blueblackrose:
Exactly! It just makes NO SENSE, does it? :headdesk:

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Moogle:
Oh that definitely will be the reason for a percentage of people, but I'm betting it's only a small percentage. It can't possibly explain the overall downturn with every update that happens. Particularly when it's an update, like the marketplace, that 98% of people seem to be thrilled about.

No sense at all. XP I would so donate more if I could, but I can't because we are to poor. but I will try to donate at least 5 dollars every month like I have been doing! D:

Money is hard for a lot of people. It could just be that there are about a million better things to spend your money on than donating to Menewsha.

I would much rather buy 2 songs from Itunes than 1 item on a website that could possibly not exist in the next year or so.

I can see how all the talk about Mene not doing so good financially can turn people off from donating.

I wish I had the extra money to buy more than one set :/ But I only liked the Alien CI this month so I bought one .. and I'm broke and I get paid min wage D:

And frankly, there's no one to really talk on here.. I just refresh my account page every hour or so to see if anything is going on.. :(

I'm not gonna lie. I can donate if I wanted to. Personality though, I tend to be here for the role playing, and that is it. When I am online I am in "My account" Waiting for my subs to come up with another post. I left Gaia because it was wayyyyyyyyy to complicated for me. And I'm young. I'm 19, and understand tech and such. I just have no need for overcomplicated things. I think this site attracted me because it was so simple, easy to work with.

The new features are honestly nothing to me. I rarely use them. Now, does this mean that I never donate because I hate the features? No. I don't donate unless I absolutely have to have an item. Which I can simply just buy most of the time with gold. So no, I'm not going to make up some excuse about me not donating, nor is anyone really going to make me feel bad. I'm just the type of person who doesn't really care for change. I leave my Avi the same for months sometimes, and I'm pretty sure I haven't even changed my profile picture on facebook in over four months xD

Speaking of which, I don't even think I have even looked at the CI's this month lol. I'll probably donate any way this month and buy them. But honestly, I don't tend to donate simply because I don't have a need to.

Like Sir D . L O Van Lobsters said, I would much rather buy songs on itunes. Or donate to Japan. Actually, I would much rather donate to japan this month.

That is probably why everything is down this month. Everyone who usually gives to mene is giving to Japan. Speaking of which, is Mene doing anything? It would be awesome to have a special item where Mene will donate a percentage.

I'd do that. I'm sure Mene could profit from that. :)

momochan: :hug: We massively appreciate every single dollar that comes in, but please don't feel obligated to donate just because others don't :(

That is always my fear, you see. I brought this to people's attention because I feel they need to know, but I do NOT want this to make the people who do donate feel like they have to give more, to make up for the people who won't. I myself can't donate, because I'm unemployed and get £65 a week to live on, and I owe the bank blood, but I'd give it I could.

but really, this isn't about that.

It just the utterly unexplainable phenomena of donations drying up when we make updates to the site :cry:

I havent even used any of the updates. I wasnt attracted the Marketplace at all, but I do very much appreciate the search option in the shops. I was actually curious and frustrated when I first joined the site that there wasnt one in the first place :sweat:

Anywho, no pressuring me into spending monies so no worries ;P Gotta pay the rent, so to say.

I will donate with my next paycheck...You have my promise

*huggles* I don't feel obligated at all. I want to donate to the site because I love this place so much and I have made so many awesome people and made a bunch of friends. I want to help out as much as I can to help it run. :) I really don't get how you guys would lose money from improvements, you would think you would get more money from it.

I would have loved an item for Japan, but we're down to just 1 pixelist and there's just been no way we could swing it, time-wise. We might be able to yet though, who knows? It would be something we'd have to discuss with Wishie and Inso.

I'm aware that some people might be put off donating because they know the site isn't making money. That's always a potential problem. But...if you don't inform people about things like that, they'll just assume the site is making money and doesn't need them to donate...Catch 22, right there.

Also, it doesn't help that when people find out a site is running in the red they often automatically think the very worst, and it's a lot of panicky "OMG,THE SITE'S GONNA SHUT DOWN, IMMA LOSE ALL MY STUFF!, I'M LEAVING!!"

Inso will point out in situations like that thatAmazon ran in the red for 4 years before turning a profit. Mene is here and not going anywhere, it would just be nice if it could at least break even :sweat:

Oh and BLACKllASH: You way of doing things is the best way, to be honest. Buy something if you want it, if it suits your purpose. Just because a site has certain things, they're not for everyone, each individual has their own stuff that they do on Mene.

When I used to be active on Gaia I'd only buy the MCs that I actually liked. Or, when I was questing I'd buy ones that I knew would resell and help my quest funds. You do stuff on a site to suit your own purposes :)

I've never really had the spare money to donate. I just can't justify it... :( I've actually gotten to the point were I don't look at CI's as much of the time I would LOVE to have them but I can't even manage to get enough gold before they spike. I guess it is probably a good guess that the recession in jobs and the reducing of the federal min wage in the states (which my state was the first to jump on the lets pay our employees less bandwagon) and still increasing rise of goods and services have a lot to do with it.

Jaz: minimum wage has been reduced! Wow, that's terrible, wtf is the government thinking! It's the high earners who need to pay more tax, jeez, don't starve to people who already struggle :gonk:

Please, no-one feel bad because you can't afford to donate :hug: That's not what this is about.

I think the question is, why is it that improvements REDUCE donations?

Not "Why don't you all donate NAO!"

We always want to do things to improve the site including improving it's revenues. So why is it adding features to the site, which should make it seem better and stronger, always results in a decline in donations?

I'd like to explode some economists heads with that question, Daria xD Because I doubt they'd be able to make any sense of it either :ninja:

I can ask my resident economist, but I tried asking last night, and he was baffled!

LOL well I guess in that case I stay steady... I don't buy them cause I can't lol... I've been that way for well over what 3-4 years?

I can't see why donations would reduce though maybe it is just a matter of a flop for this months donations? Like I said I haven't looked at them to reduce the amount of drool on my laptops keyboard lol

This is me talking as a user and not per say as a staff member:

I admit, I do donate to the site.

I see it like this, I get a LOT of enjoyment out of this site and want to support it in return. I know I am not out in the forums a lot and am behind the scenes, but I do spend a lot of time on here and I guess in my head, donating is my way to give back for all that I get from the site. I get more than the amount I donate back from this site. We all have financial issues, lord knows I have mine (and you don't really want or need to see them aired here;)) but if I can manage to dig out the amount of money I would find in my couch cushions and send it Mene's way I will, and I do. It's my way of giving back.

Wow, I had no idea that people donate less when a new feature is added. D: I plan on donating next month though. I usually love all of the CI's. And now that I'm making some money I'd like to help the site.

But I don't understand why people are donating less because of that though...Kind of strange. DD': You'd think new features might inspire people to donate to the site.

Jelly, and Inso, I suppose as well, I think part of this month stemmed from the Marketplace. What happened was now items were available WAY easier, people no longer needed a supplier of monthly CI's, since SOMEONE was selling it on the marketplace. Plus, not going to lie, it's good for us bargain hunters out there, but some items, especially newer CI's have drastically reduced in gold. What used to sell for somewhere around 2.5k-2k are now 1.5k each, so people who would normally donate 50-70$ might not find it worth it.

For other months, I'm not sure what the new things were that hurt the donations. I can understand things like events, and new item releases doing so, considering the fact that, well... I know when I get fancy new EIs and Commons, I don't feel like I NEED anything new and fun to play with, so I decide not to get the CIs... well, until I got broke. XD

Maybe you guys could limit the listing of CI's? like 6 of each is the limit and then when those are gone people could list some more? Well something like that anyway.