Contributor Payment
DRAFT
In August 2024, bg3.wiki decided to begin serving ads. Part of the justification was that all significant contributors up to that point would be offered a share.
To apply for your share, please read the following Terms of Agreement and then proceed to the application form below.
Terms of Agreement
By submitting the Payment Application form linked below, you agree to the following terms.
This is an agreement between you and the owner of the website bg3.wiki, WikiWiz UG (haftungsbeschränkt), hereby referred to as WikiWiz.
Re-licensing of past contributions
You agree to the re-licensing of all your past contributions to bg3.wiki under the dual-licensing model CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 + CC BY-SA 4.0 as explained in Copyrights.
This means the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license on contributions remains in effect. In addition, your contributions may also become available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
Payment amount
WikiWiz will pay you an amount depending on the ad revenue of the website bg3.wiki and the significance of your contributions to bg3.wiki.
Depending on the significance of your contributions, as judged by WikiWiz, you will be allocated to one of several Brackets. Members of each Bracket are entitled to a certain portion of the ad revenue generated from the display of advertisement on bg3.wiki during the months from August 2024 up to and including November 2026. The portion you are entitled to is calculated as follows.
At the end of each month, a flat sum of 6,000 EUR is deducted from ad revenue of that month, to be put aside for business expenses. The remainder is added to a shared pool, referred to as the Surplus Revenue. Depending on which Bracket you fall into, you will be entitled to a certain percentage of this Surplus Revenue.
The percentage you are entitled to will be notified to you per email after you submit your Payment Application. Should you be unhappy with your share, see Cancellation.
Payment conditions
WikiWiz will grant you payouts from the aforementioned Surplus Revenue twice per year, beginning in 2025.
Invoices addressed from you to WikiWiz will be created on your behalf by WikiWiz every December and June. The first invoice will be created in December 2024, representing your share of the Surplus Revenue that has accumulated from the months up to and including November 2024.
Each subsequent invoice will represent your share of the Surplus Revenue that has accumulated over the subsequent 6-month period. For example, the June 2025 invoice will represent the sum of your shares from the months December 2024 up to and including May 2025. The last invoice will be created in December 2026.
If your Payment Application is not filed at least 14 days before the end of a month in which an invoice would be created, then WikiWiz will instead create that invoice within 60 days after the filing of your Application. For example, if you submit the Payment Application on January 10, 2025, then the invoice you would have received in December 2024 will instead be created no later than March 11, 2025.
Invoices will be paid within 60 days after the creation of the invoice. During each payment, WikiWiz may deduct an amount to cover part or all of the transfer fees.
Cancellation
You have a right to cancel this Agreement before receiving your first payment, but not after that. However, if you already receive your first payment within 14 days after receiving the email notifying you of your percentage share of the Surplus Revenue, then you have a right to refund that payment and cancel.
The cancellation must be sent in writing via email to bg3.community.wiki@gmail.com and sent from the same email address that was entered in the Payment Application form.
Non-legally-binding notes
The following are clarifications in lay terms, and not legally binding.
I'll try to pay the invoices faster than 60 days. That's just the legally binding deadline I'm setting for myself. Same for the 60-day deadline for creating invoices.
Regarding the 6,000 EUR set aside each month: This consists mostly of my salary, which is a "business expense" of my company from a legal perspective. Note that I'll be paying income tax, social security, etc. from that. I will not be receiving anything remotely close to 6,000 EUR net per month.
The original plan was to distribute up to 60% of the total earnings, but that would get me into financial trouble if the earnings drop so low that the remaining 40% is too little. As such, there's going to be a flat deduction from the earnings to ensure a baseline of personal income for myself, plus the ability to cover actual business expenses.
From what remains after that deduction, a portion will be distributed to the contributors. I'm thinking up to 75%, because based on the current monthly revenue, that comes out to about the same thing as the "up to 60% of total" that was originally planned. The remaining 25% will stay in the company for future use, like if I want to expand operations to other venues due to a shrinkage of the BG3 player-base.
Payment Application
Before proceeding, make sure there is an email address configured in your bg3.wiki user preferences: Special:Preferences
By submitting the Payment Application form linked below, you confirm that you've read and agree to the Terms of Agreement above.
Some further details about the required fields are explained in the following.
Username
The username must be the bg3.wiki username that you used for the edits which you're requesting payment for.
If you've edited the wiki with multiple accounts, please only apply once for payment and notify me of the second account via a separate email or a message on Discord.
The email address must be configured as the email address for the corresponding bg3.wiki account. There will be a further confirmation step. (TODO)
Legal name
A legal name is unfortunately required, since I'm obligated by German trade and tax law to be able to prove where I'm making payments.
Payment methods
If your country supports SEPA, please fill in the IBAN for SEPA and leave the rest blank.
In other cases, feel free to fill in the details of multiple payment methods, as their fees can vary and I will choose what's best at the time of payment.
SEPA
If you reside in a country that supports SEPA, please choose this method, because the costs are extremely low and I will cover them.
In this case, you must provide the IBAN of the bank account to which you would like to receive the payment. (Note that having an IBAN doesn't mean your bank supports SEPA. But if it does support SEPA, you will definitely have an IBAN.)
Wise
This is a fair option if SEPA isn't possible. The transfer fees are acceptable and proper exchange rates are used.
Creating a Wise account should be free of charge for private individuals, and you should be able to transfer received funds to your bank account at no or little cost.
PayPal
PayPal applies a significant margin to the exchange rate, leading to exorbitant fees on large transactions. Avoid it if you're a major contributor!
If you're a smaller contributor, or you're fine with PayPal taking a significant cut due to the convenience it provides, it's fine to use.
Wire transfer
This is similar to Wise in terms of fees and exchange rate. But I will need more personal details. All the fields must be filled.
For major contributors, this is the best option after SEPA in terms of fees. For smaller contributors, Wise and PayPal may be better.
Other
If none of the options seem good for you, talk to me and we'll work something out. For example, Western Union is also a possibility.