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Inkbunny 2014 Donation Drive Q&A

We figured our donation drive might result in questions, so we prepared some answers for you!

Update: We met our goal, then exceeded it by 30%! Read about what we spent the excess on.

What are we paying for? Why now?

This drive's primary goal is to cover costs relating to Inkbunny's main server.
These total around $8000 for the next three years, if paid in full upfront.
They would be around $11,250 if paid month-to-month over that period.

Paying early reduces our long-term fees. With the three-year payment, the cost is less than we were paying back in 2013 for our last server, which had fewer cores, half the storage, and 1/6th the bandwidth.

How much does Inkbunny cost in total, each year?

Inkbunny's current annual fixed expenses are $3599 (~$10/day), which break down as follows:

Main server (avarice): $2615 $3750 -
HP DL380eG8, 2 Xeon E5-2420 hexa-core CPUs, 32GB RAM, 2TB SATA2 RAID10, 64GB SSD RAID1
[2U rackspace and power: $478; hardware: $1340; bandwidth (100Mbit up/down @ $66/month): $797]
Backup server (angel): $600 - Core Duo T2450, 2GB RAM, 1TB SATA, 1U rack, power, 5TB traffic
Misc. services: $384 (wiki, code hosting/bug tracking, mail, amortized 10-year domain & 5-year SSL)

These are fixed in that we have to pay them. Further funds raised will be used at the owner's discretion. Backup costs are likely to increase next year, and we plan to promote the site at conventions.

$8000 is a lot of money - aren't we going to get something new and shiny for it?

We don't need a shiny new server - though we've made it feel new with recent optimizations.
We've handled 45,000+ visits a day and pushed over 50Mbit/sec with what we have.

Traffic increases 2%/month, but we're only using ~45% of our main server's bandwidth and hard disk space (up from ~30% last year), and we expect it to cope until 2018. That's why we want to keep it!

If you want to see what we've got, here's some reviews.

Are you at least going to promise us some cool new features?

We're always working on new features, bug fixes, and optimizations, but we'd rather tell you about them once they're done. Besides, most are provided for free, by open-source developers, or our volunteer staff. If we had to pay for them, we'd be talking a lot more money.

Why lease? Wouldn't it make sense to buy a server, or accept hardware donations?

We're not in the business of acquiring, hosting, or maintaining server hardware. It makes sense to have professionals do this. If something breaks, they fix it, at no extra charge, much faster than we could.

Leasing lets us adjust hardware and its location as needs change. We've upgraded several times already. We can now project our needs for the next three years, so that's what we're buying.

We're not entirely ruling out the possibility of using our own hardware in the future. But for now, those with surplus hardware might do best to sell it and donate the proceeds, or possibly give it to other sites.
(We'd suggest FA, but their rack is full already. Weasyl has space, but it's going fast.)

Why aren't you moving to "the cloud"?

Cloud hosting is great if you need twenty web servers now and then. We don't. We need the sustained disk space, RAM, and bandwidth provided by dedicated hosting. There's still ample room to "scale up".

We also have reliability and privacy concerns with cloud providers, including CloudFlare.

Why does Inkbunny just have one main server?

We regularly consider spinning off database, application, caching, or file serving, but at our size it would increase costs and operational complexity, to no significant benefit.

We don't yet need to scale by adding boxes. We also don't need five-nines availability. The world won't end if we're offline for a half-hour every few weeks at 4AM for a release or a kernel upgrade.

Division would increase communication delay and monitoring load, and failures could still take us down. In fact, multiple machines tend to make physical failures far more likely.

We do have physically separate, regularly tested file and database backups, both on-location and off-site; and if one disk fails - which has happened before - we can stay online while our host replaces it.

What if Inkbunny grows faster than expected? Can the server be upgraded?

We can certainly add features, as long as we pay for them for the remainder of the contract term.

Our server could have multi-gigabit bandwidth - we just don't see the need. Unmetered 100Mbit bandwidth is cheap because it simplifies network planning, and most servers don't make much use of it; we do.
(It is 100Mbit, as some have found out. We suggest scheduling bulk downloads for 3-6AM EST.)

There's space for two more internal drives in our server, which could be used to expand our RAID10 array, increasing capacity and decreasing utilization. If our SSD RAID1 runs low, we might upgrade to 128GB.

After our recent optimizations, we'd have to grow by a factor of ten to be CPU-limited ('spare' cores are still used for backup compression and handling spikes). As for RAM, we're using just two of twelve slots.

We're cautious with upgrades. Adding hardware tends to increase scale, not speed, and can conceal issues. We'd rather find out why our code is slow, or why we're hitting the disk so hard, and fix that.

Why host in the Netherlands? Wouldn't it be faster in the USA?

The price is right. High levels of non-profit peering make bandwidth cheap in Europe - we don't pay extra despite ~80% of our traffic going to North America. (Of course, we're busy while Europe sleeps.)

We also like our host's content and privacy/legal policies - they have a great network, and their datacenter is efficient and CO2 neutral. It's even used by the maintainers of our operating system.

Inkbunny would be faster for U.S. users if hosted there, but we do better than many furry sites under load. We're considering a U.S. image cache, if it can be done cost-effectively and with low overhead.

I know a much better host - you should use them!

We're happy with our host for the purpose of this campaign. We'll consider alternatives for future needs.

How much do people usually give? Why not encourage subscriptions or micropayments?

Our mean donation is $30. The median is $20; the mode is $50. Some have given more. (Thank you!)

Since we're asking for long-term funding, we're now recognizing those who give $100 or more with a badge for a year (e.g. gold->silver->bronze), rather than just six months; those giving $1000 or more will get a gem for a year (diamond->ruby->emerald). This change is retroactive.

We can arrange subscriptions on request. However, if you're planning to give $XX per year, our overhead will be lower if you're able to give it all at once, in part because it takes time to process each donation.

Micro-payments have similar issues, and would increase the portion lost to processing fees (now 3.5%). It's a nice idea for everyone to give $1, but in practice it's better to get more from fewer people.
If you have a few $, £ or € free, consider donating them to your favourite artist as a holiday gift!

How do you determine the value of a non-U.S. donation? What about foreign exchange fees?

Sponsor icons are based on a donation's value in U.S. dollars on the day of the transaction.
We may round up if a currency conversion would put you slightly below a sponsor level.
If you pay fees, you should tell us about them so that we can account for them.

Using an online transfer service to send funds from a card in a non-preferred currency? Ask your bank what fees apply to foreign transactions. Some add up to 3% on top of a 1% VISA/Mastercard fee; if not, maybe it's cheaper to have them convert currencies, rather than let the payment processor do it.

I don't see [payment method/currency X] listed; do you take it?

Perhaps! We try to be flexible. Tell us your options; we'll tell you which works best for us.
Note that Google Wallet is also used for Google Play, which you may have used before.

Got a bank account? You can usually make a (non-wire) payment through online transfers or ePay/e-billing systems. This should be fast, convenient, and won't let us debit your account in the future.

If not using US$, £, or €, consider using a service such as XE Trade for conversion.

I'd like to use bitcoin, but I don't have any!

There are many ways to purchase bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with real-world currency.
To take one example, Coinbase works with U.S. and EU banks.
(If you sign up with this link and verify phone/bank details, we may both get free bitcoin. No guarantees!)

Once you have some, contact us for a unique sending address. We'll value it at the daily exchange rate.

Considering bitcoin payments for your business? Bear in mind that the value of bitcoin varies.
You may wish to use it to purchase services, or convert quickly into your local currency.


When will the drive end? What happens if you don't reach your goal?

We hope to raise the funds by December 26 (Boxing Day).
If we do not reach our goal, we may purchase a 12- or 24-month lease instead.

I can't donate right now! Will you still take my money in a few weeks?

Yes. We have other costs beyond our main server and we'll accept donations for the foreseeable future. However, if donating would strain your finances, please keep your cash! We've enough starving artists…

I've got some cash spare, and I'd like to support you, but I want something tangible in return.

Want to help Inkbunny, promote the site, and get some swag? You can buy shirts, hoodies, cases, pillows, mugs, bags and stickers featuring the winners and runners-up of our T-shirt competition.

You can also commission someone through Inkbunny. Creators pay attention when they make money. With the holidays coming up, why not get something for that special someone - or yourself?

There are many worthy causes out there… why give you money?

Indeed there are! Inkbunny is not about saving lives, or rescuing animals, or feeding the homeless; we provide free services to artists, writers, and their fans. Nevertheless, if you feel our services are valuable - to you, or to the wider furry community - you may wish to support us, as you support other causes.

I'll only donate if you let me post my art/change this policy/ban this user/make me staff!

Sorry, but that's not a question. Also, no. You should only donate if you like how the site is run now.

I want to give you money, but I don't want everyone to know.

Sponsor icons and listing on our donor page are entirely optional - just let us know your preference.

I'm flat broke. Is there any other way to help?

Be excellent to each other, and thank any friends with sponsor icons. They paid for you!

If you're an artist or writer, just keep doing what you do. We're running this site for you.
(We're especially grateful to those of you who've let us use your work to support it.)

Why not offer ads? They seem to work for other sites…

Inkbunny was created in part as an advertising platform for furry artists, but we don't believe ads are the best way to support the site. For a start, we'd rather highlight the best up-and-coming artists, rather than those who pay us. It also feels better to be paid for delivering a good service to all of our members.

There's overhead in building and maintaining an ad system, taking monthly payments and ad uploads. Donations have lower overhead and allow us to be more flexible when accepting funds.

We could partner with an external ad service, but there are many good reasons not to do this -
member privacy, viruses, unfilterable/off-topic content, etc.

Lastly, if we become a non-profit down the road, it'd be better to have regular donors than advertisers.

Can I deduct this from my taxes? Who am I paying, anyway?

Donations aren't tax-deductible, nor subject to Gift Aid. They go to our lead admin, who pays the bills.

We've considered incorporating an organization to run Inkbunny, but have yet to determine whether it's appropriate - if so, where, what type, and with what goals. Meanwhile, we have to keep the servers up.

Speaking of taxes… is this all a scheme to pay some big tax debt you haven't told us about?

No. Inkbunny is in good financial shape; we've been staying afloat with existing donations. However, it'll cost our donors over $3400 less if we pay upfront. That's money which you could be spending on art!

We expect to be able to deduct our lease in full this year, which is why we're asking for donations now.
If not, we'll deduct it against future years' donations. Either way, we'll pay any income tax due.

Ready to donate? Here's how! If we haven't covered your question, ask below!
Looking for our progress so far? That's been moved to the main donation drive journal.
Viewed: 2,640 times
Added: 9 years, 3 months ago
Commenting Locked
 
iedasb
9 years, 3 months ago
I wish I could donate, I love this site.
rautamiekka
9 years, 3 months ago
LeaseWeb ? Try OVH, they offer a quality anti-DDOS and hardware is way cheaper; we lease rautamiekka.org too, monthly at 120€ (was 140 or so) 300/300M Net against LW's 100/100. We used to use LW for Dedi in Netherlands but prices were/are through the roof, and no attack protections, let alone LW having not a piece of interest of doing something about it. Now rorg is in France, presumably Paris.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
We've considered OVH, but the costs are not as different as you might think, given the features (e.g. take SP-128 and add dual SSD and hardware RAID at +$55, suddenly you are over $229/month with a single hexa-core CPU). Even if we could eke out a small monthly savings, the cost in time setting up the box and transferring data makes it hard to justify.

They might be a good deal if we wanted to go the app/DB server and storage server route - and if the lower-cost servers were actually available. It would also be good if we needed more bandwidth (or were regularly attacked), but we currently do not, and expect to last on 100Mbit until 2018. We will definitely be re-evaluating our server choice then.
imer
9 years, 3 months ago
That's the only really bad thing about ovh, if you need  some special setup on a single server it gets pricy quick. Other than that they're really great (customer for 4? Years now)
Also not sure how cub porn is handled in France.. Remember something about their laws being strict about it
(no idea how that works though, not a lawyer)
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
According to my frenchie friend on SoFurry (and one of the VERY few artists I watch that are actually exclusive to it..) they are A-OK as long as it 'cannot be construed as a real person'.  So, Lilo is definitely out, but cub stuff is legal so long as it's not representative or construeable as representative of a real person.  It doesn't specify if the 'real person' has to be underage or not, so a 'cub-ified' version of Nicholas Cage would likely also be illegal.
Personally, I find this to be quite an acceptable viewpoint.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
To my current knowledge, our permitted content is legal in all of Europe.
Of course, such laws are rarely tested, and usually bundled with other crimes.
In any case, I am sure that Leaseweb hosts far more widely objectionable material.
RobbyBunny
9 years, 3 months ago
Do you accept payments from things like paypal ? I'm more or less broke but I think I can spare $25 <3 I know It's not much but I flat broke at the moment.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
The thought is appreciated - but if you're broke, we urge you to keep your money!
We don't want anyone going hungry just to help us pay the server bills. :-)
RobbyBunny
9 years, 3 months ago
I'm all right with parting with it it's just that it's all I will be able to spare, December is never a great month for having spare cash X3 I can part with this and donate more during January if you like.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
I can appreciate that - I've been buying a few things for family myself!

I've sent you a PM with some information about what methods may work best for you if you choose to donate, given your location.
MuQ
MuQ
9 years, 3 months ago
was it ok to donate through paypal or?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
We encourage members to investigate options available to them, and let us know all the things which they can use in a ticket. The options listed are particularly recommended at this time, roughly in order.
fluffdance
9 years, 3 months ago
I'm in the midst of an investment opportunity at the moment, but honestly, this site earned my appreciation and respect ages ago.  I'll be donating when I'm able to do so sufficiently.  <3

In the mean time, thank you guys for all your hard work, and for helping make this site the incredible place that it is!
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
On behalf of the staff, you're welcome - and I hope your investments go well, regardless of any future donations!
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
Meanwhile, FA can't even post a complete itemized asset and expense report whose numbers add up weeks after getting $17k.  And with like six servers they can't handle their load.  And.. oh really, the list goes on.

Keep being awesome, Inkbunny.
Krechevskoy
9 years, 3 months ago
Tad expensive, but I've purchased some of your delightful swag... ya know... for wearing around the house purposes.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Sadly most of that is in the cost of manufacture, and whatever profit Redbubble makes. Our markup is 20%, which means we should get 16.7%, eventually. I think maybe we earnt back the gifts to winners of the competition by now. In short, we are not getting rich off of swag.

But it does look nice! I often wear an Inkbunny shirt at conventions  :-)
Krechevskoy
9 years, 3 months ago
I don't mind the price, as I absolutely love this site, and I want to promote you.  I was just a bit surprised that I paid $35 for a t-shirt, and you guys won't quite make $6 off of it. T~T
SystFur
9 years, 3 months ago
Oh-oh, interesting. Just a note, I've been thinking of using Gandi hosting for my on services. I was wondering what hosted fsf.org one day, so I did a WHOIS and found out about Gandi that way. It looks pretty cool.

Yeah. Anyway, Inkbunny really should only need to pay for a domain name. just saying.... I don't know how cost effective a VPS is. I mean, you already have physical servers, right? It sucks. You really should only have to pay for the domain name and electricity, none of that bandwidth crap. If the electric bill is too high, maybe there is something wrong. You should turn those backup servers into ButtCoin miners~

Funny, I looked up LeaseWeb and Wikipedia is also asking for donations again, too. Hahah.
imer
9 years, 3 months ago
Just a quick thing you probably have thought about. This issue came up in the recent FA ddos,locking yourself into a 3 year contract is scary. Not being able to switch when the need arises, be it a huge ddos your hoster is unable to deal with or just  drops in quality over those years.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
It's something we have considered, yes. If necessary we could get another IP, route through GRE tunnels or HTTPS proxies, etc. We suspect and hope it will not be necessary.

If someone wants, they could take us down. But there are more interesting, and more lucrative targets for a botnet - they would be paying/not earning far more to keep us down than we pay to stay up.

Leaseweb is a large and reputable international hosting company, so we have few quality concerns.
Of course, the hosting relationship can change, but they have served us well for the past three years.
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
FA's host did deal with the DDOS:  By taking FA offline and making them change IPs.  c.c
See, FA is not a significant business partner to them.  Their other, larger customers took priority, and FA was summarily warned.
There's no real evidence but I also suspect they throttled FA, because their actual throughput bandwidth is WAY the hell down since they came back online, despite FA's actually traffic being down initially around 45%, and still down a good 20% presently.  However the response time is higher by a factor of four-  suggesting significant cut in bandwidth.
My guess is probably just Dragoneer quietly lowering the package to save money in order to pay that crippling $10k+ tax debt.  But whatever the reason, something's changed.
What honestly surprises me is that FA is actually up right now, despite it's increasingly vulnerable state by doing so.  It seems far more prudent to finish their tasks offline, thus reducing the time (and impact on users) it takes, rather than leaving the site running, struggling, broken for the majority, and possibly risking malfunction or hacking during this sensitive, critical time.
But then, FA has never been known for thinking these things out.  They set their eyes on the moon, but never get around to building the rocket.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
I am thankful that FA is up, because it would be unfortunate for furry fandom in general and furry artists in particular if it were down again over the busiest commission period of the year.
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
True, but I am very, very concerned that the task taking so long (days now!) will result in corruption or other malfunction, and take the website offline under much less comfortable terms.
AnibarutheCat
9 years, 3 months ago
I only can donate through paypal, this is acceptable?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
We recommend the options listed above. Please file a ticket and let us know the information in the "How can I help" section, and we will see what we can do. (This applies to anyone wishing to donate through any means, in fact. :-)
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
I only wish I had the means to help again.  Alas, money is painfully tight for me right now and, while I probably could cough a couple bucks more up, it would be fiscally unwise.  Maybe in a few months?  Sorry I can't help right now.  =(
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
This is not a life-or-death situation. I'm sure we'll be around if and when you can help financially.

This goes for everyone who's trying to decide if they can afford to donate to us or not. Please take the "be nice to other members" option instead. We put it there for a reason! :-)
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
Can I compromise?  Like, can I give them jellybeans, except by throwing them really hard at them?  (I hate jellybeans)
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Only if you nibble any sharp edges off first.
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
Since when the hell do jellybeans have sharp edges!?  c.c
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Clearly you're not familiar with the beans you run into when living off of 8 Mile!
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
?

Reference missed.  Please explain,
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Don't worry. If I have to explain, it wasn't a very good joke. :-)

(I used to live just south of 8 Mile, albeit about 20 miles west of where Eminem was talking about. Actually, FCN was on 8 Mile, too - I walked there a few times.)
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
What does this have to do with sharp jellybeans?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Like I said, it wasn't a particular well-thought-out joke!
It's late here, and I should probably take a nap. :-)
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
But I have to figure it out!  It has to make sense!  *Grabs and shakes*  IT HAS TO MAKE SENSE TO ME!
axlegear
9 years, 3 months ago
*Randomly begins chewing on your scarf.*

I'm avoiding work.
RevampSkunk
9 years, 3 months ago
Oh lawdy. I remember that well.
" GreenReaper wrote:
Clearly you're not familiar with the beans you run into when living off of 8 Mile!
moyomongoose
9 years, 3 months ago
I don't have any of that stuff like credit cards, debit cards, check books, smart phone, etc.
I'm one of those old fashion, do everything in cash types.
Stores ask me if I want a credit card, and I reply to them, "You can't pay me to have one".
Is there a physical address or a post office box where I could mail a money order?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Yes, indeed! Actually we would recommend paper money if not for the issues/risks of transferring it.

A money order would be just fine. Please file a ticket, telling us what currency you wish to donate, and how much of it, and we will tell you how to get it to us.
moyomongoose
9 years, 3 months ago
Is that Texas address 1182 still valid?
I guess I should file the ticket when I send the money order.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
No, it isn't; please file the ticket first and we will tell you where and how to send it there. :-)
lilraccoon
9 years, 3 months ago
Awesome post! A lot of proactive transparency and an interesting look at the process behind the scenes. Already opened a ticket for donating and will be proud to do so!

I know this isn't really the place for feature requests, but has there been any discussion of a mobile site or responsive layout? I feel like it's really the only thing that any other art site has over this place at the moment.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
We can discuss this in your ticket, but in brief; we do want to make it easier for mobile users to use Inkbunny, but this year our priority has been improving performance and scalability (and for me personally, getting to grips with how the web application and database works to make improvements).
lilraccoon
9 years, 3 months ago
Sure! I'm writing up a little response; work has just been very busy today.
InsecureFlaky
9 years, 3 months ago
A really good cause. Wish PayPal wasn't so tight about payments, like if this still was 1980..
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Or 1984? :-)

As Inkbunny artists are doubtless aware, it can be wise to diversify. In the U.S. at least, there are several practical money transfer systems; in some cases direct bank transfers, checks, and Bitcoin make sense too - particularly for payments where refundability is not an issue.
InsecureFlaky
9 years, 3 months ago
" GreenReaper wrote:

As Inkbunny artists are doubtless aware, it can be wise to diversify. In the U.S. at least


Not everybody here makes money with their art , so I didn't know (not that I could consider myself an decent artist anymore) so I don't know all the options

I don't live in the US either. My country I'd a little stone age about electronic payments but I'll research about bit coins, definitely wouldn't mind helping this website that has brought me fun for a couple years now
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
I was referring to diversification of all kinds, including websites. :-)
I learnt a lot about the options in the process of organizing this drive.
As a British citizen, I really do appreciate that it can be frustrating to move money around.

In many countries there are options set up for remittances; unfortunately they tend to charge exorbitant fees and/or set dubious exchange rates, partly to pay for physical locations.
JinxMcKenzie
9 years, 3 months ago
What happened to your progress bar?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
The main donation drive solicitation, including the progress bar, was moved to a separate journal to promote it via email. We put them together to start with to give Inkbunny watchers a heads-up about the drive (and to collect early Q&A).
dahan
9 years, 3 months ago
When are you trying to meet the goal by? End of the year?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
That is our objective - and for tax reasons it would be preferable (so that the donations can be offset by the expense of the lease). However, if we do not get all the way there, it will not be the end of the world. We understand that this can be an expensive season! We'll also have expenses next year.
Kiwidog
9 years, 3 months ago
Ah poop. I can't see paypal there. It's like the one and only thing I use.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
I sent you a PM, but for the sake of other readers - if you have limited payment methods, please contact us by filing a ticket and we'll see if there's some way to make it happen. :-)
Spiderbone
9 years, 3 months ago
Inkbunny's not gonna go away forever, will it?!
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
It's not going to go away at all! We just want to pay our rent early so we get a discount. :-)

That way we don't have to ask people for even more over the next three years.
Spiderbone
9 years, 3 months ago
I hope you're a site administrator.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
That's what the little pink icon says, yes. :-)
Spiderbone
9 years, 3 months ago
I'm glad.
Shokuji
9 years, 3 months ago
Best of luck on this donation drive. I have sent a ticket in for a donation and am trying to encourage others to do so.
appledashing
9 years, 3 months ago
shit i accidently deleted my notification
can someone please reply to this comment, so i have a reminder of this?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Sure thing! It's also on the front page. :-)
HighVoltage
9 years, 3 months ago
I'm sorry that this is a random comment unrelated to your reply to that user, but it just dawned on me, I really like the way your sona looks...especially the horns, that adds a bit of flair to your sona, and I gotta say, I love the new look of your sona vs your last profile pictures rendition of it.
again, sorry for the sheer randomness of this comment, but it is valuable I do believe.
anywho, carry-on.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Thanks, I think! The horns are actually just a headband, but the white ones are real. :-)

The picture is by
korrok
korrok
. She did a good job!
HighVoltage
9 years, 3 months ago
niice...and yes, that was a compliment...well, it was intended as one anyways, not sure how well that came across though given your reaction. lol
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Well, I liked the other picture, too! :-D
HighVoltage
9 years, 3 months ago
I liked that picture well and all, I just find your current avatar picture cuter than the last one, thats all...its more adorable IMO.
HighVoltage
9 years, 3 months ago
I wish I had money to spare right now to be able to donate more than my previous 10$, but as it is, I'm behind on rent by 3 months...so I really cannot spare any more money right now...once I'm able to though, You can be sure I'll donate more money, because as much as it slightly pains me to say this... *whispers* you guys are better than furaffinity in my experience, and I'm both here and there...and I gotta say, I rather like ib better than fa...just...don't anyone tell anyone I said this. lol
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
That's for the best - we would feel very bad taking any of your rent money away! Please, if you're in a similar situation, let others who have spare cash take their turn! There will always be another time. :-)
HighVoltage
9 years, 3 months ago
I know, I just want to be able to help keep such an awesome site online for a long time to come!
Melkiah
9 years, 3 months ago
I'll donate when the sales system is working again. No way to make money on IB, nothing to donate.
Meiji
9 years, 3 months ago
I can't donate very much (college expenses and the like) but I hope 5$ is still helpful :)
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Sure! Drop us a ticket telling us what you can use - ideally one of our recommended methods.

We don't want people to send us more than they can spare right now. :-)
VioletEchoes
9 years, 3 months ago
i am going to donate but i find the whole open a ticket and work out how to pay thing kind of wonky, why not make something more easier to donate too like a paypal button that you just click, type the amount and done, or something that i have seen other sites do?
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
There are many ways to send us money, depending on a donor's location, currency, and the accounts which they and we can use. Some have zero fees, which is ideal because we want your money to go to our servers, not a payment processor. Accepting just one or two choices limits our options.

We also wish to track donors through our system so that we can ensure they are properly credited. Many payment methods, such as checks, don't do that so well. Others require us to request money, so we need to know how much is being donated and where to request it from.

If we were collecting large amounts of money on a regular basis, it'd make sense to add a bunch of donation buttons, and we will probably set our donation page up to have a few of them. But for a single drive every few years, when the methods available change every time we do a drive, it makes more sense to say "tell us what you can use".
Sheep
9 years, 3 months ago
Most of the stuff goes over my head, however I really like that inkbunny has been really transparent about where the money is going.
I'm really glad to see inkbunny growing and I hope it continues to grow. I've always been really glad to be apart of this community.
Tydaze
9 years, 3 months ago
"We don't need a shiny new server - though we've made it feel new with recent optimizations"
"We're always working on new features, bug fixes, and optimizations, but we'd rather tell you about them once they're done."
"We're not in the business of acquiring, hosting, or maintaining server hardware. It makes sense to have professionals do this. If something breaks, they fix it, at no extra charge, much faster than we could."
"We're cautious with upgrades. Adding hardware tends to increase scale, not speed, and can conceal issues. We'd rather find out why our code is slow, or why we're hitting the disk so hard, and fix that."
"Inkbunny was created in part as an advertising platform for furry artists, but we don't believe ads are the best way to support the site. For a start, we'd rather highlight the best up-and-coming artists, rather than those who pay us. It also feels better to be paid for delivering a good service to all of our members."

Slay ;)
ChaoticAsian
9 years, 3 months ago
I would if I could, but I can't so I'll shan't.  Sorry ;c
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
That's quite alright. Just give nice comments to artists if you like their work - they'll appreciate them!
Issarlk
9 years, 3 months ago
How long will the drive last ? Is there a deadline for donations for it ?
Rakes
9 years, 3 months ago
" We hope to raise the funds by December 26 (Boxing Day).
If we do not reach our goal, we may purchase a 12- or 24-month lease instead.
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
As noted elsewhere above, if you are a little short on cash right now (and many are), but wish to support us financially after that, we'll still be open for donations. :-)
Spacenini
9 years, 3 months ago
Hi !

I don't really understood your "donation ticket". You should put something simplier. I know it looks like kinda lazy, but when I come to see what I can see on inkbunny, I don't want to fill a tickjet, I want to enter my credit card, put 20$ and "go to porn !".

I hope this comment is helpful.

*smack*
Fursat
9 years, 3 months ago
dun think its that easy todo + this way they can handle it better i guess. also i rater have a human behind it that can check everything twince before anything goes wrong.
Brexxie
9 years, 3 months ago
After you guys hit your goal of $8000 will you stop accepting donations? i want to donate but i have to wait til the first part of january.  Please let me know thanks ^^
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
You'll still be able to donate! From the FAQ:
" I can't donate right now! Will you still take my money in a few weeks?

Yes. We have other costs beyond our main server and we'll accept donations for the foreseeable future. However, if donating would strain your finances, please keep your cash! We've enough starving artists…
We are in fact planning to move up our purchase of a backup system upgrade, as we grew more rapidly than expected this month and need more storage space, so your money would be welcome in January.
Brexxie
9 years, 3 months ago
Awesome!!!1
DSHooves
9 years, 3 months ago
So close! $7450/$8000!

You guys got this! <3
Wy
Wy
9 years, 3 months ago
Congrats!
GreenReaper
9 years, 3 months ago
Thanks! We'll be making another post with full details once we get a few things tidied up and pending transactions clear - be sure you're watching
Inkbunny
Inkbunny
so you don't miss it!
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