Will you Donate for a new Shout Box or Chat?

[HippyInEngland]

Hello

I have a suggestion, its worthy of consideration, a lot of people on this site hugely miss the shout box, it was used for quick morning hello's and simple stoned banter, it was a way of letting people communicate freely and quickly, a place where new people could come and say hello, a place where talkaholics live and a place where quick questions get quick answers without starting a pointless thread just for a 3 word reply never to be used again, the shout gave a lifeline to lonely people who could feel safe and comfortable with like minded adults, it had become an integrated part of the forum, a thing that let this site stand out above others, people are leaving this site and joining other sites because of the importance of interaction verbally (ok typing) in real time and not waiting for hours for someone to reply to a thread, thus my suggestion .....

If Admin charged $1 to join the site and asked all current members to pay $1 it would pay for an upgraded server and the shout could come back, people who refuse to pay can still use the site as guests, and only paid members could access the whole site, shout included (guests can see the shout but not join in), a 'donation' of $1 per year is not a bad idea, no spammers would pay to spam, banned members would not keep paying $1 to come back just for a rant then get banned again, im fully willing to 'donate' $1, $1 is a gesture of willingness to help the site out and the 'donation', we could word it as a 'donation', to further the education of future growers (thanks Banjo :aok: )

All comments welcome, your thoughts are welcome, pro or con, I dont think the Admin realise how important the shout became.

[crozar]

good idea but still , if its 8 $ it would be better

[smokybear]

I think that's a fantastic idea HiE. I would definitely be willing to donate a dollar or two a year to use the site. It would allow us to upgrade the servers and get a new shoutbox on the site. It is sorely missed and it would be great if we could get it up and running once again. I believe this would also help to keep underage people from visiting the site since they would have to pay to access the full site features. Hopefully something like this is possible. I anxiously await word from the mods. Hopefully the mods and MP can figure something out. Just my thoughts. Take care and be safe.

[snuggles]

he only thing that worries me is the Paypal. Another site I used to frequent had something like this, pay $5 and get access to the elite stuff and paypal shut it down, froze the account.

[MarPassion]

That's very generous of you guys that you can miss $1 big dollar for this site ;-)

The thing is, a new server is not only more expensive it's a big job to move it too. It's going to cost me something like 200 euro a month which equals 2400 a year. That's Euro, so that's about $3600 that means we need 3600 members paying $1. Oh but we forget that the merchant account wants at least 15 cents and 15% of that amount. Then I pay 50% tax on the income I receive hmmm not much left anymore for a shoutbox lol

A chat thingy on this forum makes the site vulnerable and it slows it down. I will look into it and might be able to find a solution. Until then we won't have a chat on this forum. A good thing is that it stimulates forum activity on the site.

[smokybear]

Hopefully the site will keep attracting new members and maybe one of these years we will have the base to continue growing and changing. Just my thoughts. Take care and be safe. Thanks for clearing it up MarP.

[trillions of atoms]

then we will have to send five....

im down...anyone else?

[slowmo77]

me to. small price to pay.

[warzone]

i could drop 5 billz a year on this thing i can even throw som traffic out there for u guyz on my other forumz (include u in my signature n wat not. should bring alot of other cool people to this site. alot of my friends r stoners and like to try and grown sit back n chill type people we should all start reffereing to "good" friends. should bring alot of good people in a month or 2.

[Hick]

only 747 more willing members needed. Speak up folks..
I'll keep count. ;)

[slowmo77]

this thread should to be where everyone can see it. i almost never come this far down the page.. the coffee table seems to get alot of traffic or i guess it does. the more people that can see it the more support i think we'll get.. just my thoughts.

[Puffin Afatty]

:hubba: even $10 isnt that much to pay for some folks, eh. I could even start a collection, yeah that's it. everyone on the internet send me $10, that would do it, yep, I think it would. lets see now, we need a safe place to send the cash. hmm, how about to a safe account in the grand camans. I'll look into it. or what about if we just get an account in a pot friendly country. Still, I kinda like the idea of everyone sending me $10, but I gotta hide SnowWhite better I think... :rofl: :rofl:

[Hick]

this thread should to be where everyone can see it. i almost never come this far down the page.. the coffee table seems to get alot of traffic or i guess it does. the more people that can see it the more support i think we'll get.. just my thoughts.
I'll give it "sticky" status for a couple of weeks, AND move it to the coffee table. We can see where it leads. Will that work for you's?? ;)

"I" cannot speak for MarP'. And will not say that even if the funds are raised, that he will be willing to do the laborous task of changing servers. But I'm interested in seeing where this goes. How many will "say" they will donate.

[Sebstarr]

I'd do it. I think in addition to the charge of 1, 2, even $5, we could also just have a link to donate, so those with the cash aren't even limited to the joining and yearly fee.. I for one wouldnt mind paying even $10 a year, that's little to nothing for me, i mean i would only just spend that money on sweets and junk! :)

[warzone]

Wurd up what he said yo

[KingKahuuna]

Yo Ho,

I understand about the transfer load, and no offense intended, but the incentive of all your friends and buds out here, and their willingness to pay is too great to describe. When you see them all in action, and the donations pouring in, I'm willing to bet you will be moved by it.
Count me in, and if others here need a hand with coming up with a few dollars I'm there !!
So let's get this happening, talk is cheap, I just love action, ya know what I mean ?

smoke in peace
KingKahuuna

[IllusionalFate]

Count me in as well. $5-10/year is a very small price to pay to have this community and resource at my fingertips at all times.

[annscrib]

im in ill pay what ever it is,,,,im always buying games from pogo and im in the club so if it can bring back the shout box ill pay what ever it is that is needed

[AlienBait]

I, too, would not mind paying a couple of bucks to help out, but I think you will lose memebers. The regular users of this site see the value and don't mind paying, however since there are so many other MJ sites out there that don't charge, I think the vast majority of new and potential members will choose to go another site that doesn't charge.

Just my opinion.

[MarPassion]

Ok I added a poll to this thread so we can see clearly how many would support for a chat.

This forum will always be free but we can give paying members more privileges then regular members. Like a chat, a bigger pm inbox, browsing the forums invisible, own forum and other cool things things we can come up with.

It would be good to hire a proffesional and get this forum installed on a highly optimized and amazing fast server. That would be a dream :-)

So, lets hear your vote.

[Growdude]

I would love to donate but have we come up with a secure way to do it?

[Hick]

I would love to donate but have we come up with a secure way to do it?
..Aahaa!.. yet another "fly in the soup"... :rolleyes:

[godspeedsuckah]

I really like this site, I would donate for it. I have never used it, however, it seems to be a hot topic and everyone seems to like it......alright, im in.

[IllusionalFate]

I would love to donate but have we come up with a secure way to do it?
Paypal seems like a good option.

[Growdude]

Paypal seems like a good option.

Doesnt seem like a good idea, someone will have to recieve my pay pal info and that leads to my front door.

I would feel better just sending cash in the mail.

[HippyInEngland]

With Paypal the sender and buyer swop details, the Paypal account would need to be made fake both ends, after £500 has been fed into a Paypal account they run checks and make the Paypal account holder become verified, I presume this is the same in the US, a better option would be for MarP or someone MarP knows to open an account (if secrecy is an issue or safety etc) and we could pay into the account with pre paid C/C or go to our local (or out of town) bank and ask them to wire cash to an account, or here in the UK go into any bank branch and ask at the desk for a payment slip to pay into an overseas account, every problem has a solution (im not saying this one is it :rofl:), do not ever think your stuck in a corner with no escape.

[Ilikebigbuds]

on my web site customers have a choice of using "yourpay"

or printing out a form and mailing payment to a PO box.

plus - I never worry about using my CC when purchasing seeds from out of country....

I dont not care for pay pal.

and I would joyfully pay $20- a year to be a member of this site!:D

[Runbyhemp]

I personally don't care about the chat box myself. I only used it on a couple of occassions. However, I did vote that I would pay $5 per year. Peace RBH

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

We would have no problem giving up $20 or more dollars a year for this great place. ;)

[White Widow]

I'm a bit skeptikal that this is only about a shoutbox, after all a shout box is FREE! I own the same type of vbulletin forum and it's as free for me as it is for the owners of this site. Furthermore I'm very skeptical because this thread was not created by staff from this site, mind you an admin should be asking these kind of questions. I don't like chatbox and/or shoutbox!!! NO NO NO bad idea in my oppinion!

I don't like having to pay for access because I find that it's hypocritical. In essence this site has so much content because of people opinions, that they gave this site for FREE! Now you will charge the same people that contributed to the site? Or better yet, you make money from the people that contributed the site by asking for money to the people that join?

Forcing someone to do something is a very bad idea!

The only reason there's this much content is because people can find you easily with google. The only reason you can be seen with google is by having access (publicly, the site must be crawled by googles search engine!) to public areas. Thus if you restrict access to content, you shoot yourself in the foot.

Another reason why I'm against this is because it creates 2 tiers of people. The elite (the few people that can and/or want to pay for it) and the rest of the people that you don;t care about. :(

I love this site the way it is because of the way that it is. This seems like a business (when charging money) as opposed to something fun that's cool to follow up on.

Let people donate if they wish, but leave it @ that or better yet honor them in a thread of appreciation and mention it in a newsletter or something.

[HippyInEngland]

Furthermore I'm very skeptical because this thread was not created by staff from this site, mind you an admin should be asking these kind of questions. I don't like chatbox and/or shoutbox!!! NO NO NO bad idea in my oppinion!

.

Correct, I started this thread after many chats in member posts and it culminated in me writing this post and putting it in the site suggestion 'Box', the suggestion has been moved to the coffee table for more exposure, as for your comment on the shout saying in your opinion its bad, well thats exactly what it is, your opinion and everyone is entitled to an opinion, your new to this site (5 days old), you have no idea what happened before you arrived :)

Welcome to the forum :aok:

[THE BROTHER'S GRUNT]

Hey WW why would you have to pay for access to the site? Who would be forcing you to donate?

NOBODY!

This site is FREE and will always be FREE for our members. This is a poll that's all that's it. This would not only include the shoutbox but a upgrade of the entire site as well if i'm not mistaken. I'll have MP chime in just to clear things up with you that have a problem. ;)

[Dubbaman]

This site is FREE and will always be FREE for our members. This is a poll that's all that's it. This would not only include the shoutbox but a upgrade of the entire site as well if i'm not mistaken. I'll have MP chime in just to clear things up with you that have a problem.


This forum will always be free but we can give paying members more privileges then regular members. Like a chat, a bigger pm inbox, browsing the forums invisible, own forum and other cool things things we can come up with.

It would be good to hire a proffesional and get this forum installed on a highly optimized and amazing fast server. That would be a dream :-)

So, lets hear your vote.

right out of the mans keyboard its-self ;) as for me i like Runbyhemp didn't use the chat box too often, though it was sometimes fun to sit and see what others were talking about ;) or who :giggle: i can see why it is missed it was faster than having to reload a thread to see if there were new posts and such. I also voted that i would donate to the site if need be there just are not other MJ forums that come relatively close to being as chill or safe as this one and if its a faster server and more memory that we need then so be it ill contribute plus as it was said an exclusive area for these members sounds like a reward for participation in the donation process, not a elitist huddle to keep others out.

[ChatNoir]

I would donate a web space.

[MarPassion]

WW, the thing with the chat / shout box is that is takes a lot of server resources thus making the site slower for browsing. I'm not a professional webmaster, I started this site as a hobby, so excuse my abilities to run this forum /site. I feel I need expert advice / help to optimize the server and get the most out of it. The host I have now can't even help me with it so I'm stuck with it now. They told me it's not possible to update MySQL and PHP version on this server, that's why I cannot update the forum software.

I still have a contract with the hosting until 2009, so still about another year which cost me 120 Euro a month to run.

My personal opinion is that we have enough server power to handle the current load but i think some settings on the server doesn't allow us to take full advantage of the server and that's why it's slow sometimes.

I need expert advice to optimize ther server or information what would be best to do. These guys are expensive so, that why this whole donation thing came up. If we want to move further it will cost money. A new hosting will cost extra money because i have to pay still the current one until 2009.

So, lets hope that explains it a bit to you all.

Thanks for all the people that are willing to donate. That's cool guys.

[tcooper1]

Count me in!!!!!..I MISS THE SHOUT BOX and would pay to have it back.I liked it for the 'good morning coffee'.....

[IllusionalFate]

With Paypal the sender and buyer swop details, the Paypal account would need to be made fake both ends, after £500 has been fed into a Paypal account they run checks and make the Paypal account holder become verified, I presume this is the same in the US, a better option would be for MarP or someone MarP knows to open an account (if secrecy is an issue or safety etc) and we could pay into the account with pre paid C/C or go to our local (or out of town) bank and ask them to wire cash to an account, or here in the UK go into any bank branch and ask at the desk for a payment slip to pay into an overseas account, every problem has a solution (im not saying this one is it :rofl:), do not ever think your stuck in a corner with no escape.
No credit card or financial details are made available to the receiver when using Paypal, so where exactly is the risk?

[trillions of atoms]

Forcing someone to do something is a very bad idea!

woah woah woah waoh waoh.... slow down dea' scoota'! no one is forcing anyone to do anything. no need to blow this out of the water.

the monies will be for a secure shout/chat and better features is all.

[trillions of atoms]

No credit card or financial details are made available to the receiver when using Paypal, so where exactly is the risk?

its paypal freezing the accounts....havent you heard about paypal? if they even SUSPECT that it might be illegal then they have the right to seize all monies. been putting alot of pipe sellers, bubble bag sellers etc on ebay out of business with no dough

[slowmo77]

thats so nuts. whats next gonna charge me with talking about mj across state lines. one wouldn't think that just talking about something online would be a crime. i can see the head lines already. Internet Site charged with possesion of knowledge with intent to distribute. nuts just nuts. JMO

[IllusionalFate]

its paypal freezing the accounts....havent you heard about paypal? if they even SUSPECT that it might be illegal then they have the right to seize all monies. been putting alot of pipe sellers, bubble bag sellers etc on ebay out of business with no dough
That's completely different as that's about purchasing illegal products using paypal. All we would be doing is transferring money to a person, Paypal isn't going to magically know that "Jim Smith" (plug any name in there) runs a LEGAL cannabis discussion forum.

[trillions of atoms]

ok, then lets put it into your name....

[trillions of atoms]

and pipes and bubble bags arnt illegal. thats the thing!

[Growdude]

That's completely different as that's about purchasing illegal products using paypal. All we would be doing is transferring money to a person, Paypal isn't going to magically know that "Jim Smith" (plug any name in there) runs a LEGAL cannabis discussion forum.

I see what you are saying but Im not worried about "Jim Smith" what I am worried about is can LEO find out I "Me" sent "Jim Smith" money and then find out who "Me" really is.
Ive posted alot of grow pics on this forum and I would have to know there was no way anyone would know where the money came from.

[Roken]

Sounds good to me, I've unfortunatley missed the live chat and think it would be a great addition to add. I think at 5$ a year its still a great deal for all the knowledge this site contains. But we should also think about how many new members we would'nt get if they could'nt access all the cool parts of this site. Something to think about, count me in on the idea guy's!! Peace and love!!
Roken.

[White Widow]

Hey WW why would you have to pay for access to the site? Who would be forcing you to donate?

NOBODY!

Point taken, but read the first post, especially the first sentence and tell me how it looks? Tell me it doesn't look like he is not asking for 1$ for access!?!

[quote=HippyInEngland]Hello

If Admin charged $1 to join the site and asked all current members to pay $1 it would pay for an upgraded server and the shout could come back, people who refuse to pay can still use the site as guests, and only paid members could access the whole site, shout included (guests can see the shout but not join in), a 'donation' of $1 per year is not a bad idea, no spammers would pay to spam, banned members would not keep paying $1 to come back just for a rant then get banned again, im fully willing to 'donate' $1, $1 is a gesture of willingness to help the site out and the 'donation', we could word it as a 'donation', to further the education of future growers (thanks Banjo :aok: )


2 tiers ... Elite and the people you don't care about!
First sentence of the original post prooves my point

your new to this site (5 days old), you have no idea what happened before you arrived :)

Welcome to the forum :aok:

More elitism! How do you know that I'm new to this site? Because of what it says up there ^^ ROFLMAO. What if I have another account and I just lost my password and don;t have access to the email I registered with? Hmmm what if ... I have several accounts because I rather keep several projects separate to not be tracked so easily! ;)

Me being here 5 days ago or 5 years ago has no bearing on this conversation. I'm here now and your asking about a presently discussed topic! :rolleyes:

What I didn't like is that you make it seem like money is needed to get a shout box. That's a separate topic then donations. I'm actually not against donating but what I am against is having to pay for other peoples opinions. We aren't for the most part scientists with degrees in growing weed. We just say what we think is right leaning on past experiences and hope it's the right information. If everything remains free, then I would be glad to donate. If you give perks to donating like access to special areas and content, especially if it's content that was created with peoples opinions I think it's not right to make money off of that and it's not a donation anymore. Let's say it like it is, it's then paying for access.

Also, I don't appreciate some people trying to flame me a bit for being the devils advocate. It needs to be said and I bet allot more people feel the same but rather not say it because they might feel like people will be harsh on them. Me well, I'm ready so I'm not gonna get pushed over for saying what I think is right.

Sorry home slice :cool:


>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

WW, the thing with the chat / shout box is that is takes a lot of server resources thus making the site slower for browsing. I'm not a professional webmaster, I started this site as a hobby, so excuse my abilities to run this forum /site. I feel I need expert advice / help to optimize the server and get the most out of it. The host I have now can't even help me with it so I'm stuck with it now. They told me it's not possible to update MySQL and PHP version on this server, that's why I cannot update the forum software.

I still have a contract with the hosting until 2009, so still about another year which cost me 120 Euro a month to run.

My personal opinion is that we have enough server power to handle the current load but i think some settings on the server doesn't allow us to take full advantage of the server and that's why it's slow sometimes.

I need expert advice to optimize ther server or information what would be best to do. These guys are expensive so, that why this whole donation thing came up. If we want to move further it will cost money. A new hosting will cost extra money because i have to pay still the current one until 2009.

So, lets hope that explains it a bit to you all.

Thanks for all the people that are willing to donate. That's cool guys.

Now this! is brilliant!
Thank you for explaining the position the site / host / and the current situation. I understand more were your coming from.

I have a few suggestions which you can implement yourself which will utilize less resources thus the addition of a shoutbox shouldn't make the site abnormally slow.

I would also suggest to not get "stuck" and/or feel "stuck" with this situation. What I would do is complain. I would complain, complain complain complain. Every were I could but mostly were it would hurt the most. To who? Ah well, this is a legitimate site, which you own and is your property's. NEVER let someone treat you differently. That said, I would talk to the host again. If the hosts doesn't listen, get in touch with his/her supervisor and go up the ladder until the situation changes. If that doesn't work I would complain to my local better business bureau. I would host pages with my complain and make it visible to google. You have a good position so lot'sa people will see it which should shame them into giving you better service/support. If that doesn't work I would post it on all the hosting forums I could find including digital point which is one of the leading forums discussing hosting.

Lat but not least I would ditch this **** hosting ASAP! I would procure a VPS were you have full root, in essence the whole server is yours thus your not limited to anything but your imagination. You can purchase one fr 30$ a month with 30GB of space and a silly amount of bandwidth. Move the site. But how I'm broke? Ah! now we have to get creative. Give something back to the people for there funds ... write a short ebook about your experience being a weed wed master, sell it for a 1$ you know. There's tonnes of stuff you can do bro, raffles, 50/50 lotteries, It's limitless all you gotta do is sit down, Smoke a good spliff think about it for awhile and the ideas will flow. I usually get the best ideas for my online projects when I'm in the washroom lol, blazing a spliff. Always keep a pen and paper in there just in case!

The point is, Your not alone, but you do need to be creative. You creating this site was you being creative, don;t let it stop there. :)

[Mutt]

I think MarPassion has clearly answered his stand point on this subject and it is time for it to close. He is the owner and has final say.
THREAD CLOSED