Resetera revenue should go back to the community and gaming charity causes

[Deleted member 134]

NeoGAF was the most popular video game forum. I suspect that era is over now. One of my concerns, and many, many other members' concerns with that forum is how the owner financially managed it. It became user hostile with viglinks, intrusive ads, and hijack your browser mobile ads. More importantly, it was a forum built up of community generated content for free, moderated by unpaid volunteers, all set up for the profit of one single person. This set up disgusted me and I know it disgusted many others.

During the mass exodus, I knew this is our chance as a community to fix the above issue. If the community made the content, the community should be the ones determining how to spend the site revenue. I offered to fund the entirety of Resetera to accomplish this goal, but the current forum owner ignored me. There's a lot going on, I guess.

I understand this forum is new and there's a lot to work out. Perfect. Since we're not on a determined path, I propose all revenue generated by this forum be used to pay for the forum itself, to generate ways to create better content for the community, and send all other revenue toward another, gaming related causes. For example, game development for the underprivileged, the underrepresented minorities and women, Child's Play kind of endeavors, etc.

Granted, yes, the site is new, there's no money, no one's determined anything with money, etc., etc. However, it's important to have this discussion now. We can work toward being a better, more inclusive community. Do you have any thoughts on how the site should spend its generated revenue, if it ever gets to that point?

 

[Bandage]

Any money should first go towards making sure everyone who put money and effort into this project get a reimbursed. Then, yes I'd say it goes towards things like the Humble Bundle charities or the AGDQ events.

 

[whitehawk]

I'll just say that I generally agree with this sentiment.

My worry when GAF imploded was that a bunch of people were going to try to launch a forum ASAP to get that ad revenue money.

However from what I can tell, there are no ads on this site.

I didn't like that mods on GAF weren't paid.

I'm not sure the best solution, but I think you've brought up some great ideas.

Contests with prizes funded by the revenue.
Supporting indie game devs.

Curious to see what the community thinks.

 

[oneils]

If it were to reimburse costs, I think it should probably reimburse labour. With the way this forum is set up, there would be a lot of people to reimburse for their time and effort. You'd have to agree on a price for that, and after that's done I doubt there would be much revenue left.

 

[BarryAllen]

If I ever win the lottery I promise to foot the bill to whoever paid for this

 

[sephi22]

Umm... running this site takes money. I hope the owners pay the moderators at least a little bit.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

I wish they'd allow posters to be monthly contributors. Maybe some type of vanity flair for their avatars as thanks.

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

I think it should be used to pay the structure in itself, the mods and the rest will go to charity. It would be very awesome.

 

[liquidmetal14]

I was actually going to get ahold of one of them odd and ask about something similar such as contributions and such.

 

[spookyduzt]

I wish they'd allow posters to be monthly contributors. Maybe some type of vanity flair for their avatars as thanks.

Click to shrink...

Access to ResetEra Gold would be a nice perk.

 

[The Driver]

I think our say on it is limited considering we didn't put the site together.

In all honesty I'm fine with the operators from the site profiting from it provided they remain transparent and no one person has the authority to shut the place down at any given moment or go power mad "cuz fuck you I paid for it".

I'm also cool with any revenue going towards charity yeah.

Basically I think the most obvious thing is to avoid another situation like what happened last week.

 

[Deleted member 5260]

I'll just say that I generally agree with this sentiment.

My worry when GAF imploded was that a bunch of people were going to try to launch a forum ASAP to get that ad revenue money.

However from what I can tell, there are no ads on this site.

I didn't like that mods on GAF weren't paid.

I'm not sure the best solution, but I think you've brought up some great ideas.

Contests with prizes funded by the revenue.
Supporting indie game devs.

Curious to see what the community thinks.

Click to shrink...

Damn they weren't paid? All that talk about them being "staff", I guess I just assumed.

Did they get anything? E3 passes? Free stolen Russian keys to COD4?

 

[Atom Heart Mother]

Patreon would be cool. No special shit for members. I'd like to see money go back into improving the site.

 

[human onion]

Some monetization has got to happen. We'll see what form it takes.

 

[The_Inquisitor]

This is a noble sentiment but short term the site is going to bleed money trying to ramp up on servers and whatnot.

 

[TinfoilHatsROn]

I think it should be used to pay the structure in itself, the mods and the rest will go to charity. It would be very awesome.

Click to shrink...

Yes. Tier list:

Structure.
Mods.
Charity.

Not sure how to generate revenue though, without intrusive ads.

 

[_Karooo]

Could we just start a subscription model instead of ads? I'm happy to pay for this. Love this site already.

 

[Samban]

What about a yearly donation drive like wikipedia does?

 

[The_Inquisitor]

Could we just start a subscription model instead of ads? I'm happy to pay for this. Love this site already.

Click to shrink...

This is something I would like to see if it means no ads (ads are coming eventually no question). I don't need any other benefit.

 

[Deleted member 134]

This is a noble sentiment but short term the site is going to bleed money trying to ramp up on servers and whatnot.

Click to shrink...

I offered to fund the whole thing. It's still on the table. If this is an issue, I can fund it to accomplish my proposed direction of the community.

 

[Snagret]

The people who maintain this community (both on the technical side and the moderators) should be given some sort of compensation, imo. The fact that the mods on such an immense site like GAF were being asked to donate their time is absolutely insulting given how much the site was pulling in from ad revenue, and how much that community was shaped by it's moderation. It probably gets complicated with determining who to pay and how much and on what basis do you decide that scale, but I feel like it's something that should be considered if ResetERA maintains it's momentum of users and content creation.

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

Yes. Tier list:

Structure.
Mods.
Charity.

Not sure how to generate revenue though, without intrusive ads.

Click to shrink...

I'm all in for (non-intrusive) ads that block the site if ABP is enabled, and a gold-membership subscription plan to support the site.

 

[Papaya]

There aren't even ads up for Reset Era, yet. There has to be, eventually, as I can't imagine that Cerium (he paid right?) wants to pay, forever. Those who invested in the site, first need their money back, and those who helped make it, should get some compensation. After...IDK. I'll let others decide. I didn't do anything to help put this website up, so I don't feel like I should have a say. As long as the integrity of the site remains, IDC.

 

[Mochi]

I definitely agree that it should ultimately be effectively a non-profit forum, but I'd like to donate to Cerium and some other folks first for the huge amount of work and time and money they put in for the community over the last week.

I also think that if revenue goes towards charities or some cause, it should be focused on fighting against abuse in all its forms -- abuse by the government (donations to the ACLU), abuse towards employees particularly in the games industry, and physical and institutional abuse of women.

 

[Zem]

I'd rather some donation type thing to keep the site running and cover costs than ads. I wonder if that's an option in the future?

 

[PopcornMegaphone]

I don't mind the profits going to the owners as long as they do a good job. Maintaining a message board is a lot of work.

I'm also willing to donate (patreon?) to the message board to keep it going.

 

[pestul]

Donation and/or sub model would be great.

 

[Samban]

I offered to fund the whole thing. It's still on the table. If this is an issue, I can fund it to accomplish my proposed direction of the community.

Click to shrink...

I don't have a ton of money, but I'd be willing to invest in the site too if there was something solid in place. Also hopefully what happened at GAF makes the admin staff realize that leadership needs to be decentralized.

 

[Deleted member 268]

I don't want to be an asshole, but admins of this site didn't just jump into action and made a new forum solely for the good of the community.

NeoGAF made a lot of money.

Even if they have to split it amongst more admins, if ResetEra takes NeoGAF's place, the admins no longer need to maintain day jobs, and I'd bet that's the primary reason why we're all here.

I'm not mad at it, I respect the hustle, and they're keeping the community together, but let's be honest about what this is: an opportunity to make money.

 

[pandemonium]

I'd gladly donate something if given the chance.

 

[Illasera]

I think all money should go towards keeping the site up, period. People can donate to charities at their own will outside of this community anyway.

 

[Sgt. Demblant]

I'd be fine with ads and I think the people running the site deserve compensation if possible. But yeah, charities would be neat too. But it's super early, we'll see. I'd be okay with donating a couple of bucks here and there to the site.

 

[Bad_Boy]

It should go into keeping the site up.

And then into the gaming community.

 

[Tuck]

Ultimately thats up to the people who invested their own money and time in putting this altogether. If they used this as a way to boost their income, I'm not going to be mad about that.

 

[Starlite]

It'll be interesting to see how this place will stay afloat, monetarily. I'd certainly be up to some sort of Patreon or donation ability, provided it'd actually be enough to keep the site afloat. Those who built and will maintain the site will certainly need to be contributed for the work.

That being said, putting excess contribution or revenue to gaming related charities and the like sounds like a wonderful idea.

 

[LGHT_TRSN]

I'd prefer to donate if it means no ads. Maybe give the option to make your own tag if you donate or something like that.

 

[brochiller]

The people putting in the time should be reimbursed for their efforts I think.

 

[lt519]

They certainly should make money off of it but I hope they give back a bit more than that other site did. There is a lot of time and effort put into something like this and wouldn't mind if the admins were paid well as full time gigs and the mods as part time gigs. It's amazing the other site had members giving things away, participating in secret santa's, etc and never once did I see the site owner give back.

It's also easy to sit back and say they should just break even and then give everything else away. But they are assuming a lot of risks in start-up and operational costs that should be rewarded.

 

[Cargo Shorts]

Ultimately thats up to the people who invested their own money and time in putting this altogether. If they used this as a way to boost their income, I'm not going to be mad about that.

Click to shrink...

Yup. They stepped up to the plate with a lot of hard work and their own money. Outside of the admins, if members want to donate that's cool, but I don't really want 'investers' having any say at all in how things are run or spent.

 

[Mammoth Jones]

I'd prefer to donate if it means no ads. Maybe give the option to make your own tag if you donate or something like that.

Click to shrink...

I'd be down for that.

 

[Mezentine]

I'd prefer to donate if it means no ads. Maybe give the option to make your own tag if you donate or something like that.

Click to shrink...

Honestly? Maybe Patreon is the right way to go?

 

[Deleted member 1635]

I'm not going to hate on the owners if they want to turn this into a profit operation like Malka did with GAF, but there are some super cool ideas in here.

 

[just_myles]

I say whatever keeps the site operational. This site is still a business and the owner is entitled to do whatever he/she wants with the excess(at least recoup expenses). However, charity would be cool too, at least at first to make a point.

 

[WillyFive]

It should go to support the admins and mods that run the site for us.

 

[PhantomHound]

Can we set up a patreon for this fourm? Or some other payment to help make sure we keep it going and help pay for hosting. Also if we could reach a certain goal maybe we could keep it ad free.

 

[Avatar Korra]

Any money should first go towards making sure everyone who put money and effort into this project get a reimbursed. Then, yes I'd say it goes towards things like the Humble Bundle charities or the AGDQ events.

Click to shrink...

Agreed. OP makes good points, but maintaing a forum is a lot of work. Not only do the costs to run it rise with increased membership, but I think it's fair for those that work so hard to make this - to get paid.

But I do think his concerns about the quality of revenue (how it's managed) is also important.

 

[excelsiorlef]

Access to ResetEra Gold would be a nice perk.

Click to shrink...

ResetEra Platinum

Fit with the colour scheme

 

[Deleted member 134]

I think all money should go towards keeping the site up, period. People can donate to charities at their own will outside of this community anyway.

Click to shrink...

So if it costs $5 to keep the site up and the site makes $20, where should the other $15 go?

 

[Like the hat?]

I would love to see some money to into an account and then a yearly vote thread at the end of each year where users could vote for a place for said money to get donated to. But I also wouldn't care if it was turned into a for profit site either.

 

[NameUser]

I'm fine with them making some money. It won't all to one person and at least they seem like good people who won't ego trip and brag to us about how cool they are. But Gaf did rub me the wrong way. One person shouldn't profit off the hard work of others.