it's morning!

[Valkysas]

Nothing to report really, just doing a "state of the pavilion address". I won't be working at all in january, so I'm going to use that entire month to work on the pavilion. I'm going to list exactly what I have planned for january, along with the rest of december.

December
First batch of contest reviews before 31st
Chat Room repaired
Drawing Board repaired
Various site-fixes, such as figuring out why the new download menus arent showing up

January
RPG Maker 1 Sprites restored
4 new articles planned
RPG Maker 1 Tutorials
Information pages finished
Contest Section finished with information on every contest the pavilion has ever had
Reviews for every game on the site
Forum enhancements

This is just what I have planned so far. I am always open to suggestions as well.

January presents a few problems as well. I didnt know until a few days ago that I wouldnt be working all month, which means I won't have any money all month. Because of an agreement I reached with former staff member Mikochan after she attacked the site in august she was to pay me a certain amount of cash that would be put in a "pavilion fund" to take care of the site in exchange for me not suing her. As you would expect given the pavilion's atrocious luck in the past, she has managed to skip out on that by moving and not telling anyone where she is. So it remains to be seen if I'll see any of that any time soon. The server was restored after the attack, so thats no problem. The problem lies in the site using Vbulletin.

VBulletin runs on a license system. You can lease it for a year for a heavily reduced price, or get a permanent license that never expires. Guess which one I picked for the pavilion? Our Vbulletin licence runs out on January 29th. The entire site runs on it, so choosing a different forum system is out of the question. So I need to figure out how I'm going to raise either 85 dollars for another leased license, or 160 for a permanent one.

I need suggestions how we can raise money. Ads won't pay fast enough. I've tried selling games, but game stores pay absolute crap if you dont want in-store credit. I'm pretty sick of having to sell off parts of my transformer collection every few weeks as it is, so that's really something I'd like to avoid.

I'm grasping at straws here. I dont want to take in donations, as I'm the guy running the site, I'm supposed to provide for it and take care of this stuff. So if possible, I'd like to hear other ways we could raise the money needed.

[Biggie]

Yeah, the game stores certanly rip you off. But surprisingly I got 100 bucks for my xbox the other week. At some gamestores, if a competing store, like hastings for example, buy xbox's for more money than the game store, the game store will match it. Best of luck.

[Rodak]

I know you have no interest in memebers donating money, and I am in no position to do so anyhow, but I can donate time.

The only thing of which I can think that might generate at least a portion of the renewal fee would be to abuse your close ties with AgeTec and ask if they want that PDF File of images from RPGM3, and how much they'd pay for it.

I can take screen shots of high quality. Just last week I produced images for an FAQ of Every 2D Model in the game. It was hundreds of screen shots and did not take that long.

If, together with other Pavilion members, shots of Everything in the game could be produced then they could make that guide/PDF file they spoke of.

Maybe that's worth something to them. If you want to see the quality and the Temp Links HERE (http://www.pavilionboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4575&page=1&pp=20) have expired, I can renew them. In terms of Quality, they are JPG files, but I can make bitmaps too which are of higher quality, but take more memory.

I know you are a big boy and want to do this yourself, and I apologize for not being able to think of anything you personally can do. But I do not know you and your abilities well, so I suggested what I can do to help (I know me and my abilities!).

Good Luck with it. I'm sure you'll think of something.

Peace.

[Nixon]

I'll just donate some money. I like the site and all the people here.

If 8 of us donate $20.00 each, we'll have the permanent liscense. I could probably donate more than $20.00 if other people can't swing that. I'll sell some stuff and throw in what I can.

I honestly think that's the easiest, fastest solution. You could make a topic about it, or sent out a mass PM to everyone. I know you don't want to do that, but I think the older members of the community would understand and be supportive.

Please consider it.

[Rodak]

Or...

As an excuse for taking money you could expand your hosting features.

I noticed that you do not host any RPGMaker Videos.

You know that a few of us produce them and always get responses when we do so.

Perhaps it would ease your conscience about taking money from people if you viewed it as a Hosting Fee and gave the service of hosting their videos in return. I know aout the bandwidth mpg files can eat up... I crashed a few free sites trying to host them. So the fee, if nominal, can be justified.

It is site related and maybe those of us who are in a position to donate can get their work showcased in return.

Just Brainstorming ideas here... some will be better than others.

Oy.

[hitogoroshi]

I agree with Nixion. As he said, 8 of us would need to pay a measly $20. A permenant license is worth it.

[Draygone]

I'd be willing to donate some. This is a great site, and I'd hate to see it go to the dumps.

[Valkysas]

donating is a last option. I know that most of our members are just as bad off as me, if not worse, and I dont want to ask people in similar situations as me for money. I would rather sell more transformers than do that.

rodak, agetec didnt do the pdf graphics guide because I told them not to bother. the mag took screenshots of almost everything in the game, so it wasnt worth their time.

also, we dont host videos because no one has asked me to. if you have a video you want hosted, just let me know where I can download it at, and I'll upload it.space and bandwidth are not an issue. our bandwidth costs have been covered quite far in advance thanks to a certain someone here who I'm not sure wants to be named.

[RPGD]

You know I'm always willing to help take care of it.

[hitogoroshi]

I'l pitch in after Christmas, when I have cash. $10 a week allowance.
Also, I apologize on skewing Nixion's gender. Didn't see it till after I posted, and I can't edit. :(

[hitogoroshi]

Sorry for the double post, but just remembered something.
Clicking the ad every day helps, right? Cause I've been doing it every day.

[Valkysas]

no, the ad is there as a free service to agetec.

[Rodak]

Drat, and Double Drat.

But that's nice about the file (I'll have to check The Mag more often...) and the hosting (I am happy with yousendit.com for my demos of recent progress, but if I ever make a proper promo I'll ask).

Those were my best thoughts for using the site to raise money.

Some of my lesser thoughts were:

A Raffle (as a thinly veiled excuse for donations... the prize could be anything from something material to one of those new icon thingies you mentioned (like the trash can prize for the Garbage Contest)), to "Mod for A Day". If you use $1 tickets and limit it to one per member you may still get a few hundred!

A Pavilion Auction (I have no idea what you'd auction off, maybe material donations instead of monetary donations from members).

Unless somebody else suggests something other than just plain donations those are about all I can think of.

Good Luck.

Peace.

[RPGD]

What about the store?

[Valkysas]

the pavilion store idea requires me to actually have things to sell, which I planned on acquiring early next year.

[Chuck]

Well since you don't want to take donations but there are members willing to give thema and you have stuff to sell but game stores pay crap how about meeting in the middle and doing some sort of raffle? It wouldn't be donations cause we'd be buying a chance to win stuff.

[Chuck]

And now that I read more of the thread I see that's already be suggested. Were there an edit button I could hide my shame.

[hitogoroshi]

Shame? Even if it's already been suggested, it's still a good idea. We give money for stuff. Better yet, if everyone pitched in 10$ and a game, any bargain bin, $5 game at all, then we'd have a grand raffle indeed. Think about it: If 16 people pay the $10, the crisis is averted. It wouldn't be anywhere near a donation, because there will be at least 16 games up for grabs in raffles seperated by system. And, if more then 16 people joined, Valk could use the money to buy more games to raffle (unless there are more Pav related costs) and we'd have a huge game raffle thats cheaper then a night at the movies.

[Rodak]

What about the store?
I know you said that it would require more time to get stuff and set up the store, so why not sell "Gift Cards" for the store?

Everybody would still be able to "Donate" whatever they can afford and it would not be a donation at all because, unless the store never happens, it would be "Legitimate Business" with a real purchase as the end product.

And I thought I was out of ideas...

[Tsunami]

I like Rodak's store idea, it sounds like an easy way to generate money. I'm sure people would by things (I know I would).

[volcan]

I'd be willing to help out with some cash too.

I've been using this site for years and if I can help by donating some cash, it's worth it to me!

[DoanTheNado]

I know you said ads wouldn't generate revenue quickly enough, but I have found that they actually will. If you use GoogleAds, they direct deposit your funds at the end of every month. With 20 days left this month, at just under 10 cents per click (on average), you would have to receive just about 2000 clicks in 20 days, or about 100 clicks a day. I don't know what your daily traffic is, but if you think that's anywhere near possible, you'd be in fine shape.

If not, it would at least help some. Of course, once you got the money you needed, you could take the ads right back off. It's all in the agreement that the "partnership" can be terminated at any time by either party.

[Valkysas]

thanks for pointing that out, doan. definately the best option available right now.

[RPGD]

Ooh, try a bakesale!

:minotaur

[Rodak]

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b41/Rodak/doan.jpg
Good for what ails you...

[Big Rick Cook]

I donated at the beginning of this year, and I wouldn't be at all averse to the idea of donating once again. But these other ideas are good, too.

[HolyPhoenix]

I would donate, however I do not have a job yet and I don't get an allowance. I probably will try to get a job right after the school year but that is past, like in June.

I do think that we we should definatley go for a permenent liscence, whichever way it is decided to raise money. It would probably be cheaper in the long run.

If I find time I might sell some crispy cream donuts or something to gain money.

[hitogoroshi]

Well, Valk, you should get the ads now. Hopefully, we can be done before december. (If 2 friends click 15 times it's 3 dollars right there). We could do it! The Pavilion Ad Crusade!

[Valkysas]

waiting for google to approve the pavilion. (yeah, they have to approve you. retarded, huh?)

approve us, googlepeople!

[Rodak]

If 2 friends click 15 times it's 3 dollars right there
This is from Doan's site, but extremely relevant:

I don't recommend clicking on more than 4 or 5 per day, a couple times a week, as it could otherwise be considered fraud.

If they charge you with fraud you must return all money ever recieved!

So Click 'em, but be conservative. There are enough unique users here that it should not be a problem.

Good Luck with it.

Peace.

[hitogoroshi]

I know. The 15 times was refering to once a day for 15 days. Which is about whats left in December. Hopefully, we'll be done by January 1st! I personally think keeping the ads till February at least would be worth it. It sound like the Pav is having money woes, and ads are a direct, if inconveient, solution.

[Draygone]

4-5 times a week? That sound low. 7 times a week shouldn't be a problem. Of course, that's once a day every day.

[DoanTheNado]

thanks for pointing that out, doan. definately the best option available right now.
Well, I'm glad you like my idea. I wish you the best of luck in getting the money you need.

[Valkysas]

any idea how long it takes for them to approve a site?