Savannah Cat Chat - 2013

[admin]

Hi All,

We will be a year old on january 3 and at the rate we are going, will have close to 1,000 members. We will celebrate in some way - just not sure yet how

We want to allow 2 companies to advertise with us at a monthly rate and see how it goes. Those companies will be cat-related and perhaps even savannah-related.

We are open to suggestions/discussion, but must do this in lieu of donations as it does cost $$$$ to run the forum. Please be constructive if you are against this idea.

 

[Eolsurion]

I myself would rather provide donations through a PayPal account or something along those lines. I can appreciate the time and administrative costs of maintaining this site and have no problem with helping with those. I would think that donations should be voluntary. I would imagine that there are enough people willing to help to more than compensate for expenses and even some of your time.

To be honest, with those breeders that only post to advertise their kittens (a practice I know you work to stem), it already has the feel of too much advertising.

I like the comfortable feel of this forum ... The feeling of a bunch of friends sharing personal stories and providing advice to other close friends. I think having to ignore flashing advertisements would ruin the "ambience" of this site.

 

[admin]

Thanks Rob!

Just to be clear...there would be no flashing banners or anything of the sort...there would be one or two banners, period. But I understand your concerns and since this is a community, we will take everyone's opinions/concerns into consideration. Nothing will be done until Jan 2013, so we have plenty of time to discuss and come to a decision.

I appreciate your feedback

 

[WitchyWoman]

Paige, whatever you need to do, I'll support it. I think having a button for voluntary donations to keep the site running is a good idea in addition to any advertising. FYI, I pay $24 a year to belong to another cat site that I rarely participate on but it is my "go to" for great information regarding alternative health care and nutrition. If you think we need a membership fee, it needs to be mandatory not voluntary.

 

[Trish Allearz]

One Sphynx site I've been on asks for donations to go towards site fees.

Whatever you decide, I think you should have a donate button for the site.

 

[Per Lausund]

Put up an easy-to-use donate button, make the suggested fee low and encourage people to donate multiple times. As to advertisers, there should be some of them willing to donate. And there is always HSUS and ALF who both have plenty of funding...

 

[admin]

Paige, whatever you need to do, I'll support it. I think having a button for voluntary donations to keep the site running is a good idea in addition to any advertising. FYI, I pay $24 a year to belong to another cat site that I rarely participate on but it is my "go to" for great information regarding alternative health care and nutrition. If you think we need a membership fee, it needs to be mandatory not voluntary.

Thanks Deborah...I do not want to do membership fees, so will probably go the way of a donate button, like I did for the Winn Foundation...

 

[admin]

One Sphynx site I've been on asks for donations to go towards site fees.

Whatever you decide, I think you should have a donate button for the site.

Thanks Trish - I think I will do that

 

[admin]

Put up an easy-to-use donate button, make the suggested fee low and encourage people to donate multiple times. As to advertisers, there should be some of them willing to donate. And there is always HSUS and ALF who both have plenty of funding...

Thanks Per...will do! I can probably get some of the companies who have contacted me to donate a fee based on a recommendation or something rather than a banner.

 

[Medesha]

Banners and a donate button sound fine to me. Gotta keep this place open and running!

So long as the banners aren't really flashy, or god forbid, tiny bits of video that start playing the moment you open a page and you have to locate the 3x3 square of pixels with a high-powered microscope to kill the sound....