Charitable status

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I dont think that would work to be honest people wont pay to be able to do blogs when thewy could go to other websites and do it for free,

no intention of spending my money on donating to WP, have to pay off my mobile phone bill on a monthly basis and that does cost money

good point

Not really because most people know you can write a check for any
amount you want.

Ah, I see the custom amount button.
Cool.

Actually requesting to be able to see a financial breakdown of expenses to run Wrongplanet.net is a reasonable request and honestly has nothing to do with being a "conspiracy theorist". The point is, as a member of a site and all, if Alex wants people to donate to help out, it's not unreasonable for the members to be able to see where their money exactly will be going to instead of blindly making a decision to donate knowing there is no tax receipts and such. Any charitable body should be expected to make their financial information known so people can know their donation is well accounted for and not worry about it being pocketed. This isn't a matter of conspiracy theory, it's a matter of simple sense when donating to any charity. Honestly on the donator site, there is some wording on that page that does make me hesistant to donate myself until I can see proof of how much money is brought in, what expenses there are and how much goes to Alex to "compensate the creator for his time spent making WrongPlanet.net such a great place to visit."?

I like to make reasonable decisions based on provided information so I know that the donation should I choose to make one is going to be used efficiently. Honestly if I ever cared to run a site like this and all, I would never state on a donator page to "compensate the creator for time spent making "name of site" such a great place to visit." If I was going to be doing a site like this for Aspies, I'd be simply stating that we do have running costs to keep the site up and running and while it is hard work, I do it because I enjoy doing it because it gives me a chance to give a wonderful place for people to meet. People if they appreciate the site and the time put into it will donate whether or not that type of statement was put on the page or not. Myself I'd never put up that I as the creator expected compensation, just for me, the compensation is seeing a successful site and people enjoying it. If they enjoy it and have the money, they'd donate. This is all just my honest opinion.

some very good points there Mish

Another thing I forget to add, most people wouldn't donate to a site that they didn't appreciate the creator's time and effort put into it so honestly the statement on there to compensate the creator's time and effort isn't really necessary in order to convince a person to donate.

My only concern is that I'd rather be paying Alex (and any other admins) for services in keeping this place up than giving it all to hosting. In support hours, $280 will not get you very far, and they are sure spending more than that in time in working on this site.

B.t.w. remember this is a global community tax breaks are not the same everywhere. Don't think it is the best reason to start formalising this site into some form of non-profit entity.

I think those using the forums that has a stable job should seriously consider putting in an ongoing monthly donation. Regular small amounts do make sense.

As for making it a "business", I'm afraid with the high rate of unemployment and considering most visitors are probably under eighteen, I think it is a bit wishful thinking. You won't generate lots of business from this site. Unless you get everyone to click on every Google link possible, ten times a day! This is a social investment site. Which means, you ask for money. Now it's time to give.

Thank you all for your suggestions, everyone. I am thinking about all of these things and appreciate the input.

I have to argue with those that say that WP could not be a viable business. I think if done right, this site could be very viable as a business entity. I also say that it should be a business for another important reason. If Alex can turn WP into a successful business, where do you think he will be hiring his workers from? This is especially true for the computer programmers and other behind the scenes. There are many NTs who are making alot of money off of helping Aspies (Gail Hawkins comes to mind immedately). Why should an aspie not be allowed to make some money.

As far as Alex not putting the time into the site, the issue is that I believe that WP has grown beyond the status of a hobby. That is why hosting costs have gotten so high. The site hoster sees this as a business entity now rather than a hobby. Alex is at a crossroads. Try to keep this site as a hobby and try to pay for the costs, or turn it into a business entity. I think the business entity is a good idea because then Alex can build things to the point where he does not have to deal with the issues of the site 24/7 and can put his attention to his interests while he has an income.

There is also the problem that Alex now has items of value to the business world. The first one is the domain name and Alex needs to find a way to protect it. I am sure Alex already knows that or has been told by a lawyer. The 2nd is the copyrights on all of the images. Those need to be protected too.

As in my previous post, WP can become a viable business if Alex concentrates on the 3 points of revenue:

1) Ads - Google ads now has tools that allow you to analyze what ads are effective on your site. Sometimes the difference between Google ads barely paying the bills and Google Ads creating a profit could be one keyword. Yes, this takes time to develop but once developed, it will pay for itself. From what I have seen, this site gets no less than 400 hits/second. If the ads were set up correctly where hey averages 400 clicks/hour at $0.05/click, that would be enough to pay for the site and Alex's time in and of itself.

2) Business Partnerships - There are many companies who make money from AS. Jessica Kingsley Publishers comes to mind immediately. I am sure they would love to partner with a site such as this and I am sure the members would like to have a way to purchase books about AS and at the same time, support WP. Unfortunately, the only aspie I know of so far who can make deals like this (and certainly better than I can) is Alex. But again, once the deal is made and the work is done, a partnership such as this should produce a nice income.

3) Ability to purchase added value item - To those who mention the chronic unemployment and under 18 group for this site, that is fine. Alex can offer them a free site where the ads are shown. However, for those who can support this site, there can be some added value to that support. I am sure there may be parents willing to pay a family rate so that their children can come here without looking at ads or for other added value stuff. The same probably goes for aspies who indeed are employed and earning enough money to pay for the added value.

I do not think WP would become a zoo if it became a for-profit business. I think it would work. You can call me a visionary. You can call me an idiot. However, if a 17 year old girl can build a business from making MySpace templates for teen girls and if Gail Hawkins can make a business out of finding jobs for aspies (earning her money through government agencies on top of that), then I certain think that WP can be a business as a one stop resource for those in the ASD realm.

I have an idea to reduce bandwidth, although it may not be a popular one... you can do away with post counts, and let people choose whatever title they like under their avatar. A lot of people post just to get their counts up, with some working toward the goal of 1000 so they can change their title, and some who just want the highest post count they can get... it leads to a lot of useless, frivolous posts, and each of these posts requires the loading of several pages, plus the page loads generated by people reading those posts...

Firstly I think SEO for SEO’s sake we should be wary of. You have to be careful to generate the right sort of traffic. Just generating traffic to field commercial health sector ads will be the death of the site the majority of visitors just won't be ASD.

There is a difference from the commercial health sector online and support sights. There are some general heath related forums that basically have no real members and no real dialogue, they offer a very poor service, despite being commercially viable.

The running costs are too high now, that needs to be balanced out. It is ok to make a little bit of profit there is no qualms here, that can be reinvented make this better place.

Personally I would like to see some features more geared toward meet ups. Had the first meet up in London recently and it was a great success.

I have some experience with this and I think this is something valuable to offer ASD as the social side is one of our main difficulties and many find themselves wanting to make friends. I do understand meet up from the point of view of not knowing where to start. I also know what works in terms of running one and making it a success. Not trying to blow my own trumpet too much not everyone is a success but I do have some idea. It is not just for me it works best virally, it just needs a good infrastructure to start people off.

What would be good for a meet up section: At the moment people can post their meets in the friendship and social interaction. I put up the meet ups sticky with the help of TM1. That is to enable them to post the basic details of their meet and maybe link to a discussion thread. But I can no longer edit my fist post to feature upcoming meets. But this is sort of deteriorating because it is not easy to follow.

What would work a lot better is have a meets section and to feature the upcoming meets at the top of the page in a set format for the geographical area, etc. Enable people to search through meets based on their criteria. You could make it easy to post the details of a particular meet while making the discussion for it, or they could be subject to approval before they get featured.

I would be happy to do this mod if it was wanted. Could set up an example so you can see how it might work. I wouldn’t be put off by the number of posts to start with. From experience on an anxiety site meet sections can pick up. It can get up to several meets a week and that is just in the UK and even trips abroad being organised, things can get burred so it does need to be managed a little, that is the idea with the feature. By its nature you want it to keep it clutter free. It would not be like the random discussion section.

This is more what I mean when I used the word zoo, demeus. It's just typicaly me, I know what I ment and think everybody else does too.

The list of those that have made money off the net is large, I just don't see the need to generate huge sums. The basic structure of WP works, all I'm trying to say is, don't mess with what works. I know a kid on the street corner that made way more then 17000 dollars. He's younger then your example. To use others as proof is foolish without showing the ones that didn't. And that list is probably larger then those that did. I just honestly don't see a need to attempt something that might not be needed to begin with. I still say keep it as simple as possible. Put the money in a bank account, draws interest, show the checks, Alex's credit rating goes up and draw some money for time. Maybe I'm being naive in this, I do that too.

As to the last part of your statement 0_equals_true, I do think Alex already let a little of what he might be seeing for the future. 2 servers opens some real potential for trying new things. But first, would greatly improve what is already in place.

It is easy for me to dream of things that might be. Haven for example. In the game WOW big guilds use voice software, more then one can talk at a time, they have rules to govern it, keep it from everybody trying to blurt out at the same time. In the Haven a small group discussing real time by voice would be great. Often times a voice can convey things a written note just can not. Another off shoot would be just general chat. But I dream. It's already happening else where and it's just a question of time before it's more widely used in standard packages.

But again to your last point, more computer power does open some doors. I do think what is now here, needs some help. And one step at a time. Need to walk before you run.

I have pressing bills as well, pleased to hear, a costum amount was added. I can do more at another time.

Someone will be unhappy no matter how it is set up. It's just the way it is. Lol, I'm sure some are unhappy with what is here now. Or maybe were, is the better world. If they're that unhappy, they know where the door is. I can show them.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=42521&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

The above thread is on charitable giving by aspies. Not alot
data in it but certainly the idea of "I would give if....." is present. Though the premise of that thread was more alot of aspies have such low empathy the idea of giving voluntarily for anything is
likely a foreign concept. I made that thread to prove most the people arguing in the PPR on the topic of religion/non-religion
in reality like arguing the issues but when it really comes to
demonstrating their self-righteousness IRL they do very little.

The number of people who can give (likely aspies are a poor demographic on average) and who will ever want to give is a
very low amount.

Is there any technical support needed? I have a decent bit of experience with administrating forums, PHP, MySQL, etc.; I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm happy to look over stats and stuff to see if there's any way to reduce the load, and at least buy some more time before the two-server split happens.