Donations are now possible

[Laird]

Yeah, that was the question... costs... and how that is managed in future.

I’d be willing to contribute

I would too Max.

I would be happy with just an email to send funds to. via PayPal. And if somebody could list any received contributions on a page, which also shows perhaps an annual estimate of costs for psiencequest... then we can all see how far the contributions are meeting psiencequest’s requirements, and know if extra contributions are needed? I don’t want to put money in when it’s not needed, but I do want to know when it is needed, so that I can consider contributing.

I think if we're talking about costs on the order of 8 USD a month there wouldn't be any problem raising that through donations (even given the possibility, for those of us in the UK, that this may be equivalent to £10 a month later this year ).

Given the generous spirit you guys have shared in the above quotes, I've added (with the go-ahead of the other founders) a "Donations" link to the forum's header (it replaces the "Calendar" link, as I doubt that anybody had much, if any, use for that link). Via the new Donations page you can also access a Google Docs spreadsheet which hopefully provides a comprehensive look at our financial situation.

Oh, and while I was at it, I finally added an icon for the "Psience Quest Interviews" link in the same header.

I’ve added $30. 
Thanks for your efforts. 

Edit: I posted this shortly after making the donation last night, everything appeared to be normal. Laird PMd me letting me know that the money hadn’t come through so I tried again (twice) this morning with a different card. Now it says Sorry- something went wrong. So I’ve given up until we find a different way. Sorry.

[Laird]

Thanks to those who have donated - the spreadsheet has been updated. The donations page too has been updated, especially so as to indicate how to quickly find the three most high-level summary figures in the spreadsheet, as well as to add a second footnote acknowledging that the distinction between contributions to historical and future payments is admittedly somewhat meaningless given that whether historical or future, all costs are anyway incurred simply by the same two people who are parties to the agreements with hosting providers / domain registrars (Ian and myself).

[Ninshub]

That's an impressive spreadsheet, Laird!

[Laird]

Thanks, Ian! My uncle started his company after qualifying as an accountant, so maybe there's a bit of a spirit for accountancy in the family...

[Laird]

I am rethinking the "Future costs" column though. Given the acknowledgement I mentioned above, I wonder whether it's even useful to begin adding entries to this column unless or until all preexisting contributions of yours and mine are down to zero. Otherwise it could be seen as needlessly confusing: it makes it look like our remaining, undefrayed costs are larger than they "really" are because they could (should?) have been defrayed by those "savings" towards future costs.

Tried to donate, now... and failed - PayPal does not accept donations from Russia, apparently.

Sorry, people.

I’m on the “mobile-friendly” version and can’t seem to find it. Still have the calendar though...

[Laird]

Tried to donate, now... and failed - PayPal does not accept donations from Russia, apparently.

Sorry, people.

Not to worry, and you've donated plenty in the way of interviewing already.

PayPal doesn't seem to be all that reliable after all - Steve had problems too.