4chon needs donations to stay afloat. All donations are greatly appreciated and will only be used on 4chon. 4chon is a non-profit website and all staff remain unpaid. We are funded soley by user donations.
All donation enquiries should go to donations@tinyboard.org.
Postal Mail: Cash / Check / Money Order
You can post a donation via good old fashion postal mail to one of the addresses below.
4chon.netc/o Omega Software Dev. Group
PO Box 6703
San Jose, CA 95150
United States of America
You may donate by check, money order (see below) or cash by posting to our Australian address. This is the preferred address for donations as well as general enquiries.
Tinyboard Dev. GroupPO Box 5203
Mordialloc VIC 3195
Australia
If you're sending a check, make it payable to (or cash). Yes, I can receive foreign currency checks, but it's cheaper to send cash because my bank charges a $10 processing fee.
USPS International Money Orders cannot be cashed in Australia. Sorry for the inconvenience. If you want to send a USPS money order to our San Jose address, please contact us for the required details.
If you are going to send cash, ensure it is well-concealed (a single piece of paper will do fine). My bank charges a 1% currency conversion fee (with a minimum of $8.00 AUD). Because of this, you shouldn't send small cash donations with any currency other than USD or AUD. I receive USD regularly (not always for 4chon) and am able to go to the bank with larger amounts, thus making the fee less of a problem.
There haven't been any known cases of 4chon donations getting lost or stolen in transit as of yet. Despite what people might tell you, cash in the mail is a viable payment method and the success rate must be close to 100%. Plus, if you're posting to Australia with AUD, all fees are avoided.
If you're in the US and haven't posted an international letter before, just use 3 stamps (under $2.00).
Western Union Money Transfer
Contrary to what you might think, donating via Western Union is actually very easy, near-instant and anonymous. You can pay in cash (or credit/debit) and shouldn't have to provide ID. To donate via Western Union, go to your nearest Western Union Branch or Agent and grab a "Send Money" form (in some countries this is just a "Transaction Form"). Fill it out with the details below.
- Receiver's Name: Michael Foster
- Destination: Melbourne, Australia
- Receiver's telephone number (not necessary): +61.434846131
- Will the Receiver have valid ID?: Yes/no; it doesn't matter.
In some countries, such as Australia, you are required to enter a physical address (ie. not a P.O. box) for the receiver. If this is the case, make up a random genuine-sounding address and choose "no" for the question about the receiver having valid ID.
Once you have filled out the form, you'll receive a receipt with a 10-digit Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN). Send the following information via email to us so we can collect the donation:
- Your full name as you entered it on the form
- Your country
- Test question/answer if you provided one
- Receiver's address if you provided one
- Transaction MTCN
- Amount sent
Note that with Western Union you may incur a small transaction fee ranging from roughly $10 to $25. You can also send money online at Western Union's website.
MoneyGram
MoneyGram is a service very similar to Western Union. To donate via MoneyGram, visit your local MoneyGram agency and grab a "send form" and fill it out with the details below. You can also send money online using their website.
- Receiver's name: Michael Foster
- Test question-answer: Anything, but remember the answer so we can collect it.
Once completed, email us your MoneyGram reference number, full name (as completed on the form) and location (city/state/country) so we can collect your donation.
Transaction fees range from roughly $10 to $20.
Dwolla
Dwolla users can donate by sending money to account 812-670-9160.
Payza (formerly AlertPay)
Payza doesn't seem to work very well at the moment. This section may be updated later.
Skrill (formerly MoneyBookers)
To donate via Skrill, send donations to savetheinterpod@gmail.com.
Bitcoin — P2P Virtual Currency
Another way to donate is with Bitcoin, an anonymous, decentralised online currency. Real-life currencies can be exchanged for Bitcoins via a number of methods at Mt.Gox. For Australian donors, I recommend buying your Bitcoins with Omnicoins via a cash deposit at your local bank branch.
4chon's receiving address for donations is 1BHbY8QBxypNJgnqfSNeCWujr9x98XQ6rP.
PayPal
Please donate via the Tinyboard Development Group. Previous issues with PayPal have been resolved.
Debit / Credit Card
The following methods accept credit and debit cards as payment:
- PayPal (recommended)
- Flattr
- Skrill
- Western Union—online or in person
- MoneyGram—online or in person
Liberty Reserve
To donate via Liberty Reserve, send payments to account U1449192 (tinyboard).
Flattr — Social Micropayments
Flattr donations are 100% safe, anonymous and secure. You can add funds using your credit card, PayPal, and many other methods.
Bank Transfer / Cash Deposit
Donors may be able to make direct bank transfers, including international transfers, to an account in Australia or the United States. Contact us by email or IRC for more information. Due to heavy banking costs, we can't accept donations less than $50 AUD/USD via bank transfer.
Why does 4chon need donations?
The fact is that 4chon cannot survive on its own. Although 4chon's operating costs are nowhere near some other websites', it still isn't free. All together, 4chon needs to bring in just over $1,000 USD a year to stay afloat.
| Item/service | Cost (monthly) | Cost (yearly) | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated server | € 68.00 (~$86 USD) | € 816.00 (~$1,026 USD) | Leased from a datacenter in the Netherlands. |
| Domain names | - | $49.25 USD |
|
| SSL certificates | - | $30.00 USD | $10.00 x 3 |
| Total | ~$92.00 USD | ~$1,100.00 USD | Plus a little extra to pay for currency conversion fees, the PO box, etc. |
Our operating costs fluctuate regularly depending on exchange rates. The bulk of our money is held in AUD and spent in EUR and USD.
Is 4chon responsible with donations?
Despite occasional jokes made by us and others, we are. 4chon's donations are held in a seperate bank account just for 4chon. We'll never use your donations for anything else and we'll always ensure there's enough in the account at all times (at least $100 USD).
Can't the mods/admins pay for it?
4chon is a public service, funded by the community. Although STI and some of the mods do contribute, we don't believe we should pay for it all by ourselves.
Why don't you just put ads on 4chon?
- Ads are evil. Advertisement networks track you and would create a privacy issue for 4chon.
- I'm sure advertisers would have a problem with some of the content here.
- It won't pay well. A lot of users would block the ads with AdBlock (or something similar).
- Some people don't like 4chon and would attempt to get us kicked off the advertisement network (and they'd probably succeed).
- Advertisements are annoying.
- We made a promise to never put ads on 4chon back in January 2011.
I don't want 4chon to appear on my credit card statement. I want to donate anonymously.
If you donate via PayPal (with a card), "*TINYBOARD" will appear on your statement. Nonetheless, 4chon offers a range of anonymous donation methods. To ensure total anonymity, simply put some cash in an envelope and send it our way (read above).
Can I use an alternative donation method?
Maybe. Talk to us on IRC or send me an email.