The Current State of TGCT - Please Read.

[Celtic Wolf]

I've set up a monthly donation, as without the tour pages and the work that you guys put in the game wouldn't be as appealing. I now hope you can take a couple of strokes off my scores when needed, only joking, keep up the great work.

[mayday_golf83]

Especially in this day in age, I do think its reasonable for folks to have some sort of assurance what their money is going toward is actually what it's going toward.

That being said, I've been in for $5/month since the first donation drive and for me the rationale is simple. What these guys do is a great service and a great addition to TGC.

The design community alone makes this site worth my money -- as does having an excellent platform to have my courses showcased. I've put out six courses between TGC1 & 2 and all six have been or are going to be used on tour at some point ... not to mention several spin-off community events/societies that are promoted on these boards. W/o this site, my stuff would probably be lucky to have a couple hundred plays instead of a few thousand. 

Obviously this isn't, but let's assume this was a subscription-based site. Ask yourself would you pay x-dollars/month for this service? For me the answer, without hesitation, is yes, so I put my money down.

I'm going to trust that the money is being appropriated as stated but if Tim, Scott, et. al end up having a beer on my behalf, I personally wouldn't mind given how much time/effort/money they've put into this.

[GW_Hope]

I “donate” way more to the local tavern and their service is $hit. A few buck here is money well spent for such a great service!
PS: You have my blessing to spend my donation on beer if you like.

[greyosprey]

Apr 8, 2018 8:10:20 GMT -5 scampi00 said:

I think another huge problem here is that so few of the players on tour actively use the forum and probably won't see this plea. Anyway to send out a mass email to the one they have on file? Might be a little "in your face" but youll probably reach a larger audience.

I was thinking the same thing.  Also, what about gofundme, or reaching out on FB or Twitter?  How much does it cost to upgrade a server/equipment?  Maybe as a community we can tackle stuff one item at a time?  Just thinking out loud.  

In the meantime, I'll look into opening a new Paypal acct so I can donate.   



 

[IGolfBad]

Apr 8, 2018 10:35:02 GMT -5 Crazycanuck1985 said:

Apr 8, 2018 9:25:05 GMT -5 Giraffe72 said:

I didn't mean to open a can of worms here, sorry, and as you probably know I've been one of the 1% since your last plea for donations and am more than happy to be so. What you guys do for us is nothing short of amazing, as others have said it's the best gaming site I've ever had the pleasure of being a part of.

But if you're asking people for money it's never a bad thing to be transparent about what you're asking for. Not a detailed statement (I didn't mean that) but along the lines of:
We have x amount coming in
Monthly running costs are x amount
We would like x amount to pay for a developer
We need x amount for 'insert here'

It doesn't really matter the size of an individual donation, but the potential sum of all donations could be quite a large amount (hopefully!) and for your own protection as much as anything else it would be a good thing to see how it is spent.

I don't think anyone is doubting your motives or intent, I certainly don't or I wouldn't already have a monthly donation set up. As Matt said, please don't take offence where none is meant. You might find you get more donations by providing more information, after all it clearly didn't work that well the last time. 1% is shocking, there are at least 7-800 people who have been using this free service for more than a year!

Here's a few details of our most recent financial statement and costs incurred: (in US $)

Banhammers (gold plated, large head) - $87.49 each
Rental of Exile Island for naughty members - $2.6 million per month
Water bottles to hold tears of players who complain about courses each week - $12.50 each
"We hate the Irish" T-shirts - $16.95 each

Our Ferrero Rocher sponsorship pays for most of this, so I figure we need a few hundred per month to keep the site running?

There’s your problem - you’re getting deeply gouged by the cost of “We Hate the Irish” T-shirts. PM me and I’ll set you up with a guy who, for about $2.29 per gross, will also throw in a matching number of “We Hate the Americans” shirts, free shipping, and a crate of “Why Do We Keep Letting this Lawrence Idiot Play?” baby bibs. Should drastically reduce your overhead.

[B.Smooth13]

You got it guys, happy to help. Thanks for the endless enjoyment, it's greatly appreciated.

[Deleted]

I had just made a single donation but now signing up for a recurring payment. While the game is one of the best ever, the TGC Tours site has been a daily visit for me since it was created. I sincerely want to thank the creators and all the volunteers that put in endless hours for free which has resulted in the best gaming site ever!

[CGib2]

Tim, I’ve been a member of the TGCT community since September, 2014, and have made one time donations on a couple of occasions.   I’m all in on a monthly $10 donation, and I hope that many of the new and long term members will see fit to contribute to the “community” as well.  

Some of the members feel that you should show transparency by divulging a ledger sheet to show income and expenses.  Personally, I don’t feel that this is necessary, especially since less than 1% of the community is currently donating.   Many people have forgotten that you started this “community” almost 4 years ago,  paid 100% of the startup costs (server, forum fees, etc.) yourself.  I’m sure that over the past 4 years, your out of pocket expenses greatly exceed any donations that have been made over that time. 

Let’s say that 1% of the community is donating $5 (estimate) per month....that’s approximately $100 a month for the entire community.  I’m no expert, but, I would estimate that you are spending any where from $300-500 a month on server costs, forum fees, etc..  I think it’s fair to say, that you can’t continue to operate with negative cash flow.  If the above numbers are off, my apologies.  If we can get just 10% of the community donating $5 per month, that would be $1,000 a month to help finance the servers, forum fees, upgraded infrastructure, and hopefully a part-time developer.

What I don’t want to see is an announcement in the forum that reads:  “The Current State of TGCT” closing down due to lack of funding.   

I think that you, Jeff and Doyley have far exceeded expectations for what you have given to the community.  It’s now time for the community to give back and show their gratitude and appreciation for what you have done, and will do in the future.   

Thanks for all you do (Tim, Jeff, Doyley) and making this the best Golf gaming site ever!!!!

[QuantumSparks]

Happily donated to help this community keep running. Not been this invested in a game and it's community in a long time and with the amount of time this place has helped me put into the game I am more than happy to give back.

[gmangi1955]

Great idea you came up with. I've made some one-time donations but as I think about it the recurring donations makes more sense. Thank you admins for all you do keeping this site running. I've never had so much fun when playing but frustrated at times playing on PS4. I'm still mind-boggled how on fast greens hitting a 9 iron or wedge, how a ball stops with a 1 foot drop! I do play in golf4-fun site on a computer which seems easier to shoot because I use 3-click opposed to using a joy stick with PS4. You have to be so precise otherwise your ball goes all over. But I do play TGCT at least 1 round a day and enjoy so again thanks guys.

[KenTremendous]

Apr 8, 2018 12:43:20 GMT -5 CGib2 said:

Some of the members feel that you should show transparency by divulging a ledger sheet to show income and expenses. 

No mate, i dont.

All i wanted was a rough idea of what it actually costs to run this place.

That clearly wont be forthcoming, which i find a shame.

Nevertheless ill be setting up a recurring donation later on tonight.

[Mark (Kram)]

I've been donating $10 per month when the original request was made!

[weasek1]

Set up a monthly donate.i love this tour look forward to playing every week so thank you for the hard work

[troysion]

Thank you for having an amazing place for us to really get the most out of TGC. I just set up a 5 dollar per month donation. Once again thank you for your hard work.

[LTzee413]

In for $5 a month. Thanks for the work guys