Anonymous donations?

[Gengulphus]

I notice that the list of people who have recently donated to TLF (near the top of many pages, including the home page) currently includes "Anonymous". But the page on which one can make a donation doesn't have an option to make one's donation anonymous. And there isn't a registered user named "Anonymous" (somewhat laboriously determined by clicking on the "Members" link and then searching each of the 11 pages of user names starting with "A" for "Anonymous"). I can think of a couple of ways one might make an anonymous donation consistent with that that require admin (or possibly moderator) action, but requiring such action when someone wants to make an anonymous donation seems a bit unnecessary...

So I'm left wondering whether there is some other way to make a donation that does include the option to make it anonymous. By the way, I'm talking about making a donation that is anonymous as far as other ordinary users are concerned - I do see reasons why the admins might not want to accept funds whose source they don't know, so I wouldn't expect any donations to be anonymous as far as they are concerned.

Gengulphus

[Lootman]

I notice that the list of people who have recently donated to TLF (near the top of many pages, including the home page) currently includes "Anonymous". But the page on which one can make a donation doesn't have an option to make one's donation anonymous. And there isn't a registered user named "Anonymous" (somewhat laboriously determined by clicking on the "Members" link and then searching each of the 11 pages of user names starting with "A" for "Anonymous"). I can think of a couple of ways one might make an anonymous donation consistent with that that require admin (or possibly moderator) action, but requiring such action when someone wants to make an anonymous donation seems a bit unnecessary...

So I'm left wondering whether there is some other way to make a donation that does include the option to make it anonymous. By the way, I'm talking about making a donation that is anonymous as far as other ordinary users are concerned - I do see reasons why the admins might not want to accept funds whose source they don't know, so I wouldn't expect any donations to be anonymous as far as they are concerned.

You can sort members by their TLF name within a letter. By sorting "A" lemons in that way you don't have to trawl through all 11 pages. You can guestimate where "n" would appear within those 11 pages and cut down your search time and number of clicks.

When I clicked through the donation feature it invited me to pay by PayPal. That service does not require you to use your real name. The recipient will see the email address that you registered with PayPal but of course that can be anything, and not necessarily the email that TLF has for you.

Obviously TLF will know your member name we well, otherwise ads could not be switched off for you. But your real identity will not be revealed that way, and so you would still be anonymous. Why TLF actually lists you as that is something I do not know, however, unless it has to do with not recognising the email you used as I suggested above. But my point is that i do not believe that TLF needs to refuse a donation just because TLF doesn't know who you are. The vast majority of Lemons do not use their real names or other identifiable information here, but that should not prevent a donation for any reason I can think of. After all, you can send a postal order or even cash to a charity and I'm fairly sure they will accept it.

[Gengulphus]

You can sort members by their TLF name within a letter. ...

Thank you - an option I missed.

When I clicked through the donation feature it invited me to pay by PayPal. That service does not require you to use your real name. The recipient will see the email address that you registered with PayPal but of course that can be anything, and not necessarily the email that TLF has for you.

Obviously TLF will know your member name we well, otherwise ads could not be switched off for you. But your real identity will not be revealed that way, and so you would still be anonymous. Why TLF actually lists you as that is something I do not know, however, unless it has to do with not recognising the email you used as I suggested above. But my point is that i do not believe that TLF needs to refuse a donation just because TLF doesn't know who you are. The vast majority of Lemons do not use their real names or other identifiable information here, but that should not prevent a donation for any reason I can think of. After all, you can send a postal order or even cash to a charity and I'm fairly sure they will accept it.

In case you or anyone else didn't notice, I didn't actually say whether I would like anonymity myself (and I will continue not to say - my own feelings on the matter are simply not a subject I wish to discuss). I happened to notice the donation by "Anonymous", was curious as to how it was done, and so asked the question I did. And the answer to that question should be of interest to anyone who doesn't want to broadcast what they financially support - not even to the extent of associating their support with their user name, no matter how anonymous a user name is capable of being. If someone feels that way and decides not to donate, whether you or I agree with their reasons or not doesn't make the slightest difference to the fact that TLF misses out on some available financing...

Gengulphus

[gryffron]

I've noticed Anonymous donations before.

You can donate when not logged in. The donate link is still there. Is that an error? I haven't followed it through to actually making a payment, but my guess is that shows as "Anonymous". But, the user won't get the benefits if they do this.

Of course, this might be an error. If anyone has accidentally donated anonymously and thus not received the benefits to their account they were expecting, please message stooz. He can easily trace you from amount, date, CC, email, etc and apply the benefits to your account.

If it was intentional, that's just fine. We thank you for your contribution.

Mind you, that still leaves Gengulphus' suggestion of allowing someone to donate anonymously and yet still receive the account upgrade benefits. I'll message stooz and suggest it.

Gryff

[Lootman]

I've noticed Anonymous donations before.

You can donate when not logged in. The donate link is still there. Is that an error? I haven't followed it through to actually making a payment, but my guess is that shows as "Anonymous". But, the user won't get the benefits if they do this.

Of course, this might be an error. If anyone has accidentally donated anonymously and thus not received the benefits to their account they were expecting, please message stooz. He can easily trace you from amount, date, CC, email, etc and apply the benefits to your account.

It was my understanding that using PayPal as an intermediary means that the recipient of the payment does not know the credit card or bank account number that the funds were sent from. Rather PayPal acts as an intermediary, thereby protecting your identity and the digits of your funding account.

You can also set up a PayPal account with a completely fictitious name. This makes PayPal an effective tool for making anonymous payments, which makes sense as you may not always know who you are dealing with.

However even if you use a different email for PayPal as you do for TLF, the amount and date and time stamp should be sufficient for stooz to match your contribution to your TLF name, if desired in cases where you donated whilst not signed in.

I guess the word "Anonymous" here is ambiguous. It can mean that your real-life identity is not known or that your TLF account name is not known.

[bionichamster]

The Anonymous donation was possibly mine.

I clicked on the donate feature after reading some posts on the boards and somehow failed to notice that I wasn't logged in to TLF, hence the system didn't know who I was but gratefully took my donation anyway. I have contacted Clariman and Stooz and I'm sure it will get sorted eventually so that I stop seeing the ads. They never really bother me on the computer but on the phone they eat half the screen.

Must pay more attention... although glad to know I'm probably not the only person to have done it....

Bh

[PinkDalek]

I notice that the list of people who have recently donated to TLF (near the top of many pages, including the home page) currently includes "Anonymous". But the page on which one can make a donation doesn't have an option to make one's donation anonymous. ...

If donating by card, it does include the narrative Write a note (optional). I've no idea what options appear once one goes via Donate with PayPal.

Maybe stooz can read the optional narrative and will include whatever one asks, within reason. Presumably it helps also to include one's username, such that the many benefits of donating are registered against one's account. I can't otherwise see how one alerts stooz to the donor's name or on whose behalf the donation is made, especially if one uses an email address that isn't the one used on registering at TLF.

Perhaps the Make a Donation to The Lemon Fool page could make the entire procedure clearer.

Edit:

Mind you, that still leaves Gengulphus' suggestion of allowing someone to donate anonymously and yet still receive the account upgrade benefits. I'll message stooz and suggest it.

Did you get a reply?

[stooz]

I've noticed Anonymous donations before.

You can donate when not logged in. The donate link is still there. Is that an error? I haven't followed it through to actually making a payment, but my guess is that shows as "Anonymous". But, the user won't get the benefits if they do this.

Gryff

This.its for guests (not logged in)

[bionichamster]

This.its for guests (not logged in)

Hi stooz I contacted Clariman about my donation while logged out and he forwarded to you. I have tried to send you two pm’s with the transaction details but they seem to be stuck in my outbox rather than sent messages so I assume you haven’t received them.

Bh

[Clariman]

This.its for guests (not logged in)

Hi stooz I contacted Clariman about my donation while logged out and he forwarded to you. I have tried to send you two pm’s with the transaction details but they seem to be stuck in my outbox rather than sent messages so I assume you haven’t received them.

Bh

That's strange I've just checked mine to Stooz and they are also in my outbox. I have sent him an SMS.

[bionichamster]

This.its for guests (not logged in)

Hi stooz I contacted Clariman about my donation while logged out and he forwarded to you. I have tried to send you two pm’s with the transaction details but they seem to be stuck in my outbox rather than sent messages so I assume you haven’t received them.

Bh

That's strange I've just checked mine to Stooz and they are also in my outbox. I have sent him an SMS.

Thanks Clariman, I can’t work out how to shift them, don’t often use pm’s so wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong.
Bh

[staffordian]

...I can’t work out how to shift them, don’t often use pm’s so wasn’t sure if I was doing something wrong.
Bh

You can't move a PM from your outbox; it sits there once sent and only moves to sent messages once the recipient has opened it.