Last night, I published a Patreon page for FUMBBL that I've been sitting on for a while. I've been accepting donations through PayPal for a long time (and this isn't being removed), and ended up setting up the Patreon account for two reasons:

1. People have been asking for alternatives to PayPal. Patreon is a reasonable alternative for those of you who wish to support the site, but refuse to use PayPal.

2. Consistency in terms of donations made to the site. The PayPal donation system works, but it's very hard for me to know if the costs are covered for a month or not. With Patreon, I will have a better idea of the amount on a month-to-month basis.

The way I've set up the Patreon page is similarly low-key to the PayPal donations. Basically, the only reward currently set up is a supporter badge (which I will have to figure out how to deal with; connecting Patreon accounts to FUMBBL accounts somehow). There are a bunch of arbitrarily chosen tiers (set up as the SPP limits for skills in BB), and there's an option to support the site with a custom amount for those who wish to do so.

So why am I looking for support this way rather than setting up ads on the webpage? Basically, it comes down to the current ad systems being completely unacceptable to me:

- They're obnoxious with auto-play audio and video, full-page takeovers, and all sorts of flashing and blinking to call your attention to them.
- They're insecure; there have been plenty of cases where ads have contained malware that have infected viewers' machines.
- They're tracking you; I'm sure you've noticed how looking at some product page instantly affects the ads you see everywhere. This is a direct consequence of ad networks tracking your behaviour to get you to buy things.
- They slow down page loads. Computers and networks are orders of magnitude today than they were only a few years ago. And yet, page loading times are becoming slower and slower. Your computer has to work extremely hard to render the (often buggy) ads on pages. Pages in general contain dozens of requests to get ad-content (and tracking information).

As a web user and web site owner, I don't want to buy into this nonsense. I want my site to be free of this, and not be in a situation where I need to post things on the site telling you all how some random product is going to improve your life.

However, there's no denying that FUMBBL costs money to run. Compared to enterprise setups, FUMBBL is incredibly cheap but it still adds up without any source of income. Power, bandwidth, off-site backup storage, certificates (SSL, code signing), mail server hosting, domains, DNS hosting, outgoing mail. These are all things that generate direct monthly costs. On top of this, hardware updates for ageing components and licenses for software I use to develop and maintain the site.

On an aggregate level, the monthly running costs sit at around $150 to $200 per month (and yes, I have looked at cloud based setups; those are significantly more expensive). That doesn't include hardware replacements and development tools, nor the caffeine needed to keep me running ;)

Normally, PayPal donations have covered at least a majority of the running costs (largely due to coach-initiated donation drives) with donation drives covering expensive hardware replacements. This is something I'm extremely grateful for and it's always incredible to see the level of support that you as a community provide. Without this support, FUMBBL simply wouldn't exist today.

So what's the point of this blog post? Mostly, it's a way to let people know that I've set up the Patreon account that a few of you have asked for, but also as a way for you to know what I actually do with the money that is donated. Also, I want to take the opportunity to extend a huge huge thank you to all of those who have donated in the past and is thinking of supporting the site going forward.

Thank you!

PS. You can find a link to the Patreon page hidden behind a click of the "Support FUMBBL" icon on the top right of the page.