I know - rather than recall - that I never said DGG would always be free. I stated everywhere from the beginning (when I first put it on fantasyracingcheatsheet.com) that you were not required to have a paid subscription to my site to play the game. There is still an always free FAN subscription to FRCS.pro
During COVID - my contract work ended and I made the decision to try to bring in my share of income into the household through FRCS and DGG.
The last 2 years that I asked for donations....1.5% of the players helped by donating through the PayPal donation button I put at the top of the site. Each of those players were credited as already paid for this 2023 season.
I was not going to bring DGG back this season. It is too much expense in time/work and expense (server, email reminders) to justify me continuing to do it. My wife can only support us for so long before I lose my feeling of manly worthiness.
My logic on the 'donation' is that I don't want to limit people from giving more by setting a fixed amount. I wanted people to have the freedom to extend their generosity if they wanted to. All of the notes with the donations those 2 years (and many this year) have been filled with 'Thanks for doing this!' and 'We appreciate you'.
When I was talked into doing the game this year (in October of 2022) and advised with a payment aspect I said - "There is no way I feel comfortable charging for the game with the issues that I know it has. It is not as user-friendly as it needs to be."
Over 50% of the players use their phone to make picks. So, in my classic ADHD mode I started re-coding day and night. Literally 10-12 hours a day - 7 days a week. When I'm in that zone there is no Monday or Friday or Sunday. All days are the same for me. I'm not asking for praise on that commitment. I thrive and was having the time of my life doing it. When it was time to go to bed - all I could think about was that I couldn't wait to get up the next day and work on it more.
I feel like the site is close to my vision. I wish I could continue to code it to completion of the 'vison' I have for it. That is why I beg (to no avail) for people to read the FAQs and not be so quick to email me. Since opening the game I am bombarded with emails that have answers in the FAQS or in front of your face if you'd take the time to look.
In regards to the terminology of 'donation' (besides what I wrote above) - as a salesman, my kids would be skinny and have worn out shoes. I freely give and hate to ask and receive. PayPal makes it super easy to create a 'donation' button. Coding a 'shopping cart' button to handle secure transactions is not in my comfort level of programming. So, because of time constraints, not wanting to limit the amount and my own timidness in 'sales' I went with the donation button and phrasing. Even to opting for the 'timid' word "requesting" as opposed to what I've now be required to put (for clarification) "requiring".
Remember when Apps started to come out on our phones? We were all like, "hell no, I'm not paying $4.99 for an app!" Which is really rather ridiculous when we all have different variations of what was spoken so elegantly above by someone (sorry I didn't look who it is - but Thank You) let a 12-pack of beer get frozen in the back of our trucks and don't cry a river and bitch about it for weeks.
@Dawg (Don) you praised me so highly against the haters a few years ago I told you I was going to print that your email and put it on my whiteboard so I could read it when people got me down. Now....I think you have the classic old-and-retired-so-now-im-going-to-write-a-strongly-worded-letter-to-everyone-that-offends-me syndrome. I didn't even know you subscribed to FRCS nor that you were doing it solely to support me in my DGG efforts. I'll refund you all the money you've spent - er, actually you described it as a donation didn't you? Make up your mind - oh and fuck you!
