the donator's forum access was $1, not $12. Did that change? I had friends that used to donate $1/year to get rid of the annoying buttons and wait time for downloads.

[SQ]

I know this is super late, but I want to show my support for this.

Here's my suggestions:

Get rid of the "pledge warning" entirely
Members have been saying this for years. I don't understand why it hasn't been taken care of already, to be honest. The page it tl;dr, too confusing, and too intimidating. Just do away with it.

If you must have an 'intermediary page' for downloading/streaming, make it short and simple
Word it like this:
PLEASE DONATE!
This side runs only because of users like you who donate. Even just $1 will help to provide the hosting we give (though we suggest a $X donation). You can donate through: [direct link to paypal here], as well as [whatever other options are available now].

If you cannot donate right now, you can also make a PLEDGE[link to pledge page here] to donate. This is simply a promise to say you will donate soon. Please consider helping the .org! Thanks!

[proceed to download/stream/whatever page link here] or learn more about donating [possible link to the old pledge/donation pages with confusing graphs and stuff here]

Completely revamp the donating and pledge pages
I would personally like to get rid of the pledge system entirely but being as it has lived on for years and years, I'm going to assume that whoever's in charge wants it to stay. So be it.
Make them easier to understand. Right now it's still really confusing and frankly, if I'm giving money to a site, I'm doing the site a favor. Why should I have to work to give you money? That's counter-intuitive.

"Make a donation" link on front page should actually link to a page that, you know, LETS you MAKE a donation
Right now it links to the make a pledge page. If you have to have pledge pages, offer it as an alternative, not the primary.
There are some people (like me) who have money now and want to donate now. Why is there no info on making a donation RIGHT NOW? Shit, is it that hard to be like "Send paypal donations to XYZ address." You wouldn't even need to actually link it in any official manner and it would still be 1000x easier to make a damn donation.
Sorry I'm getting so heated about this, but seriously-- I've been on this site since 2002 and I KNOW this specific issue has been brought up AT LEAST once a year and it still hasn't been changed.
Frankly it's almost as if the .org doesn't want money. Wtf.

Raise the suggested minimum
+1 to everything Godix said.