September 2019 Donations & Finances

[Abraxus]

What a wonderful predicament we have, when folks are unhappy because they miss the opportunity donate to the cause, and look for ways it could happen.  🙂

 

Not sure if there is a short term solution, but I'll bet there are plans made (or being made) for what happens in the event that the NCSoft deal is successful.  I suspect that will open up avenues for a variety of things that just aren't an option in the current state of things.  I for one, plan to be around to hear about all of it the minute such news becomes available. 😎 

Edited September 1, 2019 by Abraxus

[yukkuri]

Why is the contingency fund $1250? Seems a strange amount.

[lordbasl]

Better to have the problem "Fans are donating so much so fast that we meet operating expenses on a not for profit game!" than "We cannot pay the bills and need to pull the plug unless we get donations." Missed the deadline once again. I am very grateful that the HC Team and Player Community are so bloody awesome that the vector sum of their awesomeness challenges ME to be a better community member.

 

As a certain Very Interesting Man might say ... "Stay infectiously awesome, my friends."

[Jimmy]

On 9/1/2019 at 7:32 PM, justicebeliever said:

@CipherI’ll waste my time again and ask this question, especially since you are asking us, the community, to pay these fees:

 

What is the non-profit shaping up to look like?  Give us an idea - 501(c)(3)?  Something different?  Will the board members names be made public?  Will we be supporting a charitable cause?  

 

You can obfuscate the letterhead and still post the invoices for the attorneys...

 

It’s not really transparency if the answer is wait and see, and trust us.  And if that’s the answer, then I’ll just wait again until next month to ask.  

 

I appreciate the work you guys are doing, but as you are moving from hobbyist to something more legitimate, I think it’s fair to expect you to show more of your cards...

What we can say is that setting this up as a non-profit is complicated, if it's even going to be possible at all. There's no precedent for what we're doing here, so we (and the attorneys we're working with) are kinda going to be writing the book on it. Essentially, this is less of a "wait and see, trust us" and more of a "when we're confident in a plan then we'll talk about it".

 

Regarding the invoices - because they are coming from small firms they tend to be somewhat personalized. Any part of the page could give away who those individuals are, so if we were to post anything it would be almost entirely redacted - and therefore not really worth the time. For this part, yes, we definitely are asking you to trust us.

[justicebeliever]

24 minutes ago, Jimmy said:

What we can say is that setting this up as a non-profit is complicated, if it's even going to be possible at all. There's no precedent for what we're doing here, so we (and the attorneys we're working with) are kinda going to be writing the book on it. Essentially, this is less of a "wait and see, trust us" and more of a "when we're confident in a plan then we'll talk about it".

This is a very fair answer.  Thank you...

[Korbian]

I have what might be an unfeasible suggestion, but hey, why not...

 

Is it possible to cap the amount an individual is allowed to donate per donation?  Still allow folks to donate as many times as they can manage to get in, but make them do it in whatever increment makes sense, whether it's $5 or $100.  That would allow more folks to get in something, but would allow the people who are capable of donating larger amounts to still donate more if they choose, or if the target isn't reached otherwise.  Am I making sense?  Sometimes I do. 😛

I don't know if there's even a way to do that, but if so, I think it would make a lot of y'all happy.

[Budo]

 

15 minutes ago, Korbian said:

I have what might be an unfeasible suggestion, but hey, why not...

 

Is it possible to cap the amount an individual is allowed to donate per donation?  Still allow folks to donate as many times as they can manage to get in, but make them do it in whatever increment makes sense, whether it's $5 or $100.  That would allow more folks to get in something, but would allow the people who are capable of donating larger amounts to still donate more if they choose, or if the target isn't reached otherwise.  Am I making sense?  Sometimes I do. 😛

I don't know if there's even a way to do that, but if so, I think it would make a lot of y'all happy.

I get that everyone wants to donate- but why the need to cap? If there's one crazy mofo out there that wants to donate the full amount every month and is hovering over the donate button the second it opens, let that crazy mofo do it. 

 

It's not a competition, you don't get the Extra Premium Super Duper City of Heroes^TM for donating. You're not losing out on anything (other than some personal need to have donated). Just be happy that other people have it covered. Community, not competition. 

 

I know we all want to feel special for having given to the cause, but your house is built- don't be mad you didn't get to do some of the wiring or drywall. You'll get a chance to do some improvements later, just wait. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by Budo

[Korbian]

1 minute ago, Budo said:

 

I get that everyone wants to donate- but why the need to cap? If there's one crazy mofo out there that wants to donate the full amount every month and is hovering over the donate button the second it opens, let that crazy mofo do it. 

 

It's not a competition, you don't get the Extra Premium Super Duper City of Heroes^TM for donating. You're not losing out on anything (other than some personal need to have donated). Just be happy that other people have it covered. Community, not competition. 

 

I know we all want to feel special for having given to the cause, but your house is built- don't be mad you didn't get to do some of the wiring or drywall. You'll get a chance to do some improvements later, just wait. 

I don't disagree with you, I just like to make people happy.  And there are so many who really want to give away their money.  I wish I was one of them.  I am broke as a joke most of the time so I am more than happy as well as eternally grateful to the handful of folks keeping the lights on for us.

[Perfect Square]

Thanks to the team and to our great community for their generosity.

 

FWIW, this is my plan for donations:

For me, I would ideally like to donate a specific amount each month, let's say it's $20 for the illustration. Since I don't want to race to get a donation in before the window closes and the fervor for the game is so high that they have no trouble meeting their needs quickly, I simply earmark that money. In my head, I've donated it. It just happens to reside in my account for the time being.

 

Perhaps in a couple years, there will be some large legal costs that need offsetting. Maybe in 5 years, we have some technical expenses that make one month 10 times as much as usual. Possibly, in 10 years, the fervor will die down to the point that we can't collect enough one month. THAT's when my $240, $1200, or $2400 in donations will be transferred in.

[Scientist]

On 9/1/2019 at 7:03 PM, yukkuri said:

Why is the contingency fund $1250? Seems a strange amount.

I thought that too, and in fact I've suggested that they raise their contingency fund to a full month's operating expenses.  That gives them a lot more flexibility if, for example, they change to a different server supplier that wants a month up front, while they still have to pay the last month on the last one.  Like when you change rental apartments, you usually need at least one extra month of cash.  I realize implementing my plan could drag out the donation window to a tedious 8 minutes, admittedly. . . 🙂 

 

If they are getting involved with attorneys, bills and filing fees could also lead to unexpected lump sum costs.  

[Nfinity]

Now that I’ve finally found my way back to this game I loved so very much, I look forward to donating. I nearly fell out of my seat as I’ve been trying to keep up with the saga of Ncsoft not willing to part with the intellectual rights etc at least once a year. If at all to see if any progress has been made.

 

So I don’t know how you all managed this, but seriously, thank you.

[jdryner]

Can we please set up a means to schedule the donors? I mean dang...everytime I go to donate all these other fine folks have paid for another month...it's not fair. I demand you set up some sort of list of donors that are willing to donate, and then stagger them so that we all get a chance to support you guys...I'm not kidding. Mostly.

[Valegor]

On 8/31/2019 at 1:07 PM, Giocondi said:

WOOO I got you bastards this time! Been trying to allude me for months! NOW YOU HAVE MY MONEY AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT.

 

<3333

I haven't been able to get them yet, but one of these times I will be able to pay them.  lol.