Where do they go?At this time donations go to the Paypal account of
donate@gamersyndicate.com, an account owned by myself (Rikaelus). All donations are put into a savings account used only for purchases directly for or benefiting WDFNews.com. WTF is gamersyndicate.com, you ask? It's just a domain I registered long ago and I've since used for emailing and other game-related endeavors. Once I take over wdfnews.com I'll make a more proper looking donation address.
What are they used for?Right now the main objective is to save for a new server, upon which I'll be able to host multiple game instances for the community. To be absolutely clear, while the server will be primarily focused for serving games for WDFNews.com, it will still be owned by myself and used for little things on the side, but nothing resource intensive. Hosting games for the community will be its core and primary purpose. If that sounds fishy to you then just keep in mind that this is usually how these things work. WDFNews.com isn't a company or organization that can own the server itself. Could I snatch up your donations and run? Sure. But I won't. I'm not a dick. And if you suspect I am, well.... don't donate, then.
What do I get out of it?More prompt and practical than benefiting from the eventual new server, a donation of $5 USD will get you a reserved slot on the Tempest, and on future servers where reserved slots are possible, for the period of one month. Please note that I don't want to keep track of every persons' individual donation time when figuring out the month, so the reserved slot access will be from the 1st of one month to the 1st of the next month. If you donate on the 29th of a month I'll try to be nice and give you the slot for the whole of the next month, but I reserve the right to lose track of it when resetting the access on the following 1st. So to be guaranteed the biggest bang for your buck, donate on or shortly after the 1st.
When donating please be sure to provide your Steam nickname, and your Steam ID if it's the first time. That's the only way we'll be able to set up your reserved slot access.
What about PayPal's Take?It's true that sending money through PayPal has a cost, which is deducted from the transferred amount. Don't concern yourself with this. You will get credit for the amount you provided and I'll make sure that amount is what's added to our savings account.
Can I mail or wire money instead?Sure. If you're more comfortable with alternative methods, shoot me a PM and we'll work out any details.
Can you keep me updated on the savings account?Absolutely. I'll do my best to show all deposits/withdrawals from it below, along with where they came from/went to.
Balance - When - Why
$630 - Recent - Withdrawal, $260 to bragr to reimburse for Tempest expenses
$370 - 07/05/2011 - Current Balance as of this Posting
$470 - 07/09/2011 - Deposit, $100 worth of donations (thanks for starting it off with a bang!)
$520 - 08/01/2011 - Deposit, $50 donation
$570 - 01/20/2012 - Deposit, $50 donation
$1320 - 02/28/2012 - Deposit, $750 donation >_>