BenzoBuddies is now Accepting Donations

[[Co...]]

Hi all,

As you may have already noticed, we are now accepting donations.

BenzoBuddies opened very nearly 20 years ago, in all that time it has never requested donations (or accepted them when offered). Nor have we ever run adverts to generate income. But since we migrated to Invision last July, expenses have have risen dramatically.

For reliability, we now operate a fully hosted forum solution, with a much improved feature set. The previous software was virtually unusable on phones; whereas now, two-thirds of page impressions are via a mobile device. This means that we are reaching many more people in need.

Many years ago (15+, I guess), I developed a withdrawal spreadsheet to generate taper schedules for members, which I would then covert to HTML and attach to posts. It was a bit of a Heath Robinson / Rube Goldberg affair, too complicated, and was time consuming. But it worked. I am now developing alternative utilities to help members generate (and store) personalized taper plans based upon their own input parameters so that they can better plan and manage their tapers. This will take time and involve significant development costs.

The are now links on most forum pages to our PayPal donations page (credit and debit cards are also accepted). You can pay whatever sum you feel you can reasonably manage, and for it to be recurring if you wish. If now is not a good time for you consider making a donation (most of us have been there - I know I have), please do not feel under any obligation to donate. Perhaps, one day, when you are feeling better and are in a more settled situation, you might make a donation then.

Thank you.

[[An...]]

I clicked on the link and got this.

[[An...]]

Never mind, I see the link now on the side. It works. Thanks--

[[Co...]]

7 minutes ago, [[A...] said:

I clicked on the link and got this.

Yeah. There is a bug with the text editor here. I had lot of trouble getting the donation button to work. If I edit the block (or post), it breaks. It also occurs if I reopen post/block without saving any edits. It even occurs if I back out without resaving.

Text editors can introduce invisible artefacts to code, but this is ridiculous. It is a PITA.

Anyway, I tried something else - evidently, it did not work. I might try again in a while. There is a donate button om most of our pages anyway.

[[An...]]

Are you considering other options like CashApp?

[[Co...]]

Hi @[An...]

Genuine question: what's the barrier to using PayPal?

I will definitely investigate other payment options, but the problem with CashApp (and Zelle) is that they are US-based. As it happens, it might be possible to me to set up something using Zelle (but not CassApp). It would be phone-to-bank or bank-to-bank (but not to phone to phone).

Is there much call from US members to use Zelle (phone-to-bank / or bank-to-bank)?

[[pi...]]

12 minutes ago, [[C...] said:

Hi @[An...]

Genuine question: what's the barrier to using PayPal?

I will definitely investigate other payment options, but the problem with CashApp (and Zelle) is that they are US-based. As it happens, it might be possible to me to set up something using Zelle (but not CassApp). It would be phone-to-bank or bank-to-bank (but not to phone to phone).

Is there much call from US members to use Zelle (phone-to-bank / or bank-to-bank)?

I use Zelle a lot for my business, as well as personal use.

[[Co...]]

As I understand it, you can send money via Zelle using an email address or phone number associated with a (US) bank account. Is this correct?

[[st...]]

 

If benzobuddies contacted benzo makers, asking if they’d like to make a donation, two things might happen:

- They would know more about us and could not claim willful ignorance to the size and depth of the problem. Maybe they could even learn exactly what their drug does to people and try to correct it.

- Their profits would finally help those who their drugs have badly wronged. I and many others have been a vegetable for years, unable to work, loosing life savings, loosing time and many other things.

I think giving them that choice, to make a donation to benzobuddies, at the very least, would be a great moral experiment. If they do ignore the question, it would still say a great deal about them. I’m not being facetious at all, just think there needs to be a dialogue between us and them, instead of any tension, and this might be one way to start.

 

[[or...]]

@[Co...] my vote is still for PayPal. I take PayPal payments exclusively on my website and have yet to encounter anyone who doesn't have an account. And all of the merchants I visit online offer PayPal as a payment method. Zelle? CashAp? Nope. It's PayPal or a credit card they want. Just my 2 cents' worth. 

Katz

[[Co...]]

15 minutes ago, [[o...] said:

@[Co...] my vote is still for PayPal. I take PayPal payments exclusively on my website and have yet to encounter anyone who doesn't have an account. And all of the merchants I visit online offer PayPal as a payment method. Zelle? CashAp? Nope. It's PayPal or a credit card they want. Just my 2 cents' worth. 

Katz

Thank you for the feedback, @[or...].

[[Ti...]]

4 hours ago, [[C...] said:

As I understand it, you can send money via Zelle using an email address or phone number associated with a (US) bank account. Is this correct?

Yes, this is correct.