Urgent: Balance needed

Gaz

Owner And Founder
Staff member
Joined
Dec 2, 2002
Messages
1,233
Points
83
Location
London
Country
United-Kingdom
Guys... this month I'm sorry to say is now the worst, as you know we've (I've) been hit by the Covid impact, it's as simple as this I don't have the balance of the bar in my bank to pay for this months server, so if it's not there they will not be able to take payment, then they will give me 7 days grace of which the lights then go out and MJJC is no more...

I can't plead enough, I have been covering balances and all of it for almost 20 years, in my hour of need I calling upon you...

This is not a perminant thing, next month hopfully will be different for me...

So its either we scrape together $54 as a community or there will not be one.

Sorry guys but atm it is as simple as that. :cry:

I know you love this community as do I, let's not see it die...
 
In my case I'm too young to have a debit card to donate to the Patreon directly...but I will ask one of my parents to make a donation. I may be new here but I'd hate to see about 20 years of Moonwalker history just disappear like that. Is the $54 needed by the end of the month, as in midnight in the UK on the 30th of April, or before then?
 
I'll chip in. Been here for soo many years. MJJC can not close.

Come on guys.
 
Sorry to hear you're still facing challenging times financially beacause of Covid-19. I wish you all the best Gaz.

Thank you to the few that donate. I really appreciate it.

Now I have said this before, and will say it again. I really don't understand why this community, with 1379 active members and arround 180 members and 3000 visitors here daily, isn't willing to chip in to keep this place alive. I'ts just one cup of coffee a month from 10% of this community to keep this thing going. If that aint worth it....

Please people, become a Patreon member.

In reply to your request Gaz, this community won't go down because of the $ 54,00 needed. I would really like to see others put in some effort to keep this place going. Everyone who can miss a few bucks, please donate this week. By the end of the week Gaz, you can sent me a pm with the balance that's still needs to be paid. I will sent you my paypal adress in reply and you can sent me a payment request for the money still needed.
 
Ok so... we got the balance, thank you to all who helped, you guys are amazing... This issue though still has not gone away, the same will be next month and probably for a few more until I get my working situation back up and running.

So I have a proposal and it will tackle two things, I am thinking of making this site subscription only, for $1 dollar a month?

This will be managed through our Patron account which all you do is you sign up and contribute a minimum of $1 per month then you will have posting and messaging privilages, those who do not the forum will only be readable, ie they will not be able to contribute to the community.

So whats your thoughts on that? It will solve this issue each month, plus any over can be saved up to purchase new forum software and have us migrated (including the 20 years of content) to a brand new state of the art forum platform, like I have alway's said about this place, I am not here to make a profit and never have I, anything over will always be reinvested back into the fan club to make it a better place for all and for Michael.

btw for the arguement of the free to use sites we don't have advertiser queing at our door to pay for costs they do thus they can make it free at the point of entry, although even the likes fo Facebook now want money from you if you want your page to reach anyone bar the selected few that know about you so even they and all the others want cash to continue.
 
Might be a stupid question - how can we donate? Happy to chip in a few quid when I can to help keep this place going. :)
 
I don't think it's a good idea to require payment for posting, I'm afraid it would drive people away make forum activity decline.
And I think more people would have donated this monther yet if required.


What is the cost of upgrad forum software ? I always thought forum softwares were free. Oh yes, not vBulletin, right.

And as you mention Facebook, it's an unclear way to go ... once they favor Pages, later they favor Groups, they ask you to pay to give page visibility, but the truth is that when you pay for ads on Facebook, you get a lot of Likes/Followers who are most bot accounts try to fake regular users behaviours. Also, posts on FB are ephemeral, so it works for people to show off ephemeral things, but it's not as efficient as a forum in term of discussions, informations exchange. + privacy concerns --> I'd keep away from Facebook.
 
Might be a stupid question - how can we donate? Happy to chip in a few quid when I can to help keep this place going. :)

There is Donate Now button on the upper right corner of the yellow donate bar under the chatbox:
https://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/forum.php

Ok so... we got the balance, thank you to all who helped, you guys are amazing... This issue though still has not gone away, the same will be next month and probably for a few more until I get my working situation back up and running.

So I have a proposal and it will tackle two things, I am thinking of making this site subscription only, for $1 dollar a month?

This will be managed through our Patron account which all you do is you sign up and contribute a minimum of $1 per month then you will have posting and messaging privilages, those who do not the forum will only be readable, ie they will not be able to contribute to the community.

So whats your thoughts on that? It will solve this issue each month, plus any over can be saved up to purchase new forum software and have us migrated (including the 20 years of content) to a brand new state of the art forum platform, like I have alway's said about this place, I am not here to make a profit and never have I, anything over will always be reinvested back into the fan club to make it a better place for all and for Michael.

btw for the arguement of the free to use sites we don't have advertiser queing at our door to pay for costs they do thus they can make it free at the point of entry, although even the likes fo Facebook now want money from you if you want your page to reach anyone bar the selected few that know about you so even they and all the others want cash to continue.

I'm not sure if that is a good idea. There might be a lot less people on the forum if it would require a payment. The 2000 Watts section was only for donators at one point and I remember people saying that almost no one posted there then.
 
If as many members as possible could voluntarily sign up to $1 a month surely that would be a big help ? Or more if they are able to. I feel sorry for Gaz having this worry every month.
 
If as many members as possible could voluntarily sign up to $1 a month surely that would be a big help ? Or more if they are able to. I feel sorry for Gaz having this worry every month.

We've been on quite a few promotional campaigns to try and drum it up via the Patrons program but we've only ever got as far as a third of it.
 
Last month I donated for years of "1$/month donations" as direct donation. I personally prefer not to use Patreon, but maybe that's just me, I don't do everything like everyone else...

What's the $ ratio between Patreon and non-Patreon donations?
 
Unfortunately the bottom line is that we just don't have enough regular donations to keep the site going month to month. I share the concerns about subscription resulting in activity decline, but at this point we have very few options.
 
Unfortunately the bottom line is that we just don't have enough regular donations to keep the site going month to month. I share the concerns about subscription resulting in activity decline, but at this point we have very few options.

As i donate regulary i see the problem on both sides. Most people don't check the monthly donation or just don't care. Sorry, it's simple as that. So many people check the forum - but its only a small group donating. Often we reached the monthly cost only if there ist a urgent call to donate. I also share the concerns with subscription. It's a balancing act. You can't please everybody. Hopefully we will find a way.

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I don't think it's a good idea to require payment for posting, I'm afraid it would drive people away make forum activity decline.
And I think more people would have donated this monther yet if required.


What is the cost of upgrad forum software ? I always thought forum softwares were free. Oh yes, not vBulletin, right.

And as you mention Facebook, it's an unclear way to go ... once they favor Pages, later they favor Groups, they ask you to pay to give page visibility, but the truth is that when you pay for ads on Facebook, you get a lot of Likes/Followers who are most bot accounts try to fake regular users behaviours. Also, posts on FB are ephemeral, so it works for people to show off ephemeral things, but it's not as efficient as a forum in term of discussions, informations exchange. + privacy concerns --> I'd keep away from Facebook.

I'm not sure if that is a good idea. There might be a lot less people on the forum if it would require a payment. The 2000 Watts section was only for donators at one point and I remember people saying that almost no one posted there then.

agree with this. for the content we are getting making the site for payment users would be ridiculous in my opinion. let's be real here all the things on this forum you can just look for other sites. to be honest most people are here for 2000 watts anyway then having an discussion. since michael is gone people really don't be that active until something new is involve or for his kids other then that there's really not alot going on this site.

i like this site just to have other mj fans involve. it can be drama sometimes but it's nice to be around others who still love mj and keep his legacy alive. cause let's be real here the estate not doing much only the fans are really. haven't had nothing new of mj since 2014. that's almost an decade. hopefully they will pick up something this year for his 50th anniversary.

also you have pay to view some pages on facebook now? wow. alot has change. :(
 
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I think it is a dangerous way to go. - Everyone under the age of 18 would not be here, I mean - you have to be 18 years old to get a creditcard don't you? - and you need a credit card to donate. I doubt parents wanna pay for their youngsters to be on a online forum.

Also - if some of the regular posters don't wanna donate monthly and they decide to go to other MJ forums it would be devastating - and the beginning of the end of MJJC. What makes this place great is the members - audio experts and MJ experts, Kai, AlwaysThere, HappyLee, dam2040, Hulkamanic, Korgnex - and many many more users - they have so much knowledge that if you ever wanna know something MJ related you will get your question aswered in here. If all those members go elsewhere there is nothing left here really - other than the memories.

I just hope more people will donate. - I am not very good remembering it myself - I will try to donate on a more regular basis.
 
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I think it is a dangerous way to go. - Everyone under the age of 18 would not be here, I mean - you have to be 18 years old to get a creditcard don't you? - and you need a credit card to donate. I doubt parents wanna pay for their youngsters to be on a online forum.

Also - if some of the regular posters don't wanna donate monthly and they decide to go to other MJ forums it would be devastating - and the beginning of the end of MJJC. What makes this place great is the members - audio experts and MJ experts, Kai, AlwaysThere, HappyLee, dam2040, Hulkamanic, Korgnex - and many many more users - they have so much knowledge that if you ever wanna know something MJ related you will get your question aswered in here. If all those members go elsewhere there is nothing left here really - other than the memories.

I just hope more people will donate. - I am not very good remembering it myself - I will try to donate on a more regular basis.

I hear what your saying but if I can't pay the costs of having this place here it will all be deleted and not exist for anyone anyway...

It's really this simple guys, lets get Patron to the amount needed and its job done, never need to worry again, of course people drop out which we can then push again to get it filled.
 
I'm posting this seperately...

I have something I want to put to you all which might really exite things up here a little, I have been doing some research on getting us a brand new state of the art forum on a completely new platform, don't worry all the content and all the membership will be migrated to it and it will still be on this address of course, but it will be something awesome and new and hopefully inject some excitement and interest into the place.

However, there is a licence cost of $160 and the same again (+ a bit more) for a developer to migrate everything, so I was thinking of maybe doing a crowd funder as a seperate thing, once the fee has been collected I will then get to work on making it happen, tbh guys it will be worth it, MJJC's forum is so out of date you will be loving a new one. Anyways lemme know thoughts on that as it may drive interest and excitement back into the site with a brand new platform to enjoy.
 
To which platform/forum?
And will it change the monthly cost of hosting the forum?
 
I think it is a dangerous way to go. - Everyone under the age of 18 would not be here, I mean - you have to be 18 years old to get a creditcard don't you? - and you need a credit card to donate. I doubt parents wanna pay for their youngsters to be on a online forum.

You don't need a credit card for Patreon, you can use a debit card. And I don't know about the rest of the world, but you can get debit cards from the age of 11 in the UK.

And you don't need a credit card or a debit card to use PayPal. You just need a bank account.
 
I'm posting this seperately...

I have something I want to put to you all which might really exite things up here a little, I have been doing some research on getting us a brand new state of the art forum on a completely new platform, don't worry all the content and all the membership will be migrated to it and it will still be on this address of course, but it will be something awesome and new and hopefully inject some excitement and interest into the place.

However, there is a licence cost of $160 and the same again (+ a bit more) for a developer to migrate everything, so I was thinking of maybe doing a crowd funder as a seperate thing, once the fee has been collected I will then get to work on making it happen, tbh guys it will be worth it, MJJC's forum is so out of date you will be loving a new one. Anyways lemme know thoughts on that as it may drive interest and excitement back into the site with a brand new platform to enjoy.

Sounds like a good idea :)
 
I just hope more people will donate. - I am not very good remembering it myself - I will try to donate on a more regular basis.

If you're a patron, it will do it automatically each month, and you won't have to remember anything ;)
 
agree with this. for the content we are getting making the site for payment users would be ridiculous in my opinion. let's be real here all the things on this forum you can just look for other sites. to be honest most people are here for 2000 watts anyway then having an discussion. since michael is gone people really don't be that active until something new is involve or for his kids other then that there's really not alot going on this site.

i like this site just to have other mj fans involve. it can be drama sometimes but it's nice to be around others who still love mj and keep his legacy alive. cause let's be real here the estate not doing much only the fans are really. haven't had nothing new of mj since 2014. that's almost an decade. hopefully they will pick up something this year for his 50th anniversary.

also you have pay to view some pages on facebook now? wow. alot has change. :(

NatureCriminal7896, you are walking on egg shells around here atm, so I'd keep your advice and your participation on a very low profile for a while, my finger is still on that account closed button so any advice from you given what you have done to the atmoshpere here this past year is best kept to yourself.
 
NatureCriminal7896, you are walking on egg shells around here atm, so I'd keep your advice and your participation on a very low profile for a while, my finger is still on that account closed button so any advice from you given what you have done to the atmosphere here this past year is best kept to yourself.

i deleted my comment because i wasn't sure if you wanted me to comment. if so i will. but i'm gonna respond by video with this comment and others comments here. give me about an end of the week or beginning of next week i'm slow with things. it probably will be though PM

God Bless.
 
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Sorry to hear you're still facing challenging times financially beacause of Covid-19. I wish you all the best Gaz.

Thank you to the few that donate. I really appreciate it.

Now I have said this before, and will say it again. I really don't understand why this community, with 1379 active members and arround 180 members and 3000 visitors here daily, isn't willing to chip in to keep this place alive. I'ts just one cup of coffee a month from 10% of this community to keep this thing going. If that aint worth it....

Please people, become a Patreon member.

In reply to your request Gaz, this community won't go down because of the $ 54,00 needed. I would really like to see others put in some effort to keep this place going. Everyone who can miss a few bucks, please donate this week. By the end of the week Gaz, you can sent me a pm with the balance that's still needs to be paid. I will sent you my paypal adress in reply and you can sent me a payment request for the money still needed.

You are a very generous person. Thank you so much!
 
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