Lichess expenditures

Hi to all and to @thibault in particular,

I'm writing for a question about the running costs of the website.

I'm really grateful to the job Thibault has been doing and I've been contributing myself to the cause, so please keep up the good work!

While I was looking into the patreon page to contribute though I've noticed that there is no "balance sheet". There is a cost breakdown (docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CGgu-7aNxlZkjLl9l-OlL00fch06xp0Q7eCVDDakYEE/edit?usp=sharing) but it only shows what the practical running costs of lichess are and not how the money is actually spent.

How much money has been donated each month? What happens if not enough money is gathered? What happens if more money than necessary is gathered?

I am not writing this because I want to suspect that the money is not being spent well. I am *fully* confident that the money donated is all used for the website. However I think it's a required necessity for transparency, considering that now we have thousands of players and hundreds of Patrons who have the right to know in detail how their money has been spent.

Best,

Most months we don't make the donation goal, so thibault will go out of pocket those months. We've been fortunate the past couple of months as we've exceeded the minimum which has allowed us to expand our infrastructure and reimburse thibault.

Beyond that, lichess is still quite nascent in terms of being a 'business' (we're technically an association) with detailed expenditures.

Thanks for the reply !

Well yeah , we are far away from being an economic power but the problem will come up eventually !

I think for the moment it would be enough to have a simple window on the patron page showing how much is needed per month and how much has been actually collected. When the second value will start systematically and significantly exceeding the first , further modifications will be necessary (hopefully soon). I ju

Did piotor die in the middle of the sentence or what, lol?

Sorry but I had to fight against a lichess mod who came to whack me :D

I just...wanted to say that it's a matter of transparency and it will be needed sometime soon anyways.

As I said, it would be enough to have a monthly target shown and the monthly income as well. I also believe it would make people donate more to the cause if they see how much money is "missing".

Glad to hear you're okay @piotor ! :)