State of AFN 2021

[PlatinumGrows]

This still active?

Made my donation thanks for the link

 

[Filthy_Casual]

Also, shout out to all of you lurkers out there that get good info but aren’t members.

Throw in a couple of bucks!! Then you can lurk for another year.

 

[Only1Sky]

This is a no-brainer. Like last year, I just donated with pleasure.

 

[St. Tom]

Just done 50 quid and I will donate every few months also if anyone can even manage a few pounds or dollars it all adds up

 

[JSH1973]

I would throw in a few quid if a support hat was being passed around

 

[St. Tom]

I would throw in a few quid if a support hat was being passed around

@HighnDry posted the link earlier

 

[Builder0101]

I would throw in a few quid if a support hat was being passed around

Donate to AFN Community Campaign, organized by Jordan Harker

The Autoflower Network (AFN) is an online community forum that provides a friendly environment fo… Jordan Harker needs your support for AFN Community Campaign

www.gofundme.com

 

[Fitzy]

Dear AFN family,

I wanted to talk to you all a little bit about how we should go forward for our site finances in 2021. Our goal is simply to get bills paid to keep the site and community going.

The Cost:

The cost for our server rental is $350.00 every 3 months (per quarter,) plus $45.00 for our backup storage (also quarterly.)

I don't think our technical requirements have changed to require any server upgrades as of right now, but I'll ask Wwwillie what he thinks and if we need to get anything beefed up.

So that's $395.00 every 3 months we're on the hook for, or $1580.00 annually for server rental alone.

I think it's a safe bet to budget at least $500 for technical work if/when the need arises (which we have found it arises.)

A lot of our licenses and support for add-on's work for a limited time period (so we're purchasing like 1 or 2 year license agreements; ) so what that means is that we're still good using everything we're using, but if we want to get on the most recent/updated versions of things, we need to renew our licenses for those things (the cost is substantially cheaper than the initial cost to purchase, but it's something to factor in. Usually like $10-25 per renewal depending on the software add-on.)

We're officially going to budget in for a dev server as well, which we're looking at some variable costs on (@wwwillie is helping me figure out the best way to get something that works that's also value/cost effective.)

The Question:

So the question I have for the community is, do you want to go with what we did last year and push the GoFundMe campaign? Or do we sell out a few banner spots and not put that burden on the community? Last year we were 100% funded by the AFN community (the members!) In prior years, AFN had been paid primarily out of personal pocket (and we had a few years where banners/vendors paid for the site too.)

Personally, I love the idea of a forum that's funded by it's members, not it's vendors. We can't be accused of being put in anyone's pocket. But it's a financial burden burden too, and honestly I could sell a couple ads and we'd be on easy street too.

So you all let us know how we should spin this, and we'll do this the way the community wants us to. This is for you, me, all of us!

I'm down with wat ever keeps this place going as it's by far my favorite place to be online period not a fan of other sites nor Instagram or Facebook ect advertising has 0 to do with anything except building this great community especially bc you would be chosing the company's ect so I say do it.

 

[Builder0101]

If there is any way to not receive monies from vendors so as to avoid any appearance of favoritism that would be ideal.

Perhaps there is a way to do cross marketing without accepting compensation for any endorsement.

As far as advertising on AFN I doubt a vendor would want to place an add with an AFN disclaimer that AFN does not endorse said vendor...

 

[HighnDry]

If there is any way to not receive monies from vendors so as to avoid any appearance of favoritism that would be ideal.

Perhaps there is a way to do cross marketing without accepting compensation for any endorsement.

As far as advertising on AFN I doubt a vendor would want to place an add with an AFN disclaimer that AFN does not endorse said vendor...

There are ads there already. Most of the general public would assume that these are paid for. They're not I should say but if they suddenly became paid what would change?