Flattr type donation system ?

[TheUninvitedGuest]

Hi guys,

 

I would like to preface this post by saying that I am aware that Bethesda has rules in place with regards to Mod makers charging for their work. I am also aware that some mod makers do not like to accept donations for their work.

 

Some mod makers do however accept donations, and potentially deserve more "beer money" than they receive. At least enough to drown their sorrows once a month :tongue: .

 

I really like the payment models offered by Flattr and the Humble Bundle and I was wondering if some elements of those systems might easily be implemented on the nexus

 

I currently renew my premium membership once every 3 months. I would be happy to pay perhaps twice what I already do in order to support the modding community but I don't end up donating as often as I would like because of the paypal "process". The external link is "sticky" if you will...

 

If however I had the option to increase the amount of my existing subscription to the Nexus and have some of the extra funds find its way to the pockets of author's whose work I enjoy I absolutely would. Donations could be tied to endorsements even.

 

A more concrete example of what I am proposing would be as follows:

 

When a member signs up for a premium package on the nexus they choose a package. They could then, using a slider, select an extra amount they would wish to pay "over the top" of their subscription to Black Tree Gaming. This amount would sit in a separate fund somewhere, and, at the end of the Month, would be divided amongst Mod authors whose mods that member had endorsed/flattr'd/donated to. So I could choose to pay 4 GBP per month instead of 2, and if I endorsed 5 mods within that period, then each author's balance would increase by 40 pence. That may not sound like a lot, but it would amount to more than mod authors currently receive. Furthermore - if that author did not wish to accept donations, they could choose to either donate it back to Black Tree Gaming (by not "withdrawing" as it were) or "donate" to a charity such as child's play.

 

 

I understand that this would require some re-coding of the nexus system (to use the Paypal MassPay api for example), but please do let me know what you think about the premise nonetheless.

 

Thanks for reading.

[TheUninvitedGuest]

No interest in this then ? I would love even just a quick explanation as to why it would be a bad idea?

[bben46]

Not necessarily a 'bad' idea. But the site programmers have more than enough work to last for quite a while right now.

 

My personal opinion: This would not be a simple thing to implement. The Nexus Sites are not set up to handle money - the premium payments are outside of the rest of the site. - I see some legal requirements that must be met also. As we would be handling someone elses money necessitating several possible bank accounts for holding the money in trust - and possibly fees for international currency exchange as well as fees for handling the transactions.

 

Then, having the donations based on endorsements would encourage more gaming of the endorsements than we already see. :rolleyes:

[TheUninvitedGuest]

Those objections do make sense. On the other hand if you used the Paypal MassPay api it would not be all that difficult to implement.

 

As for exchange fees and legal requirements, I believe paypal's existing infrastructure would handle currency conversion, and legal requirements would include only a small adjustment to the site's terms of service.

Increased legal requirements come into play if you are storing user payment credentials (credit cards etc...) but as everything goes through paypal Nexus would not have to do that.

Lastly, Nexus sites would not be storing people's money - rather they would be accepting voluntary support donations (as they do already with the premium system) and in turn promising to donate to valued members

of their community (just as if a user wished to donate to a user themselves).

 

I do agree that a more stringent stance on endorsement gaming would be needed. But you would only be taking individual endorsements of premium members into account. It is not in a mod author's interest to clamor

for endorsements in this situation, as a premium user who paid £4 (£2 for premium membership and £2 voluntarily over the top) per month for premium but gave out 100 endorsements would only be donating 2 pence to each endorsed mod author.

 

This assumes that premium member endorsements are the metric you chose to use.

[james234]

i wonder if we can donate money not in us dollar and euro currency..... instead we should able to donate other currency too like yen, yuan, ruble, and many other currency.....