Site Funding

[teanndaorsa]

Nothing decided yet, but after saying no to yet another sketchy-sounding affiliate scheme, I thought I would sound out interest in other funding models for the Plaza. Money spent through the affiliates on the index pages pays for all the sites' hosting, but I'd prefer to be beholden to the readers than the advertisers.

To be clear, the site has no funding problems right now, just a lack of free time on my part to process the stories!

[jakbird]

the current advertising isn't intrusive, so no problems there.  I wouldn't want to see anything that appends to the story text, like inserted page footers.  Those are very annoying.  Not a problem in the forum, but it would be a hassle when downloading stories.
  Jack Peacock

[Tigerstretch]

That post triggered mixed emotions in me. I've been on Gromet's plaza since the 90s, so I consider it amazing that it still exists today. That alone is proof enough that the formula works and I don't want it to change.

Thaaat said, I had a successful patreon and GP supported me a lot in this adventure and helped my success. So, I would feel guilty not to support a patreon option. But I need to put my rational hat on for a moment because of my personal experience with Patreon.

Patreon quickly turned into a second job for me. That's pretty much what it takes if one wants to pull serious revenue from that platform. Also, the biggest part of my revenue were from a handful of people, and its because they wanted to support my brain specifically, not various styles. People wouldn't have paid if they hadn't received precisely what they wanted to read(specific series). Asking people to support the site without providing a return on the investment is not a winning strategy on Patreon imo. What I'm saying is that I'm not sure what GP would have to offer if they want to pull this off in order to finance its operations. There has to be an added value or I cannot see this being worth the pain and effort.

I'm not saying this to sound negative. I'm just trying to put something constructive on the table.

[mari0]

If I could add to this. I found that subscribing to multiple Patreons to keep things running was difficult. Don't mind doing it it was just that I'd rather pay lump sums. So please if you go for a Patreon could you set it up so I can pay up front like 50 euro's and then cancel my patreon? That way I can do it when I have the means. (a bit like Wikipedia's annual contribution drive?)

[marp]

I think the ads as they are now are not an issue at all. I'd even be OK with there being a few more of them as long as they are not placed in an overly intrusive way.

I'd also strongly prefer this awesome site to be utterly self-sufficient (future-proof) instead of having to rely on a system like Patreon plus subscribers.
Maybe offer a Patreon in addition for those that want to support the site additionally and use the additional(!) earnings not to fund the basics of the site but to fund improvements and new capabilities.
I.e.: Running/operational costs via ads and Patreon for enhancements.

Personally, I do not do Patreon for three reasons:
(1) My porn habits are intended to be a distraction, not a full-blown "hobby" that I'd pour money into.
(2) I dislike Patreon as a vendor, I do not like some of their policies, at all.
(3) They had multiple security breaches on very serious, and it was handled quite badly.

[teanndaorsa]

Thanks everyone for their thoughts and feedback. I didn't reply earlier because I didn't want to lead anyone's opinions, but it's good to know some reasoning behind the poll answers too.

My sense here is that I'm the only one the adverts really bother. I suppose that is something of a relief in that I had a niggling worry that people were enduring annoying ads and I was doing everyone a disservice by not offering other possibilities. But it sounds like most people are either tuning them out entirely, or find their presence at worst inoffensive.

I'm conscious that the set of adverts we do have is slowly shrinking as sites go offline or cancel their affiliate programmes. I presume that Gromet put a fair amount of attention into maintaining the affiliate sites and the contents of the links page; I've not been doing that, focusing more on the story submissions. But at some point I'll have to bite the bullet and go hunt out some more, which will be new for me as by and large I'm not a consumer of the sorts of sites we link to. Still it is probably less hassle than trying to get a Patreon set up and maintaining it!

So, feedback taken on board, and things will continue as they are. Thanks all.

[TeaSer]

Sorry for not being here very often. And honestly I didn't notice any commercials/advertizing - except perhape the one of charlottebondage? Is that a paid advertizement? I think of it as a kind of service

If you do need money to run the server please simply find a way we can pay - and ask for the amount needed. Personally I'd go as far as $50 or the like as a onetime payment. But I do not leave my creditcard information available to just anyone.