Dear wonderful people, we need help.

We created TROM.tf 3 years ago and the aim was to provide trade-free services for everyone. A social network, a video platform with unlimited uploads, a file sharing platform with 10GB of storage and 20GB on request, a chat, and more. There are between 2 and 3 thousand users across these platforms and that's fantastic!

However to keep these platforms alive and up to date, plus add more, we need some financial help. And the kind we need is quite unique.

Listen,

We need 200 people to donate 5 Euros a month in order to support this project forever. That's all. Here - https://www.tromsite.com/donate/

Distributed power via small donations to make it sustainable. There are currently 80 people who are our backers, so we are 40% funded. If a small fraction (120 people) of the ones that get this email would support us, then we could make this sustainable.

But please don't ignore this message thinking that others will donate so why should you? The bystander effect is a real issue with these "call to action" approaches. Since there are others who are receiving this email, you may think that they will do something about it and that makes you, and me, and everyone else, less likely to act. And so, many people will not act, unfortunately.

We store over 2-3 TB of data, most of which are your files. We keep a server running 24/7 and make sure everything works well and it is secure. We need to pay for the servers, backups, and some food and basic necessities for at least 1 human in order to keep all of this alive.

You won't only support TROM.tf but the entire TROM Project and an upcoming video series.

Yon can donate here https://www.tromsite.com/donate/

Card, Paypal, and more options are available.

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You have received this email because you are one of the TROM.tf users. Hopefully this is the first and only email you will receive from us, but we desperately need some help now.

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Cheers,

Tio

Hey people,

We have changed the way we deal with the 200 FOR TROM campaign in terms of donations. Let me explain.

Ideally we wanted to have a simple donation campaign where people can only contribute 5 Euros a month - no more, no less. However pretty much no Wordpress plugin is designed for this, since they are all geared towards selling products or creating campaigns where people can donate any amount. But I wanted to try something new by limiting the amount of money that people can donate monthly. I want to distribute the burden we put on individuals, but also to limit the growth of TROM, as a project, to a manageable "height".

The plugin we were using was not reliable at all and I even had to pay for it (which is ironic since we do not get enough financial support from the campaign itself). Because it is important to accept a wide variety of payment options, and "cards plus Paypal" are the most used worldwide, this plugin tried to combine Stripe (cards) with Paypal into one single campaign. But the plugin stopped working with Paypal and then could not communicate with Stripe anymore, so when a donation was canceled the plugin had no idea.

In short, we could not count how many people are still actively subscribed to the campaign via this plugin, so I ended up having to check in TROM's Stripe and Paypal accounts to see how many are subscribed...and then manually add that number to our donation page. On top of that I cannot pay for the plugin's subscription and therefore I cannot receive updates - and having an outdated plugin that deals with payments is not a good idea.

OK.

These being said it is time to give up on this plugin and rely directly on Stripe and Paypal. If anyone wants to support us they will be redirected to any of these websites where they can complete the payment and manage their subscriptions via them. It is the safest, easiest, and direct way of doing this. If the Stripe integration with Paypal will be enabled in the following days then perhaps we will only use Stripe which can process pretty much any kind of payment, including Paypal.

I hate dealing with these things, trust me.

 

What will happen to your current subscription?

If you want to cancel it, please contact us or reply to this email. If you want to change the payment method then it is better to ask us to cancel your subscription and then you can do it again. After that you can manage it via Stripe/Paypal. It is simple.

What about the wall of donors?

I would really love to have a "wall of donors", a list of people who are actively supporting this campaign...maybe this is a nice way of thanking them publicly. But right now I do not know how to do that since we use both Stripe and Paypal, and some people do not want their names to be displayed publicly. If Stripe enables Paypal as a payment option then maybe I can do something about this. Sorry! But also...this is not a fashion show and we all understand that. We need some financial support to maintain our projects that are about serious global problems and ways to think differently about "fixing" them. TROM is not a project that tries to blend into this system and find financial support to be "sustainable" in that sense - it is a way to scream and harness the anger towards something positive/educational/informative and helpful. And for that we simply need some financial help.

Lastly.

A big thank you to Marcel who became the 80st donor for our campaign while I was writing this message. And I appreciate all of you very much! We are almost half way there, and that gives me some hope. We have a lot of plans for TROM, so let's see how things will evolve. We will keep you posted.

Ok, that's all. Thank you!

Tio

Hello dear people,

Let's keep it very brief.

 

Please help us pay for our yearly backups.

Every year we have to pay for a 4TB backup plan. This means, everything we have (from our documentaries and videos, to our books, or our websites) are all backed-up in a safe and encrypted place. This also includes our TROM.tf services, some 2TB of files, most of which are yours, the ones using TROM.tf. Your Nextcloud files, your Peertube videos, your encrypted Matrix conversations and so forth.

Thus, I ask you, to please consider helping us pay for this, since we are so low on money.

It only costs 300 Euros and we have to pay it in 2 weeks.

The campaign is here >>> https://www.tromsite.com/trom-backup/

 

This is a new newsletter system!

For the first time ever we are able to run our own newsletter system. In the beginning we've used MailChimp or other trade-based services, to then move to a Wordpress plugin solution that never worked well. This is the real deal and it makes everything so much better: from sending this newsletters to managing whatever lists we need. Therefore keep in mind that we are now sending the newsletters from https://newsletter.tromsite.com/

If you want to unsubscribe simply use the Unsubscribe button at the footer of this email.

 

A new video series in the making. We hope....

Starting the next month I plan to work on a new video series that should run indefinitely (I hope). It may take some time before I start to make and then post the videos, but I am convinced that I have to do this. I will give you more information once I am close to that moment.

I still feel like I have more energy in me to put up a fight, despite the fact that I do not get enough financial support to help me focus fully on TROM. I will have to spend more of my energy trying to trade and make some money in order to support myself and the project, and that kills me inside little by little. But this is a war for me, a war with this trade-based society. And I will get harmed, and I will have to give up on some projects if I cannot get enough support, but I will continue one way or another.

Much respect for those who are still interested in what we do at TROM and to those who can afford to support us.

 

Cheers,

Tio