Greetings all,
As you may or may not know, the Org runs on voluntary donations and does not receive an income of any kind. The hosting is provided to us free of charge in return for the host placing a few adverts on the forum, a very cost-effective solution for the community.
The Org is wanting to go through some modernisation efforts in order to improve the experience on these forums, the most major of these is going to making a switch to Xenforo. Out of the options we explored, Xenforo offered the best user experience and has a well-supported backend to provide additions and growths over the years with a pricing model that provides continuous upgrades and support. A demonstration of this software can be seen at Mobius Gamers.
This changeover requires significant up-front costs that we decided it is best to appeal to you, the members to help makes these changes possible so we are able to give you the best experience we can.
We are looking to raise at least $300 to do these changes, which will buy the software required and pay for support and domain renewal for the next two-years. Additional funds raised could be invested in additional themes, plugins, or held in reserve for future needs.
Breakdown of costs:
Basic Package Xenforo $140
+ Additional $40 for an extra year of updates, support and maintenance.
$80 for Domain Renewal and maintenance for two years.
$40 for Themes.
- UL:X with its additional features and options is $30, this works between the forum software and the visual-end.
- $10 a basic theme which can be customised to suit our purposes.
As a thank-you for those who donate over $2, you can be granted with an optional ‘thank you’ acknowledgement, this may be granted in a form of a title or a badge, or some-such as: ‘Patron’
*Try not to donate less than $2 as Paypal will take/use the majority of your donation.
We can always do with help from experienced individuals in our community in regards to the technical aspects and artwork/design. If you feel you can contribute with your skills, feel free to pass your name forward and we will get in touch with you.
If anyone knows of any discounts, coupons or connections to reduce costs, please let us know.
Donations will be accepted through PayPal, and an account is not required to donate through it. A ‘donate’ button is on the FrontPage or you can use it here:
In the event the fundraising target is not met, any donations will be used to maintain the status-quo and proceeds will not be used to the financial benefit of any person outside of community held events or opportunities.
Thank you for reading this topic.
