So, Liz and Hugh, I'll promise the site a £25 p.a. subscription and I invite everyone who can afford it to make a similar promise. A fiver, tenner or £50 or more - as people can manage.
We can't have HoL disappearing!
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There is another discussion about funding HOL here, which mentions direct donations from members as one way forward. Very interested to get some more views about the things discussed in that post and the responses it has had so far.
Alison. thanks for the link. this is what i think about why HOL will always work.
HOL creates value in the community therefore it attracts altruistic folk.
i have experimented with supporting internet communities by giving to the internet based company that owns the (my) football club.
to be a 'football supporter' one should, literally support the club by giving funds
(or wo/manpower) either by entrance fee to watch games or buying the scarf/poster.
some give their time. maybe they would man the gate ?
supporting HOL is not a million miles away from supporting an internet football team.
it's all about community interaction. the important word is loyalty.
Alan, thanks for posting about this. We are in the process, as you know, of constituting a group to find funding for the site, whether by advertising, donation or other funding (any ideas?). Previously, we'd been operating on an ad hoc basis but were persuaded by wise heads that we needed to formalise to aid transparency and create opps for funding.
We are opening a bank account to pay site fees out of and we have a treasurer who will publish accounts. When that process is complete, we will ready to have that funding drive/discussion. It may be that people don't mind some selected advertising from local businesses or we may find that folks prefer the idea of paying something like say 50p a week to maintain an ad free service. Mention has even been made of fund raising events. At this stage, all avenues are being explored. What is certain is that the price of independent resident led online forums like this is that it is the residents who have to generate the funding for it, one way or another (unless anyone knows someone with a spare couple of grand lying around to guarantee the site for 4 years :) ) We applied to the Making the Difference fund last year but were turned down. Some felt that in the long run that was for the best as we that made it easier to maintain independence.
Once we have the bank account ready, we will be ready ro receive money and publish accounts.
@Matt,I don't have the figures to hand as, at the moment, Hugh is bearing the brunt of the costs but they are basically ning site fees (to operate a site without general Google adverts costs more).
According to the ning site, these are the cost of premium services. I've copied them below as they may change (advertising removal is up from $20 previously to $25 per month). From what I can see, 'Removing Ning Promotion Links' and 'Control the Ads' is costing the site in excess of £400 per year. As a site user, neither of these bother me and would appear to save 80% of the '£500 projected' figure?
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