As most of you know, we created Hubski to get rich. As the old adage goes, "If you want to print money, start a social aggregator".
thenewgreen only drinks bourbon bottled before he was born, insomniasexx collects passport stamps as a hobby, forwardslash spends every waking hour in virtual reality, rob05c is building a Slack service for AI, and mk is building a private Fort Knox of cryptocurrencies.
All these things cost money, and our server costs are not helping.
Thus, to feed our insatiable need for currency, we have created an annual Hubski funding goal. If you aren't viewing the site on a mobile device, you can see it on the upper right.
Currently, Hubski's server costs are $212/mo. That equates to $2544/yr. These costs are too high, and reflect an inefficiency of the Arc app. We are currently working to correct this inefficiency, and once this work is completed, we expect that out costs will drop to $116/mo, or $1392/yr.
In addition to paying for servers, we buy stickers a couple of times per year, send them to people, and typically buy a few meals, drinks, and t-shirts. We might also include occasional travel expenses in these costs, but Hubski meetups feel too much like vacations.
Hubski has always run in the red, and the money has come out of our pockets. This isn't an ideal situation, but it is a bearable one. However, there may come a time when our situation is not so bearable, and we thought it would be a good thing to be clear about where we are at.
We have set the 2016 funding goal to $2400. Assuming we can bring our server costs down as planned, $2400 should enable us to pay for our servers, and leave some money for stickers, swag, meetups, and some room for an increase in server demand.
If you donate to Hubski, you will see it reflected in our donation bar. Thanks!
As always, feedback is much appreciated!
I'd make it a single / double pixel line stretching from the f of feed to the s of badges, below the letters. It's arount 400px wide on 1080p, which means that every $6 moves it a pixel. I would also tell the user what part of the monthly goal they will be paying; it makes the comparison in value with Netflix and other media subscriptions easier.
Naaah. Put on your gamification chops. I don't want a blue bar once, I want that thing to explode like fireworks when I give it money and droop like a tree in need of watering when I don't. Obviously, these are extremes you need not pursue but FFS give us a bone.
Bought myself two powerball tickets for the lulz. If I hit it big I'll put a nice chunk towards Hubski :)
I just had another thought (could you smell something burning?)... I know that your user statistics are all over the map... but if you did some kind of back of the napkin calculation of how many users actively use the site (define actively), and then divided that into the goal somehow - it might help people quantify how little they could give to make a difference. I know some people may hate this kind of money-grubbing... but it's fairly effective when I see on wikipedia the statement of "If everyone on the site right now donated $3 for the year, that would fund us". Now - I don't love the 2 inch orange block of IN-YOUR-FACE at the top of the screen - but I like knowing that hey - based on some kind of calculation - $3 would make a difference. I know this whole donation thing is new. I know it has been the subject of MUCH discussion. And I imagine I am NOT the first person to think of this... just musing... In the mean time - HEY PEOPLE - let's donate to something we enjoy.
I'd like to get a feeling for "my part" of this funding goal. Is there a way to say something like, "If everyone who posted last week gave us $10, we would meet that goal." Or, "If every comment cost $0.02, we'd hit our goal in 9 days." This helps me understand my role in the fundraising better, and might inspire me to give $50 instead of $5. I can afford both, but what impact does each have? What if I decide to give $25 every time I get badged? Or I give $100 every time I get blocked by kleinbl00? :-) Give me a broad way to measure my participation, and I'll put a value on that participation. Maybe that's $2400 for this month. Who knows? Give me the info and I'll decide.
Interesting ideas. There are definitely some ways we could provide such feedback. Maybe something like: you've made X% of posts and comments and funded Y% of our annual goal? cc insomniasexx
That's too "on the nose"... too specific for me. I don't want to imply there is a cost associated with posting. More of a general measurement of the community - X comments last week, for example - that I can extrapolate to MY perceived usage. "Wow... I posted a LOT last week. I'm gonna give em $10." As opposed to, "it costs them $0.06 every time I post, so I'm not going to post this idea I had." Data analytics are a cool and geeky itch that I assume a lot of us like to scratch. ("Information is Beautiful" anyone?) By publishing some interesting stats like "comments over x period" or "posts during the Obama administration", it makes us feel more like a community, and inspires us to give back to that community. To support the tools we have been using to create this groovy Hubski group of people. (PS - I do marketing for a living. So... yeah.)
thenewgreen -- lets come up with some whacky ones on the call monday. This sounds like so much fun.By publishing some interesting stats like "comments over x period" or "posts during the Obama administration"
I just laughed out loud and almost had the water in my mouth come out my nose. Those first few sentences. Hilarious. My wife wouldn't think it as funny. Neither would yours :)
Do we not take American Express? I just tried using one. Didn't work.
Right now it looks like the donation bar is red? That sliver is kind of hard to see but it looks red. Would it be possible to make it orange or something else, as it stands that's the only thing on this entire site that uses the color red, I think. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong on that point.