[Sharpkiller]

Hello everyone,

For the second month in a row we have failed to reach our donation target. It costs in the region of £900.00 for the {UFP} to operate per year. That doesn’t include any one-off fees we may incur over the course of a year. That’s quite a steep figure, but we do generate a significant amount of traffic on a monthly basis which requires quite a bit of power.

In the last three months of 2011 alone, we served over 1.4TB (yes, that’s terabytes) of data to our combined total of 21,000 unique visitors over those same three months. As we continue to move forward, we expect this number to grow exponentially over the coming months and years. In the most immediate future, our community expansion will likely incur several one-off costs to get it off the ground.

As such, it’s more important than ever that we consistently reach our monthly donation targets. We removed advertising from the website last March when we launched this website you see today. We didn’t want to ruin such a truly unique Star Trek website by placing advertisements on it unnecessarily when members were donating more than enough money to cover our costs. However, if we continue to fail to meet our donation targets we may need to explore advertising or other methods of generating revenue once again so we can pay our bills.

Thank you to everyone who has donated since we first started accept donations. Your support is truly appreciated and the {UFP} wouldn't be where it is today with out you.

[Stormy]

Thanks for the reminder, Sharp. If we all give a little, it will take the burden off of those who maintain our fleet.

[Burtonshaw]

Thanks for the reminder sharp. I do occasionally donate (when i remember).

Is there a direct debit type method available, where we can set an automatic monthly donation?

[Three of Seven]

If I had a job, I would donate but as I don't, I have to be really careful with how I spend my money.

I would have no problem with ads being shown, here's what I would suggest if possible.

Have ads shown to users who haven't donated and for those who have donated, they get and ad free experiance, this might encourage some who can donate but haven't, to do so.

Just a thought.

[Caymen Greener]

I try to donate monthly, bills permitting (for example, I was unable to donate in December and January due to the holidays). I think if we all donated as said above. - even £1 each - that'd be awesome.

Caymen

[Guesty1802]

Perhaps you could add an option to donate during Roll Call? Since its something everyone is guaranteed to visit each month, it may be an easy way to jog people's memories?

[Burtonshaw]

I like the idea of adding the option to the roll call as a reminder. I don't think it would be fair to have ads just for those not donating, as there are may reasons why people may not be able to donate.

[Thomas Mullaly]

I try to donate monthly, bills permitting (for example, I was unable to donate in December and January due to the holidays). I think if we all donated as said above. - even £1 each - that'd be awesome.

Caymen

While I think the idea of everyone trying to chip in a small bit is a good one, $1 isn't really a good idea, as I'm pretty sure PayPal takes a .23 or something base fee off the top, which comes out to about a 25% cut.

[Caymen Greener]

While I think the idea of everyone trying to chip in a small bit is a good one, $1 isn't really a good idea, as I'm pretty sure PayPal takes a .23 or something base fee off the top, which comes out to about a 25% cut.

I suppose I meant in principle, but very valid point. The way I see it, UFP provides enough services and opportunities that it is well worth the $5 (8-9 USD) per month, or more if you ask me. Even if you're just a casual STO player (and maybe already paying there), just tack on a few more bucks a month and you support things like a collegial fleet, events, an awesome website with training and such, TS, and more. And that would be just the base benefits for an average STO player - myriad more for the rest of us. And the opportunity for MORE.

Anyways, that's the way I see it. I donate and pay for things that I enjoy and feel need the money, and UFP handles both of those reasons for me.

Caymen

[Kains]

I've tried to donate a couple of times now, but PayPal doesn't accept my credit cards for some reason.

The first time it happened they said the address' didn't match, sending me into a flurry of phone calls to make sure my credit cards were ok and linked to the right billing address. Sure enough, all was well, with both banks.

Have no idea what is with that system, I just don't think they like me...

[Stormy]

Perhaps you could add an option to donate during Roll Call? Since its something everyone is guaranteed to visit each month, it may be an easy way to jog people's memories?

That's not a bad idea.

[Silynn]

As my annual bonus was good to me, I shall spread some of that goodness to the UFP.

[Josh Broughm]

If I could, I would.

[Christopher Halsey]

While I think the idea of everyone trying to chip in a small bit is a good one, $1 isn't really a good idea, as I'm pretty sure PayPal takes a .23 or something base fee off the top, which comes out to about a 25% cut.

PayPal takes a small cut of any donations anyway. Yes the cut works out a far higher percentage at amount like this but if everyone gave $1 even after their deduction we would still beat our monthly target by more than 3 times over which would be no bad thing in my book.

I do realise that not everyone is able to donate but if more people that are able to donate could give even a small amount it would stop us having to rely on a far smaller percentage being required to donate more.

Just hitting our target allows us to keep the services we do have running, when we beat the target it allows us to put money in to improving things so every little bit really is of great use.

[Sharpkiller]

Thanks everyone for your donations so far. It's great to see more people donating!

Also, thanks for the suggestions on how to further encourage donations. I'll see what kinds of things we can do.