HRWiki talk:2006 Spring Fundraising Drive

From Homestar Runner Wiki

[edit] Donation to tumor research

I strongly disagree with the idea that we should donate a portion of the proceeds to tumor research. Our donations page says:

All donations will be used strictly for hosting the site and keeping the domain registered.

If people want to send money, they can, just not through us. I do not think we should make any mention of the tumor research fund here. We are a knowledge base about Homestar Runner, not a vehicle for donating funds to tumor research. If people want to donate to tumor research, they can, but not through us. We link to the obit that mentions the fund in the Don Chapman article, I do not think we should link to the tumor research fund. Lastly, this whole thing could come across as if we were trying to garner funds by donating a portion of the proceeds to a cause close to The Brothers Chaps' heart, which is definitely in bad taste. -- Tom 19:03, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I feel dumb. I guess I hadn't considered the implications of that idea. I was really only trying to do something nice, but you're absolutely right about how it would be perceived. I certainly wouldn't want to use the tumor foundation to increase donations here. If people want to donate to the tumor foundation they should donate there, and if people want to donate to the wiki they should donate to the wiki. It should be that simple. — Joey (talk·edits) 19:29, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I wonder...

If we could do advertising and selling products here, would we do it? I always wondered whether or not we'd follow in the noble footsteps of the non-advertising TBC.... — Seriously ^(Talk) 19:39, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

I think this was brought up before... I think the main problem with it is that this is a non-commercial site, all about someone else's creation. It'd be kinda like using the Brothers Chaps' characters to sell things, which would be wrong. --DorianGray

Actually, I think he refers to if it wasn't wrong or illegal or otherwise violating free-use. To which neither of us could really answer. — Lapper (talk) 20:35, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I'll leave this question to JoeyDay. — Seriously ^(Talk) 22:12, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

If it were legal, I'd still think twice before allowing ads to be shown on the wiki. I value TBC's willingness to take the high road and remain ad free and I applaud their success at crafting such a high-quality merchandise business. If it were legal, perhaps we'd sell t-shirts or copies of our knowledge-base on CD (or how 'bout Kick the Tom plush dolls?). Ultimately, the decision would be up to the community, and, without really considering it and attempting to reach community consensus, it's hard to say which direction it would go. — Joey (talk·edits) 03:59, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

If it were legal, I'd be all about making a "Learn German with Heimi" DVD for us to sell. :-) Heimstern Läufer 04:33, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

I think if it's unrelated to the wiki, you can do that independently ;). — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 06:25, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

What about selling a few o' dems "Super Fun Mecha Video Game Joystick Game Player Player" things?---COLA 00:14, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, I'd definitely pay for a Tosatpaint or TELL WHAT U THINK! shirt. -- Jello B. (talk/edits) 02:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Just a suggestion: The wiki could open a Cafe Press shop and sell T-shirts to raise additional funds. Just a suggestion. -AtionSong 20:31, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

No matter what kind of product it is (a t-shirt, a cd of the knowledge base, etc.) it's impossible to not mention homestarrunner.com, which means that if that product is sold, the wiki benefits financially from the existence and popularity of TBC's creations. So, unfortunately, I don't think it would be ethical to sell stuff. TBC are already very gracious in permitting us to gratuitously copy material from their website and put it on ours, so I'd feel bad making money off of their work. Trey56 21:27, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

But if all profits go to this wiki, then we aren't really making any more money off of it than these donations are. And Wikipedia's doing it... - Joshua 22:21, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

It may be a gray area, but in principle, if somebody buys a HRWiki t-shirt, that's money that they could spent on a homestarrunner.com t-shirt (and they wouldn't have bought the HRWiki t-shirt if they didn't like Homestar Runner). That's an example of my line of thinking... Trey56 13:09, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Not necessarily (the fact that the shirt must mention homestar runner). Suppose we made a shirt referencing the wiki. For example, a shirt that on front had one of the "hello my name is" tags, and the place where the name goes has ~~~~ written in it instead. Then on the back it just said "www.hrwiki.org". Also, not necessarily (the fact that buying a wiki shirt is replacing the purchase of a homestarrunner.com shirt). For example, They Might Be Giants wouldn't tell TBC to stop selling "Strong Bad Sings", because if somebody would buy that instead of a TMBG CD. I think that it's not an "either or" situation, it's a "both and" situation. -AtionSong 14:21, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Heh, I won't mind a "I just got STUFF'd and declined" T-shirt... — Elcool ^(talk)_(contribs) 14:40, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Ha ha ha! — It's dot com

Still, if we ever did anything like this (I'm assuming at this point the discussion is still hypothetical), JoeyDay should get some kind of okay from TBC. — It's dot com 15:19, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Of course....But I have been thinking of a "This User Just Got STUFF'd" shirt.... --Dacheatbot · Communicate 15:34, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inaccuracies

So if you guys only raised $861...why has the pledge-o-meter been at 97.5% for awhile now? Should be at 86.1%.

The site notice was being updated by a template that got removed, so it had to be reworded a little. This is because the official end of the drive was the end of May, but since we're so close to our goal, I think it makes sense to count anything we get in the next couple of days as part of the drive. I have adjusted the site notice accordingly. — It's dot com 16:20, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't matter now, but I am so glad that we made it to the 100% marker. And I am sorry that I can't donate. Or else I would have.--H*bad 17:43, 3 June 2006 (UTC)