That said. Can you set up a way to automagically donate 5 dollars a month from a credit card/paypal account/whatever? You said you need 50 pbfs, or $250 a month to have enough for an advertising budget. If I could painlessly (meaning without my needing to do anything) donate 5 dollars a month (or more) I don't think I would be the only person interested. I'd venture to say that you could get your advertising budget right there by having 25 players donate the neccessary amount month by month + the 25ish pbf's that get purchased on their own.

I'd also like to see a donation counter. Like a thermometer on the side that has a 250$ or 50 PBF goal that resets every month so that people can see if we are reaching our goal. I looked for code for one (not for very long) but came up empty. If anyone knows where to find one we could reuse, that would be great.

Honestly, having a plan is good, but I'd rather you had the money to advertise and learn from doing than to have a plan that slowly dies for lack of funding/interest, because right now it seems like a whole lot of nothing is getting done.

Seriously, make it easy to get my money on a monthly basis, and I'll donate even when I stop playing and completely forget... Who is going to notice an extra $5 on their credit card statement every month?

http://bc-dev.net/projects/fmud/ It's a flash client... Might be worth looking into. Might not. I've got no flash skillz.

I think they have concerns with taking money from people without knowing what to do with it. The organization for these kinds of things is lacking to the point of non-existence, and so no one can take enough ownership to make a plan and implement it.

That's why you and I are both saddened at the deadness of the "CF marketing" forum.

In fact, I'd much prefer them thowing my money away trying to figure out what advertising works and what doesn't than to have no advertising at all.

I would even go so far as to say they need to have money, so they know their budget, THEN make a marketing plan...

Alas, it shall not be so.

Though you have to admire their firm commitment to honesty and fairness.

In the worst case scenario, they could always use that money for the server(s)...

Or pool a little and start a little later.