Pre-announcement: HB donation drive, ads, etc [summer 2017]

[zoogs]

Hey guys,

 

Wanted to give everyone a head's up on things that we are working through this summer.

 

- There's a new "Donate" button. This is working already, and will eventually switch to a monthly target.

 

- Ads are going to change. The HuskerNation banner is going to get replaced, and possibly the N'Side video as well. I don't know what they're going to look like, but will probably be similarly sized.

 

- At some point, we may update the board software. Be prepared for some UX changes!

 

Things will happen somewhat slowly, partially because I'm behind on everything in life at the moment. Expect more formal and concrete announcements to follow. Hopefully we'll end up better able to help Eric & Blackshirt keep the lights on around here

[NM11046]

Friendly reminder to the folks who said they'd gladly contribute to get rid of those penis ads ... can't remember the who's and the hows much but it was a healthy offer from a few.

 

I'm on the board Zoogs - thanks for giving us some guidance!

[zoogs]

Please do not view donations as an obligatory response to the removal of the non-family friendly ads =)

[StPaulHusker]

Just curious. Is Huskerboard being operated as a non-profit?

[zoogs]

I don't know. You'll have to ask Eric/Blackshirt.

 

In recent years it's been taking significant losses, though, because costs are far exceeding expenses.

[StPaulHusker]

I don't know. You'll have to ask Eric/Blackshirt.

 

In recent years it's been taking significant losses, though, because costs are far exceeding expenses.

I understand the issue of losing money. I'm more interested in the manner in which donations are being procured.

[zoogs]

Donorbox.org provides the drive management front end, and it looks like it's just Paypal for actual payments.

 

I don't think HB is a nonprofit, but obviously I can't speak precisely. Thus, as far as I know, HB isn't getting the Paypal nonprofit discounts off the service fees. If you're interested in backend details beyond this, ask Blackshirt directly.

[StPaulHusker]

I think Blackshirt and Eric should explain it in detail right here.

 

I mean-either they are a non-profit. In which case they need to disclose financials and P&L's for a non-profit company.

 

Or-They are not. In which case they are taking donations as profits and not willing to tell Huskerboard members in detail what it costs to run the board, how much they gain from ad revenue and apparel sales, and where they are trying to go and why with any additional funds.

 

Seems like it would be in good taste to do so when asking people for money.

[zoogs]

Thanks. I'll forward your request and let them decide in how much detail they'd like to disclose. I believe they've been fairly upfront about this. For those who can't accept rough numbers at face value, which is fair, I don't think more detailed claims will change their views. I suppose it's this way with any donation-supported web community.

 

If you want the general ballpark, look at typical dedicated server hosting costs, which are in the $150-200 range per month. I certainly wouldn't expect this number to ever be recouped via donations alone, hence advertising. To call anything a 'profit' would require revenue to exceed expenses. Fairly sure we're far from being in danger of that. With the caveat that these wouldn't be my decisions, I think the answer (if it did happen) would be lowering/removing donation targets or stripping ads. Although sites similar to HB are often profit drivers for their owners, I completely agree: it's not right to solicit profits via donations.

 

I hope that's enough info; it's as much as I can give and I'll let Blackshirt get to the rest when he is able. It may fall under the "stay tuned for further more formal announcements" part of the OP when we get the replacement ads in place. Thanks for your patience.

[NM11046]

Thank you zoogs.

[Landlord]

I'm very happy this place exists and this is not a negative comment, but I've always been confused why Blackshirt and Eric keep doing it. Between the two of them (really only Eric) they only seem to be on the board 3-5 times a month. Very cool that it's still going, I just have no idea why

[Moiraine]

I just hope if they ever stop they don't delete it.

 

I had that happen at a very community-oriented site once, dedicated to a book series. I've even met some of them and have several on my Facebook that I still talk to 14 years later. The owner of the site called it quits and refused to sell the site or the URL to anyone. He just shut the whole thing down completely. Didn't put ads up or anything. It was within his rights of course but it didn't make much sense to us. He's currently a professor at the University of Texas

[HuskerNBigD]

So should we go ahead and make donations now, or wait for additional information?

[Enhance]

I figured this would be a good place to post this, but I'm noticing what I think is an error on the home page in the video player.

 

It's auto-playing a video about the new HuskerVision changes, however, the video isn't actually playing and there's no visual cue to pause the clip. Because I couldn't figure out where it was coming from, I clicked the "Play" button in the video player and that stopped the video; I then had to click "Pause" to prevent any further videos from playing.

 

I've double-checked all my programs (like Flash) and they're up-to-date, so I'm relatively certain this isn't an issue on my end.

 

Google Chrome on Windows 7.

[zoogs]

Sent to Blackshirt to see if he can file a bug report. Hopefully it just goes away on its own, as we don't have control over this, either. That shouldn't be happening.

 

It'd help to list browser/version/OS.