Dear Sanctum guys,
Im just posting an IOU atm but will chip in asap.
How much is needed to keep this place running, on a monthy basis I mean?

domathy wrote:
Nice gesture

It works out at 66k a month, so if you send me via paypal £1500 for April and £1500 for May...it will only cost 1k for June if you pay within the next 3 days.

Daavid1 de Abjumba

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daavid1 wrote:
Was thinking more like a tenner a month, but if thats what it costs, then ill xfer the funds now

oioioi wrote:
Because if an issue should arise the protection offered by a credit card is better than if money has been removed directly from your bank account. As far as system security goes there is no difference.

domathy wrote:
I don't have the costs at hand and all the costs so far have been paid by DG for the server and Novum for a one month trial of the new chat system.

As it stands with our current demand on resources the costs are low less than £50 PM.

With the exception of the new chat all the other features have been added using free open source extensions or demo versions. Some of the current features have upgrades which incur a cost or there may be better alternatives which also come at a price.

The on going costs will depend on the features users would like to see added. I mentioned one earlier in this thread, which would allow us to host blogs for members. That would increase the overall cost if the community wanted to have that feature for example.

There is also a possibility that a free feature we have now could at some time in the future be changed to a commercial project, in which case we would need to decide if we wanted to retain the feature and then fund it through the community.

The cost will change depending on how the community would like to see the site develop.

I think the plan is to sort out the funding of the chat system first. The cost of that will depend on the package we opt for and the features we require. Novum should have some details of the costs associated with the system currently on test.

Any contribution is a help regardless of it being £1 or £10, the most important contribution you can make is to just be an active member of the community.

Frog wrote:
I guess it depends on the set up guys.

If one has a debit card as a seperate account, which many are...then you can choose how much funds to deposit in there, therefore limiting how much anyone could ever remove.

If you for example have a debit card account and only keep depositing 1 or 200 dollars in there, if someone got hold of your card and pin, that amount is all they can remove...the bank wont allow the right kind of debit card accounts to be overdrawn. Your exposure is only to the amount you choose to keep in there.

Whereas with credit cards, your potential exposure is your entire credit limit if you dont take precautions.

just my 2c

domathy wrote:
As Frog said, we have tried to use open source software wherever possible, including the forum...its why we didnt go with vbulletin for example.

We also think the ideals of some of the developers of the open source (meaning free to share... for those who dont know) align with our own, more so than some of the commercial offerings, so we prefer to support and choose open source wherever possible, and promote it.

These web developers donate their spare time for free to create platforms such as this forum, and support an open, free sharing of information.

With this said, it still obviously leaves us with server/hosting costs as the primary cost, and of course the most important one...no hosting means no site, whereas extras can be done without if needed.

The amount frog has mentioned is about right for the moment. The cost of the chatroom plus hosting/server space. Should our membership grow, obviously bandwith will increase as well as database size....meaning costs will increase also.

Any donations recieved now, (and we have recieved some thankyou to donors )

well they will primarily go to covering the server/hosting costs.

I will mention the chatrooms for a moment also...Having a chat room thats functional for over 10 persons at a time does also have a minimum cost of around 30 USD per month, whether the community decides to go with blastchat or 123...the entry level costs for these are the same.

We have payed for 123flaschat to get it up but as yet havent had the time to configure it to work with the site properly, which we will do shortly...the other one that is working, many users are familiar with it.

Having a chatroom that can support over 10 people is a priority that members can decide on, so we want to hear some feedback, especially once we get the 123 going, one of us will make a thread and it will be a community decision, which one to choose, or whether indeed it is wanted at all.

For 10 users or under, the Blastchat room we have now, the one members have been using, is free. But if an 11th user wants to join in, they are blocked from entering, and we have already had this occur, and its early days still.

If anyone wants to ask anything else please feel free, its why we have this section of the forum...and thankyou to Diamondgeezer for coming up with the community chest idea.

Anyway, regarless of where we end up on this journey, it is not difficult to see that a donation of even 50 cents or one USD here and there by members will make a positive contribution, since they will all add up.

regards.

Will do, but would rather send it via moneygram.

pheony wrote:
What a good idea.

I have NEVER given money to a site before EVER and I mean that, but I am confident and loving of this place. I feel as though I know the admins personally and for some reason that makes me all the more appreciative of their efforts. *guilt for other admins at all the other sites*

Do moneygrams work in America to send overseas?

I have to look into it guys, its not something i am familiar with to be honest.

Im out the back now looking at other issues, so even though i appear logged on, unfortunately im a little busy now

Ill get onto it soon phe and coco

novum wrote:
Thank you,

I've heard you guys hate American Express certificates, for your own reasons. (???)

I'll check on my end, too.

Coco wrote:
If not moneygram, there's western union. I've sent money to Australia with both of them.I'm pretty sure that they operate all over the world.

pheony wrote:
Seems easy enough, i had a look.

Most of the post offices in the UK seem to be in the network right? I had a look at manchester and theres many pages of results for outlets.

You would be sending to the UK anyway, to diamondgeezer as the servers are UK and he takes care of paying the server account.

If anyone wants to donate this way, simply send the reference number to diamondgeezer via PM and he can collect it.

Dawnbreak if you are reading, perhaps moneygram is a preferred way for you to donate also as you wont have to use paypal or submit your card details online.

Looks like many post offices are part of the network, outlets can be found here...

www.moneygram.com/wps/portal/moneygramon...e=US&languageCode=en

thankyou to all.

I just use PayPal coz it's quick, easy and it is reliable. I used to be nervous of it because I'd heard all these "rip off" stories, , but I've been using it for around 5 years now - to make and take payments - and I've honestly never had a single problem with it.

cantata wrote:
thankyou

cantata wrote:
I also have used paypal for around 4 years and have had no issues.

They are also good for tackling any refunds or discrepencys that have arisen with non payers or goods not recieved through ebay. Paypal ALways get's your money back.

It's a deal! I'll send you a check (cheque) for $100, but really intend to offer $20, so can you refund me the difference?

KIDDING!!!

Just be apprised of this and other scams, including false documents of transfer (such as money orders or cashier's checks). Too many of my customers have been ripped off in this manner; Only some have been saved by their local postmaster.

Well, when it's decided on addresses, let me know.

cantanta and psketti could you explain a bit more to me about how paypal operates please?

I've only ever heard bad things about it from friends who had nothing but problems with them but they were using it via e-bay (where I believe it was born?) and once my son ordered something on amazon and when it didn't arrive and he complained to paypal, paypal closed down his account which had £87 in it and wouldn't them him get access to his money. That took about 3 months to resolve

Hence I am nervous about paypal

Hi dawn...

Ok, well I use it mainly for ebay and if ever I buy something which turns out to be wrong for any reason and the seller is being a right pain about refunding, then paypal will get your money back for you after you've opened an official dispute. Usually takes about 2 weeks to complete the process.

All I know is that paypal works like a middle man transfering money from A to B via them, therefore ALL transactions are covered by paypals policy.

It really is very simple and hassle free in my experience.

Not sure what the Amazon issue was about woman because as far as I know, Amazon don't actually accept paypal and never have done in the time I've used the site. They only accept credit and debit cards which is why I hardly ever use the place. All cash transactions I do online are via paypal.

Sorry I ain't much more help than that

Where's the Paypal donation thinggy gone? I want to make a contribution.