Open Discussion State of BL 2011 (Ownership, Finances, Direction)

Thanks for your interest and willingness to donate Simon12. Paypal has turned down working with us before by my recollection. Many mainstream avenues have been tried in the past and turned out unusable. Maybe new management and fresh approaches could possibly lead to different results.

I don't think most LE are opposed to or all that interested in a Harm Reduction website but we have a hard time even convincing some members that we are more of an HR venture than a drug venture. Potential partners on processing donations might not even be able to conceive of a difference between an HR website and a drug website. Lots of education on many fronts might dispell some of the not uncomprehehensible frequent first impression that we are a druggie forum.
 
Enki said:
Thanks for your interest and willingness to donate Simon12. Paypal has turned down working with us before by my recollection. Many mainstream avenues have been tried in the past and turned out unusable. Maybe new management and fresh approaches could possibly lead to different results.

I don't think most LE are opposed to or all that interested in a Harm Reduction website but we have a hard time even convincing some members that we are more of an HR venture than a drug venture. Potential partners on processing donations might not even be able to conceive of a difference between an HR website and a drug website. Lots of education on many fronts might dispell some of the not uncomprehehensible frequent first impression that we are a druggie forum.
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We hope to have this issues sorted out in the near future. :)
 
Donating info. (I want to help)

Love this site. Had some run in's with some mods in the past but everything is good, it was mostly because I'm very blunt and thought a mod was being a prick when he was actually just doing what he was supposed too lol. (my bad and sorry which ever Mod that was lol) .


Anyway, I'd really like to help Bluelight stay alive and I'm sure the monthly/yearly cost of keeping it up isn't exactly cheap.

Before donating I do have a couple questions.

1. If I was to submit a large donation in excess of over $5,000.00 (five thousand U.S. dollars) how much of that would be going directly to keeping bluelight alive (the servers up- and the website not shut down?)

2. Not sure if Bluelight does this- haven't really heard anything about it, but does bluelight recognize people by making a post about them thanking them for the donation, send them a shirt , etc. for members who donate a large amount ? (I'd love a bluelight t-shirt LOL, a post thanking me would be nice too lol)

3. Is there a maximum donation amount bluelight is willing to accept? (Some websites will not accept donations largers then a few thousand.)



Thanks, look forward to contributing to BL to keep the site going for as long as possible.

-Skateboard (Aka Ryan)
 
Merged.

For a really good picture on how we operate (in terms of donations, rewards and thank-yous, etc) you can see our older thread where a lot of this was covered - (Donations Discussion thread).

To answer your questions quickly and directly:
1. ALL of it goes to BL. All of it.
2. We have hopes of an opt-in Thank Yous system, but will need to wait until after our upgrade.
3. No maximum on donations. Though, as noted in the beginning of this thread, we're still working out the 'how' of getting those donations brought in and banked.

Stay tuned...and welcome back?
 
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How does having a mechanism for making anonymous cash donations in place sound. As for governance- I think their should be a board of trustees. I know the server is based in Holland and the site is registered in Russia, but does the sites governing body or owner reside in a particular place or is correspondace decentralized- occuring through electronic means? But anyway, as mentioned previously a chairman, director of operations, dir of fundraising/community oureach/public relations, treasurer, secreatary, ect... a paid office manager might be a good idea. However, if Bluelight, policy decisions should be made by the bluelight community as a whole. God willing, maybe annual conventions or coventions every other year where elected repressentatives, maybe one from each region- dividing the world into several regions- or maybe even have a convention of mods/ admins because establishing residency would be problematic. I feel that we should have some kind of elected representation, were membership is the criteria to vote. The delegates can then vote for a board of directors responsible for the day operations and management and more importantly have the authority delegated to them to make descisions without having to consult the delegates or the People of the bluelight community.
 
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Community as a whole is an interesting concept. Is someone with 3 posts in September 2007 going to get an equal vote with people who are here day in day out? Are people who post meme photos going to be accorded an equal voice with people who contribute to FAQs on drug safety?

Would we end up with a campaign season and a get out the vote type of thing?

Does anyone have any examples of forums/web communities that have survived for a few years as a representative democracies so we can gauge pitfalls and benefits?

I tend to think it would be a disaster but am interested in data on how that has worked elsewhere. Would a person desiring to be in leadership be allowed to recruit people from outside Bluelight to join in order to create a constituency? Would they have the vote immediately?

If a board were ever created I'd not want election from online accounts. They are fickle, to easily fraudulently made, don't represent in and of themselves any sort of real community involvement, etc. I do understand a democratic sentiment about things though and respect it.
 
Actually after looking over the ownership, operational administration, and the securing of funds through inflexxion contracts the system in place looks sound. Having a mechanism for making cash donations if possible might be beneficial- if there is a way through a payment system that accepts cash or a PO Box.
 
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Enki I see your point. One person can have potentially multiple accounts and more than one vote.

Again I appreciate the work you are all doing and there is an open door policy here (unlike opiophile that has difficult membership policies, for instance, and the staff is intelligent enough not to turn us into a bunch of SWIMers). Alt.Drugs is just annoying- an example of anarchy on the web derailing serious discussion. And we don't want to go the way of the Hive hence the rules devised I'm sure are wisely and carefully considered taking the individuals laws of nations and international conventions/ past experience with LEOs during BL's formitive years.
 
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Skateboarding said:
Love this site. Had some run in's with some mods in the past but everything is good, it was mostly because I'm very blunt and thought a mod was being a prick when he was actually just doing what he was supposed too lol. (my bad and sorry which ever Mod that was lol) .


Anyway, I'd really like to help Bluelight stay alive and I'm sure the monthly/yearly cost of keeping it up isn't exactly cheap.

Before donating I do have a couple questions.

1. If I was to submit a large donation in excess of over $5,000.00 (five thousand U.S. dollars) how much of that would be going directly to keeping bluelight alive (the servers up- and the website not shut down?)

2. Not sure if Bluelight does this- haven't really heard anything about it, but does bluelight recognize people by making a post about them thanking them for the donation, send them a shirt , etc. for members who donate a large amount ? (I'd love a bluelight t-shirt LOL, a post thanking me would be nice too lol)

3. Is there a maximum donation amount bluelight is willing to accept? (Some websites will not accept donations largers then a few thousand.)



Thanks, look forward to contributing to BL to keep the site going for as long as possible.

-Skateboard (Aka Ryan)
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Ryan,

In lieu of the ability to answer in unison (at this very moment) with TLB, I'd like to reply to your questions in general, which I imagine will suffice for the sake of this thread:

1. Unless you're planning to donate WELL over $5K (meaning $10K plus) I am confident in saying all of your donation would go towards "keeping the lights on," which I define as paying our server fees and any upgrades to software. There has never been an excess at the end of the year. Neither TLB nor I have ever taken a penny in payment or reimbursement for our personal efforts. Ever.

As a matter of fact, both TLB and I share the same conservative attitude towards Bluelight's financials -- which is to say that we see Bluelight as a labor of love, and maintain a sincere respect for each penny donated by our members or paid by our partners, (such as Inflexxion). Recently, TLB travelled up to stay with me in Boston for a "Bluelight planning weekend." We "Brainstormed Bluelight" virtually every waking hour of each day, and Reed paid for his plane ticket (as we do every other expense) out of pocket. I will be doing the same when I travel down to work with him. It didn't even occur to us to do things any differently.

There's a great pride we both take in "giving" to BL without having to take from it, and I can tell you it has surprised and impressed many of our other friends involved in the online psychedelic/harm reduction community that we choose to operate so bare-bones and refuse to take any sort of a salary.

So, in a nutshell, your donation (like any other) would be applied directly to operating costs, and we would have no problem with providing you with an accounting trail to that effect. Such a donation would go through MAPS.org, a federally recognized 501c3 (non-profit) which you could also deduct from your taxes.

2. Ryan -- if you were to personally make a sizable donation to Bluelight, we would be happy to recognize you however you like. If you are serious, and I hope that you are, it would be a nice way to launch a "Bluelight Benevolent Sponsors" page, in which we could list your inaugural donation along with your real name (or BL name if you prefer) and year. It might also encourage others to donate. Want a T-shirt? Consider it done. Heck, send me your size and I'll make you one from scratch.


3. No, there are no limits on the total amount of a donation -- it may be as large as your heart is generous.

If you would like to discuss things further, I encourage you to send a private message to both TheLoveBandit and myself. I'll be happy to speak with you by phone about the donation (as I'm sure TLB will also be) as well as potential mechanisms by which you can be assured your donation will go towards operating costs.

Best,

SG
 
TLB, I somehow missed your original reply to Ryan/Skateboarding, posting my reply just now without seeing it. That being said, we seem to be on the same page in both of our replies (not surprising there). :)

Let's talk the beginning of the week.

Best,

SG
 
I really want to donate!

I see many discussions I would love to participate in at The Lounge but have not yet reached 50 posts. Obviously I'm not just going to post a bunch of shitty ass posts to try and get to that number, but I would like to have posting access to that forum! I'll happily make a monetary contribution to this fabulous community to be granted access to that forum but I see that the donation options are all on hold at the moment....is there ANYTHING I can do other than just slowly raising my total posts?

:)

much love,

charcoal
 
Sorry right now we're not accepting donations until its been sorted out with the admins that should be soon.

As for paying to use th lounge I doubt that will happen soon. Although who knows what the future may bring, but for the moment its a no.
 
Coolio said:
Bluelight should get someone to manufacture old EZ Test Extreme style reagent test kits and sell them to raise funds for the site.
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i have the glassware, chemistry knowledge (one course away from a 2 year degree), and time to do this for the summer... just saying, if bluelight needs a chemist.
 
It's great to see that the owners of Bluelight are so open and honest about the status of ownership and what is going on with funding. Considering the actions that were taken after XTCXTC died to keep the website afloat it is great that everything has been done so well. I think that everyone who donated and worked towards that goal deserve a HUGE round of applause.
 
It's true. TLB and sebastians_ghost run a tight ship these days. The transparency among senior staff is both refreshing and appreciated!

I was just wondering how the progress of the nuts and bolts of payment processing are working out? From SG's reply, it looks like we may have an agreement to process our payments through MAPS, which would certainly be advantageous with respect to stability of payment processing. Are there plans to re-open the donations page soon then?
 
^^Yes, we're still looking to open up donations again, and they will most likely be funneled through MAPS on our behalf. We're working to get our engineer addressing this with the right contact(s) from MAPS so that we are able to accept member donations relatively soon.

Additionally, we are working on other things to bring in site sustaining revenue such as merchandising (like the calendars that were done last year) and several other options. All this and a free set of knives for only $19.99 ;) But seriously, yes, it is still our intent to accept donations. Fortunately, we're not pushed to begging as yet so the pressure hasn't been there to have the donations available....but it's an option many members want, and we need to utilize, so yes, we're still pursuing it.
 
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