This is depressing. I didn't donate this month (I honestly have no money to otherwise I would immediately), but I actually started donating the last several months and it sucks that its going downhill anyway. Not that I donated more than $10-20 each time.

I hope this site doesn't die and you DEFINITELY should claim this site against taxes if you can. Whatever you can do to bring down the cost. You're not doing something deceitful. You're being honest and doing something you have the right to do, so please do it if it will help.

I think that a main reason many 'Gaia hoppers' jumped the boat was the sudden upsurgance (it's a word now) of illiteracy in the forums. From what I remember in the hey-day people really enjoyed writing, role-playing, and just having an educated discussion with one another. Even if educated was "Hey, do you think that Character X is going to die next week?" The amount of illiteracy on Gaia's forums is what drove many people away. I think if Mene can keep up it's overall literacy rate and continue to bring in some educated discussion, the people who have grown up will still continue to show up. We don't want to leave the wonderful world people create for us, it just sometimes forces us away and seems too silly or preteen. While anime may have started to fall, people are still picking up books and new series all the time. As long as those series come out or people have a good amount of mature (not that kind!) fun, Mene should thrive.
I also think it was a good idea for you to show us this. Anytime the risk of that fun leaving shows up, people are more likely to pool their resources. Maybe I won't buy myself tea someday and put the money I would have used towards a company that I really enjoy and really hope survives.

I feel like crying! I have just about left Gaia though Meni is way better I don't want to see it die! I love Meni and it takes up (litteraly) about half the time I'm at home and I have never lost enterst! I am a pretty new user... Well I'm a one year old though already Gaia has just about been kicked off my book marks and Meni is my #1 site... Anime rocks and so does Meni! I will be very sad if it dies... I will be constributing soon though right now I has no money to do so though I should soon my BDays coming up... To all of you who love Meni PLEASE don't let it die! I am so much more impressed with Menesha then Gaia and I've been with Gaia for about... 3? 4? Maybe 5 years and it's just gone down hill... Meni makes me feel special... I'm one of those that HAVE cunstibuted and I am proud of it!

Maybe....a bake sale would help? Rummage sale?

I have no suggestions as I don't even know where to start. The state of things makes me sad and I hope that we find a long term solution.

In the mean time, I've dug deep, really really deep, to give Menewsha some money this month. At this time, I can't make it a regular thing, but hopefully soon. And now that people are away of the finances, maybe they'll dig deep as well. We can all add Menewsha to our budgets. I'd rather spend $10 on Mene than order out for pizza. It's an easy trade to make because I love Menewsha :heart:

sooooo true. ._.

I like this idea as well. As long as it does not go crazy and super commercial like Gaia has.

oh noes! D:
hopefully mene will never die!

I don't think it should be limited to one style. The reason I like it so much is it is a personal style thing.

Wow. I really wish I had some money to give. I think some great ideas have been presented in this thread (the advertising avi items is a good one, I actually like that feature on GAIA). We have to save Mene! This is the only social interaction I get other than my husband. O_o' Insomniac, how long do we have to turn Mene around? I for one am willing to fight to keep it running, even if I have to borrow money to buy mennies. *huggles* Don't give up on us yet please. Thanks for letting us know how serious things are getting. I'm sure we all want to do our part to keep Mene going.

I'd ask to borrow money but my mom would just roll her eyes and lecture me if she knew what it wsa for.

OK, thank you so much for pointing out the purpose of this thread and hopefully extinguishing the whole 'Mene is dying' thing that seems to be floating in the air. I mean yah it sucks that you are having to pay out of pocket expenses and I can see why things need to change, too, so I'll be more than happy to sit back and watch the evolution needed to keep us afloat. I hope other users are understanding the necessary changes aren't for profit gouging, but for the survival of the site.

While merch is a cute idea, I'm still a bit partial about the idea. My husband and I talked about it and we both seem to think that the website might not be big enough to support it. You'd have to make an initial investment and it might come up a wash. Perhaps you could start small like make some 'Menewsha' rubber band bracelets (Remember the whole armstrong campaign that was big a few years back?), or buttons...see how how much profit is made from those, then possibly branch out.

I'm all for more advertising on the site, but I hope you will offer a 'membership' which will allow an account to be 'ad free' in exchange for it. Also a membership badge, and other little perks. Nothing to make those who aren't able to donate feel like they're being totally snubbed. Perhaps you could tie it in to the merch as well. Say purchase a year's membership and you get a button or arm bracelet as a small 'thanks' with it.

I'll also see if I can throw in a little extra to pick up a set of CIs for sale and sit on them with my mule, just to help that little bit more. I had been purchasing two sets for a few months, especially with the 'bonus' items (I loved the bonus items - I thought it was a smart way to get a little more cash) but without the bonus item and my husband not as into mene recently I haven't the urge. (Notice I've abandoned my sale thread for quite some time...)

I'm loving all the extra tidbits you've been releasing recently and I'll definitely be in the boat supporting the websites future. I love it here. :)

If Menewsha does sponsors... I would like to be able to vote yes or no to each sponsor before it arrives with the rest of the users

Edit - maybe I should reword that :lol:
I mean that I would like if us users of mene were able to allow or deny a sponsorship on menewsha...

I don't think this should be in the announcements it should be in the horror section... TT

Before I say anything, I will say that I have only read the first page. Right now I do not have time to read through 30 pages, though I do believe that this thread is worth it.

There have been posts by the staff members in the past that Menewsha has not been doing so well financially. However, I did not realize it was quite so bad. And I appreciate that you guys have decided to share this news with us.

There is no denying that avatar communities have been declining in interest. But there is interest still out there; last fall I did a field study on this community and my anthropology professor was EXTREMELY interested in this community. When I presented it to my fellow classmates, a few of them were also interested in it. I am by nature an antisocial, however, and did not know how to harvest that interest,or else I believed we would have gained a few new members from that project.

Right now I do not have any solid ideas on something to help the site grow and flourish.
But I do want to go through that field study's notes again and see what I can pull out of them I did not pay much attention to in the past and see if there was anything in them that I can pull out that might prove relevant to the growth of the site. Or something that I can infer from it if there is anything to be read between the lines of what information people gave me.

saying this for my master kenome-sama: "I love avitar sites and i will stick by menewsha's side untill the very end!! Nothing will stop me from coming to this site and nothing will stop me from liking it!!"

Kujo loves this site too!!

*hisses* ouch, that looks really bad *winces* what about maybe just 1 or 2 ads on the front page or something? just to balance the costs....ONE OR TWO.....and not ad spam like Gaia.... although I do get why they're putting up more ads now ._.

That really is scary, I love this site. I love the other sites I'm on as well. I don't really do much with Gaia anymore because they are trying to do to much with some of their things, and don't focus on the community anymore. This site, and others, however, are doing wonderfully with the community based events and I don't want to see that go away. We may need to evolve and I can deal with change like the next person, but I really don't want to see this site die.

You wouldn't want to link your Bank account to your PayPal, that is a bad idea in my opinion. Link your ATM Card or Credit card to your PayPal. That is a better idea. So if you get a checking account or something, link the card to the account and not the checking account. I am that paranoid about a website having my routing information. :S

That is only my opinion. If someone steals your card info or something, at least you can change your card and not worry about changing bank accounts. :)