Donations.

[Melkor]

Mahz, will the guild accept donations at some point, if it doesn't already?

[Hank]

On the topic of donations, from his Dev Journal:

<Snipped quote by Robeatics>

No need. I'll be putting ads back up soon. They pay for the server. Thanks.

@Mahz

_{credit goes to the search function to allow me to find this quote}

[Mahz]

I have no plans to accept yall's hard-earned money right now.

Since the guild is self-sufficient from its ad revenue, I think the next milestone is for the revenue to increase to the point that I can afford more and more time to work on it part-time instead of relying 100% on my hobby free-time.

I think there may be some sort of donation system that can be done so that, for example, donating gives you additional privileges over some duration. But the guild's software would need to be much more mature before I'd even begin considering something like that.

[Ellri]

we believe at least a few of those most interested in providing donations are the kind who don't want anything "useful" for it. Some don't even want to be recognized for it, @Mahz. For them, the community and site thriving is reward enough.

We think the best sort of "reward" would be on the level of a trophy. Having functions/features only available to those who donate risks ending up in creating a community that excludes those who cannot afford to donate. Of those able to donate at all, some might also only be able to donate on a highly irregular basis, which would kinda ruin the effect of temporarily granted privileges for those.

In our entirely personal opinion, rather than the impersonal one above, we don't like the idea of the "full experience" of the guild not being free people of all levels of personal economy. Where "regular" computer games, especially the more advanced ones, cost money to buy, the act of writing stories (alone or with others) doesn't. That is one of the best features roleplaying has when put up against graphic games. In principle you can roleplay just as well on a 15-20-year old computer as you can on a €200,000 gaming rig. Same goes with internet connections. Fast or slow, plain text the way PBP RPs are based upon, the load time is never all that great.

[Shienvien]

I agree with the above speaker. A donation system would be nice, but I don't think you should be granted any privileges for it. I don't think creating any kind of tiers - perceived or actual - amongst players is beneficial to the Guild in any shape or form. I personally am one of those people who would rather not even have a trophy for it.

[NuttsnBolts]

Chipping in a few dollars as a gesture of thank you would be fine by me as I'm enjoying the site and know they do need some funding to stay alive.

In regards to thank yous... A trophy is more than enough to hand out. Anything more can come across as a bit of an elitist attitude, but as said above, I wouldn't care if I didn't get any benefits.