To be honest, I'm struggling to interpret this as anything other than a solicitation post for gifts to a for-profit business.
I'm all for small business, but I'm not entirely sure why the start-up capital needs to come from NT members' donations as opposed to a proper loan. This is an affiliate-driven, for-profit venture we're talking about, after all, not a charity.
We didn't ask our own members to finance our redesign and platform change, let alone members of other online communities. We only accepted user donations when our site was completely ad free and run at the expense of its founders. If tsbmen.com can secure financing via donations, more power to them, but I just don't see how we can host such a donation drive here on our forums.
Last I checked, this isn't Shark Tank and we're not talking about getting a cut of the proceeds in exchange for our investment.
This just seems like setting up a tip jar for your business on somebody else's counter.
NikeTalk plans to hold a holiday donation drive for Room to Read this year to help finance girls' scholarships and the construction of a new school or library. We hope it's even more successful than our fundraisers to contribute to disaster relief efforts in Haiti, Japan, and Somalia.
Will TSBmen pass around the collection plate for that on their site?
They're more than welcome to become sponsors like ISS if they wish. At the moment, however, it seems they're ASKING us for money, not offering it.
If you hang up a sign for Jay Z's new album in your window and ask all your friends to buy it, you aren't collaborating with Jay Z.
I'm glad there are fans of both sites on here, but right now the proposition seems pretty one-sided. Perhaps that can change.
The ISS sponsorship helps us pay the bills around here and will result in a portion of their sales going to charity. Whatever you think of that site's former owner, the current owners have committed to giving back in a way we hope will raise the bar for their competitors - and for all prospective sponsors. We expect the ISS sponsorship to drive thousands of dollars to charity this year, and I certainly think that's > most.
Charity > TSB
Sure thats how NT feels
In general, donating to charity > donating to private, for-profit business.
We received a gracious message from TSBMen.com's founder and I think they may be more interested in simply getting user feedback regarding the concept than donations. If that's the case, we could consider permitting a thread for THAT purpose rather than a fundraiser, but I'd only consider doing so if that's something that OUR community is interested in.
If we can turn this into a win/win, great - but I don't define a win/win as "ksteezy wins and tsbmen wins."
I don't see ninjahood going into sneaker stores and promising to deliver NT's support to ingratiate himself with management. Honestly, I can't help feeling a bit used.
Obviously ksteezy didn't have our permission to set this up and I get the sense that he didn't have TSBMen's permission, either. It was well intended, I'm sure, but it's quite an imposition and, by definition, any mass solicitation of this nature would violate our community rules prohibiting spam.
Perhaps this can be retooled in a way that makes sense. If not, I wish TSB success in their fundraising efforts and simply ask that their loyal fans remain respectful of our community and its policies.
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