Re: Supporting Susan's PlaceThank you, Pema, for such a thoughtful post — and for taking the initiative to start this conversation. Your message captures perfectly what makes this community so special: people looking out for one another and stepping up when it matters most. I also deeply appreciate your monthly commitment and your efforts to find alternatives to PayPal after your experience with them. That kind of dedication truly helps keep Susan's Place alive.
Charlotte_Ringwood, I'm so glad you're already finding kindness and connection here. What you said — that this feels like a special place worth saving — means the world to me. That sense of belonging is exactly what I've worked to nurture for almost 30 years.
Quote from: Pema on November 09, 2025, 02:58:15 PMI don't use Paypal. I've had bad experiences with them in the past and, with considerable difficulty, closed my account there. What I'm doing instead is that I've made a donation and have also set up calendar reminders to do so again on the first of every month. It's not perfect, but it will get the job done. I'll keep looking for ways to automate it from my side.
What you describe here is incredibly thoughtful. Not everyone is in a position to use the same services, and the fact that you went out of your way to create your own system so you could still support the site means more than I can say.
To give everyone a quick update: I'm about two-thirds of the way through writing the new
SMF2Donations system. It's designed around a modular gateway structure. PayPal will be one of the options, but I'll also be adding others such as Stripe, Square, Patreon, Venmo, Ko-fi, and similar services.
Hopefully one of those will simplify your donation process, Pema.As I bring each of these modules online, the planned donation flow will be to show icons for each of the enabled payment providers. Then you will select the one you want to use, after which you will be given a custom donation form designed exclusively for that provider.
This is being designed from the ground up to be a secure, auditable, enterprise-level donation system. Once it is stable and in regular use on my own site, I plan to make it available free of charge to the wider community using the same forum software we are running here.
I'm also considering adding cryptocurrency support as an additional option. If I do that, anything received that way would be converted to cash immediately, rather than being left sitting vulnerable on an exchange, or in a wallet.
Below are a few screenshots of what's already working — the Import, Dashboard, Manual Entry, Transactions, and Goals sections. I want everyone to be able to see that progress is happening and that this is being built to last, not just patched together. I pixelated out member's personal information, and things such as transaction id's and aggregate totals.
My hope is that, as this all comes together, it will make it easier for anyone who wants to support the site to do so in whatever way works best and safest for them.
Thank you all again for the compassion, creativity, and resilience you bring to this community. Susan's Place has always been more than a website — it's a home we've built together, and I'm doing everything I can to keep that home standing for many years to come.
