News Happy SFF Month! Learn about SFFN's new Patreon page, new shirts, and a giveaway!

TL;DR: If you appreciate the work SFF Network does, consider supporting us on our new Patreon account! Also, we have cool limited edition 'Caliper & Ruler' shirts, you should check those out too.


A LETTER FROM THE SFF NETWORK TEAM:


Computex 2018 will be here sooner than you think, and we're incredibly excited to once again have a crew on the ground, asking the questions that are relevant to the SFF community. Last year was the first time we were able to attend the conference, and because of it we were able to create a bunch of news posts, a number of exclusives, and literally hundreds of caliper shots. This is not to mention the long string of in-depth reviews we were able to do as a result of reporting and relationships that originated on the show floor.

This is especially impressive given the fact that SFF Network is a fairly small (pun intended) team of hardworking folks, who commit many hours outside of their lives and day jobs to create and publish their work. These are enthusiasts who are passionate about small form factor systems, preaching the virtues of the SFF philosophy to the world through their craft. They’re you and me, in other words. But it takes resources alongside that passion to do what we do; equipment, event attendance, and much more goes into creating the content we make. And all of that gets expensive, fast.

We are eternally grateful for the support we've received to date, and I'd specifically like to call out those in the SFF Forum community who are already ongoing supporters. The monthly or annual subscriptions we provide on the forum are what pay the bills to keep the forum alive, and are also what allow us to avoid saturating the forum experience with advertising. It's clear, however, that we need to do for SFF Network what we've done for SFF Forum: find a way to provide just enough sustainable revenue to enable us to focus on making more content, and better content. It's also crucial for a good chunk of this revenue to come directly from readers, since it better obligates us to provide relevant content, and provides the team with a tangible barometer of community sentiment and support for our work.

To do that, we've created a Patreon page! I won't elaborate much on the tiers available beyond saying that, at certain levels of funding, we are able to commit to more content - from the return of the Low Volume podcast, to the introduction of build guides. We're even providing some swanky certifications and forum banners to all who pledge support, even at the $1 level, since contributions as low as a dollar a month really add up. If you've found value in the reporting and reviews we've done, consider kicking in to help us keep that work going.

Giveaway closed!


We're also launching a great giveaway, as thanks to our readership and community! To start, we've put aside a Geeek A30 chassis to send to a lucky community member, as reviewed here. Furthermore, we are also giving away a DREVO Tyrfing V2 mechanical keyboard, an ASRock AB350 Gaming-ITX/ac AM4 motherboard, and a Streacom FC8 Passively cooled ITX case as we hit the $100, $250 and $500 funding goals for our Patreon, which you can learn more about on our Patreon page. See the bottom paragraph on this post for a disclaimer regarding the giveaway. Just post in this thread to enter!

But wait, there's more! We've also released a limited edition run of 'Caliper & Ruler' t-shirts that you can check out here. We're only selling these during May (which we've dubbed 'SFF Month'), so be sure to grab one if you're interested. [Update: Note that the timer on the order page for all of our TeeSpring swag reflects when batches are commencing, rather than when availability for the product ends! The 'Caliper & Ruler' tees will be available for order throughout the month of May across many batches.]

Finally, if you'd like to learn more about supporting the forum specifically, you can do so here. In a sentence, we provide supporter tiers that bill monthly or annually, which provide some additional forum functionality and access to chat and other resources.

We don’t take asking for your support lightly, but we do it with an eye towards producing the right content for our community, in a sustainable and transparent way. Thanks to everyone - past, present and future - for your support!

– The SFFN Team

---

Giveaway is open worldwide, except where prohibited. No purchase is necessary to enter. Only the initial postage costs are covered by SFF Network, a brand of Minutiae LLC. Any customs and import charges are the responsibility of the winner. Entries close Midnight 30th May 2018 NZST and will be drawn using Random.org to select winners at random. No warranty of the chassis or included components is provided in any manner, expressed or implied. SFFn standard terms and conditions also apply.

UPDATE!!!

With the review of Noctua's Chromax updates, we are adding 5, yes five more prizes! Each prize is a single colour pack of Chromax cables - a combined pack of the Y splitters and extensions!

As an update to the draw, we will draw 6 winners in succession. First prize will remain the Geeek A30 chassis, with second thru sixth being Chromax cables. Each successive winner gets choice of colour - 2nd place gets first pick, 3rd place gets second pick, all the way to 6th place getting the last pack that is left!

Colours to choose:
Black
White
Yellow
Blue
Green
 
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Arboreal

King of Cable Management
Silver Supporter
Oct 11, 2015
805
803
That's a great T shirt design, very understated. I'll have to have a serious think about it.
Stupid question, how does the Patreon scheme fit in with the existing membership plan?
If it's a better way to get money to you, I'll move across.
*Givaways? Brilliant thanks!
 
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PlayfulPhoenix

Founder of SFF.N
Original poster
SFFLAB
Chimera Industries
Gold Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
1,052
1,990
Stupid question, how does the Patreon scheme fit in with the existing membership plan?

Not a stupid question at all! The forum subscriptions essentially cover costs for the forum, and these Patreon contributions would specifically help cover the SFFN newsroom's costs for their reporting and reviews. The latter, in particular, have goals that hold us accountable to what those resources would be used for. So it's a matter of what specific things you want to support, and how we allocate those resources.
 

annasoh323

Master of Cramming
Apr 4, 2018
424
314
To be frank, well, firstly, my name's not Frank. I've never really been a regular supporter of much of anything, especially one that fed my vanity. But this is different. It feeds my vanity and my productivity. Seeing as how I literally went through the SFFN archives and read all the articles that interested me, I feel compelled at least to give this a serious consideration. I also haven't been signed up here long enough to know the tiers of forum membership but I will give that a solid look as well. A compact SFF Month to all!
 
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Mortis Angelus

Airflow Optimizer
Jun 22, 2017
283
277
Not a stupid question at all! The forum subscriptions essentially cover costs for the forum, and these Patreon contributions would specifically help cover the SFFN newsroom's costs for their reporting and reviews. The latter, in particular, have goals that hold us accountable to what those resources would be used for. So it's a matter of what specific things you want to support, and how we allocate those resources.

Thanks for clarifying this. Was a bit unclear in the original post.

Also, updated first post to explain giveaway - you just need to post in this here thread to enter!

So I am now participating in the giveaway? :p


Anyways... It is nice to see this community grow. Hopefully it will eventually become a real mother-base for all that is SFF! Thanks admins, and keep up the good work!
 
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loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
660
568
Is it better to support on patreon than doing the bro/slvr/gld tiers here in this site? Like as far as patreon vs whatever y’all use on the tiers as far as charging any % for which way we support?
 

VegetableStu

Shrink Ray Wielder
Aug 18, 2016
1,949
2,619
yeah come to think of it: would there be a point there's be one terminal to fund both aspects? (although I'd understand if the current forum funding barely covers for running the server)
 

loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
660
568
yeah come to think of it: would there be a point there's be one terminal to fund both aspects? (although I'd understand if the current forum funding barely covers for running the server)
The only thing I could think of is if there is a percentage charge for using the payment services of the tiers system vs the patreon. Kind of why I was asking.
 

PlayfulPhoenix

Founder of SFF.N
Original poster
SFFLAB
Chimera Industries
Gold Supporter
Feb 22, 2015
1,052
1,990
So I am now participating in the giveaway? :p

Yup!

Is it better to support on patreon than doing the bro/slvr/gld tiers here in this site? Like as far as patreon vs whatever y’all use on the tiers as far as charging any % for which way we support?

Patreon takes a larger cut (we just have PayPal transaction fees for the forum since we own the platform), but the relative amounts that people contribute for SFF Forum and SFF Network are actually somewhat important because they tell us what the community attributes value to. So I'd say you should decide whether to contribute to either based on which you value more, rather than the cost to us.

In terms of fees, smaller contributions are more 'expensive' for us because there are fixed amounts baked into payment processing fees. $0.30 out of a $2/month bronze subscription (as an example) is an effective 15% fixed fee for us, whereas for $4/$8 subs it's only 7.5%/3.75%. So larger, fewer payments will net us more earnings than smaller, more frequent ones.
 

loader963

King of Cable Management
Jan 21, 2017
660
568
Thanks for clearing it up. Never really thought there was a difference between the two. I wouldn’t mind joining a tier for the network as well. But I’d like it more if the option was here on site so I could get another banner ;).

Edit: Banners so go this site. I thought it would be on the patreon site.
 
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