So this idea has been brought up a couple different places but I wanted a thread to kind of bring it all together. As we all know this site is limping along on old broken code and while rewrites are happening, it is at a snails pace and doesn't seem to be making much headway.

The proposition of a Subeta Coding Kickstarter has been brought up before and at the time Keith said it was unlikely to work. But the idea keeps getting support so I don't see why we can't at least try.

The goal of the kickstarter would be to raise enough funds to have the site finally recoded so the site can function properly. I don't know if that would mean hiring new coder(s), letting another company take over, or whatever we know the plan would need lots of money. How much I don't have the faintest idea.

I feel like this sort of funding would get lots of support from users if we knew that all the money raised was going directly back into the site to fix the coding. Some people don't donate now not because they can't but because they don't like how the funds are being spent, whether their opinion on that is right or not. If they knew that the funds raised were going directly into fixing the site and not anywhere else they might be more inclined to donate a dollar or two.

Kickstarter is known for tiers and various rewards so there is no reason not to include them here. Donate $5 and get a "I Backed This!" achievement. Donate $10 and get an exclusive item. Donate $20 and get something else. So on and so forth. Donate $250 and help design a clothing line or pet or something. Something to make it worth while to donate a large amount.

This doesn't have to take place right on Kickstarter, it could take place on the site itself. Make an offshoot of the CS where people can pledge money to. If you want to include more people you could also have the shop accept just straight up CSC as well. Another perk of this is that it could not have a set time frame, so if it takes us two months to raise the money yay, if it takes us 8 months that's cool too.

This site needs help badly to get the coding fixed Keith - let the user base help you do that.

(People who have expressed interest in other threads)

Edit: It's been the general consensus that doing any type of fundraising should probably be done in house. Kickstarter is great for some things but for projects that don't necessarily have a strict deadline they aren't the best, as well as a few other drawbacks of that platform.

YES! Yes, I would definitely donate to this! Please consider this, Keith!

I would 1110% donate to this, and I know multiple people who WOULD, so I cant see how this is a bad idea??

I'm in favor of this idea by rather a lot.

I said I'd donate for this the first time, and I'd definitely still donate to this if it would help!

You can already support the site by buying more CSC. How would a kickstarter be any better?

You can get different boons via kickstarter.

I don't really need CSC, but if like, donating 25$ allowed me to have an official custom item (Like , not like a custom wear) on the site, I would donate to the Kickstarter. Or like Andrea Seerow said, if giving 250$ gave me an opportunity to be part of the creative feedback on a pet, or a breakfast with Keith, I would do it.

I suggested this a -long- while back, while the site was a. a much smaller user-base b. worse off imo c. had less CSC items/no CWs etc.

I no longer think it would be nearly as useful.

That being said, if it is going to be done it needs to be pretty special, to possibly encourage those who don't buy CSC to donate above and beyond that. And that gets into some serious issues of potential unfairness. I still like some of my old ideas (chance to inspire an NPC, for example) while some have been more covered by CWs / custom overlays and other new features.

Old post/thread for reference: Click, no posty obv.

Because with a donation process you can offer exclusive incentives to get involved that will never be available again. Achievements, helping with a new pet, pet slots, a permanent +1 wardrobe slot for every layer, forum titles, good helper referral points (what better way to help bring on new members than make the site more stable?), a special Keith Answers where he just answers questions from people who donated... and more importantly, everyone who gives money just to this knows that the money is being dedicated to this cause.

I don't know if this would actually help or work for the site or not, but if it would then I'm definitely game.

While this would be supporting the site yes, I feel like having a donation drive (either via Kickstarter or on here) where 100% of the funds go directly to the coding aspect of the site would be hugely beneficial. Right now all CSC purchases get split up for the whole site so it's hard to focus on just one aspect. If the fundraising was successful then hopefully we can get the coding re-written finally and have a more stable and usable site. That would be the goal of the fundraising.

Adding perks and such would just encourage people to donate to this. The drawback could be if everyone just tosses money at this fundraiser and the rest of the site lacks in CSC purchases. If the fundraising event didn't last long I don't think it would hurt the site too much in the long run.

I'll tell you right now if we get to within the final hours and we are a few hundred shy, I'll personally pledge the extra $200 hah.

I think maybe doing this in-house and not going through Kickstarter directly might be more beneficial. With Kickstarter we would get a lot more exposure but I don't think we would want a (potentially) large influx of users right now with the site in the state that it is in, most wouldn't stay. Plus there is the whole time limit thing.

If we hosted our own site fundraising via the cash shop we wouldn't necessarily have to have a set time limit. Obviously the sooner the better (so say....if we reach the goal in X months, everyone who donated gets a month gold account medal activated on their account or something to motivate people) but if we didn't make that goal the fundraising could still go on. The site would just have to make it very clear on the page that you do NOT get CSC if you donate to this so people wouldn't confuse it for the actual shop.

If this site is to remain open with an active user base 5 years from now, or hopefully 10 years, this has to happen. New users aren't staying and old users are getting fed up with the constant breaking of everything and leaving. That is not healthy for the site :(

Well, If it will happen I will donate a lot of money to the site. It's just seem to be a little bit risky, what if it won't be enough? or after a hard work the result would be bad and they'll have to scrap everything? I don't know, I'm like half positive and half negative about this idea. In some sense, I like they way they fix the codes now because it also brings many changes to the site according to our suggestions and needs, maybe it takes time, but I can be sure that they do it in a very careful way and without a rush.

Doing an on site fundraising would be better in some ways but $40,000 is a lot of money as Keith pointed out. Not all players can afford to spend real money. I could probably manage $10 but that wouldn't go far.

Don't you keep track of those who have bought csc? Like on any major site that asks for funding, figure out what the minimum per user or user who has bought csc would have to contribute. 40k is a lot yes. From the somewhat 1000 people I see as active at random times during the day. That would put it at 40$ per user. Which is again a lot. But there has to be more than 1000 users. I personally have spent 49,767 CSC on 280 items in the Cash Shop. Not sure if that accounts for all the times I have bought csc not for items but for art, coding, to buy tokens with .etc. Like I spent 75$ just to fill up that reward card. I would be be willing to give you money to make this site up to date. I would do it even more so for actual rewards. Like bravo the reward card made me want to fill it up. But the chance to have a permanent item, or influence on a npc, a new pet species, .etc. Even to have a user icon that wasn't yellow but like navy blue with a fedora. I WOULD PAY. Hell to even meet up with you in the city which I know and have seen you years and years ago. I WOULD PAY

On top of that, it would definitely take away from csc purchases, too.

I am normally an optimistic person, but this one just seems like a huge stretch to fulfill. If we attempt it I'll be in line to support, but I just don't see it happening.

Is there a time limit on these things? I haven't had any exposure to this whole Kickstarter thing so I have no idea how it works...

I mean, $40k is a lot of money but if it's stretched out over a longer period of time it might be manageable, maybe? Would it be more beneficial to do in shorter stints rather than one large one if it does indeed require a time limit (for example, $4k a month, so that in 10 months you would hopefully have the $40k)?

The reason it would be better is Kickstarter would ensure a certain amount of transparency, which frankly, is what I think Keith is against. Kickstarter would show us EXACTLY what had been donated so far. None of this "75% of our daily goal" bullshit, but hard dollar figures that would show how much of the $40k was donated.

Besides, as has pointed out, supporting the site via CSC isn't working. Sure, it may be keeping the site going NOW, but in terms of true improvement? No. It's not working. And we (the players) don't even really know why. We don't know if there just isn't enough money being spent... or if perhaps the money isn't being spent on the right things... And that is why there are quite a few users that used to spend RL money buying CSC that no longer do.

Yeah $40k is a lot of money but if there's 1,000 willing users that's $40 each, if there's 1,500 willing users that's $27 each, if there's 2,000 that's $20 a person. I know not everyone can donate to this, but I also know there's users who'd give more.

And if you offered some things that specifically relate to things they want I legitimately believe the userbase will surprise you c;

0. Donate $1 and get an achievement + title! (lol I was already numbering okay, shh 0 is a number.)
1. Donate $5 and get a shoutout in a special Thank you Keith's Answers.
2. Donate $10 and get to ask Keith a question he has to answer (keep it pg13).
3. Donate $25 for a pet slot totem!
4. Donate $75 for a loyalty box!
5. Donate $100 and get to work with an artist to design a new item of your choosing.
6. Donate $250 get to work with an artist (of your choice) to help design a new pet/experiment species.
7. Donate $500 get to work with staff to help create a brand new challenger or an NPC based on you or design a CW for you or something awesome!
8. Donate $750 and no idea. Stuff, all of it!

And of course you'd get everything listed before the tier you donate too. If a pet slot totem was $20-30 I would almost guarantee you that every single loving pet hoarder on this site would give you at least that much. At, least. If there was a tier for something that resulted in two otherwise unobtainable dlots, pfttss, without question.

THERE COULD BE MILESTONES TOO, we hit $10k and then all weekend the free shop will stock/all quests will be weekend quests/and BHH will atock double it's usual amount! We hit $20k, another battlepalooza!

I dunno, while that is a lot of money i really feel like it COULD happen! I mean if there were 160 users willing to donate $250? That's $40,000. If you got a pet slot totem + loyalty box for $100, then it'd only take 400 crazy pet people to raise $40,000. I think the probability really depends on how many active users subeta has, and how many donate to subeta at all and how many of those users donate... a lot. If there's regularly, say, 100 users who spend at least $100 on subeta every month, then I think this has a real chance.

PS: I agree it would be better to do this onsite than offsite if possible (taxes would be enough of a hit, plus time and all that).

If you wanted to really gage if this is possible or not and start getting real quotes and options, then I'd definitely suggest making a news post detailing the prospect of this happening/what the goal cost is/what the end game is and most importantly if there were incentives which would they be willing to donate to this to receive (slots, design a thing, real pet plushie, if the potential of milestone celebrations is most appealing, or other with a link to forums to elaborate etc).

I mean maybe I am being optimistic, but likewise... People literally don't move for TWENTY-FOUR hours to battle bosses here so I feel like that speaks volumes for how dedicated your users can be.

I'd like it if you got to pick what you wanted, like if you sent $500 and you wanted only pet slots you could get a lot instead of working with an artist. No offense. just some people want different things.