AD Donations - Dilemma

[dude]

Dear AD Friends,

I was dismayed to learn that at least one contributor to the AwesomeDude operation fund was put out that the donations were not acknowledged or thank you’s sent “like owners of other sites do.”

I am sorry to hear this.

In some places, many gay people may be out but in others it might be embarassing or distressing or even dangerous to receive an email from a gay literature site. I have been working on this assumption and several other gay site owners have as well.

In fact, many of you fine folks who donate to AwesomeDude are not ADCF members and would not be able to respond to a poll should I attach one to this posting. You need to be a member to post or reply to a posting.

The fact is that -at any given time- guests outnumber registered AD Forum members by a factor of 8 – 10 to one. So then, why don’t folks register? Some think it’s that they may not have sole access to their emails and that the emails to/from a gay site might bring them under scrutiny by fellow workers or family members.

This is all very perplexing to me. Every contribution to keeping AwesomeDude online is warmly welcomed and greatly appreciated. But should I post contributors names on the site, or should I reply from our official email address dude@awesomedude.com or should I reply with thank you’s from a personal plain vanilla email address that might get caught in a SPAM filter?

Those of you who can reply to this posting, I invite your comments. Those of you who would prefer to comment by email,

Please write me at either awesomedudester@gmail.com or at michael.wengert@gmail.com. There, I just outed myself!

Let me express heartfelt appreciation to all of you who have, or do or plan to contribute. This is on behalf of all the AD Authors as well as your humble site owner, Thank You – Thank You – Thank You!

Mike

[JamesSavik]

I prefer to be one of the shadowy figures in a smoke filled back room....

[vwl]

You might emulate Nifty's Welcome page that identifies the (screen) names of donors. The names could be "hidden" on some innocuous place on the site.

[eric312]

I am not rich and most of the time I live paycheck to paycheck. I've contributed before when I've had the extra money to spend. But, just knowing I have a place to go to read some great stories is thanks enough. I'm more than happy to contribute to AwesomeDude when I can and no thanks are necessary.

[Cole Parker]

Mike, I wonder if there's a way to ask for donor feedback, some way they could advise it they'd appreciate an email expressing the site's thanks, and giving them a chance to provide an email address it could be sent to. Then it would be their choice whether to get the note or not. I'm not sure how this would be implemented, but it might help with the problem. Anyone have any idea how this could be done?

C

[colinian]

When I donate by PayPal I get a feedback that my donation was sent by PayPal. That's enough for me.

Colin

[Chris James]

Like Colin, the notification from Pay Pal is enough to let me know the donation has found it's way to the right place. I get my thank you every time The Dude posts my work. Don't be needin nothin else!

[Merkin]

I'm with Colin and Chris on this, but I can understand that a non-participating donor might like something a little more fulsome than the simple acknowledgement of the transaction Paypal sends out.

At present your Donor button leads directly to the Paypal site, Mike; would it be possible for it to lead first to an intermediate screen here on AD where you give the prospective donor an advance 'Thank You' with an explanation that once he leaves AD and links to Paypal he won't get any other feedback except the acknowledgement of the transaction?

[Cole Parker]

The point is, however, Colin and Chris, that some people do seem to need more, to need a personal 'thank you' from the man himself.

C

[DesDownunder]

Being almost Des_titute , I am not able to donate. I'd offer to provide personal thanks to all donors in my area, but I think that my get me into trouble with my hubby.

Can we all agree that we authors and readers, are very grateful to anyone who contributes to keeping AwesomeDude online?

[Graeme]

I can see both sides of this. Personally, I don't need an acknowledgment when I donate to AD because I know Dude and I know the site - knowing I'm helping is enough for me. However, if I were to consider donating to a site that I do NOT know well, then, yes, I would probably want a personal acknowledgment. That's not because I need it, but because I would want that reassurance that my money is going for its intended purpose and the site isn't just a front a collect money for other things. A personal acknowledgment indicates that there's a real person behind the scenes who is paying attention to things like that.

Other people may have other reasons why they want an acknowledgment than the one I give above, but the base point still exists - they would like a message acknowledging the donation.

Having said all of that, I appreciate Dude's concern about people receiving emails from a gay site when they're not out. I don't know what the solution will be, though using a gmail account to acknowledge the donations may be the best option.

[Cole Parker]

I think what Dude just did, thanking people in general for their contributions and explaining why such thanks weren't being sent out personally, will go a long way to settle the issue. Perhaps if this were done every six months or so, that would help, too. But I have no idea whether people that donate read the forums or not. I doubt there's any foolproof way to satisfy everyone.

C

[TracyMN]

Surely anonymity is an option when donating to Nifty, and Mike, I'm inclined to think your decision serves more folks than it offends, and see nothing in this that compels you to change anything. Clarifying your position seems appropriate to the circumstances, and anything beyond the simplest of measures, reactionary.

As an American, I'd allow that I might be a little twitchy on that score.