🏅 Axis & Allies .org 2018 Support Drive

Welcome to the 2018 Axis & Allies .org support drive. We hope you’re enjoying the new forums! :confetti_ball:

We do understand that’s it’s not perfect yet, but the new forums provide tons of new and useful features like mobile ready, chat, drafts for posts, better search, and more. On top of that we’re making changes and fixing problems every day to make it work exactly how you want.

Take a look at the migration to do list and the update log to see all the hard work that has happened and all of the tasks yet to do.

To ease the transition, we’ve turned off Google Ads and will keep them off through the end of the year. Unfortunately, this time of year is one of the biggest for ad revenue. For this reason and the extra costs and time to setup the new forums, we’ve set a goal of $2800. Right now we’re about $1000 short of our goal. To contribute use the form in the sidebar (or at the bottom of the page on mobile).

Thanks!

This support drive will end on December 31, 2018 and the next one will begin in 2019.

Note: If you’re a 2017 Patron, I will refund you 10% after your purchase. If you’re a 2018 Patron, thank you! But you’ll keep seeing the Patron form. This will all be streamlined in the near future.

Amount raised: $2670.50 ($2437 in 2017)
Number of 2018 unique patrons: 88 (87 in 2017, 90 in 2016)
Number of 2018 contributions: 98
(last update December 29, 2018)

+ patron in 2016, renewed with discount.
* received badge for 2017 in 2018
^ paid for 2019 patron badge in 2018

I’m working on some perks this year. So far:

Gold Perks:

• 10% discount for patron support renewal

Silver Perks

• 10% discount for patron support renewal

Bronze Perks

• 10% discount for patron support renewal

These funds will go towards the following:

• New forums setup (servers, time, etc.)
  • 60 hours and counting
• Server hosting
• Server backup
• Cloud storage on Amazon S3 (this bill has skyrocketed from $25/month to $115/month
• SSL certificates (for the new forum)
• Domain registration
• DNS hosting (this bill will go from $10/month to $20/month in June 2016
• Promotional material
• Running events
• Producing high quality YouTube videos
• Akismet anti-spam subscription
• LLC (limited liability company) taxes and upkeep
  • Taxes
  • Tax software
• Website design (one or more of the following)
  • Adobe software
  • Premium themes
  • Web designer

There will be three support levels available. When you donate, you will receive a special badge on your profile.

Note:  For 2018, the tank on the badge was the ANZAC AC-1 Sentinel :disappointed: But it’s coming back!

To donate, just click on the “Buy Now” PayPal button on the right of your screen.

In order to get your badge, be sure to include your email when you purchase your support level. Next, send me an email with your Axis & Allies.org username so that I can give you the badge. david [dot] jensen {at} axisandallies (dot) org

Thanks!

If you get your badge and are not listed, it likely means I forgot so just send me a friendly reminder.Marshmallow of War (Jan. 26)*+

@thenorthman You won’t see the button if you’ve already subscribed for 2018. :wink:

@Young-Grasshopper @Panther This was done on purpose. I’m testing something out. Over time the number of badges will become unmanageable to look at and could cause other issues with layout.

I’m considering shortening a several years to the abbreviated year notation like '10 or '11. This is a lot like Board Game Geek. Then on the profile page we’ll have full blown badges/medals which will never be truncated. I’m still debating the years that get truncated but my thought that only active years get the full badge. Active would be the current year and the active year. I’d also want different icons for the active years but that will likely take a some core changes to the NodeBB platform. Another thing I would like (but might require a core change to NodeBB) is for the badge to “expand” when you hover over it.

@Young-Grasshopper @Panther

Another thought is to make the badges from each year a slightly different color so they kinda look like service ribbons …

If I could give them stripes, I would.

@Young-Grasshopper Just curious, why? Not even customizer?