Yeah, I have noticed a lot of sites doing badly recently.
I would donate if I had the money. I am one of the users with a family, but I love to be on this site and hope that it does not end.
Maybe a way of increasing funds would be having the bonus item more, or introducing a third donation item?
I really hope this site does not fail. It is my home. -hugs-

I'm all for advertising on Menewsha if that would help out. I wouldn't mind them one bit if they kept the site in business.
I'm just kinda sad I can't contribute.... T^T

Oh wow... that is too sad. T___T I really don't want mene to die.

Oh no that's terrible D=. I do agree that anime isn't as popular as it once was (heck people are just completely HATING it by this point @_@), but I think the problem lies most with people losing interest, certain places (Gaia in particular) putting too much weight, focus, and emphasis on their digital items for real money deals, and also cyber bullying hasn't died down one bit and there are more arguments on some of these sites than any roleplaying or discussion. And of course, one of the biggest reasons being as you said, people are growing up so they don't have the time =(.

I donated a couple times when I could, but as we all know times are rough T_T. I really enjoy this site, much more than the others and I hope a solution is found to keep the site up and running.

Maybe if we didn't have mules cause those with mules can hold their own things and if we are going to quit we could delete our accounts instead of leaving them to rot and waste the look. This isn't good and the fact that it's happening is only an outlook on everything else that's happening in the avatar society world. It's almost a domino effect.

Originally Posted by Foxy

Advertising is key. Find a really good SEO specialist.

Also, maybe create more things aside donating... such as lotteries and contests. Anything that will reward gold for real money--while keeping the prices low, of course.

Can we consider this for a second? Gaia did something similar and that is one of the chief reasons I left. If you wanted anything cool and if you wanted anyone to talk to you, you needed to spend real money which at the time, I didn't have because I was 16.

Now I have a job but the economy is suffering everywhere. I had to drop my monthly donations to mene from 15 to 5 dollars because anything I can save, I am going to. I feel that this option would lose more users than it would attract.

Originally Posted by LilMissMollyPutz

Maybe if we didn't have mules cause those with mules can hold their own things and if we are going to quit we could delete our accounts instead of leaving them to rot and waste the look. This isn't good and the fact that it's happening is only an outlook on everything else that's happening in the avatar society world. It's almost a domino effect.

I don't really think having mules has anything to do with the current financial state of the site, or in fact avatar sites as a whole.

Evolution from Anime isn't such a bad thing. So the Anime niche has begun to decline...the site can still be on a cartoon basis, and even still contain anime influence, but I think that this site could live off of little Anime appeal. The Anime niche isn't even what appeals to me, it's the community, and I donate as often as I can.

@ Rhum - Based on what I've read so far maybe we need to go the route of advertising until mene can support itself... (just don't make those crappy sponsor items/announcements, they got annoying on gaia and we wont make the same mistake as that would cost a lot of users)

I would hate to see Menewsha shut down for any reason. :C

I think we all would. =\

@Demo: Samers. I don't even like anime that much. I just like the fact it is a little forum for me to stalk people in. ^^

Oh wow....As soon as I get some actual money I'm seriously going to donate! Not to Gaia though....to Here!

Originally Posted by Vexatious~Venom

I don't really think having mules has anything to do with the current financial state of the site, or in fact avatar sites as a whole.

That's true but some people who have mules don't really use them and they just take up the space and animation that he said costs money. I'm not saying that those that actually use mules should get rid of them but those that just use them for money or to hold things and let sit to rot are kind of taking up space. I'm not saying their bad but it would help a little

I remember one of my favorite forums getting to a this kind of point, they allowed users donate $3 just to be a premium member, allowing the others to create threads only on a certain day of the week, but otherwise able to view most forums. Also they had a system set up for others to pay the membership of others if needed. Then again, within a year or so it still died T_T

@ Poet: Yes. Gaia is such a mess now. In their hay-day it was great. One of the chief reasons I love it here is because it is so much better and there are more people my age here.

What if there were a monthly option to donate one dollar and get a certain amount of gold? If you get even half of the non-donating users to donate one dollar, it would raise a decent amount of money.

Originally Posted by Rhumbullion

What if there were a monthly option to donate one dollar and get a certain amount of gold? If you get even half of the non-donating users to donate one dollar, it would raise a decent amount of money.

I would totally be completely behind that.

Originally Posted by Wordstreamer

How are you thinking about Menewsha changing/avoiding death? I was wondering if that part was going to lead into something else, or if it was just the conclusion. (Not to say that it's "just" the conclusion, because that is a pretty sad state of affairs--more me wondering.)

We're still not completely sure yet, but there are a few ideas on the table.

Originally Posted by Mystic

Thanks for posting this. I think that maybe some members who are so against certain features that would help the site run better would maybe see why the money needs to be made and exactly where it is going.

Small ads would be a good idea if it will keep the site going. I would just hate to see Mene just shit down. =(

That is our hope. If we change a lot of the next year or so I don't want users to be all "what the hell?" and in the dark over the changes. I want everyone to realize change of some form is necessary even though most people do not like change.

Originally Posted by LilMissMollyPutz

Is there like a way that people can help without donating, cause some people can't donate due to fact of economy or parents. There has to be some way for that to happen

Just being informed helps the most.

Originally Posted by The Wandering Poet

@ Miro - oh.... that... I remember that kinda... though maybe we need to figure out how to "break off the anime tracks" then?

We have some ideas here, though I'd prefer not to discuss them openly till I've had time to bounce them off the AA's.

Originally Posted by iDanceWithSkeletons

I agree with the ads part. If it would be helping Menewsha to keep existing, I would definately be for it.
It would be such a shame if it would die. :cry:

Ad's won't help. It's the same users who visit the site over and over, which means ads are not going to cover a 10th of what we need them to.

Originally Posted by Foxy

Advertising is key. Find a really good SEO specialist.

Also, maybe create more things aside donating... such as lotteries and contests. Anything that will reward gold for real money--while keeping the prices low, of course.

I worked as an SEO a while back, and it still comes up in my day job. No need to hire anyone, but SEO really isn't going to help.

Originally Posted by dragoness129

Yeah, I have noticed a lot of sites doing badly recently.
I would donate if I had the money. I am one of the users with a family, but I love to be on this site and hope that it does not end.
Maybe a way of increasing funds would be having the bonus item more, or introducing a third donation item?
I really hope this site does not fail. It is my home. -hugs-

Sadly I very much doubt more items is going to do anything to solve the underlying problem.

Originally Posted by Tsuchi Ishi

I'm all for advertising on Menewsha if that would help out. I wouldn't mind them one bit if they kept the site in business.
I'm just kinda sad I can't contribute.... T^T

As I said above, ads really aren't going to help much.

I'm really sorry to hear that all these amazing sites are dying. If I wasn't sixteen and jobless, I would donate to this site in a heartbeat. :(

I wouldn't mind a few ads but not on every page like gaia only on the main shopping and game page and maybe at the bottum of the main forums page but not so many that they are everywhere, that's why i don't like gaia for all the ads a few won't hurt but too many is bad. This place is like my main internet time if it dies it's back to, "Ugh what to do what to do?" *Hides in corner until something shows up.* and noone wants to go through that. I mean I do stuff but when I have nothing to do I come here for something to do.

If the revenue is that bad, here, then Inso is gonna have to come up with something to get some cashflow in here. Menewsha has come this far...I have faith the Inso and the AAs will come up with a means for cashflow without turning this place into anothe gaia.

Originally Posted by LilMissMollyPutz

That's true but some people who have mules don't really use them and they just take up the space and animation that he said costs money. I'm not saying that those that actually use mules should get rid of them but those that just use them for money or to hold things and let sit to rot are kind of taking up space. I'm not saying their bad but it would help a little

What else do you use your mule for if it isn't to hold items or play games? Also deleting accounts seriously wouldn't help the situation at all because they cause major server problems.

Originally Posted by Rhumbullion

Can we consider this for a second? Gaia did something similar and that is one of the chief reasons I left. If you wanted anything cool and if you wanted anyone to talk to you, you needed to spend real money which at the time, I didn't have because I was 16.

Now I have a job but the economy is suffering everywhere. I had to drop my monthly donations to mene from 15 to 5 dollars because anything I can save, I am going to. I feel that this option would lose more users than it would attract.

Gaia suffers from inflation. That's the reason it was hard to still get those 'cool' items if you didn't have the real money to purchase them. Also, I didn't exactly recommend they create something involving exclusive real-money items (I believe the donations feature does that job quite well enough)... I personally hate the concept of the Gaia cash shop. What I do think could help would be something like a lottery where you can just win gold, or contests of similar sorts that can also possibly contribute to the development of the site.

@ Rhum - Yeah I've predicted gaia's downfall for a long time... they didn't control the chaos... so they lost a lot of users... but we haven't run into chaos... if we work together we can fix this =3

@ Inso - Alright... =) once you think they're potentially good ideas run them by us if you'd like and we'll give you our honest feedback as usual ^^

I like that $1 for 100 gold idea... as a CI set for $5 is 1k or so? so it would be less profit than donating for CIs, but still be helping the site while giving us a way to help if we have some spare change

Originally Posted by Demoscout

This isn't too bad of an idea.
Maybe $1 = 100~300g (for example)

If the revenue is that bad, here, then Inso is gonna have to come up with something to get some cashflow in here. Menewsha has come this far...I have faith the Inso and the AAs will come up with a means for cashflow without turning this place into anothe gaia.

Maybe not 300. If you made it too much gold, then those of us that actually buy the CIs and play games to have fun...well, it would leave us in the dust. I think it would be unfair, especially if Mene made it so they could donate $1 as many times as they wanted for that much gold. It would make me sad, feel rejected and want to leave.