A Land Far Away

I have an idea. Again.

I propose that we pay our members for their effort and I propose we do this by using "Flattr". The idea behind Flattr is to show support to what someone has created. It is mainly used in the blogosphere but I see no reason why it couldn't be applied here as well.

How it works is that you setup your account and decide how much money you want to spend on content other people have created. For this example, let's say that $5 a month is where you are comfortable. Now, what happens next is that for each time you click on a "Flattr"-button, you evenly distribute those $5 between all your clicks. The payout is once per month and after that, you refill your balance. If you are inclined to add $10 or $15, then that works as well.

How I see that this can benefit the community is that instead of using Paypal, we can use this, it can help with hosting costs and other potential infrastructure costs. But most importantly, it can show our DMs that we appreciate them. Every time you've had a good time in a DM-event, you click their button and they get a peice of your monthly pie. And the best part is that it's not a fixed amount, you want to spend $3 a month on this, you can. Or if you want to spend $30, that works too. And it doesn't just go for DMs, it could be used to pay scripters for their hard work, it can be a way to show appreciation to a player with whom you had a great time.

It is built on the prinicple that you don't just share content with eachother, you share money. And you share what you can, not what you must. Crowdfunding at its best!



Anyways, read more on http://www.flattr.com

I like this idea. buy me a beer someone, please!

I note donations are anonymous.

I am a bit torn because this might only add to feelings of entitlement as opposed to appreciating contributions with reciprocal contributions. Voluntary as the payment may be. Also would this show who pays how much? Which has questionable implications as for the way to get (DM, builder, etc) attention. Our members certainly have vastly different financial means ranging from professionals/business owners to students and everything in between. On the other hand, maybe it's fair, some people have more time and no money and some have vice versa?

t-ice wrote:Also would this show who pays how much?

From their FAQ:

How does the extra donation work?
These donations are a direct donation to a flattr user. The donations are received together with any revenue from flattrs. Donations are default anonymous, but you can change this in your settings.

Nah.

I appreciate most people here very much already!

If an AFLAcon China ever appears, i got the first round.

werd t'ya mudder

But b00m, yer wiked ol'man w00t etc

It's not major money moving around here. If I buy someone a six pack for tooling an entire server, why not?

Shit I should pay Acadius's power bill. If we each threw him 25 cents a month great.

It is worth noting that there is a bit of a reserve in the ALFA piggy bank if any server hosts do have bills that need paying.

I'd be in.

Totally joined this with Booms Help.

Account name is: Zilvai

woopdeewoop

I'd only support this so long as it is noted that this is voluntary and considered a pat on the back. The second anyone feels entitled to this, either a reprimand, or a shutdown of the service.

This is a very slippery slope.

Helping our hosts with thier costs, defently yes, just say the word.

Paying our DMs (unless in a way that says X monies for Y hours devided evenly) i'd say defently not.
It doesnt smell right.

You wanna appriciate your DM, be nice and try not to whine/yell at them too much.
That would be more than enough.

I'm all for buying beers for your friends-- but if you'd like to do that, buy beers for your friends. "Hey, I'm buying you beers, where can I send them!" seems unlikely to produce shock or horror, with the advantage of being harder to quantify than actual currency and lacking the quirky set of psychology that people wrap up in money. And we live in an age of Internets-- you can have beer show up on anyone's doorstep. Hell, you can probably have them delivered by an attractive person in naught but a thong if you want.

Wasn't dergon trying to text people pints overseas a few months ago, in some service he saw at a pub? That is cool.

Rumple C wrote:It is worth noting that there is a bit of a reserve in the ALFA piggy bank if any server hosts do have bills that need paying.

I doubt anyone has bills, but it would be cool to divide some cash amongst the hosts. The electricity to keep a server running 24/7 is not trivial.

Here is a test of various systems:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2668/2

yearly costs ranged from $128-752 depending on configuration.

Yes AL I am trying to get you a check, you can thank me later.