Donation feature [Implemented]

[God of Kings]

CivFanatics Supporter account upgrades are now available.
Help support CivFanatics and surf the forums ad-free!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

It would be great if there were a donation feature for CivFanatics.

If a member were to donate a certain amount (it can be lump sum or on a subscription basis), that member would be able to view the website ad-free without needing to use ad-blockers. Not just that, but that member would also receive a "Donor" banner below the avatar to show support for the website financially.

It has been implemented for many websites, including those that use XenForo.

Alternatively, Patreon can be used as well, which many popular Let's Players use.

 

[Synobun]

I like the idea of having a donation system in place with some perks. No ads is an obvious one, but it could be neat for there to be a module somewhere on the index that lets donors invest in a highlight spot for their mod or a piece of highly detailed documentation.

It would also be cool if donor usernames were a different colour, but right now that isn't much of a draw since nobody's username is distinguishable from one another (mods, admins, GOTM staff, etc). If that becomes a thing, however, different colour would be very cool to see.

 

[Thunderfall]

Any of you had experience being a donor member of a forum? How does it work? You made the donation via sites like PayPal and an admin add you to donor user group manually?

 

[Synobun]

Any of you had experience being a donor member of a forum? How does it work? You made the donation via sites like PayPal and an admin add you to donor user group manually?

There are plugins for most self-hosted forum software packages that integrate the donation system into the forum. You connect a PayPal account to it but beyond that the forum itself would handle the logistics of moving members into a different group (even if it's subscription-based).

On a myBB forum I ran a while ago, ad modules had their visibility decided through user group permissions. Those in the donor group simply didn't load the ad modules.

 

[Petek]

The Physics Forums uses xenforo and has an option to upgrade to a Gold Membership. It uses PayPal for this purpose.

 

[Thunderfall]

I spent some time on this tonight and implemented it!

The forum has a built in user upgrade feature which makes it easy.

CivFanatics Supporter
Help support CivFanatics and surf the forum completely ad-free! Other perks include a Supporter badge and bigger avatar file size (100 KB instead of 50 KB).

This option is available under Account Upgrades on the profile page.

Currently this subscription is $15 for 1 year and is renewable.

Can someone give it a try and let me know how it goes?

EDIT: Added another account upgrade option for permanent account upgrade at $50 one time donation.

 

[Petek]

I subscribed. Got the new badge and an email from PayPal about my payment. PayPal also informed me that my subscription was configured to autorenew once a year. Didn't expect this, since I didn't see an autorenew option.

 

[Thunderfall]

Thanks Petek! That's pretty neat and convenient to use then!

For the renewal, it should let you cancel the renewal anytime.

From Xenforo help page:

Members can purchase User Upgrades from the Account Upgrades page which is accessed via the link in the sidebar on their account page, or from the dropdown menu under their user name on the navigation bar.

Once purchased, members can not cancel a permanent upgrade. They can however cancel their subscription for any recurring upgrades at any time. If they do so before the upgrade expires, they will not automatically receive a refund, either whole or partial, for the remainder of the term.

 

[Thunderfall]

Added another account upgrade option:

CivFanatics Supporter - Permanent
Same benefits as the other one, but is a permanent account upgrade.

This one is for $50 one time donation.

Note that selecting either account upgrade option will disable the other option from being selected.

 

[Arakhor]

When the pound stops being total drek, I'll consider it, but will supporters be allowed avatars with larger dimensions or is it just the file size that's increased?

 

[Thunderfall]

Not sure it's possible to have different avatar dimension by user group. Will check...

Edit: Found out it's not a built in feature.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The process is quick and easy.

 

[Birdjaguar]

You should sticky this thread or a new one that talks about donating to CFC. If you don't keep it visible, no one will remember that they can. You could also give Civfanatics T-Shirts at some donation level. Shirts could have things like: "I post Off Topic at Civfanatics"; "Civfanatics.com Home of Civ VI": etc. Maybe an enterprising staff member or poster will want to produce those shirts.

 

[God of Kings]

I second the motion for tangible rewards for donating to CivFanatics, as well as having this thread stickied.

 

[lymond]

Personally, I like things a bit more subtle on my Tee's. Just small text over the left chest on the Tee, something like the banner above. "Civilization Fanatics Center" or also put CFC above it in a bit larger font.

Thin mousepads would be nice as well. Items like these could be gifts for certain donation amounts, but also sold here if you setup a little store. Get a little profit from it to help out.

 

[Thunderfall]

I created a separate thread for this and made that one sticky.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/forum-account-upgrades-available-for-ad-free-browsing.600142/

Closing this thread...