Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player
(906)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
Note: My expenses have been fully met for SGDQ 2015 - see below for the list of donors, to whom I am indebted.
I am currently projecting the following expenses for my involvement at SGDQ 2015 (I am flying solo to SGDQ 2015 as my wife, assassyknitter, is staying home with the kids and I'm only going for 3 days so travel and general involvement costs are somewhat lower than AGDQ 2015):
Equipment / games purchases (projected): $50
SGDQ 2015 fee: $40
Airfare: $437
Accommodations: $406
Dining out / groceries (projected): $150
Total (projected): $1,083
I have endeavored to save up ahead of time and I am fully prepared to cover all of these costs personally but if you feel led to help offset these costs I will accept donations with much thanks via Bitcoin at 1CknXDyb5jTG1Nw1hs437r6fnz7npBSEfA (consider getting a free coinbase.com wallet) or through this PayPal donation link.
As before, I can offer donors their choice of any games on this games list which now includes some fresh 3DS games and other goodies and I will pass on 10%15% of any donations I receive as donations to Doctors Without Borders during SGDQ 2015. After the event I'll provide a full post-mortem to provide transparency of costs (the AGDQ 2015 post-mortem is here).
Donors I would like to thank include:
- MUGG, who donated $6 but opted to let others snatch free games - thanks for being the first donor!
- A $15 donation came in from a donor who wished to remain anonymous and snagged The Sims 3 - cool.
- Thanks to an anonymous donor for the $65 donation - no game incentive required even.
- A whopping $1,200 donation came in from a donor who wishes to remain anonymous; my wife and I would like to extend our sincerest thanks to you.
Thank you again to all who have supported my wife and I in the past and thanks for the continued support!
Considering that this is likely a recurring event, wouldn't it be easier to just make a Patreon account? Even if you don't meet the requirements per month, over the course of half a year you'd be likely to get enough funding to go to AGDQ and SGDQ every year.
I mean, it seems easier than getting bitcoints to pay with too. I don't have a wallet and I'm honestly not planning to get one. Plus, it takes over 220 dollars to get just one bitcoin now, I'd rather pay a dollar or 5 per month over the course of 4 years with that money.
And who knows what other fun stuff you can do at SGDQ with the extra money?
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player
(906)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
QuizmasterBos wrote:
Considering that this is likely a recurring event, wouldn't it be easier to just make a Patreon account? Even if you don't meet the requirements per month, over the course of half a year you'd be likely to get enough funding to go to AGDQ and SGDQ every year.
I had never actually heard of http://Patreon.com - thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into it and see if it's something that I would qualify for.
QuizmasterBos wrote:
I mean, it seems easier than getting bitcoints to pay with too. I don't have a wallet and I'm honestly not planning to get one. Plus, it takes over 220 dollars to get just one bitcoin now, I'd rather pay a dollar or 5 per month over the course of 4 years with that money.
Oh, you probably wouldn't buy an entire Bitcoin - with BitPay or Coinbase or the like you'd link it to a bank account just like you would with PayPal and then fund your account with whatever amount you wanted to (at a 1% or less fee depending on ywhat wallet provider you go with). When you make purchases with Bitcoin most vendors offer discounts (http://gyft.com offers a 3% cash back when paying with Bitcoin), so you actually end up better off than paying cash, but I digress. So yeah, if you definitely don't have to go all in and own an entire Bitcoin, they are divisible to the 8th decimal point for just this kind of thing. :)
QuizmasterBos wrote:
And who knows what other fun stuff you can do at SGDQ with the extra money?
Oh, I'd never use any funds I received as donations for anything other than strictly GDQ related activities, with the minor exception of perhaps eating out at a restaurant that is nearby something I'd go see (this happened at AGDQ where micro500 went with us to the Smithsonian and we ate at Pi restaurant in DC). You can see my transparency report from AGDQ 2015 to get a feel for what that looked like. Thanks for your comments!
I had never actually heard of http://Patreon.com - thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into it and see if it's something that I would qualify for.
I've seen people using it for just about every purpose, so I think you'll qualify for it.
dwangoAC wrote:
Oh, you probably wouldn't buy an entire Bitcoin - with BitPay or Coinbase or the like you'd link it to a bank account just like you would with PayPal and then fund your account with whatever amount you wanted to (at a 1% or less fee depending on ywhat wallet provider you go with). When you make purchases with Bitcoin most vendors offer discounts (http://gyft.com offers a 3% cash back when paying with Bitcoin), so you actually end up better off than paying cash, but I digress. So yeah, if you definitely don't have to go all in and own an entire Bitcoin, they are divisible to the 8th decimal point for just this kind of thing. :)
I'm more comfortable and well-versed with the standard types of currency, so I would want to know what I am getting into when I would end up buying some bitcoins. It's such a grey area that I don't know how it works at all.
dwangoAC wrote:
Oh, I'd never use any funds I received as donations for anything other than strictly GDQ related activities, with the minor exception of perhaps eating out at a restaurant that is nearby something I'd go see (this happened at AGDQ where micro500 went with us to the Smithsonian and we ate at Pi restaurant in DC). You can see my transparency report from AGDQ 2015 to get a feel for what that looked like. Thanks for your comments!
Oh, I wasn't suggesting you were going to use the money for those purposes. I just meant that extra funding could maybe mean even bigger things at SGDQ or AGDQ. I know making that TASblock happen costs money too and perhaps you might be able to use new bots or something like that for something exciting.
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player
(906)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
QuizmasterBos wrote:
Oh, I wasn't suggesting you were going to use the money for those purposes. I just meant that extra funding could maybe mean even bigger things at SGDQ or AGDQ. I know making that TASblock happen costs money too and perhaps you might be able to use new bots or something like that for something exciting.
Ah, I see! SGDQ 2014 is decidedly low-key but my hope is AGDQ 2016 will be as big as ever, and that will require a bit of hardware if I can get my idea to work out. I'll be sure to post updates as we get closer to that dream, though.
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player
(906)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
As noted, my own expenses have been met but endrift could use your help (endrift's expenses have also been met). I will gladly provide a game to anyone who donates to endrift and I will also match endrift in donating 15% of what I've been given to Doctors Without Borders because they are an awesome organization and it's just the right thing to do.
Glad to know that the bunch of you are able to go!
I wish I could, but as a temp I don't get paid if I don't work. I will be tuning in each night though!
Moderator, Senior Ambassador, Experienced player
(906)
Joined: 9/14/2008
Posts: 1014
I am very thankful to those who helped me get to SGDQ 2015. Here's a quick recap of my projected costs, as copied from the first post:
Equipment / games purchases (projected): $50
SGDQ 2015 fee: $40
Airfare: $437
Accommodations: $406
Dining out / groceries (projected): $150
Total (projected): $1,083
Here are my actual expenses:
Equipment / games purchases: $54.44 (Raspberry Pi 2 Model B+ used for Sonic Advance = $44.44, Ikaruga = $10)
AGDQ 2015 fexe: $40
Airfare: $437
Accommodations: $406
Parking / shuttle / tolls: $71.83
Dining out / groceries: $77.63
Subtotal: $1,086.90 (! - my initial guess was *very* close)
Giving: $255
Total: $1,341.90
I was able to capitalize on free breakfast at SGDQ 2015 to help keep food costs *way* down compared to my estimate (and those costs even include paying for meals for others on a couple of occasions). The food savings were entirely eaten up by parking, shuttle fees, and tolls that I didn't predict properly so it ended up being a wash. My wife and I did far better at giving at SGDQ 2015 in part because my wife was at home and was able to donate a few times. Full disclosure - $20 of the giving portion was to a random church I found that was doing a donation-based Sunday pot-luck at which I probably got $5 worth of food but it makes more sense to put that here (it was an interesting experience, feel free to ask me). Overall, I feel expenses worked out quite well for this trip and I'm happy with how everything turned out so close to what I expected.
If you have any questions at all please feel free to contact me. Again, my deepest appreciation goes to those who helped make this trip possible. You helped raise over $35k!
