Donate Button Explanation

Donate Button

Some of you may have noticed the Donate Button on the top left hand corner of the page. I'd like to take this time to explain why I implemented the button. This is going to be long because I want full disclosure.

This forum was created March 22 2011. At the time, everything was free. The founder Love_Me was able to choose the site with a specific domain name, bachandbachettefans.net at no cost. Everything else you see in this forum was free.

I was asked March 2014 if I would take over as Administrator by SanLee. At the time unfortunately I had no contact with Love_Me so it was learn as I go type of thing which I gladly accepted since I was familiar with setting up forums.

The following December 2014 I received a notice from Support that our forum was expiring Jan 2015 and I had to pay to renew it. I knew nothing about this and asked for an explanation. They advised since we had a specific name, bachandbachettefans.net rather than bachandbachettefansforumotion.net I had to pay for the renewal. I talked my way out of paying by indicating it was a large forum with thousands of registered members, which they agreed and renewed the forum. I was able to do that for 2016 as well.

In Nov 2016 they advised they were creating "packages" Free Advanced Premium. Some of you may remember when we were able to upload as many images at one time but it was changed to only 3 at one time. That was part of the change.

Once again I contacted Support but this time said it had to be paid for because we have a specific domain name and the Advanced Package includes specific domain names. My option was to change the whole forum name to forumotion and have a basic package, or I could have purchased our own domain which costs monthly and get technical support in transferring our whole forum over to the new domain. I didn't want to take that chance, so I paid for it for 2017.

We have to purchase credits. Then use the credits to renew the forum. Added to that I purchased additional credits so we don't have ad's popping up for registered users. (another thing that used to be free)  I paid $101 Cdn to purchase just enough credits for one year 2017. Dec 2018 I paid $65Cdn to purchase additional credits to renew for one year to Nov 2019 and again for 2020. I always had to purchase more than I needed because at the time the increments were limited to 1000 3000 5000 etc so I have 2141 credits sitting there. Each time I paid, I got frustrated because the end of the year is bad timing for me and often thought about asking for donations, but felt awful because everyone has their own challenges and coming to our forum is a distraction. It shouldn't be about yet another bill that needs to be paid.

Today the cost for renewing the forum plus additional credits to avoid ad's popping up is $41.30 USD for 4430 credits. My only options is Euro's(not doing that) or USD which then gets converted to Canadian dollars on my end which results in roughly $58.00. I have to buy 3000 credits because 2000 is not enough.

For the last couple of days I've been checking into how I can add a donate button and trying to figure out the best possible method, making it simple by paying with a credit card or via paypal. I thought if anyone donates it will be only to cover my costs for this year and each year going forward. The extra credits can remain sitting there incase prices go up we can use some of them. Once there is enough to pay for the renewal fee's, the donate button will be removed. It will be added again next year when we need to renew again.

This year has been a difficult year for many of us however, if you are able to chip in, any amount it would be greatly appreciated. There is absolutely no obligation, and I have no idea who would contribute. No information is shared in any capacity. I tested it myself with a small donation and all I receive is an email notification to the bbspoilerfans@gmail.com account. I logged into paypal and all I see is an email account from the sender.

The next series of images are confirming costs etc. Once we have enough to cover the renewal fee's I will post the dollar amounts received.

Thank you all for your contributions by posting and sharing info as well as the awesome sleuthing and to the mod's for continued support in making our forum a happy place!

Please let me know if something doesn't make sense, or if you have any questions or suggestions please let me know.

ETA: THANK YOU to those who already donated before I explained why that button appeared!!!

Credits sitting there accumulated that I paid for in the past.



Cost of credits



Notice of Domain expiring (bachandbachettefans.net)



Notice of Advanced package expiring


Packages - we can't have the free package because that doesn't include keeping our domain name. The first column is Free the second is Advanced



Summary of credits needed to renew for 2021

@GuardianAngel I hope I speak for all of us when I say Thank you for all you've done to keep this forum running smoothly and allowing us to indulge one of our guilty pleasures.

I appreciate that you wanted to show the accounting but you are trustworthy. No one who is trying to milk unsuspected public would put the effort into what you've done for this forum to make a few pittance from it.

If you have extra $$ from donations, you certainly have my permission to treat yourself to a coffee or something even a little stronger! Cheers!

Tried 3 times to make a donation - unsuccessful. It may be a temporary problem with PayPal.

@Norcalgal I just donated and it went through with no problem so whatever issue has been fixed.

@GuardianAngel As always thanks for all your hard work!

@Norcalgal that's very sweet!

@Sprite thank you! and Thank you to those who contributed so far. We are almost there.

@Norcalgal I got this from the paypal site. Whenever I used paypal it was in Canadian dollars so I'm not familiar what happens to purchase another currency.

If an American contributes $1.00 Canadian dollar, it will cost them .76 cents. There is an option in paypal to choose the currency. Just thought I'd post the info in case some were not aware to look at the currency box.

How do I send a payment in another currency?
The primary currency of your PayPal account is the default payment currency unless you choose to use another currency.

To send money in a different currency:

Go to Send & Request.
Enter the email address, mobile number or name of the recipient and click Next.
Enter the amount, choose the currency (below the entered amount), and add a note if needed.
Click Continue.
If you want to change the payment method, under "Payment Method," click Change.
Review the details you've entered and click Send Money Now to complete your transaction.
When you use a credit card as the payment method, we ask you to choose who performs the currency conversion:
If you choose PayPal, we can show you the conversion rate at the time of the transaction
If you choose the credit card association currency conversion, your card issuer will determine the foreign exchange rate to apply to the transaction. You will not be informed of the foreign exchange rate or any additional foreign exchange fees applied until you are billed by your card issuer
American Express payments are always charged in US Dollars.

https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/how-do-i-send-a-payment-in-another-currency-faq1555

It worked fine for me. Two days ago. I put on Visa .

Thanks GA for this. Let me know if we need to reach a bit more.

GuardianAngel and all of the moderators. I really appreciate all of the time and effort you invest to make this site my favorite forum

@GuardianAngel I won't accept cookies and am wondering if that is the problem with not accepting my credit card. I just tried again and got the same "there is a problem" response! Hmm

Anyone else have a payment that went through without clicking on the Accept Cookies button?

I accepted cookies and had the same problem earlier. I just now got through. Also, the first time I tried I didn’t use the PayPal link and instead used the credit card link. This time (when it went through) I used my PayPal account so maybe that had something to do with it?

@GuardianAngel Can't thank you enough for all the work that you and the moderators do!

Please let me know if we don't reach the mark. This is my favorite place to escape the challenges of 2020 and I would absolutely hate to see the forum endangered.

Super easy and quick for me. Ignored the cookies and used PayPal.

I was away most of the day and when I logged on we have $161!!! That is more than enough. I will post s/shots and figure out how many credits we can buy. That will take care of 2021 2022 and part of 2023, going by memory.

I can't thank you all enough for the kind words and for donating!!! I so very much appreciate it!!!! This is fantastic!