A Fundraising Idea

[Artim]

I don't know how much hassle this might be, but I was thinking:

To raise funds to further support the project, maybe y'all could sell @linuxliteos.com e-mail addresses to fanboys (and fangirls) like me!  Even if they were just forwarding aliases, it would be a cool fun way to promote Linux Lite and raise money for the project.

They did this at another site to help pay for their huge repository of cue sheets and dance videos for folk dancers and instructors.  It was just a forwarding alias rather than a full-service IMAP or POP / SMTP service, but it still raised a bunch of money for them.  And it's more pleasant than "would you like to date me" ads like the ones that appear here.  I don't use AdBlocker on this site because I know the ads help financially, but it's supposed to be a family-friendly forum and those ads kinda border on "not so family friendly" and may be a turn-off to parents of kids using LL.

Just a random idea from a random boy, but I hope you'll consider it.

[Valtam]

How much would they sell for? What is the structure? Yearly, one off?

[Artim]

I think people paid $20-$30 a year just for a "dance.com" address (fictitious name), and it was just a forwarding service that forwarded to their exisiting email address.  I have no idea how they set it up, but it raised a lot of money for the non-profit educational organization.  Maybe others do the same.  You already have the domain name so maybe all it would take is a forwarding service from your webhosting provider.  I would gladly pay $30 or more per year for an @linuxliteos.com address, even as a starving college student, just to help support it and spread the word about Linux Lite.

Ralphy could probably answer your questions better than I do, since he too has a domain name and his own email server.

[ralphy]

For me it is a tough call. I manage over 2000 mailboxes for 19 domains. Email services is one of the most maintenance-intensive services one can run (if we expect to run it ourselves). When the service is kept in a single box things are a easier to manage (yet time consuming); as soon as the mail services need to escalate that's a full time job for at least one administrator... infrastructure, maintenance, etc. What's the target audience? How many people are willing to support linuxlite in that regard? The list goes on as we dive deeper into having a reliable service for users. A forwarding service is "OK" if all the user expects is to receive emails forwarded from an @linuxliteos.com alias but even then it has consequences. For example, some users may attempt to replay to messages "forging" the @linuxleos.com address and it will (and should) fail otherwise our domain name may land in blacklists pretty quick. Ordinary users do not tend to be educated in how mail services work and they may end up more confused than anything, perhaps thinking that their email provider has problems delivering emails when in fact t is a feature in place to prevent abuse. Properly configured domains use DNS records to specify which servers are allowed to send emails on their behalf. SPF, DKIM, DMARC, filtering and so on... all plays an important roll in email delivery. Let's assume that we create accounts and some users accounts get compromised... linuxliteos.com domain name gets blacklisted and we end up not even being able to deliver forum notifications to users mailboxes; not pretty.

I don't like to sound negative but I wouldn't do it.

Those willing to support what we do can donate to the project, purchase a USB or some other product from the store or send us a coffee every now and then. Linux Lite domain should not be used for anything other than the project in itself.

[torreydale]

I agree with [member=6629]ralphy[/member].

[Artim]

No problem, just a suggestion from someone who has seen it done before, but has no idea of what the suggestion entails.  Thanks for responding so quickly, Ralphy!

[bluzeo]

here an idea. do an twitch and play open source games?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[Valtam]

Based on the advice in this thread, I'm reluctant to go ahead with this. I do thank you for the suggestion though, that's what we need more of

[bluzeo]

jerry. twitch would be easier shoot youtube do the same affect.  the watchers can tip and donate on the platform easy. supertux is an gem of an game

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[newtusmaximus]

How about putting a crowd source  funding proposal together. set objectives, marketing strategy "Mutual" type enterprise.?  Implications worldwide especially developing countries.  FWIW

The LL acorn has grown so far into a fine sapling and now needs momentum to grow??