[joshmillard]

That is our existing paypal account, yes.

We aren't formally doing any fundraising at this point -- that's an account we've had set up for ever mostly for the once-a-month "hey, here's five bucks, buy yourself a beer" tip from a random happy/guilty user -- but if you toss money in that, it ends up with us, and I won't tell you no.

If you want to be extra sure about the paypal link, visit the one at the bottom of Metafilter's about page, here:

http://www.metafilter.com/about.mefi

[dave5104]

Doesn't sound like you may necessarily want to expand this funding source, but if you do, I also run a content-heavy site that currently runs on donations. I've been doing it without paying a dime myself over the past 8 years or so.

Some things I've learned:

- Ask for specific dollar amounts. It'll give users an idea of what they should type in. - Make that donation link more prominent on the page. The "this PayPal link" <a> tag is pretty hidden at the bottom. - Offer incentives. I give my donors a trophy for their site account when they give something, and there are certain tiers (e.g. gold trophy for $50, silver for $25, etc.) Requires a bit of management on your side of things, but it could pay off.

[rmc]

Ask for specific dollar amounts. It'll give users an idea of what they should type in.

Yep. I was at a museum and they had "please donate €5" donation box, which was full of fivers. Otherwise it'd be full of coins.

[groby_b]

You know, if you offered me a way to subscribe, I would :)

Heck, I just saw donations can be recurring, so let's do that instead. If you made this a bit more prominent, I'm sure quite a few people would love to chip in.

[zevyoura]

To be fair this was addressed in the linked post:

> On the subscription payment idea, even if 10% of the userbase started paying a few bucks a month for extra Pro-level features, we’d still be coming up thousands of dollars short each month.

[devindotcom]

Thanks. Sorry to hear about the trouble at Mefi. I'm blackleotardfront there. It might be superfluous to say but we are all 100% behind the staff and site and whatever you guys decide is the best course of action we will support to the best of our ability.

[splitrocket]

Cortex: as a single datapoint, I'd pay a totally voluntary subscription for metafilter. Make it an option, and I'll do it.