# Supporting the Forums



## Null (Jul 4, 2014)

Hi,

The forum's web host has been pulled from my tab and is now sitting on a PayPal account.

*What this means*

The future of the forum is now more heavily leaned on to our staff.
If the account runs dry, the forums will likely be closed unless I decide to pay for things myself.

You may contribute $2.50 monthly, or $20 once to the forum by donating through this page.
http://kiwifarms.net/account/upgrades

This entitles you to a special "True and Honest Fan" banner, + access to a Supporter forum that is visible only to other contributors and staff. This board has no intended purpose but it's hidden and therefore important.

Our bill is a modest $40 a month, $11 a year. This may increase with traffic.

Should we raise more money than is required to meet ends, the remainder will be used to buy and frame Chris' drawings used to buy Jace weed saved in the account in case at some point in the future it is needed.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a webhost, I strongly suggest using Linode. They're great. If you buy a server from them using this link, I get kickbacks, so do that.
https://www.linode.com/?r=a45975c205eab4330aedf315c7005b7e450771cb

Thanks.


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## Null (Jul 4, 2014)

Big props to @Saney for being the first person, and also verifying that XenForo's donation feature works properly.

I've also unlocked the thread. Lynch mob starts at the dotted line.


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## TL 611 (Jul 4, 2014)

die null


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## teheviltwin (Jul 4, 2014)

I have a shiny banner... I will add it to my privilidge check list.


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## Dr. Meme (Jul 4, 2014)

I think this is a good idea. Can we get a large donate button on the sidebar of the main page?


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## Judge Holden (Jul 4, 2014)

ACTUAL FOOTAGE OF NULL: LIVE FROM TAMPON BAY FLORIDA


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## littlebiscuits (Jul 4, 2014)

I  did the thing


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## He Sets Me On Fire (Jul 4, 2014)

Let me free up some things and sell a couple pints of blood.  I'll kick in something.


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## Dr. Meme (Jul 4, 2014)

Do you accept C-Quarters?


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## OBAMATRON (Jul 4, 2014)

i love you guys


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## sparklemilhouse (Jul 4, 2014)

What about a tiny one time donation? I just sold some shit off ebay.


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## Ariel (Jul 4, 2014)

Done!!1111


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## TL 611 (Jul 6, 2014)

I say if we get considerably over a years hosting funds we should do something cool with the extra money for the people who donated. Dunno what tho


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## Mauvman Shuffleboard (Jul 6, 2014)

Or we can be responsible and save it for the intended purpose.


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## Pinhead (Jul 6, 2014)

Melchett said:


> I say if we get considerably over a years hosting funds we should do something cool with the extra money for the people who donated. Dunno what tho



Hire them some hookers AW YE


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## Null (Jul 6, 2014)

Melchett said:


> I say if we get considerably over a years hosting funds we should do something cool with the extra money for the people who donated. Dunno what tho


We've reached ~$320 in raw funds with 7 recurring payments, one shy of the 8 required to keep the servers running without incurring additional expense. If none of these recurring payments drop by the end of the year, we'd only spend $41 of that $320... which has already been collected from ad revenue since March.

I've asked Katsu to look into a CPU upgrade from Linode, because that's where our box is bottle necking.

I posted this elsewhere, but because of the overwhelming response I feel somewhat obligated to keep things going smoothly.
My plans for this weekend are:

Fix the forum rules mod that broke with the last XenForo upgrade (it's why the Deagle Nation board lost its rules).
Upgrade the server to something with superior CPU to help with prime time bottle necking.
Any additional requests should go in the previous suggestions and updates thread.

This feels like it contradicts the whole "not being apart of shit" idea, and it does to an extent. I'm still letting others manage community decisions, but Katsu doesn't want shell access so any of the stuff I just mentioned falls on me. The only options here are: I do it, or it doesn't happen. I'd feel less guilty if I didn't have people literally throwing money at the forum to keep it up.


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## EI 903 (Jul 6, 2014)

Null said:


> We've reached ~$320 in raw funds with 7 recurring payments, one shy of the 8 required to keep the servers running without incurring additional expense. If none of these recurring payments drop by the end of the year, we'd only spend $41 of that $320... which has already been collected from ad revenue since March.
> 
> I've asked Katsu to look into a CPU upgrade from Linode, because that's where our box is bottle necking.
> 
> ...



Thanks, Null.


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## Pinhead (Jul 6, 2014)

We appreciate the effort, Null. Thanks.


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## CatParty (Jul 6, 2014)

Thank you null.


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## Holdek (Jul 6, 2014)

Melchett said:


> I say if we get considerably over a years hosting funds we should do something cool with the extra money for the people who donated. Dunno what tho


We could send Chris a care package with Legos, in their name.

More seriously though, they could be donated to a charity, maybe one of these since it's Chris-related: http://theautismsite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/aut/partners



Null said:


> This feels like it contradicts the whole "not being apart of shit" idea, and it does to an extent. I'm still letting others manage community decisions, but Katsu doesn't want shell access so any of the stuff I just mentioned falls on me. The only options here are: I do it, or it doesn't happen. I'd feel less guilty if I didn't have people literally throwing money at the forum to keep it up.



It doesn't have to be all-or-nothing.  You could just reduce your role to sysop, doing technical stuff, and otherwise just hang out and have fun like regular members, and let admins handle more of the community stuff.  That way you can enjoy the project aspect of the work without having to deal with any drama headaches.


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## I Will Consider That (Jul 7, 2014)

If twenty bucks can keep this shit going then I am so in.  Seems a better investment than a Chris photo.


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## AnchuentProphecy (Sep 22, 2014)

I had some spare money in the bank account and decided to donate. If there is any problems or you dont see the payment please message me.


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## CatParty (Sep 22, 2014)

AnchuentProphecy said:


> I had some spare money in the bank account and decided to donate. If there is any problems or you dont see the payment please message me.




I have not received payment yet


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## rocket (Sep 22, 2014)

$2.50/month?  eh what the hell, sure

ps die null


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## Holdek (Sep 24, 2014)

CatParty said:


> I have not received payment yet


I sent you a gift subscription to Christian Mingle.  Please confirm.


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## ThatGuy (Sep 26, 2014)

Payment sent.


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## Null (Nov 17, 2014)

In pursuit of frivolousness, I've added profile covers to premium user's pages.

Visit your profile to upload a picture. See mine as an example.


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## babaGAReeb (Apr 20, 2015)

anyone you suckered into paying for this site counts as a lolcow


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## Curt Sibling (May 29, 2015)

Been really enjoying life at the farm, so sent forth my 20 bucks.


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## KatsuKitty (May 30, 2015)

The Horrifying, Semper Fidelis, and DRINK ratings are supporter perks. If you are missing them, they can be obtained by making a donation.

If you do not have them after donation, please PM Null.


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## John Daker (Jun 24, 2015)

Can  you get memberships for people who aren't you?


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## Null (Jul 3, 2015)

John Daker said:


> Can  you get memberships for people who aren't you?


I'm really late to answering this, but --

Send $20 to null@kiwifarms.net via PayPal.
Specify the username it should go to in the comment or whatever.
PM me to let me know you did that.

Alternatively, you can use BTC.
https://www.coinbase.com/jawsh


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## OBAMATRON (Aug 17, 2015)

What happened to the whole supporters thing? I seem to remember giving null $20 to support the site.


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## Ruin (Aug 18, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> What happened to the whole supporters thing? I seem to remember giving null $20 to support the site.



Dear leader used it to buy Diet Coke and fedoras.


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## OBAMATRON (Aug 18, 2015)

Null said:


> This entitles you to a special "True and Honest Fan" banner, + access to a Supporter forum that is visible only to other contributors and staff. This board has no intended purpose but it's hidden and therefore important.



Lets settle this like men.


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## Null (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> Lets settle this like men.


I'm not going to give you anything.

If you use my website and the privileges earned by supporting to harass me, my staff, and my users, I will revoke your privileges. If you weren't completely lifeless with infinite capacity for making alt accounts, I'd ban you as well. Even Foulmouth, A-Stump, and John Crowley eventually learned when they aren't welcomed.


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## HG 400 (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> Lets settle this like men.



Why are you such an autistic no-life faggot?


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## EI 903 (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> Lets settle this like men.



Foulmouth, A-Stump, and bgheff had friends. If you were banned and didn't come back literally no one would give a damn. You're one of the most pathetic people on this site who doesn't have a thread, and every time you post this place gets slightly shittier.

Kindly fuck off to your own forum.


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## bearycool (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> Lets settle this like men.



I'm sorry, we don't accept the use of your mom's credit card on this site! Please try again with your own allowance money.


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## Dr. Boe Jangles Esq. (Aug 19, 2015)

Probably a dumb idea, but has the option of tier rewards been considered? I know it's controversial, but I'd wager there are people who really love this site and who could be willing to donate generously in the interest of its continued operation. I'd be willing to kick in if I have a little extra cash regardless, but even something as simple as a trophy or something for the people who support it more frequently might be useful to maintaining future contributions. I know that sounds like a shill job, and I wouldn't recommend anything major. The Kickstarter model is the wrong way to go, just some form of minor perk for the diehard supporters. The cover photo thing is a good example of this.
Just an idea. I love this site and would hate to see it go. Tiered incentives for regular contribution might help keep to things running as opposed to one-time donations. Having even a small group of people willing to contribute as little $5 a month seems like it could really help keep things running smoothly.


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## CatParty (Aug 19, 2015)

why is $20 breaking the bank for some people lol


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## Null (Aug 19, 2015)

Dr. Boe Jangles Esq. said:


> Probably a dumb idea, but has the option of tier rewards been considered? I know it's controversial, but I'd wager there are people who really love this site and who could be willing to donate generously in the interest of its continued operation. I'd be willing to kick in if I have a little extra cash regardless, but even something as simple as a trophy or something for the people who support it more frequently might be useful to maintaining future contributions. I know that sounds like a shill job, and I wouldn't recommend anything major. The Kickstarter model is the wrong way to go, just some form of minor perk for the diehard supporters. The cover photo thing is a good example of this.
> Just an idea. I love this site and would hate to see it go. Tiered incentives for regular contribution might help keep to things running as opposed to one-time donations. Having even a small group of people willing to contribute as little $5 a month seems like it could really help keep things running smoothly.


I don't have a way to distribute rewards, really. Being a supporter does only a few things.

- Gives you access to 3 ratings that can easily be substituted with 'free' ones.
- Gives you access to a subforum that is mostly off-topic but a bit cliquish.

Like, how do I level this out? If I was going to be greedier, I would look adding more cosmetics. For instance, in NoXiousNet, a Gmod host that made their own mods I really liked, the guy who owned it allowed people to spend $2.50 on a vanity card. You could apply this to yourself and get a fancy name, or apply it to someone else and give them a fancy name. You'd have to wait at least 2 weeks before removing a namecard

_Problem with that_ is it clutters up the site. I try to keep shit real fucking clean. People don't have signatures, there's no author information on the left-hand side besides username and title, lucky charm icons are fade-out until you hover over them to see what they are. I enjoy this kind of asthetic. There's no noise, and making it so I could make Connor's name rainbow and give him the title card "FAT WHINY FAGGOT" kind of diminishes that glamour. Facepunch also does something like this and I really, really don't like it.

The alternative is to lock away features so that only people who pay can use them. This causes two additional issues.
- People who don't want to pay are instantly upset by this. As a child I grew up playing f2p MMOs and I know that feel too well.
- I am then _required_ to provide a superior level of service and support for those features. I don't advertise the fact I will allow supporters a @kiwifarms.net email address because I fucking _suck_ as a mailhost and I've had to reformat the mailserver like 4 times in a year in a half.  If I start saying, "Hey, this _awesome_ feature is for you if you support the forum", then I must make sure that that feature operates well enough that it is worth paying for, and that is called a "job". I don't want the forum to become my job.


I kind-of like how it is now. It's pretty quaint and it's done its job; the forums are almost completely self-sustaining right now. If I made it so that you could opt in to contribute _more_ per month on top of the 1-time payment with no additional award, I believe a few veteran users would do that (and it would probably be worth it), but considering the forum's instability at the moment I do not feel it is appropriate to ask for more money.


In short, I have an immense reverence for finances and I consider asking people for payments something that requires a serious level of thought and care.


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## HG 400 (Aug 19, 2015)

Null said:


> I don't have a way to distribute rewards, really. Being a supporter does only a few things.
> 
> - Gives you access to 3 ratings that can easily be substituted with 'free' ones.
> - Gives you access to a subforum that is mostly off-topic but a bit cliquish.
> ...



Let people buy their enemies emails and IP for an extra 20 bills.

edit ; and an infodump of all their private message for 30.


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## AP 297 (Aug 19, 2015)

Dynastia said:


> Let people buy their enemies emails and IP for an extra 20 bills.
> 
> edit ; and an infodump of all their private message for 30.



Oh my god, the dox threads that exist in that extremely exclusive $30 forum are incredible. There are threads there that would blow peoples minds.

Also Dyna, I probably should not mention this here, but I hear(I won't confirm) there is a thread about you on the Platinum forum. They have pictures...


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## HG 400 (Aug 19, 2015)

SunLightStreak said:


> Also Dyna, I probably should not mention this here, but I hear(I won't confirm) there is a thread about you on the Platinum forum. They have pictures...



@Null shut up and take my money!


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## OBAMATRON (Aug 19, 2015)

Dynastia said:


> Why are you such an autistic no-life faggot?


Why are you?


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## OBAMATRON (Aug 19, 2015)

Null said:


> I'm not going to give you anything.
> 
> If you use my website and the privileges earned by supporting to harass me, my staff, and my users, I will revoke your privileges. If you weren't completely lifeless with infinite capacity for making alt accounts, I'd ban you as well. Even Foulmouth, A-Stump, and John Crowley eventually learned when they aren't welcomed.


I offered to settle this. It seems you'd rather pout like a baby.


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## HG 400 (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> Why are you?



Vaccines.Why are you?


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## DuskEngine (Aug 19, 2015)

Would you give me supporter benefits if I donated to infinitydev? PayPal is an asshole about Indian accounts.


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## Null (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> I offered to settle this. It seems you'd rather pout like a baby.


I don't know how many different ways I can tell you "you're not getting your money back". You gave me $20 a year ago and had access to these things for months. To come back now and try to start a fuss over that money when it's been allocated to server expenses is pathetic and transparent. There is nothing to settle.



DuskEngine said:


> Would you give me supporter benefits if I donated to infinitydev? PayPal is an asshole about Indian accounts.


If you'd like. Attribute the donation to "DuskEngine" and PM me when it's done. Just be aware that these donations do _not_ go into the forum piggybank and go into my piggybank.


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## DuskEngine (Aug 19, 2015)

Null said:


> Just be aware that these donations do _not_ go into the forum piggybank and go into my piggybank.



Is there any difference between the two (your own budgeting decisions notwithstanding)?


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## Null (Aug 19, 2015)

DuskEngine said:


> Is there any difference between the two (your own budgeting decisions notwithstanding)?


I don't spend anything in the forum piggybank on anything else.


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## AnOminous (Aug 19, 2015)

Null said:


> _Problem with that_ is it clutters up the site. I try to keep shit real fucking clean. People don't have signatures, there's no author information on the left-hand side besides username and title, lucky charm icons are fade-out until you hover over them to see what they are. I enjoy this kind of asthetic.



I enjoy this "not sucking up all my computer's resources."  Xenforo is kind of a pig as it is, and with an older computer, my "go to New Posts and open every single thread I'm remotely interested in in a new tab" method of reading would be less tenable on my older machines.

Less is more.


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## OBAMATRON (Aug 19, 2015)

Null said:


> There is nothing to settle.


There absolutely is. I paid for supporters status.


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## Null (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> There absolutely is. I paid for supporters status.


You lost your status when you got banned. I'm now thread banning you. Please forward complaints to Encyclopedia Dramatica in the future, thanks.


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## Lacquer Head (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> There absolutely is. I paid for supporters status.
> 
> *(USER WAS THREADBANNED FOR THIS POST)*


MODS = GODS


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## Null (Aug 19, 2015)

Lacquer Head said:


> MODS = GODS


@Alan Pardew did that, don't look at me.


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## bearycool (Aug 19, 2015)

OBAMATRON said:


> There absolutely is. I paid for supporters status.



Just because someone pays for a privilege, doesn't mean it can't be taken away.  If you act like a bitch, you're going to be treated like one.


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## DNJACK (Aug 20, 2015)

I remember when Null asled me why I didn't donate to the farms. I was "banned" a couple days later.


bearycool said:


> Just because someone pays for a privilege, doesn't mean it can't be taken away.  If you act like a bitch, you're going to be treated like one.


You're such a fag. When you don't wan't to deal with someone it's the least of things to cut the ties clean.


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## Zoobles (Jan 11, 2016)

@Null are you still getting Linode kickbacks with that refid mentioned in the OP with the server move?


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## kittie (Apr 11, 2016)

Hey where did the donate button go? I want to donate
edit: I'm dumb, it's under account settings


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