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Who pays for the forum?

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joeylittle

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.......You do!

MyPTSD runs on member donations. Over the years, @anthony has worked diligently to get the forum running costs down quite low - and we all benefit from that.

Members who have been here awhile might remember the days of the fundraising drives, the lottery, the giveaways....seems like ages ago! It was sometimes a real struggle to reach the dollar amount needed to keep the forum up and running. But now, we only have to keep pace with a very modest goal.

Unfortunately, we're a little behind where we need to be, with half the calendar year already behind us.

Your donations pay for the servers and the software; no-one here earns a salary, all donations go directly into the forum itself.

So please - if you use the forum, if you benefit from it, think about donating! Even a gift as little as $1 will make a difference.


If you have questions about how donations work, you may ask them on this thread, or via Contact Us.

Thanks!
 
I often think about donating but feel awkward about my personal information being out there for all to see (credit card, full name, address). I wonder if you could tell us a bit more how this site deals with personal information?
 
Sure, happy to!

Your personal information remains entirely secure. When you decide to donate, you'll first be asked to give an amount, and choose whether or not that amount should be displayed, and whether you'd like to do it under your user name, or you'd rather be anonymous. That box looks like this:

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As you can see, I've decided to select both "anonymous" and "disclose amount"; you can do whatever combination of these you wish - neither choice will reveal any of your personal information to the site.

After you make your selections, you'll hit "Donate" and be taken to PayPal.

Once on PayPal, you have the option to pay via your own PayPal account, or to simply use a credit or debit card.

Either way - PayPal keeps your personal information private, and does not share it with us ("the merchant")

And that's it!

We receive a receipt of the transaction, but it shows us nothing more than a transaction number and your member name (or 'anonymous'). That email is securely stored along with the information you provided when you joined the site. No-one has access to that side of the forum except for Anthony and myself, and your information is not ever distributed or shared.

You can read more about our privacy policies, here.
 
Anonymous is not actually an option nowadays, as all transactions are manually verified by myself. Anonymous only applies to here though. I am the only one with access to payment data at Paypal, and I can only see your name, email and amount. Everything personal is kept via Paypal servers and has nothing to do with MyPTSD, being it meets many countries strict guidelines in relation to keeping site data and payment data completely separate. Paypal can access your data, not myself, as they're the authorised global merchant facility, exactly the same as your bank can see your data, but other customers cannot.
 
Members who have been here awhile might remember the days of the fundraising drives, the lottery, the giveaways....seems like ages ago!
Seems like yesterday. I think about it every year between February and April-ish. Man I’m getting old.
Unfortunately, we're a little behind where we need to be, with half the calendar year already behind us.
So if we raised $160-200, would that pull us back on track?
 
Yes. Basically at the half way through the year, just want to keep the funds about the same, that way we don't end the year needing to do some massive funding drive. It just seems to work better from experience to keep it closely inline, and at the end of the year its typically no need to do anything.
 
Seems like yesterday. I think about it every year between February and April-ish. Man I’m getting old.
One of the very long standing members... the best thing is, you're doing the work yourself nowadays for the most part, which is the whole point of the site. People doing the work themselves and not needing this place as much as they progress. Come back as needed, if needed, but otherwise keep healing, keep working on yourself, what you define as your problems, and it all becomes self-regulation.
 
One of the very long standing members...
It really does seem like yesterday that I was a young, lost, angry 20-year-old easily wounded and ready to bite. Now I’m practically a senior citizen here. I didn’t think I would live this long. I wouldn’t have. I made it because the good people of this community were there for me even if I was hurt and snarling like an animal caught in barbed wire. I got the support I needed instead of the blind validation I wanted.
People doing the work themselves and not needing this place as much as they progress. Come back as needed, if needed, but otherwise keep healing, keep working on yourself
You are delusional beyond my comprehension if you think that my seeking help is the primary catalyst I found in this community for healing. The fact is that my greatest strides almost always came from my involvement responding to others. It is illuminating when you find yourself giving the support to others that you never afford yourself.

Mind your step: I’ve exposed my heart below.

Moreover, this space may not be rooted in the earth, but it’s still the closest thing I have to a home. All the better that I can carry it in my pocket.

And I am my own life’s work, yes, but this community lives in the foundation of my self. When I don’t need it, I want to check up and see if it might need me. It’s the sweetest and most abiding debt I could be privileged enough to owe.

Yesterday I was on the brink of panic without knowing why. Then I realized while driving to my meeting with a man I was to work for (helping veterans... I was smitten with the job) that I was being coerced and bullied by him and didn’t owe him anything, least of all so much room inside me where he was tearing me up. Before I went in to confront him about my feelings, I hoped for the best and prepared for the worst. When the worst scared me, I told myself to remember that I am Simon. The worst did happen—worse than I imagined. So I responded remembering who this place made me, calmly, with good faith and reason. He had no reproach, just embarrassed bluster. In short, I came and left with integrity, and I credit this community for teaching me how.


Now enough of my love letter to the forum... I trust everyone never to mention the bald sentimentality shown here. But I won’t erase it because maybe someone will see this and realize it’s worth anything they might spare. I’m utterly cash poor, but I can always be counted on for a wealth of words.

Right. So the forum now costs roughly $30/month—$1/day. I once had members offer to pay that much for my Internet in order to be here. Surely the whole of our membership can afford that for us all to be here.

I don’t have enough money to buy a pizza, but I have enough money to give a dollar every day I benefit from this resource. Surely there are others who feel the same. I owe the site my life. A dollar every day it’s still here for me is nothing by comparison.

Will anyone join me?
 
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