What I really wish were feasible were shared ownership -- that is, it's feasible but still not possible -- because it's not legal. Not sure if you're aware; it's called crowdfunding, I believe. That's where instead of donating, say, $50 and you get a nice t-shirt for it or a thank-you note, you get a share or part-ownership. A big online co-op... and it's currently illegal in the US (where I'm a resident, so that's the jurisdiction I know). It has something to do with SEC rules (based on preventing certain types of scams, I think, I'm kinda fuzzy on the exact details), so it's not allowed. There are various groups trying to get the FDIC/SEC to change their ways to allow crowdfunding, especially based on the success of crowdraising and crowdsourcing (which is effectively low-key, online-only, mass-but-low-amount fundraising -- like the indie...something site, argh, can't recall. The one where you can donate just $5, $10, little bits and pieces.) Even that, IIRC, is limited. I think there's also some issue of donations over a certain amount. (It also has to do with the fact that we're not talking about a nonprofit here, although there's no reason it couldn't be run as one.)
I need to sit down and crunch the numbers, but that really means sitting down and figuring out which features would be premium, and seeing if I can't find some numbers on the traffic of the old!delicious (to get a ballpark userbase), plus maybe an idea of AO3's userbase as comparison. With that, I could definitely crunch the numbers a bit more.
I don't actually have an issue with advertising... but it just would need to be advertising that matters to fandom. Like letting fanartists advertise or archive-owners or whomever. Haven't really thought that through, but where I get annoyed at, say, "you can earn $500 a day from home!" (oh please) I actually rather feel good about seeing ads from various artists or people offering to edit or, I don't know, people selling their related-to-fandom stuff. It's like, they're fandom, like I am, so they're not obtrusive.
Or we could even do it as, hmm -- totally brainstorming here -- if you start a community, it's, random number, $12 for the year for all the network and community and whatever account... but if you pay $24 (again, totally random) then your community also gets put in the rotation as an advertisement-box in the side column, to let people know you're there & welcoming members. If six of us wanted to start a community for, oh, Nobuta wa Produce, we just might say we could spare a few extra dollars to have a little graphic & link to our community page o' links. It'd be like if I advertised on Dreamwidth -- I'd be seeing it as contributing, not competing, as my way of showing support. I may be alone in that attitude, but I really don't think so.
Actually, now that I think about it (and considering I have a degree in this, I'm kinda embarrassed for myself), it'd make a lot more sense to do it as a nonprofit. After all, if the site provided a service to everyone (regardless), then that's its mission (catalog the internet for/by fandom), and those people who pay get a few perks (similar to the way that donating will get you a free pass to the park, or a t-shirt, or other membership benefits), and that donation can -- I thnk -- be written off in part or whole. Would have to check to see what the laws are now, and of course there's the mission requirement. But I think it could be done, and it also means fundraising wouldn't raise the SEC-related issue of ownership, because any funds raised could be written off (depending on jurisdiction rules, of course). I'll do some research on that as a possibility and come back in a few days with more concrete info.
A'course, there's still the requirement for money, but I can't think of a better way to tie together the fandom requirement of altruism with the basic need to pay for servers... and I guess I should call my hosting service & get some numbers from them, too, for some realistic costs. And we still need a project manager! Because me, you don't want as a project manager. I can do your BA, your PA, your RA, your IA, your UX, and some of your UI, and a bit of dev depending on backend... but I'm so not a PM. I'm just all the other letters of the alphabet. Except QA. My eyes glaze over when it comes to QA.
no subject
Date: 7 Oct 2011 10:27 pm (UTC)I need to sit down and crunch the numbers, but that really means sitting down and figuring out which features would be premium, and seeing if I can't find some numbers on the traffic of the old!delicious (to get a ballpark userbase), plus maybe an idea of AO3's userbase as comparison. With that, I could definitely crunch the numbers a bit more.
I don't actually have an issue with advertising... but it just would need to be advertising that matters to fandom. Like letting fanartists advertise or archive-owners or whomever. Haven't really thought that through, but where I get annoyed at, say, "you can earn $500 a day from home!" (oh please) I actually rather feel good about seeing ads from various artists or people offering to edit or, I don't know, people selling their related-to-fandom stuff. It's like, they're fandom, like I am, so they're not obtrusive.
Or we could even do it as, hmm -- totally brainstorming here -- if you start a community, it's, random number, $12 for the year for all the network and community and whatever account... but if you pay $24 (again, totally random) then your community also gets put in the rotation as an advertisement-box in the side column, to let people know you're there & welcoming members. If six of us wanted to start a community for, oh, Nobuta wa Produce, we just might say we could spare a few extra dollars to have a little graphic & link to our community page o' links. It'd be like if I advertised on Dreamwidth -- I'd be seeing it as contributing, not competing, as my way of showing support. I may be alone in that attitude, but I really don't think so.
Actually, now that I think about it (and considering I have a degree in this, I'm kinda embarrassed for myself), it'd make a lot more sense to do it as a nonprofit. After all, if the site provided a service to everyone (regardless), then that's its mission (catalog the internet for/by fandom), and those people who pay get a few perks (similar to the way that donating will get you a free pass to the park, or a t-shirt, or other membership benefits), and that donation can -- I thnk -- be written off in part or whole. Would have to check to see what the laws are now, and of course there's the mission requirement. But I think it could be done, and it also means fundraising wouldn't raise the SEC-related issue of ownership, because any funds raised could be written off (depending on jurisdiction rules, of course). I'll do some research on that as a possibility and come back in a few days with more concrete info.
A'course, there's still the requirement for money, but I can't think of a better way to tie together the fandom requirement of altruism with the basic need to pay for servers... and I guess I should call my hosting service & get some numbers from them, too, for some realistic costs. And we still need a project manager! Because me, you don't want as a project manager. I can do your BA, your PA, your RA, your IA, your UX, and some of your UI, and a bit of dev depending on backend... but I'm so not a PM. I'm just all the other letters of the alphabet. Except QA. My eyes glaze over when it comes to QA.