*** Forum fundraiser 2013 [£506.68 / £500.00 raised] ***

[orudge]

So, it's that time of year again - time for the annual forum donation drive!

The forums have been fairly steady in terms of activity for 2012 relative to 2011 - around 3TB or so of bandwidth used last year, and nearly 150,000,000 hits. This all costs money to run, naturally. The advertising you see covers some of the cost, but not all. As regular visitors will know, I like to run a fundraiser at the start of the year to help cover as much of the expense of running the forums as possible - without your generosity over the years, the forums may well not be here now. This year's fundraiser has been set for £500.00 ($812.65, €616.35). If you could spare even just a few pounds, dollars, euros, or whatever currency you use, to help the forums, it'd be appreciated.

Instead of a single large donation, you may wish to consider sending a regular monthly donation, if this is something you can afford. Hosting for the forums is paid monthly, so this can help to spread things around a bit. If you'd be interested in donating like this, please let me know.

You can find the donation page here. Donations can be taken by PayPal and direct bank transfer. Within the UK, I can also accept cheques and postal orders. If there is another way you would like to donate, let me know and we can figure something out. Your donations are very much appreciated.

(GBP) (USD) (EUR)

If you don't want to, or can't, send a monetary donation, you can use our Amazon affiliate links when you shop at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or Amazon.ca. Again, the donations page here explains that.

Please note that donations to OpenTTD are NOT donations for the forums; the forums and OpenTTD are unconnected (although I do receive donations for both). To donate to the forums, please use this link, not the link on the OpenTTD web site.

Thank you all for your support. Please let me know if you have any questions. (This announcement will be removed in the future.)

CURRENT TOTAL DONATED: £506.68 / £500.00

Click here to donate!

[Bartjeh]

Although I hardly ever check the forums (So it's a huge coincidence I see this topic ), I've donated €20. Just to keep the project alive (Still a big fan of TTD!)

[Chris]

Will send a bit your way once my student loan comes in

[Chrill]

Naturally. Sent some to you, I'll try to make donations at least quarterly from now on

[DarkUk]

I'll donate when I paid, pretty much on this site everyday

[orudge]

A fifth of the way already, thank you very much for all your donations!

[Hi-Torque]

Although I hardly ever post, I have been a regular lurker for...a little while. I very much enjoy this long running community. Thanks for all you do to keep the game and the community alive. Best money I have spent all year

[JamieLei]

Will donate the moment I get my student loan through - could you give me a PayPal email so I can do a transfer with PayPal credit and thus avoid the fees, ensuring the forums get even MORE money?

[Emperor Jake]

I've spent by far the most time on this online community than any other. (until I found Reddit a couple of months ago ) Anyway, I donated a bit because this is an awesome site and an awesome community.

[Chrill]

Will donate the moment I get my student loan through - could you give me a PayPal email so I can do a transfer with PayPal credit and thus avoid the fees, ensuring the forums get even MORE money?

I donated through the PayPal links above and it performed a payment without any fees To my surprise, might I add, because I was expecting fees. Last time around, I had to pay £1.58 in fees!

[orudge]

Will donate the moment I get my student loan through - could you give me a PayPal email so I can do a transfer with PayPal credit and thus avoid the fees, ensuring the forums get even MORE money?

I donated through the PayPal links above and it performed a payment without any fees To my surprise, might I add, because I was expecting fees. Last time around, I had to pay £1.58 in fees!

Fees will be charged unless you make a manual payment to owen at owenrudge dot net and mark it as "personal". The funding also has to come from a PayPal account (or possibly bank account); credit card payments will also result in fees.

Thanks again for all your generosity!

[Torrasque]

I've got a bit off-topic question. How much do you receive for the ads at the top and the bottom of the page ?
What I mean is: how much money would you need to ask if there weren't any ads?

[orudge]

Unfortunately my agreement with Google prohibits me from stating how much the advertising earns. It covers a portion of the costs of the forums, but not all of it - hence the need for this fundraiser.

[Chrill]

Fees will be charged unless you make a manual payment to owen at owenrudge dot net and mark it as "personal". The funding also has to come from a PayPal account (or possibly bank account); credit card payments will also result in fees.

Thanks again for all your generosity!

Well, I doubt that to be honest. I paid with my regular credit card tied to my bank account, I used the above links and made the donation in pounds. Perhaps then you only received some of it... Was my donation to you in weird cents or full GREAT BRITISH POUNDS? If it was weird, I guess they just didn't show me the fees on the receipt... If not, then I was not charged any fee.

PayPal states the below;

Fee amount:
£0,00 GBP

[orudge]

Well, I doubt that to be honest. I paid with my regular credit card tied to my bank account, I used the above links and made the donation in pounds. Perhaps then you only received some of it... Was my donation to you in weird cents or full GREAT BRITISH POUNDS? If it was weird, I guess they just didn't show me the fees on the receipt... If not, then I was not charged any fee.

Usually the recipient is charged a fee, although the sender can I think choose to pay the fees in some cases. The donation from you had £0.77 of fees subtracted from it. It's unfortunate, but the convenience of PayPal does tend to make up for it, and the fees aren't too bad compared with some methods of money transfer.

[FooBar]

Owen, how much does your bank charge you for receiving money from a Dutch account, transferred in euro? Because on part of my bank that's free. If it's free for you as well then I would like to choose that method of payment instead of paypal.

[Nawdic]

Ive just ended out paying a fortune for car repairs and may not be able to donate this year round.....


Oh well, there's always next year!

[XeryusTC]

Owen, how much does your bank charge you for receiving money from a Dutch account, transferred in euro? Because on part of my bank that's free. If it's free for you as well then I would like to choose that method of payment instead of paypal.

When I did a direct bank transfer a few years back it was €8,- although you had the option of splitting it or carrying the costs yourself. It might've changed with the new banking system where all bank accounts get IBAN numbers by default etc.

[UnicycleBloke]

I've added my 2p, as it were. I haven't used it that much, but the forum has been the ultimate source of most of my entertainment for last three months - developing NewGRF Editor.

[orudge]

Owen, how much does your bank charge you for receiving money from a Dutch account, transferred in euro? Because on part of my bank that's free. If it's free for you as well then I would like to choose that method of payment instead of paypal.

Typically £1. For donations of around £25 or less, PayPal is probably slightly cheaper (the exact amount may vary).

Thank you again for all your support, I'll get the total updated shortly.

I've added my 2p, as it were. I haven't used it that much, but the forum has been the ultimate source of most of my entertainment for last three months - developing NewGRF Editor.

Hmm, a NewGRF Editor? I hadn't come across that, very nice. I had started work a while ago on a visual NML editor of sorts, but as usual real life has meant I've not really made much progress on it! Thanks for your donation.