Thumper Club site funding

[Steve H]

As some of you will know I have been running the club site for some years now, originally it was funded by membership fees and latterly the costs have been covered by Google Advertising revenue. The revenue from Google has declined over the years and going forward I doubt it will cover the costs.
There have been some recent GDPR changes which require updates to how the site displays adverts and obtains consent for data usage (by Google not the club), these changes need to be completed by January, although it would seem the adverts have already stopped being displayed. I started work on doing the updates but have hit a bit of a hurdle, the changes require me to provide a link to the sites privacy policy. Having done a quick search it seems the privacy policy is legally binding and as such you have to pay someone to create one. Bearing in mind the limited income it generates it seems pointless to go down that route.
Which leaves the issue of how to fund the site. The hosting will need to be renewed at the beginning of May next year (2024) and the domain renewed in June. Currently the most cost effective way of buying the hosting is to pay for 4 years up front, the domain is renewed yearly at the moment.
4 years of hosting is currently £141.60 and the domain £13 for a year. So all in that would be £200 (ish) which would secure the site for 4 years.
So the first question is
- Would the current membership (as a group) be prepared to donate to keep the site running ?
- Would someone be prepared to volunteer to collect the money ?
Thought please

P.S please do not turn this into a debate about GDPR

[Ian]

Steve, you have done a magnanimous job in keeping the site going as long as you have with very little support. I for one would gladly pay a "subscription" to keep it going. £200 seems very little for a 4 year term.
As you are probably aware there is a "hard core" of people who use this site but I feel it is invaluable to a lot of people.  I would like to see how many are genuinely interested in keeping this going and as the Stafford Show is only a couple of weeks away, it would be a good opportunity to discuss and guage feelings for it.
I will do whatever I can to keep it going.
Ian 👍

[Moto63]

Hi Steve. Yes can I please echo Ian’s words and thank you for running the site as you do 👍
I too would gladly pay a subscription fee to keep it going.
Thanks, Michael

[Itsme]

So it isn't magic pixies who run the site?

Great job Steve, sorry I've not met you. I would also pay a subscription or make a one-off payment, whichever is best, to keep using the best forum around.

Ian

[themoudie]

Aye Steve,

Thank you for your hard work and notification of the impending loss of advertising revenue.

I would agree that spending your time and effort on updating the site, so as to conform with the revised GDPR (The General Data Protection Regulation is a European Union regulation on Information privacy in the European Union and the European Economic Area. The GDPR is an important component of EU privacy law and human rights law, in particular Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.) for rapidly diminishing advertising revenues makes no sense.

Yes, I would be prepared to make a donation to keep the site running.

Collection of monies? Is this where we avoid the GDPR, but fall foul of some other legality/liability for funds? I am not sure and would prefer to work on trust. Needs some thought, before jumping up and down shouting "Me Sir, oh please Sir!", if you understand?

Would a donation bucket at the Staffs Show be possible?

Is it possible to use a "Pay per View" system, like TV? So that the latest months (30 days) or other time period, is only viewable by subscribers.

The latter is very much an off the wall suggestion and if its baldocks, I understand.

Thank you again for your contiued time and effort to keep the comfy chairs and the shed roof from falling in. 

Good health, Bill

[Steve H]

Collection of monies? Is this where we avoid the GDPR, but fall foul of some other legality/liability for funds? I am not sure and would prefer to work on trust. Needs some thought, before jumping up and down shouting "Me Sir, oh please Sir!", if you understand?

Bill,

Cheers for that. Its not a legality issue, its more that my interests have moved and my time is spent on other things so feel it would be better if someone else took ownership of collecting the money.

Steve

[iansoady]

I too would be happy to contribute. This is a great forum.

[xbally]

And me. On the Ducati Monster Owners' Forum they have been selling off regalia and / or raising funds by auctioning stuff to club members-just a thought something similar might work here?

[tommy]

yes i would be happy to donate    tommy

[andy230]

Steve

Thanks for your efforts.

Yes happy to donate.

Would a just giving link or something similar work?

Or a PayPal address we could all put a few shekels into, and when it reaches the required amount then use that. If it doesnt then I guess too bad, and we lose it??

A

[Ian]

Just had a (very) quick look at members list. Nearly 6 pages of 30 members. Shall we say 40 use this reasonably regularly 🤔. A fiver each.....that's bu99er all for one of the best forums on tinernet.
What do you think? I like Andy230s idea regarding a PayPal account but I think, sorry I know I'm not clever enough to set it up.

[tommy]

just a idea  but could   the site sell club  stickers , stick a few extra qiud on the sticker price for a donation to the site , eee i love a good sticker me .. tommy

[johnr]

ok, im in for 50 quid, tell me how you want it paying.

[Steve Lake]

well. looking at the previous missives there is obviously more than enough positive interest to keep the show on the road.
so, i think Andy's paypal idea has legs ... but as i see it setting up a paypal account requires A) a valid email address & B ) an active uk bank account in the background.  i'm more than happy to investigate further and, if members think it's a goer i'd be happy to set it up and administer it. then it would be a simple case of publishing the accounts on here as and when required.

we could then maybe run various fund raising events (merchandise, auctions of motorcycle bits you don't want any more etc) which can be used to keep the account topped up.

in any event i'm happy to stump up for whatever scheme we settle on, the TC is a great forum and has been extremely useful to me in the past.

and thanks Steve for your past (and hopefully, future) hard work in keeping the TC boat afloat.

[Ian]

Thanks Steve for that generous offer of managing. See you end of next week and hopefully we can have something concrete sorted by then. 👍🏍?👍