All right, fellow BC.org denizens! I need help from you in planning the next fund raiser for the site, in the form of your suggestions.
For those who may not have been around for the previous fund raisers, or for those who'd like to review the previous models in order to provide the feedback I'm about to request, here are links to the previous three times I've run this:
Show the Love - February fund raiserSummer Support - June fund raiserGiving Thanks - November fund raiserAs I always ask in those posts:
Why This Fundraiser? The answer, as always, is: This website is a home for a great community, and many of us frequent it daily. It is a home that further provides all sorts of wonderful amenities, beyond just that of a community forum - such as the PM system we all use to stay in touch, the HoloNet wiki, the Strongholds listing, the GuildNet features, and the Chatroom we use both for our RP events and for socializing.
Now let's be honest. Most of us check this site every day, right? Often even on days when we might not be able to get into the game itself. Often at the same time as we're
in the game. Often when we don't even have any burning desire to be in the game at all, but we still want to keep up with our community, or share that funny link in the shoutbox, or catch up with our PMs.
At the end of the day, for this RP community of ours, in a lot of ways this site is just as important a vehicle as the game itself. And yet while we'll drop money for our subscriptions, it's always more of a challenge to get us to drop a few dollars for the site. That's human nature (and the status-quo of the internet world); free stuff feels awesome and it takes no thought at all to consume, while it takes a lot more thought to remember that it had to come from
somewhere - and more importantly that we shouldn't take it for granted. If we can find the pocket change to impulse-gobble up CM items we've been craving when they go on direct sale then we should also be able to find it for a seasonal fund-raiser - so let's dissect the psychological turkey and find out what the innards of motivation are!
So here's the help I need, and I hope you all can provide it!
I need to know what sort of prize incentive would get you - yes, you personally - to make a donation during the next fund raiser! Past fund raisers showed that we only really succeeded when we got a couple sizable donations from one or two members, and then a small handful of smaller donations. The trouble with that mix is if you take the sizable donations out, what's left doesn't take the effort very far. Fund raisers work best when the small donations all
add up, which means you need
more people willing to part with $5 or $10.
So what would make
you part with those $5? To sacrifice one coffee for the month to the SWTOR gods in order to put fuel in the community tank?
Past fund raisers offered in-game credits, rare in-game CM items, lovely in-game decorations, and the ability to pick-and-choose which mix of all those prizes you would like. But at the end of the day, this just didn't seem to light the fire of excitement under too many people.
I would love to hear ideas from you all on what you think would make good prizes. Not just good prizes, but what you know
you would honestly be willing to put down a few bucks for a chance at winning. No idea is too crazy! (Well, some ideas will be, but we won't know until we hear them!) Maybe we get other members of the community to help in providing less tangible prizes by contributing their creativity - though keep in mind that if half the community is donating time instead of money, we end up right back where we started!
- Is the allure of in-game wealth still the best prize? Credits galore!
- Are pricey CM items genuinely sufficient lure for you?
- Is there some particularly rare crafted item you'd love someone to make for you?
- Maybe you have a dream of your perfect RP event, but you really need someone to decorate a Corsucant or DK stage for you for the day?
- Maybe you would kill for someone to run a one-shot adventure to a theme of your choosing one evening that you can bring sadly under-used Character X to?
- What other things could a crazy Space!RPer want?? Tell us!
Let's hear all the ideas!
In the meantime, if you happen to have a spare $5 for what's left of March while the next fund-raiser effort gets cooked up, don't forget to stop by the
donations page and donate!
