# Monetization facilities/infrastructure
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/monetization-facilities-infrastructure/57563
**Category:** Community Building
**Created:** [February 17, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/monetization-facilities-infrastructure/57563 "2017-02-17T19:08:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@JagWaugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JagWaugh)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2017, 7:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/monetization-facilities-infrastructure/57563/1 "2017-02-17T19:08:22Z")
[Joe’s Plugin](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-league-paid-group-access-pre-release/57558/1) got me thinking about monetization.
Our forum has always been “beerware”, on the old site we did have a vanity badge for people who contributed and a couple of features that were limited to paid members, but we won’t be moving away from the beerware model. So far the model has worked for us, and I’m sure that we aren’t the only discourse site in a similar situation.
We don’t want to put the site (or large parts of it) behind a paywall, but it would be nice if we had a way to prod non paying users to contribute, and offer something more than an ego badge.
So, what could we do to gently stimulate users, other than running a PBS “Bug em till they buy a coffee cup” campaign?
One way would be if we could throttle user activity, or trigger a “Hey there” based on if that user was in the group “Paid Members”.
If “max emails per day per user” were group based that would be a possibility.
Restricting PMs to only Mods and admins would be another.
A “Hey there…” popup every X posts would be another.
As far as I can tell there isn’t really all that much infrastructure in place for sites which are somewhere between completely open, and putting parts of the site behind a paywall.
(A PayPal contribution facility with badge assignment would be magic!)
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### Author:  [@erlend\_sh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/erlend_sh)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2017, 7:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/monetization-facilities-infrastructure/57563/2 "2017-02-17T19:38:10Z")
I would highly recommend using Patreon:
> [@Discourse Patreon](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-patreon-login/44366):
>
> discourse2Summary Discourse Patreon enables Patreon Social Login, and synchronization between Discourse Groups and Patreon rewards.open_bookInstall Guide This plugin is bundled with Discourse core. There is no need to install the plugin separately. Featureswarning Please note: Only members who have pledged to a tier membership will be synced to Discourse groups. [Free users](https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/16433886029325-How-free-memberships-can-help-grow-your-community#h_01HBCDSFXEGMFMV8JSEY89JNYD) and users under the [Free trial](https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/11044183172493-Free-Trials-FAQ) will not be synced to your Discourse groups. …
1. Patreon supporters get a nifty little badge + title
2. Ordinary users will see this every day, so there’s a constant reminder of donations being a thing, but it’s very non-intrusive.
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### Author:  [@JagWaugh](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JagWaugh)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2017, 7:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/monetization-facilities-infrastructure/57563/3 "2017-02-17T19:47:52Z")
Cough… That might not go over well with our user base… we had a few long term users leave when we migrated to Discourse because they saw the Facebook login and thought we were trying to drag them into the 21st century. Many who have contributed since the migration did so by snail mailing a cheque.
But thanks for the suggestion.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [February 17, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/monetization-facilities-infrastructure/57563/4 "2017-02-17T20:07:04Z")
> [@JagWaugh](#):
>
> A PayPal contribution facility with badge assignment would be magic!
Can’t you do this already, by adding people who PayPal you to a group?
This could presumably be automated a little more, and might be a good #Marketplace task. I suggest only giving the badge for (x) months after each contribution, or you could extend the badge duration based on the amount of the contribution or something.