[HCoop-Help] Commercial Site for Others / Non-member

[Davor Ocelic]

On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:55:19 +0100
Michal <michalcharemza at gmail.com> wrote:

> > If the answer to these questions are both yes, then there is no issue with
> > you hosting these websites under your account, even if you are charging the
> > customer for creating or hosting the website.
> Great!
> 
> > You may but are in no way
> > obligated to pledge more.
> I will consider it. It wouldn't seem fair to me that the business (and
> so me, indirectly) would be making money from a non-profit
> organization, without giving any money to it.

In the past, we used a fee approach where we start with a total monthly
expense and divide it by the number of members (and later pledges)
to get a  per-month/per-person fee. This was leading to fees that 
were IIRC in the $2.41 to $7 range per month.

Some time ago we have fixed the basic pledge at $5. It means that
after the colocation costs and the minimal costs of running a non-profit
are covered, new members or extra pledges put us in a position where we
can accumulate a "reserve" and use it for expanding our services
(through new hardware, colocation plans etc.).

So, knowing the above, pledging more does help HCoop's prosperity, and may
as well make you feel you're getting just the right deal with HCoop, without
hitting either end of the spectrum (paying too much, or unconsideratively
"abusing" HCoop's services).

But, it is in no way mandatory to pledge more. Personally, I like to view
HCoop as an organization that is delighting its members base. So, as long
as you're paying the minimal $5 monthly fee to keep things running and you're
not "reselling" the services, it is completely up to you to decide what
constitutes "fairness", how you want to use HCoop, and how much you want to
pledge for it, without judgement from any HCoop official or member.

Cya,
-doc