Staff Meeting - WHAT WAS DISCUSSED (6/9)

[Lenne]

We apologize for yesterday's inconvenience, folks. There was a slight problem with the host that we fixed temporarily. CoDz is back up and running, and we are currently discussing several ideas that will further prevent this action from happening once more.

 

Thanks, Infest.

Hopefully you won't need to do us this favour in the future. 

[Mr. Jay]

Thank you Daniel for providing shelter

But how long can you continue to do it? Do you feel it's justified?

[InfestLithium]

Thanks for the warm regards, friendos. But to be honest, I shouldn't be thanked - I'm just doing my duty.

 

And Jay, this isn't something I can personally do alone because the bill is just ridiculously large at the moment. As staff, we have to make financial ends meet regardless of how we do so. Donations come in and help greatly, and we do use 200% of what we have towards keeping the site up. We've talked over several options to make it fairly cheaper without reducing the quality of what we have. Either way, I'll do whatever it takes to keep CoDz running safe and sound.

[Tasha]

Thanks Danny Davito :3 the new features are so cool ! Don't mind if I abuse the mention function though :3

[Chopper]

That's May's downtime done.

 

Next up is June's downtime.

I know Grill has responded to this but I'm going too as well.

 

People are slowly starting to understand what's going on even though we have tried to keep it in quiet,

Basically, 3 or 4 people are fully supporting the site financially.

 

When I have personally put £200 up this year, a comment like this pisses me off more than I can fully explain.

 

Especially when a lot of the people complaining are doing nothing outside of very very minimal donations.

I'll be completely frank, we don't get pretty much anything for donations.

 

Next time you are complaining about the site being down, the staff not listening to users or complaining about how we aren't doing what we are supposed to as staff, well from me you can go screw yourself.

[Hells Warrrior]

I understand where all the staff are coming from, it's certainly not a good feeling when we are trying our level best to finance the site from our own pockets to keep things alive. Then having these types of comments, no matter how it was intended (I know that it was tounge and cheek, and no malice was intended, we all do) it's still not nice to read.

 

Don't be disheartened about it Nathan, but just remember we are just as frustrated (even more so) when things don't go as planned.

[ETEl2NAL407]

Really. I don't see the need to berate Nathan for his comment. He's not trying to reduce the efforts of the Staff here, he's making light of downtime. Of course he's grateful, we all are. Truthfully speaking though, the site has seen a lot of downtime. I can remember when the downtimes were extended a while back incredibly long and derailed the first attempt at the Olympics. That was beyond frustrating for myself.

 

Coming from someone who has donated in the past (albeit not a huge amount), I would not donate again without a guarantee my donation was actually going to prevent downtime. Think about it from our point of view. Donating money doesn't gives us a service or good in return, it gives us the hope that we continue to use this service. Instead of feeling as though the Staff are the only people trying to keep this place going, ask for help. Hinting towards donations is one way to do it, but obviously there are other ways. Hell, from what you guys have said, sound like Festo paid the full bill this month. If that's the case, surely be transparent with the members and share the load. I.e. if the average monthly cost to run this place is $500, 10 members with $50 is better than 1 staff member footing the whole bill.

 

My point is this: Instead of getting upset when users aren't happy, give them a real value for their complaint. I would gladly help, but why should I donate $10 or $20 here or there just for no one else to donate and the site go down anyways? That's going to be a wasted donation in my eyes, however, if the Staff were to broadcast their current budget and keep it updated, perhaps a week near bill time I could check it and see we're $250 short or whatever...At that time, I would know what size of a donation to make to ensure the site stays up. 

 

We all want this place to stay going. but when we start pointing fingers around at people and taking on that martyr viewpoint, we all lose. Keeping this place up takes cooperation in finances, not just hoping got donations and when none come in resorting to emergency funding from someone's personal wallet. 

 

So yeah, in conclusion, here's your next suggestion:

 

Create a financial ledger and update it regularly.

[Hells Warrrior]

I don't think we are berating him, I just think he was the unfortunate one to make the joke & then for staff to to pick up on the comment and with the way things are it becomes more than what was meant.

 

As I said above, I don't want him to feel disheartened about it, I understand where he is coming. In fact, if I wasn't staff I would have probably said the same thing (as a joke). We know you are not all stupid, we know that you understand where we are coming from and the financial pressures we face.

 

We have many students as staff, we have many family staff members well & donating and paying costs is taken money needed for running our families & studying costs.

 

As for donating and becoming more transparent, I'm with you on that, I think we need to show people as to how much we have received in donations and how much we are away from hitting the donation target for the month. I don't think it will happen but I do a more advanced application in mind for donations which will give us a greater oversight and control.

 

I also think with the plans for subscriptions, we will have a more in depth idea of what we have available. We are looking to at given more rewards for members that donate and subscribe, so that you receive something for the contributions.

[ETEl2NAL407]

That sounds like a step in the right direction and even though the following bolded quote troubles me...

 

I think we need to show people as to how much we have received in donations and how much we are away from hitting the donation target for the month. I don't think it will happen

 

I can appreciate the desire to withhold financial information at any level and in any case, however, with the issues we're facing, the strain on Staff financially (@ has admitted to spending his own money, and also @InfestLithium indirectly), and the demand from users to remain up, plainly illustrating the financial costs to keep this place going are a good idea. Just to clarify for argument's sake, scheduled downtime announced on the site should be excluded from this conversation.

 

If you leave me in a desert blind-folded, it doesn't matter if I'm only a mile from water, I might keep walking in circles until I die, but if you allow me to see, even if I'm 10 miles away I stand a better chance of surviving.

 

As for rewarding donations and memberships: I find this a good plan, but unnecessary, as it would just be simpler every month to show a donation target because then if it's not hit and no one steps in to bring it up to target, what can they complain about? However, if you create membership and you don't have enough income from those members to pay the bill in full, those members now have a valid complaint. I'm aware I'm not keen to the finer details of these proposed plans, but I feel the simplest solution is something like this:

 

 

Only 1 more week to donate, fellow CoDZers, so go fishing in your couch, smash that piggy bank, sell some carnations on the highway, whatever you gotta do to keep this place up. WE NEED YOU!

 

If I were to see that and could afford to, I'd more than likely donate much larger amounts more frequently and I think others would follow suit. It's just nice, even for a teen to donate $5 and see the meter affected, other than just wonder if your donation actually made a difference.

[Chopper]

That's a very good idea mate.

 

I apologise if it appeared I berated Nathan.  His comment was said in jest, and I was aware of that.

I tried to steer it away from him personally and more towards some of the complaints and issues I have been noticing and involved in recently.

 

It was poorly worded and appeared as if I had a big target for Nathan.  Craig summed it up nicely.

 

I genuinely never wanted it known that the staff are basically paying for the site.  I knew people must suspect it, but never confirmed it.

Rather than people suspecting but not knowing, I'd rather they now know.

[Mr. Jay]

There has to be a better way. The opportunity cost is too great. Chopper, Infesto, and HW are sacrificing their family for this.

We should start exploring options before the wells run dry.

[GRILL]

I also just wanted to chime in and say that I think eternal had made some great points.

On top of that, I wasn't gunning for Nathan either. His comment simply sparked a larger conversation.

[DeathBringerZen]

As a moderator over on the UGX site http://ugx-mods.com/forum/index.php I have seen that particular site manage to cope well with advertising, and as seen on the home page, the ads are not very intrusive, so this site should really consider it as a viable option. Sure there was always a "no ad" policy in place, but times have changed and during this extended off-season, the site will no doubt go through long periods with little traffic or threads.

 

I would also like be happy to pay a monthly subscription to use the site but I can understand that this may not be an option for everyone. Maybe have it that only certain features are open to subscribers, like access to a live chat area (so as to avoid spammers), and maybe certain sub sections.

 

Either way, I am not in a financial position to donate anything huge, but I will at least donate something on Friday. This site is my drug!

[PINNAZ]

The donations should be invested into web hosting. Seems like you can make some good coin out of that.

Sorry for the "tongue in cheek". I've got lots to say on this, but no time ATM.

Good discussion on something that is very important to us all

[GRILL]

OP has been updated with June's most recent staff meeting topics, and implementations.

 

Also the notes from April's staff meeting have been updated with more recent status'.

 

Enjoy

[ETEl2NAL407]

Any way for us to see the revenue generated by ads vs. donations?