Attention: Growth of BTF

[Saleem]

Friends!
BTF is growing every week, which is a great thing. It is also a bit of a stressful thing for me and our hosting provider, who is insisting based on our usage that we need a higher tier of hosting service. As some of you noticed, the server was down this afternoon and a bit last night, due to BTF's spiking traffic.

I am currently discussing options with this provider and shopping around elsewhere, but it comes down to the fact that mid-tier VPS hosting can get expensive. While we are in a 'probationary' period with this host, I must keep CPU usage at a minimum-- you'll find some of the peripheral features (Media Center, Gallery, etc) are disabled. Attachments are also currently disabled. If not the other features, I hope to have Attachments back on by the weekend/Monday.

While the people who bought the BTF shirts love them, unfortunately several people have not paid me or received their shirt, and I have a net negative $60 from these shirts (not joking) (including the $15 I paid myself).

I run BTF out of my love for this dance and support of this community. However, with this growth and increased demand for resources, we need your help and the help of sponsors. A sponsorship package is coming out. Please let me know if you know any local or online vendors interested in advertising.

Sincerely,
Saleem

 

[zagreus]

I'm gonna be donating money to this cause! YAY for paypal!

 

[pritpal94]

Wait until I get a credit card, Ill put at least $8 a week.
I love you BTF so much and we can't afford to lose it.
DONATE PEOPLE!
Pritpal.
:-*

 

[Gurvir]

what if you got a few more people to advertise on the site and we just clicked on the adds to give them views and stuff a whole bunch for like a whole week....make it like a ad-click-a-thon

 

[Saleem]

what if you got a few more people to advertise on the site and we just clicked on the adds to give them views and stuff a whole bunch for like a whole week....make it like a ad-click-a-thon

We would be banned from Google's ad program for spamming/manipulation of the system

 

[Gurvir]

what if you got a few more people to advertise on the site and we just clicked on the adds to give them views and stuff a whole bunch for like a whole week....make it like a ad-click-a-thon

We would be banned from Google's ad program for spamming/manipulation of the system

awwww man

 

[yraparla]

a lot of sites set up a monthly goal for donations and have a status bar so you can see how much is needed etc. Also setting up a donations tag similar to the post names is sometimes helpful.

I know it's lame an all but whatever works. As soon as the server was down for a couple hours and came back on with a donate button... I figured it was a money thing. There are over 1000 members, if even 1/10 of that donates reasonably this should work.

 

[Basim]

a lot of sites set up a monthly goal for donations and have a status bar so you can see how much is needed etc. Also setting up a donations tag similar to the post names is sometimes helpful.

I know it's lame an all but whatever works. As soon as the server was down for a couple hours and came back on with a donate button... I figured it was a money thing. There are over 1000 members, if even 1/10 of that donates reasonably this should work.

Those are great ideas that Swi suggested and you can see several thousands of forums that use that same/similar strategy.

1) A target donation amount should be set and expected time needed to reach the goal (also listing the consequences if the goal is not meet).
2) A donation "meter" should be linked your Paypal/bank account to monitor the status of funds.
3) There could be random drawing (for a certain prize) which would encourage people to donate money.
4) Donators should also get added forum perks.. maybe a special section of the forum, maybe customized Ranks (instead of "Jr. Member," "Full Member," etc), maybe the ability to change your username a few times, if you can get a "search" feature for the media center.. the ability to use that could be a perk of donating, etc etc.

Just throwing out random stuff I've seen sites implement in the past when they need funds.

~ Basim


EDIT: More random ideas... if you work with Kinnell to host the team database on btf's servers (and link the site to the datebase), then possibly limiting this to the people that donate. Also, if someone is super good at making signatures/avatars.. he/she could have special section to make these for donators. Maybe a similar section for donators, where people wanting a mix with certain songs could get their requests fulfilled.. there could be a "BTF Mix Team" whose job is to make mixes for people to their exact speficiation/liking.

Most of these ideas would require the cooperation/active participation of certain members though (i.e. volunteers would be needed for the signature/avatars team & the BTF Mix Team).

 

[Saleem]

what if you got a few more people to advertise on the site and we just clicked on the adds to give them views and stuff a whole bunch for like a whole week....make it like a ad-click-a-thon

We would be banned from Google's ad program for spamming/manipulation of the system

awwww man

However what would help, for Firefox users, is if you have Adblock Plus enabled-- please disable it on bhangrateamsforum.com. thanks

 

[zagreus]

what if you got a few more people to advertise on the site and we just clicked on the adds to give them views and stuff a whole bunch for like a whole week....make it like a ad-click-a-thon

We would be banned from Google's ad program for spamming/manipulation of the system

awwww man

However what would help, for Firefox users, is if you have Adblock Plus enabled-- please disable it on bhangrateamsforum.com. thanks

Fine! I'll only turn it off for THIS site only! Don't ask for anything else

 

[Vick]

over/under in days of when this website goes down for good and we all have to resort to POL all over again? Pritpal instead of making payments weekly, just write him a fat check for $416 bucks... That should cover the bills for a couple of months...

 

[Saleem]

over/under in days of when this website goes down for good and we all have to resort to POL all over again? Pritpal instead of making payments weekly, just write him a fat check for $416 bucks... That should cover the bills for a couple of months...

BTF will not go down for good, Vick. I'm arranging for a new hosting package; I'm discussing it with several hosting companies to get a good pricepoint. Checks for $416 are very welcome

 

[pritpal94]

Lol me $416, sorry guys... I don't get paid that type of cash...
Give me another 3 years and you will get around $8/$15 per week Saleem aka God.

Pritpal.
:-*

 

[Basim]

$8/$15 = $0.53 cents per week!

What a cheap skate you are Pritpal!!






Only jokes. I am sure you meant $8 to $15 ($8-$15)/week.

~ Basim

 

[zagreus]

$8/$15 = $0.53 cents per week!

What a cheap skate you are Pritpal!!






Only jokes. I am sure you meant $8 to $15 ($8-$15)/week.

~ Basim

i only give 11/12 dollars...
hahaha

 

[pritpal94]

Yeah I meant $8 to $15 per week Basim

 

[MundeNyDe]

Can i send money By Mail Lol. I have no credit card

 

[Saleem]

Can i send money By Mail Lol. I have no credit card

You can hook up Paypal to a checking account but yes if you want to send by mail PM me lol

 

[pritpal94]

Man I was thinking about sending it by mail instead but there's no point because I live in UK and half the money might go towards shipping

 

[pritpal94]

When are attachments back. I'm really missing them :'(