Are there any benefits to the contributor (besides getting extra karma points) for donating to AD?

Perhaps if there were some perks, it might entice more people to donate.

Yes, there are.

The reality of the situation is that we prefer members not donate specifically for extra enhancements. We think we offer a quality service, and with that comes value.

Right now, we are preparing to switch over to an automated donation manager. We expect to make the switch in a month or two. It will allow us to provide different feature enhancements for different levels of donations. It will also allow us to accept donations from several different sources, such as PayPal and 2Checkout.

Here are the current account enhancements:

• Sponsor icon under name
• Name appears in purple in online list.
• 98% larger avatar, up to 90x90 (from 64x64), and double the file size allowance.
• Increased Personal Message storage: from 100 to 250
• Multiple PM recipients: Send PMs to up to 5 members at a time.

Here is how we use the donations:

• Hosting and Bandwidth Overages. We make every effort to keep our costs as low as possible. With our bandwidth usage escalating every month, our costs increase proportionally.
• Annual Domain registration. We maintain ownership of americasdebate.com, americasdebate.net, americasdebate.org, and americasdebate.us.
• Annual Software License. We purchase a license for our software (Invision Power Board) from the developers. While the software itself is free, this license gives us priority support for technical issues and acts as a token of our appreciation as well. We are preparing to purchase a lifetime license in the coming days.
• Postage and Supplies. When we send out bumper stickers, we use funds from the America's Debate account. We also use donations for a post office box.
• Savings. We anticipate needing a dedicated server to handle the high load and traffic generated by America's Debate in the near future. This will raise our costs substantially, from the hundreds of dollars per year range to the thousands of dollars per year range. We spend conservatively and are saving as much as possible in preparation for this.

Speaking for both Jaime and me (it's ok, I asked), we extend our sincerest appreciation and gratitude to those whose donations have helped make this possible. And to those considering donating, please do. Every dollar is wisely spent, or wisely saved to secure the future of America's Debate.

Mike

We have added a new feature to be used in combination with the forum for those who donate.

Gradient Text!

You've seen the staff use it, and now sponsors can use it too!

http://www.americasdebate.com/gt

Enjoy!

Mike

Question


I donated in Feburary. If i send in money now (tonight) will my donation signature be changed to NOV. or will it stay feb any my donation color(purple) and everything else just be removed in Feb.

I am in favor for "no extra perks" for members' donations. Some forums are going private with monthly or yearly membership dues paid up-front...and some of the memberships are rather pricey!

We can't even begin to realize how much effort and time is devoted to the operation and maintenance of AD...not to mention the expense, patience, diplomacy, and just pure raw nerve that is required.

So, I for one will contribute what I can and as often as I can to support AD and keep its membership FREE... and in appreciation for the high quality content, management, and expectations!

Guess you can tell I'm hooked and addicted to AD and in less than a week!

We do like to give little "perks" to those who help pay the bills. We offer it as a token of our gratitude.

Our welcome page lays out our position on charging to participate at the forum pretty well:



Rest assured that there will be no mandatory fees for membership at the forum at any time in the future.

Mike

Mike do you have any leaflets or anything that I could distribute here in the UK. I am at university and know a lot of people that might be interested. You know how anti-American some lefty students are! I love your site and would love to become a component in increasing its popularity.

Maybe you can start a GBDebate. They have already started Canadians Debate. I don't have the link but maybe if we do a seach we can find it.

As in another website, or a part of this forum?

Its a different website but it looks just like this one. Maybe we could start one for a few nation and get together and chat once in a while. But by all mean have your friends join this forum until there is a GB Debate. BTW I'm still looking for the link. I know it's in the tread with opinion about the new look, but I can't find it.

Eureka I found it.
Canada's debate
Wasn't the thread I was looking for but it will do. After taking a look at it it look like it needs some publicity. Maybe we ought to register it with google. I typed in Canada's Debate and got a website about weed, and most of the members look oddly familiar.

Hi Paul.

No, we don't have any leaflets to distribute. I'll send you a bumper sticker for you car, though.

Right now, we grow exclusively on word of mouth (and there's lots of it) and outstanding search engine rankings.

We have basically taken the position that people should find us because they're looking for us, not because we ask them to look at us. We promote quality over quantity, and to that end, we would rather have 100 well written, consistent members than 100,000 people who heard about us from source x.

As for Canada's Debate, that is UltimateJoe's project. He started it a month or two ago, and is working hard to boost its usage. It is definitely worth joining if you are informed on Canadian politics (which I personally am not ).

And as for the Google listings for Canada's Debate, it's under control. He's #2 and #3 for "Canada's Debate" with a PageRank 3 after only a month or two... that's pretty good progress for an index that updates once a month. It took us about 3 months to even get listed (with poor results, at that).

...and not to rain on anyone's parade, but.... please continue the Canada's Debate discussion in another topic.

Mike

Thanks for your swift reply. I agree entirely with your sentiment, which is why i really like this site, Too often there are bafoons, who type rubbish and turn good debates into pedantic garbadge. Here, this is not the case and there are loads of great members which prove it.