We need your help!
We do NOT sell any of your information, monitor your conversations, nor do we bombard you with ads,
and as such we don't have a lot of money to go around. In order to deal with our ever-increasing hosting costs and
to help our development team, we have rely on supporters like you, and we need your help. If you
want to keep WLM, MSN, AIM, or Classic AOL running, then we need your support.
The NINA project (reviving AIM, AOL, and more) and Escargot (MSN Messenger and Windows Live)
are both big projects, and the programming aspect and documentation is a full time job. While
we love the work, it does, however, cost money to host the site, and the servers, not to
mention general cost of living.
We have various donation options available. They come with various rewards, including
early access to various projects.
Be sure to include your NINA/Escargot username, and/or Discord username, in your donation message for faster response.
Preferred methods
If you're interested in donating, please select an option below donate whatever you feel like.
Rewards
The reward structure varies depending on how you donate. For Patreon or Boosty-specific ones, which are more numerous,
come with cooler roles, and more benefits, see our Patreon or
Boosty pages.
Note: Boosty subscriptions result in the same benefits as Patreon.
The list below only applies to people who do one-time donations via all other services or methods.
- You may donate any amount, not just ones listed here there are no minimums or limits.
- All amounts are in USD.
- Amounts in other currencies are based upon the exchange rate at the time of donation.
- If you want Discord role benefits, or other service benefits, you will need to provide a note or message
with your Discord name or other contact information, otherwise we will not be able to know who the donor is.
| Amount |
Discord Role |
Details |
| < $2 |
None |
We appreciate any donation amount, it helps fund services |
| $2+ |
Early Access |
Access to AIM and ICQ; access to PowerTools (configureless file transfer, and more coming soon) ** |
| $5+ |
Gamma Supporter |
Access to Discord supporter channels *; Early Access to ICQ and PowerTools (coming soon) ** |
| $20+ |
Beta Supporter |
Beta, gamma, and access to Discord supporter channels *; Access to WebEscargot 2.0 ** |
| $25+ |
AOL Alpha |
Access to AOL for life ** |
| $50+ |
Alpha Supporter |
Alpha, beta, gamma and access to Discord supporter channels * |
| $100+ |
Sustainer |
All access *, ad-free service, optional 3 character name |
| $250+ |
The Assembly |
All access to all future services forever, ad-free service, optional 2 or 3 character name, special
Discord channel for new info, your ideas, feedback, and more
|
* Access only applies if you have a registered account with the given service, it does not include any
pay-to-play services which we may have.
** Services mentioned at this level are subject to change as the services come closer to general
availability. For example WebEscargot 2.0 is currently in beta, but will eventually be in gamma and then public.
If you want further details see the FAQ below or email donate@nina.chat.
FAQ
- Why is $2 the minimum donation for access?
- We used to provide early access for any donation, however we set a minimum after a rash of people
were donating 50 cents, 25 cents, 9 cents, and even a few donating 1 cent and then rudely demanding access to
everything. It's more insulting and suggestive that our work has no value than anything else.
- How long does a donation last? If I donate now, do I keep the rewards forever?
- There are no expirations on donations, once you've reached a reward tier (in table above), you
remain there forever -- though this does not apply to services which are "pay to play", unless
otherwise stated in the rewards table above.
- If I donate $25 today and $25 in two years, does that count as a $50 donation?
- Yes, you can donate more over time and join a new reward tier (in table above), however
if long enough exists between donations you may need to let us know so we can total up all of your
previous donations, this way you aren't missed.
- What is an "ad-free experience"?
- On services where we have ads, we will not display ads where possible. In some cases clients will show
ads regardless because there's no way to tell which user is requesting the ad service.
- Do you take hardware/VM/hosting donations?
- No, and not under any circumstances -- we don't even want them for free.
- Why don't you want my hardware/VM/hosting? It's great and I'm super trustworthy, I swear! You know me!
- That doesn't matter, after 30 years of online experience with hosting, something always goes wrong: people
don't keep their stuff up to date and it gets hacked, they don't pay their bills and it goes down disrupting
service, they get mad at someone and force it down, they share data that's on it for no reason other than just
because, they accidentally destroy the VM because they thought it was another one: I swear it won't happen again,
they were on vacation when the server went down so it took them a month to get it back up,... and so on, and so
on, and so on. We've heard it all, and don't ever want to hear it again. We'd just rather pay for it ourselves
and keep the service up, than have it go down for a really ridiculous reason that you claimed was never going to happen.
- My host is better, you should use this account or service.
- We've priced everything out and we structure everything with care, we don't do fly-by-night switchovers to new
servers nor would we subject users to that. Please stop suggesting it, either because the host is so cheap it's
unreliable garbage, or it's more expensive than you think it is compared to other things -- remember bandwidth
has costs as well, and we use a lot of it, it isn't just about a VM with a lot of RAM and CPU. We've
managed to keep the service more stable than it was previously by not making decisions based on VM price alone.
- If I donate or become a Patron, does that mean I still have to follow the rules and are expected to behave myself?
- Yes, and to patrons who withdraw their patronage and donors who ask for refunds for being muted or banned for constant
rule breaking on the Discord or forums are regarded by the community as petty and immature -- and very much unwelcome.
escargot