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NWHikers.net





NWHikers.net
PostSat Jun 02, 2012 11:35 am 
Disclosure: NWHikers.net is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Wiki summmary last edited by Tom on Thu Oct 24, 2019 7:50 pm (this post can be edited by any member)
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Tom
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 3:21 pm 
Well you can rest assured it won't go to anti-access lobbying. hockeygrin.gif Personally I think it would be great if we had excess funds for anti-asshat lobbying. agree.gif

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grannyhiker
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 5:51 pm 
Is nwhikers.net set up as a 501(c)(3) organization? If so, it might be time, to avoid taxes.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.--E.Abbey
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markh752
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 6:29 pm 
Bernardo wrote:
Dayhike Mike wrote:
As far as where the money goes, who cares?
It makes a difference if an organization is run as a private business or a non-profit and it's not a bad idea to know where one's money (or rebate credit) goes (think anti-access lobbying, etc.).
I'm with Dayhike Mike! Considering I have not contributed one cent to the best hiking site out there, this is the best thing going. In my short year of watching the threads, I have seen multiple people around the nation ask where to find a similar site in their area(not the PNW). The research to my knowledge has drawn a blank. Although, those on this site have attempted to link others up with the best non local info they know of. The closest thing to this site is WTA(in my opinion) and that does not help others outside of WA. I rarely go to WTA due to the pop up's, unsolicited mail in my mailbox(why does REI give them my name?) and the lack of personal experience. WTA still has alot to offer. It has to be the second best hiking site out there. But in my opinion, it doesn't offer what this site offers! In the past I haven't bought anything through Amazon. But on the rare occasion that the business I work for does, I will purchase it through this site. I'm sure that whatever revenue generated by this site is miniscule to the hours that is put into unknown tasks to keep this great site operating at this level!

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Dayhike Mike
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 7:22 pm 
Bernardo wrote:
That said, if the site is going to collect money, how will the accounting be managed? Some other questions: Who owns the site and the content? Who decides how to spend the money that is raised? What is the budget? What about taxes? If some action/decision leads to higher revenues, will there be a tendency to respond to this incentive?
Now that I'm in front of a computer and have a physical keyboard, let me respond a little more completely and eloquently. The iPhone keyboard tends to render my responses a bit terse. I am fully behind the site putting up a link that generates revenue that would otherwise go only to Amazon. Being a free service, with hosting and bandwidth paid for out of pocket by Mike and Tom, I'm happy to see a way to give back, especially since it's not something annoying or tacky like pop ups or banner ads that detract from or clutter the site. I'm not concerned that things will change. The fact that they've been doing this without advertising, sponsorships, and/or any other of the multitude of revenue generating mechanisms for more than ten years speaks volumes to the fact that they don't want crap like that cluttering the site and detracting from the experience any more than you or I. Neither of them are in this for profit. It's all about the hiking and the community. Knowing Tom personally, I fully expect anything generated by the Amazon kickback will go straight into the site and / or benefits for the community. Looks like Tom's on the hook for the taxes. 501c3 status would be great, but I suspect that setting things up as a 501c3 would cost a pretty penny and be more of a headache than its worth. Anyone want to be on the Board of Directors? Attend regular board meetings? Have the concerns and liabilities and headaches that come along with being a formal organization? As I said before (and as Tom's mentioned), Amazon isn't like a lot of other retailers. They don't have agreements with Ebates.com or Fatwallet.com, so there's no way for individuals shopping there to get a share of the referral kickback that typically gets generated. This sort of link means that at least we'll have a way to give that referral kickback to someone that will ultimately benefit the hiking community as a whole. Re: my comment re: prominence and use -- people won't use it if they aren't thinking about it. Hell, I'm a freak about using eBates and Fatwallet and even I still forget to go over there to click on their links to get the 3%-6% kickback that I know I can get whenever I shop at REI, Backcountry, Altrec, etc. So I'm in favor of having the link somewhere that will help people remember that a click through will help the site. All that being said, I have no doubt that Tom will continue to work with it to figure out the best place to put it. Someplace that will be visible enough to encourage use, but not prominent enough to be tacky and annoying.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke "Ignorance is natural. Stupidity takes commitment." -Solomon Short
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markh752
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 7:30 pm 
Dayhike Mike wrote:
Looks like Tom's on the hook for the taxes. 501c3 status would be great, but I suspect that setting things up as a 501c3 would cost a pretty penny and be more of a headache than its worth.
up.gif I was going to mention the same thing, but I thought it would get lost in translation, since I'm not as poetic as yourself!

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Allison
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 8:06 pm 
501c3 is pretty easy actually.

www.allisonoutside.com follow me on Twitter! @AllisonLWoods
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Dayhike Mike
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 8:23 pm 
Aha! Finally noticed the "(a) Shop" link at the top of every page. That looks really nice -- unobtrusive and easy to find/use. up.gif (I'd seen the link on front / main page, but hadn't noticed this one til now.)

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke "Ignorance is natural. Stupidity takes commitment." -Solomon Short
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markh752
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 8:40 pm 
Any type of contributions to this site, IMO, are at the discretion of those that give of their time and their non monetary contributions. I wanted to give $100 for three calendars last year. Did I give any? No! Did I get any? Yes. I did find out the snow conditions of where I wanted to hike and I gained valuable insight on many subjects I might not have learned/been lead astray of by national publications. This is a user site, I hope it remains so. I believe that those in charge will leave it as such. Maybe this site will someday become a for-profit non-profit. I hope not. In the mean time, I am am slowly working toward the ability to post a TR(posting here disrupted my learning of how to post pics in TR's). The TR's are the heart and soul of this site, and with limited money and mostly voluntary time, this site has become a standard unmatched by any other! up.gif So, am I worried by an small Amazon link to support this site? Not one bit! Why? Just like everything else here, It's voluntary! party.gif

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Josh Journey
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 8:40 pm 
Looks fine to me. cool.gif Good work Tom. And why is this in the Saloon? This is more main site related. wink.gif

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zephyr
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 10:25 pm 
Flow wrote:
And why is this in the Saloon? This is more main site related. wink.gif
Because, grasshopper, it all began on Friday night when I was headed for the Saloon, reached for the door (button) and ended up through the looking glass into Amazon land. It was all about the Saloon at first and then morphed into this whole other thing. Ya gotta keep up. 'Course the buttons have changed around quite a bit since then. But you can take my word for it. ~z

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Oarboar
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PostSun Jun 03, 2012 11:01 pm 
Chainsaw_Willie wrote:
I buy music through Amazon pretty frequently. Not sure how much this website would get off a $0.99 song purchase or a $6.99 album purchase but I'll try to remember to do it through that link.
This. OK, I might buy something else once in a great while. But I bought some songs today through the link, even if I am mostly a lurker nowadays.

Sadly, right now I'm a poseur. Sigh.
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Bernardo
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PostMon Jun 04, 2012 2:17 pm 
Thank you Dayhike Mike for your thoughtful response. I appreciate your taking time to address all my questions.

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Dayhike Mike
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PostMon Jun 04, 2012 2:27 pm 
No worries, Bernardo. I realized that my short, terse response on my iPhone probably came off a bit gruff and wanted to elaborate. Your questions were fine, and I think your assessment of a "benevolent dictatorship" is probably correct. I just wanted to express that I think we're in pretty good hands here and not likely to veer off into the corporate mainstream weeds anytime soon. smile.gif

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke "Ignorance is natural. Stupidity takes commitment." -Solomon Short
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Daryl
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PostMon Jun 04, 2012 2:45 pm 
You're going to get rich from the Amazon purchases I make. If you see some "strange" items going through, they are most definitely not mine though!

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Bernardo
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PostMon Jun 04, 2012 2:47 pm 
Alles klar. See you on Mount Thomson.

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