Queerbay Issues

[little man]

Originally Posted by Medusa

You bet Wil!

I am still tinkering in the back end with everything that it does. As far as images, the allowed images is pretty small because they are stored on our server. There will, however be the option for someone to host their photos on an outside source (like Photobucket) and hotlink.

This system isnt very fancy at all so I am also keeping my eye open for something better

so, if i'm reading this correctly, i could put up a thumbnail that originates from an image i have on flickr or somesuch? then, clicking the thumbnail would take you to the outside site to view a larger pic?

then, sales go through this site? you guys will be making a percentage or something off sales, right? it's only fair to offset the costs for hosting the images and whatnot onsite.

[Admin]

Originally Posted by little man

so, if i'm reading this correctly, i could put up a thumbnail that originates from an image i have on flickr or somesuch? then, clicking the thumbnail would take you to the outside site to view a larger pic?

then, sales go through this site? you guys will be making a percentage or something off sales, right? it's only fair to offset the costs for hosting the images and whatnot onsite.

You are correct on the thumbnails Wil! I think it would give folks a better option to have MORE photos this way, and it wont tax our storage as badly.

At this time, The Planet has no plans to take a percentage of sales from any of the sellers. We have kinda struggled over how to address the issue of "to charge or not to charge". I dont want to charge folks for this service but it WILL take up space on the server and possibly cost a little extra in bandwidth if the usage is moderate to heavy.
I had thought of maybe making it a $9 a year service with unlimited listings. This would ONLY be needed to cover any additional load on the servers but right now, the Planet is in such good financial shape that I just dont have the heart or think its necessary.

I think that we can maybe give folks the option to make a tiny donation if they feel they need to?

One of the main reasons I wanted to see this happen here is because I really do believe in keeping the Queer dollars flowing to one another in our community and there are a ton of people here who are either low-income or on a fixed income who could really use a free option to make a little $$ for themselves. With eBay being SO expensive with fees, I want Queerbay to really reflect our vision of supporting the site and one another.

Ideas? Thoughts?

[Linus]

What about having people link their products to a picture in their Gallery?

[little man]

Originally Posted by Linus

What about having people link their products to a picture in their Gallery?

would this not also tax the server storage?

flickr is a free deal for the basic level and tied into your yahoo (if memory serves).

[Mindy]

I would definitely be ok with a percentage of the sale or even a set amount of each sale going to the site. Maybe a set listing fee would come out of the item if it sells and go to the site, and an option to donate more if the seller wanted to donate more to the site than the set amount? I definitely think that the site should get something from it. Right now I'm not working and it would be hard for me to come up with the money up front, but if it came out of the selling price it would work for me. I'm not sure how that would work, if you could set it up to auto pay you for the listing or not. If not maybe an honor system where we have to pay if it sells and if it's not paid you can't list again? I dunno.

[little man]

you know, i read somewhere today about starting a scholarship fund for folks who can't afford to attend the reunion, or artist grants and the like. perhaps a small percentage of sales taken for the art grant? i can't really think of any artists i know who would balk at helping other artists out. if the site is in good enough financial shape that you wouldn't need it to keep things running, i really like the idea of the money going into a fund to help fund artists for projects or whatever. is this doable? maybe you could do a survey and see if people would be willing to slice a percentage off for that?

i'm sure this should have had paragraphs or something, but my mind is a mess and i have to get ready to leave for work.

[Medusa]

Originally Posted by little man

you know, i read somewhere today about starting a scholarship fund for folks who can't afford to attend the reunion, or artist grants and the like. perhaps a small percentage of sales taken for the art grant? i can't really think of any artists i know who would balk at helping other artists out. if the site is in good enough financial shape that you wouldn't need it to keep things running, i really like the idea of the money going into a fund to help fund artists for projects or whatever. is this doable? maybe you could do a survey and see if people would be willing to slice a percentage off for that?

i'm sure this should have had paragraphs or something, but my mind is a mess and i have to get ready to leave for work.

I like this idea Wil! It is highly appropriate to the idea of Queerbay since we want to start encouraging Queer artists to do more work and become more visible. If there were small (or even large) grants for supplies and such, I cant even imagine the amazing work that could be produced in this community!

Right now, any percentage from sales would have to be on the honor system. I have already had one person who wanted to donate a percentage of her sales to the site. I think its a fabulous idea! (and very generous)

Im not opposed to the honor system and can set up a donate button with no problem in that area if people want to do that.

Other thoughts?

[little man]

Originally Posted by Admin

You are correct on the thumbnails Wil! I think it would give folks a better option to have MORE photos this way, and it wont tax our storage as badly.

At this time, The Planet has no plans to take a percentage of sales from any of the sellers. We have kinda struggled over how to address the issue of "to charge or not to charge". I dont want to charge folks for this service but it WILL take up space on the server and possibly cost a little extra in bandwidth if the usage is moderate to heavy.
I had thought of maybe making it a $9 a year service with unlimited listings. This would ONLY be needed to cover any additional load on the servers but right now, the Planet is in such good financial shape that I just dont have the heart or think its necessary.

I think that we can maybe give folks the option to make a tiny donation if they feel they need to?

One of the main reasons I wanted to see this happen here is because I really do believe in keeping the Queer dollars flowing to one another in our community and there are a ton of people here who are either low-income or on a fixed income who could really use a free option to make a little $$ for themselves. With eBay being SO expensive with fees, I want Queerbay to really reflect our vision of supporting the site and one another.

Ideas? Thoughts?

i think you're gonna need a bigger coat to keep that big heart of yours warm.

the $9/yr seller fee is more than reasonable. cheap bastid that i am, i could buck up for that without breaking a sweat. the only other thing i could think of would be a fee based and $ amount of sales. below a certain mark, it's free...then structure it upwards. of course that's a lot of math, and i'm sure it'd be a pain in the ass. the option to donate a portion of each sale is a nice idea. after all, ain't nothin' in this life free or easy.

i'm excited to see it up and running. maybe it'll motivate me to get off my ass and put some stuff together, eh?