I think the point that seals the deal for me is that there are other ways to raise money than mandatory fees. Hopefully this Patreon and coming soon donation drive will set NA up for a couple to few years.

This isn't the place to start an argument, we have differing opinions and leave it at that.  The community has been able to support the site for the last 10 years and I'm confident we can still do it today.

I'm still an NA rookie, but this place feels like home. I've got you for $10/mth. I hope this plan works out for the site.

Because those things being sold for "huge profit"(or small profit or breaking even.. it doesn't matter) will stop showing up(at least to some extent) and that hurts the community as a whole imo. As Jone has pointed out the site has been able to support itself without these mandations for a long while, and while most of that likely has come from Dane, the community does pitch in. I also agree that this is not the place for arguments so I will leave my opinion on this at that and agree to disagree if such is the case.

It sounds as though what is happening is Patrion and donations for now, so I don't think it's worth stressing out over having to pay fee's.
Although I'm not against seller fee's, ebay has them is still up and running with new and old users. I also enjoy taking advantage of the feeless buy/sell/trade forum, perhaps if this route were to be taken there could be a middle ground. Such as transaction limitations before you enter fee territory.
 

I spend waaaayyy to much time here not to donate! Hope everyone else pitches in! I love this site

I am kind of surprised the patreon has not generated more so far.
Look at it this way a lot of you are on here daily. A pledge of $5 per month is on $60 a year 17c per day. $10 only $120 a year

Whoa, I'm not starting an argument in that sense of the word.....this is a discussion. That is what these boards are for and that is what this thread is for. No animosity here. All I am doing is trying to make a point that a mandatory fee isn't as evil as you're all making it out to be.

I don't think it would hamper the appearance of items here. Ebay gouges and that doesn't effect the frequency in which items appear despite other avenues for resale. You're acting like I'm suggesting that some kind of insane fees be taken out of everything. Small fee, barely noticble, in large volumes would help a shitload. Look how much stuff passes through the seller forum. If you love NA sooooooooo much then I don't see why this is such a problem. This also makes freeloaders who just primarily use this forum to sell (because I'm sure there are plenty) contribute their fair share.

And for the past 10 years Dain has never had to try and get funding as drastically as it looks like he is now.

Bottom line is, I love this site too. I pretty much owe my business to this place. The knowledge contained here is unbelievable. No means of revenue should be out of the question when something as important to the collecting community as this is on the line.

 

I don't think it's out of the question, it's just not needed at the moment. Let's see how long we can keep from fees restricting access to the site. If it ever becomes necessary, it'll be considered.

I almost feel like this thread got a downer tone recently! Let's pick it back up! I'm thinking of doing an auction or two during the pledge drive, with a good chunk (maybe all, still deciding) going to NA!

Love this site. Made some friends, built a collection I'm proud of, and learned a ton from being on here. 

I'll see if i can't support the site somehow. Not really a fan of ads, and I come on here most days. Would hate to see the site get ads.

If it comes to ads though, so be it.

While I realize you brought it up in jest, this is an important point you mention.

Donating money to the site does not give anybody free license to act like a prick or break site rules.   While we appreciate every donation we receive, donators are held to the same standards as non-donators.

I feel the need to bring that up because it has unfortunately come up before when disciplining peeps.

 

I couldn't ever see doing mandatory fees. I've always felt this site is carried by the community, so if the day comes that the community doesn't carry it forward, then it's time to close shop or turn the site into static HTML and remove all interactivity. I'll be doing a donation drive in the next day or two.

Also, the Patreon thing is going pretty well, so thanks again to everyone that's participating. I think the jury is still out on that because it's a monthly subscription, so we'll see how many stick around for more than a month or two. As of now, we're up to $171/mo, just slightly over 25% of our monthly costs. Hopefully with a donation drive as well, we can sock away a year or two in costs so we don't have to revisit this for a while. I may keep the Patreon thing permanently to allow supporters to come and go as they please in that program.

Im on board for patreon and the drive. Just curious do they take fees and how much? If they do i can just creat a calendar event once a month so we site gets all monies

Just a thought but maybe the access to the buy/sell forums could be a somewhat required/suggested donation of 25 bones a year or something? I know just about everyone saves way more than 25 a year in ebay fees.  

Membership fees, Ads, AND Taxes (ie if you sell something a cut goes to NA).

I appreciate you avoiding random fees. So far I have been able to add some nice stuff to my collection and done a lot of good reading on here. Fees have really locked down other sites I have gone to. Having it all open here is great.

Added nintendoage to my patreon account. With how many regulars I see on here hopefully you can hit your goal.

Supported on Patreon.

The fact that this site is still ad-free and admission free nowadays is refreshing. Lets hope we can keep it that way.

My 2 cents would be to start a donation drive with a tally to get to a goal. Donations can be made directly or from sales with a portion going towards the total, extend the garage sale so others could sell stuff they don't need and maybe say anyone who chooses to participate in the extended garage sale agrees to send a % to NA??

Damn, $600+ per month is crazy. If not too personal, how much of this is coming out of your pocket and how much is from the community?

I am in for the long run with the Patreon man, this is really the only site on the interwebs I visit other than EBay....everything else can just frig right off.

I have a few subscription for sites like Netflix, Spotify and whatnot that take around $10 a month out of my account automatically. I don't at all notice the money missing and I also don't use those services half as much as I use Nintendoage. I think I can stand to donate $10 a month and I will sign up for patron tonight after I get out of work. I hope it all works out for you Dain. You put a lot of effort into this site and you deserve to be free of this kind of stress.

Fixed that for ya
 

hahahahaha nice.

 

The problem I have with the Patreon is the $1 title is the best title. I can't pick which one to get cause "Get out of guilt club" is AWESOME.

Thank you everyone for the support so far.

ty for the site. pledged.