Me and [URL="http://www.facepunch.com/members/285965"]MDave[/URL] have been doing some proof-of-concept testing of a hosted donations system.
Stemming from the fact that there is at least one job on [URL="http://coderhire.com/"]CoderHire[/URL] at all times requesting a donations system, we came up with the idea to set up a hosted donations service for server owners to use.
Server owners would be able register their servers and set up donation packages using a nice interface. Users would then log onto the service using Steam oAuth via a donation link or ingame screen to donate for a particular package. The service would then notify the server that a player has donated and carry out the actions for the donation package if that player is online. If they're not online, the server will check for pending donation actions when players join. There will also be the option for web callbacks to, for example, change a rank on a forum (this is an example of what could be done and will not be part of the service).
The service would have plugins for all of the major admin mods (like ULX, Evolve, Exsto, etc) and other scripts and gamemodes (TTT, DarkRP, PointShop, etc) and others could be added for custom functions. It would also support expiry for the packages.
As an example, when a player has donated for a particular package, they could be given a 'Donator' rank using ULX and given 200 PointShop points - all of this would be setup using a simple interface on the website and requires no server configuration (other than installing an addon), no MySQL configuration, no modules, no web server, no PayPal integration or IPN handling, and no hassle.
Payments would be made directly into the server owners PayPal account.
Obviously this would be a paid for service, and I was thinking $5 - $10 a month for unlimited servers/packages/donations/whatever, but only if any donations are taken in that month. If no donations are taken in a certain month, the subscription will be extended for another month free.
So my questions to Facepunch are:
Should we make this happen?
Is the pricing fair / what would you be willing to pay for such a service?
What plugins should be made or supported from the beginning, if we do this?
I think you're in for a rough ride if you do this, especially when dealing with chargebacks.
[QUOTE=thejjokerr;41485155]I'm pretty sure chargebacks call back to the IPN, so automatically handling that in the form of removing the items again or if the items arent there anymore banning the player should be possible.[/QUOTE]
I'm mainly referring to the drama that goes with it
[QUOTE=thejjokerr;41485116]It's a good idea, I had the same but never put myself to it. Though in my idea all money would go to a single paypal account(mine) to then allow users to withdraw to their own etc. this would stop the hastle of setting up the IPN link and raising limits on paypal.
How are you planning on letting people have this system work with their own paypal account without them having to fill in the ipn url? Or is that the only other thing they'd have to do?
The price seems fine to me, Servers with solid donation systems get loads of money anyways.[/QUOTE]
The problem with being a man-in-the-middle for payments like this is that you can get chargebacks and everybody loses out with more PayPal fees with the second transaction.
The IPN stuff is set by the site, the user doesn't need to set it up in their account. I've got it set up like this on CoderHire and it's working well.
Wow late.
[QUOTE=Banana Lord.;41485131]I think you're in for a rough ride if you do this, especially when dealing with chargebacks.[/QUOTE]
Agreed. You'd need to have a pretty complete system which sends a ban to the person on the server on chargeback, and also take the credit off the server owner. Eek.
Just to add to the IPN stuff, the code I'll be writing (copying from CH) handles refunds and chargebacks and would perform the appropriate actions on the server (depending on what the server owner configures it to do).
[QUOTE=Pantho;41485437][url]http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1282528[/url][/QUOTE]
That is self run and doesn't look to be being actively developed, this is hosted.
[QUOTE=_Undefined;41485663]That is self run and doesn't look to be being actively developed, this is hosted.[/QUOTE]
You're going to have a hard time with Paypal accepting this unless you can minimize loss, otherwise they'll shut this (and the entire account) down at even the first whiff of chargebacks, which are far too common in larger communities.
[editline]17th July 2013[/editline]
The other issue is demographics - ie buyers are supposed to be over 18 to use Paypal (not that they enforce this heavily, but again a problem).
There is no central account. Payments are directly into the server owners account which is the same as any other system.
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