Topic: Request a donation feature

I know that this site is paid through banner ads but what if there’s a way for someone to support the site directly through a small one-time or monthly donations

Not sure if this was requested before but I’ll do it anyway

There used to be a SubscribeStar for that, but apparently it doesn't exist anymore as of a few months ago. (source: topic #59485)

crocogator said:
There used to be a SubscribeStar for that, but apparently it doesn't exist anymore as of a few months ago. (source: topic #59485)

Yeah it got banned, iirc trolls (the usual suspects) got together to mass report it for the more out there content on the site that payment processors want no part in

That also just further puts a nail into the coffin of any kind of donation system
Even danbooru hasn't been able to keep any kind of steady payment processor

donovan_dmc said:
That also just further puts a nail into the coffin of any kind of donation system
Even danbooru hasn't been able to keep any kind of steady payment processor

Not even an built in system? where you simply add bank account/check directly to e6 manager (or whoever in charge of that money) without a third-party like subscriberstar?

Edit: grammar fixed

whatismyname1234 said:
Not even an in-site system? where you simply add bank account/check directly to [whoever in charge of that] without a third-party like subscriberstar?

You can't just charge a bank account, you need a payment processor

If the average person/site could just charge a bank account every bank account would be emptied in a matter of months

The payment processors are the problem, not the middlemen like subscribestar

donovan_dmc said:
The payment processors are the problem, not the middlemen like subscribestar

How about sending cash/check through mail

whatismyname1234 said:
How about sending cash/check through mail

Considering the sheer amount of problems both of those have (mail getting lost/stolen, legal issues due to not collecting names/SSNs/etc) that isn't even an option to begin with
No to mention I'd bet on no bank being willing to accept hundreds of checks at a time, along with having to have somebody go down to an actual bank to cash checks

This also can't be automated so someone would have to be dedicated to handling all of that
The risks and costs highly outweigh any benefit

whatismyname1234 said:
Not even an built in system? where you simply add bank account/check directly to e6 manager (or whoever in charge of that money) without a third-party like subscriberstar?

donovan_dmc said:
You can't just charge a bank account, you need a payment processor

Donovan is right, but there is a difference between platforms like SubscribeStar & more direct payment processor solutions. There are services that slim down the middleman nature of online payments, specifically Stripe. However, this adds a bunch of extra work, both on us community developers & on the business/legal side of things, & Stripe is still a third-party payment processor that can shut us down like SubscribeStar did. That being said, I don't believe they accept - or at least facilitate - reports from random people on the internet, so they'd be far less likely to do so, & we'd likely have better solutions to resolve the conflict than with SubscribeStar, but it's still a possibility. Regardless, it took a lot of time & coordination to get a SubscribeStar up, so it would take time & coordination to set up direct payments, & I don't know if BD has the appetite for it after that debacle, at least for now. Also, while likely less than other platforms, Stripe does take a cut of transactions, so they'd have to weigh the cost of efforts to get this up & running (and to keep it up) against the expected contributions. I'm not privy to these discussions, but I imagine they haven't fully abandoned the hope for contributions at a later point in time. I just think that time isn't likely to be soon.

I wonder how does sites like FA and Inkbunny manage donations if content hosted was an issue to payment processors.

thegreatwolfgang said:
I wonder how does sites like FA and Inkbunny manage donations if content hosted was an issue to payment processors.

No one has made a big enough stink about it, and they aren't big enough for collective shout to care about them