First off, let me just reassure everyone that there are no urgent issues with any of this at present....so don't panic folks!

This thread is really just to look at/discuss/decide on the various options open to us all for the future.

The crucial stuff is already sorted and in place. The site hosting set-up itself for example doesn't need to change...indeed to do so would be costly and unproductive, as InnoHosting are no longer offering the competitive deals they were six months ago when we took this one out. Psketti and myself have discussed it, and have agreed that its best all round if she just sticks with this one. InnoHosting will continue to bill me, and I'll just pay the bill on her/the forums behalf...all good

ok, donations towards the running costs of the site. At present, the paypal donate button on the site is linked to a paypal account in my name, and I'm more than happy to stay with that. If the community would rather me not do so however, then a different paypal account in someone else's name can easily be linked instead, no problem.

Please rest assured that any donations made here via that button will ONLY be used towards the running costs of SZ...the TZ site is funded totally seperately and independently of this one.

The various possible best ways/methods of donating towards the running costs of the site will need to be decided on at some point in the future, but for now, as I said above, there is no urgent issue or problem.

andyh has kindly paid the whole server bill for october, and I will continue to cover the costs myself from november onwards as I have already pledged to do, if there are no donations made or if there is a shortfall.


There is another possible option for funding the site that the community might want to look at and possibly vote on - advertising.

Advertising banners (like the ones you see on the DIF for example) were something that myself novum and frog decided against from the start...frog in particular simply wouldn't entertain the idea....so we haven't really looked into the finer details regarding them and how much revenue can be made from them. But basically the advertisers pay on the basis of 'traffic'...ie how many people they think are going to see them. Who knows, SZ could possibly show a profit from displaying ad banners.

So, a serious forum policy issue to be decided on there - and I would personally vote against them. Ethical reasons apart, they're annoying and look shite

Anyway, thanks for reading and please discuss. Perhaps this thread would be best being moved to members area once any non-logged-in ,members have had a chance to see it here in community chest

Advertisings an absolute NO from me too and I won't entertain the idea either.

psketti wrote:
I thought you would say that sketti, and I agree with you 100%.

In fact, its one of those decisions that you have the final say on as site owner, for obvious reasons.

So forget me suggesting that one as being up for vote people.

I think that a contribution to make sure you aren't out of pocket seems more than fair DG.

I don't have a credit card but I'll look into buying cards in stores that let you shop online or whatever.

I think if it was a choice between the forum ending or advertising then we should pick the latter, but we should explore every other possible avenue first.

Ads are better than the site closing.
Contributions are a lovely way... cept for those of us who have no bank accounts no credit cards, we would have to figure out a different way.
Could also do a fund raiser type thing, sell muffins or something to raise money.

wake_up_bomb wrote:
tbh, I'd rather put my hand in my pocket than have ad banners all over the site...and I bet most others here would too.

We certainly won't be having ad banners on TZ, ever, full-stop.

How soon does the chart on the front screen get updated after a payment's been made?

Oh, and goolies to ad's, in my humble opinion.

StarsChildren wrote:
Someone could do a 'forum grow'...

Gilly wrote:
It has always been updated as soon as we spot the payment has been made gilly.

What happens is, as soon as someone has made a donation, paypal send a confirmation email to the enquiries@sanctumzone address and also to my personal hotmail address. Then I pm frog, and he manually adds the amount donation to the totaliser.

Lol... that could work too... we could pick people around the globe to grow for the funding of SZ

How much is the monthly server bill?

jhado wrote:
It is charged in dollars - so depending on the current exchange rate can vary slightly month to month - but it usually works out roughly around £18 to £20 per month. (there are other associated costs too - that is just for the server bill itself)

We are currently looking at possible ways of reducing that figure somewhat however.

if we cant find 25 quid a month between us we dont deserve to have the chance of a place like the sz.

Hmmm adverts wouldn't bother me, that said I doubt you'd get much from showing them as no-one would be clicking on them.
Unless there's enough to be made from page loads perhaps, I dunno.

i think the thing to do is adopt a when in rome attitude.

get the advertising online, then we start a forum war against every single conspiracy theorist that sells their info to pay dem bills......the gazillion page views alone will mean that by this time next week every single sz member with an active share can donate a grand to the pompey suporters trust and help free the most noble of clubs from the grips of the globalist criminals.

dubmeup wrote:
lol

If a dozen of us put in £10 each, then that would be £120 covering us for 6 months and get us well past the meter below.

I understand if that is a lot for people on very limted incomes, but it is a one-off until May.

And if you are on a very limited income then tat is fair too cos I am sure we can manage to spread that contribution around the rest of us.

I do think that if you HAVE got the money and your posts rate into the thousands like mine, you should think about it.

Tell me if I am going too far.

First off I have absolutely no issue with dg keeping the finance stuff in his name and am actually really thankful that he is still prepared to take it on.

Secondly am more then happy to contribute just need to know where to send a postal order to - ads are a definite no from me - its refreshing to be on a site without them.

ok an update on the hosting costs.

Its good news from where I'm sat - because it turns out that under the present InnoHosting deal I have, both SZ and TZ can be run on the same server at no added cost - just as long as the monthly bandwidth allowance isn't being exceeded, which for now at least, it isn't (bear in mind that that could change in the future however).

So basically that means two forums for the price of one - a buy one get one free kinda deal. And for the november bill that is now due, that's how I'm going to play it, as its me who is paying it.

This set-up effectively halves next months server donation target for SZ.

But ultimately its upto Psketti and also you the membership here to decide if you wish to continue sharing hosting in this way in the future, or if you wish to take out a new independent (and more costly) hosting deal for SZ.

*edit* Psketti is ok with shared hosting I think...but don't quote me on that lol