Hosting Payment Due Soon, Help us by Donating

[Xyphien]

Our quadrimester payment is coming up for a total of $150 and we would really appreciate any help we could get with donations at this time. https://rpgmakermv.co/donations

Our goal currently is $150. However, any extra money we receive will be going towards a secret Christmas Event that we will be hosting! If everyone on the site donates just $1 to the website, we would have enough money to pay off the server for a long time, as well as provide the biggest event in RPG Maker history :D (Don't take my word on that I haven't researched the biggest prize pool for rpg maker lol.)

We need YOU to donate, and help us, help you :D

 

[Jodis]

Wow you think this site is bad on adds and stuff go try Minecraft planet I need ghostery on so it don't take me 30 min to load the page.
This is the only site I don't need to block. If I had the money and didn't need to spend it on 6 pills and 2 shots a day I would also donate to help keep the adds to a min. Talked with my hubby on this and he adds. "Doing a site like this is a full time job."

 

[Jon Pawn]

As the owner, you are either expected to pay the money owed regularly or to find someone else who can shoulder that responsibility. Forums are money traps, and whatever is put in there will 99% of the time never be returned. If the payment is impossible, and you have to rely on donations constantly, then it is wise to just kill the forum. This forum does not have nearly enough active users at the moment to keep the forum afloat, through ads, premium, or otherwise. There are multiple other forums that do the same thing better that cannot be competed with. Best to cut your losses, archive the website files, and find a better use of your time if you aren't willing to commit the bare minimum.

Jodie said that 'doing a site like this' is a full-time job. That is partly true but mostly untrue. As the owner, you may outsource your site work to admins and moderators and never truly have to lift a finger until one of the latter roles come to you with a serious issue they can't deal with. As an owner, really your only job is to pay the rent. And if you can't do it, hang the hat.

EDIT: Searching it up, you're paying way too much. Search for a different host regardless.

 

[Cunechan]

I have to agree with EvilChibi and Amy :/ (and I've read the deleted posts). Please don't censor, it wasn no bashing. Just honest opinions on how to solve this and what might not be good about it

EDIT: Searching it up, you're paying way too much. Search for a different host regardless.

This is a good suggestion

 

[Jodis]

He has a right and responsibility to notify all his regular donators that the bills are due. If you are not a donator then this topic was not meant for you. This topic is meant for the regular monthly donator. So stop acting like kids.
[doublepost=1474912687,1474911873][/doublepost]Thank you for your support on this guys.

 

[Iron Croc]

You are absolutely right that he has a right to let us know. However asking for donations like this is completely unprofessional.

And if I'm not a donator, I absolutely WILL post in this topic if I see fit. You are new here, so you have absolutely no idea what all that this website has gone through before you even joined.

Stating our opinions and calling out the owners for their idiocy is not acting like kids. As you grow older you will eventually learn that. @Jodis

 

[Cunechan]

I think we'll all be able to talk about the issues of this forums in a civil manner, no bashing or insults. I don't like to see you guys argueing D:

 

[Dad3353]

I have removed all posts with injurious or non-germain content, irrespective of the Poster. If anyone has any quarrel with any posts, in any thread, the correct response is to use the 'Report' button. The Mods and Admins will then deal with the matter.
Thanks in advance for your comprehension and cooperation.
Douglas

 

[Seriel]

I have removed all posts with injurious or non-germain content

Er, not even google knows what the word "germain" means lol, maybe if you said that in words that "normies" like us would understand, we might know your intentions..?

@Xyphien It's all fine and dandy asking for donations on a donation page, and even having ads (Except the NO ADBLOCKER banner, but thats a story for a different topic), but posting in site announcements begging for handouts is nuhuh.
It's not your server members responsibility to pay your bills, as server owner that is all on you. Members may give out of the goodness of their hearts but this thread is basically saying GIVE ME MONEY NOW lol

Also what host are you using that charges that much lol, you dont need anything beefy for a small lil community.

But yeah, that's all the issues I have with this topic, throw a different topic at me and i'll discuss my issues with that too.

//awaits post deletion

 

[Jodis]

serial thank you for saying that nicely.
[doublepost=1474917382,1474917106][/doublepost]

Er, not even google knows what the word "germain" means lol, maybe if you said that in words that "normies" like us would understand, we might know your intentions..?

@Xyphien It's all fine and dandy asking for donations on a donation page, and even having ads (Except the NO ADBLOCKER banner, but thats a story for a different topic), but posting in site announcements begging for handouts is nuhuh.
It's not your server members responsibility to pay your bills, as server owner that is all on you. Members may give out of the goodness of their hearts but this thread is basically saying GIVE ME MONEY NOW lol

Also what host are you using that charges that much lol, you dont need anything beefy for a small lil community.

But yeah, that's all the issues I have with this topic, throw a different topic at me and i'll discuss my issues with that too.

//awaits post deletion

wow you are only 16 you sound more like an adult then the others did. the one that were trolling i meen

 

[Dad3353]

Er, not even google knows what the word "germain" means lol, maybe if you said that in words that "normies" like us would understand, we might know your intentions..?...

My apologies for the bad spelling. From the OED...

Definition of germane in English:
germane

ADJECTIVE

• Relevant to a subject under consideration.
  ‘that is not germane to our theme’

Origin
Early 17th century: variant of german, with which it was synonymous from Middle English. The current sense has arisen from a usage in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

 

[Amysaurus]

Okay, to be fair about my post, "Damn, Daniel" is a dead meme and any reference to it deserves to be burned. With that said, I don't appreciate critical posts continually being deleted in this community, and it does nothing but reflect poorly on its moderation and administration practices.


>>> Now, on topic again.

It is not our responsibility as a community to pay for the operation of this forum. You own the site, and it's up to you to maintain it. To be quite frank, it's incredibly irresponsible to have a site this size still rely heavily on donations to stay up and running. My suggestion would be to cut the fat out of plugins costing extra fees (I don't know for a fact than the ones used here have a fee for continued use, but it's something to consider if they do.) and to find a cheaper server. If that's not a possibility, then I would strongly suggest holding off on large-scale events until this community can consistently meet its goals without asking for help.

Ideally, donations towards a site are meant for special occasions (prize pools for events, improvements that aren't necessary), not for having the site up in general. The way things are set up here, there is plenty you can do without spending money in the first place (badges, special privileges, etc.).

What I was trying to say in my original post is that it feels like you're trying to pass the blame off on us members if your goals aren't reached. Bearing in mind that this is an RPG Maker forum, anyone who actually does have disposable income (keep in mind that the general audience of these programs is younger) is likely saving up to invest in their own projects. The people most passionate about their projects often have the least amount of money laying around.


(RIP my thumbs. I was typing on mobile.)

 

[LordBones]

As an owner, really your only job is to pay the rent. And if you can't do it, hang the hat.

Thing is it's up to half way in less than a day for quarterly hosting... not like monthly. If it were monthly I'd agree however there are clearly a few people with a little extra cash willing to help out. I partly agree for the primary role of the owner(s) of a site however, this was not a post saying "We need to pay the hosting otherwise the site goes down". The owner has a job and probably has enough to pay however just because the owner can, doesn't mean they should. Why should the owner pay a fairly extensive amount when he already gives up his time? the answer is that he should only do it if people doesn't think this forum is valued and not as a be all and end all. If the owner always has to pay the money for the hosting then it's far less likely they'd be able to make this a full-time job considering their job is supplying the work.

It's nothing more the owners job than it is popular YouTubers to pay for equipment instead of using Patron. A popular site is born with a lot of people valuing something a little but making a lot in views, niche site is born with a few people that value something a lot.

 

[Iron Croc]

Okay, to be fair about my post, "Damn, Daniel" is a dead meme and any reference to it deserves to be burned. With that said, I don't appreciate critical posts continually being deleted in this community, and it does not but reflect poorly on its moderation and administration practices.


>>> Now, on topic again.

It is not our responsibility as a community to pay for the operation of this forum. You own the site, and it's up to you to maintain it. To be quite frank, it's incredibly irresponsible to have a site this size still rely heavily on donations to stay up and running. My suggestion would be to cut the fat out of plugins costing extra fees (I don't know for a fact than the ones used here have a fee for continued use, but it's something to consider if they do.) and to find a cheaper server. If that's not a possibility, then I would strongly suggest holding off on large-scale events until this community can consistently meet its goals without asking for help.

Ideally, donations towards a site are meant for special occasions (prize pools for events, improvements that aren't necessary), not for having the site up in general. The way things are set up here, there is plenty you can do without spending money in the first place (badges, special privileges, etc.).

What I was trying to say in my original post is that it feels like you're trying to pass the blame off on us members if your goals aren't reached. Bearing in mind that this is an RPG Maker forum, anyone who actually does have disposable income (keep in mind that the general audience of these programs is younger) is likely saving up to invest in their own projects. The people most passionate about their projects often have the least amount of money laying around.


(RIP my thumbs. I was typing on mobile.)

*applauds*
Madame, as always, flawless execution.
Yeah, I'm not bashing anyone. I'm NOT trolling (Look it up.) I'm simply speaking my mind which, as a forum member, I have EVERY right to do.

 

[Chibae]

maybe if there wasn't so many addons on the site it wouldn't be so expensive.. Like i own a website and i only pay $20 a year for domain and around $5-6 every few months for the storage.

 

[Xyphien]

maybe if there wasn't so many addons on the site it wouldn't be so expensive.. Like i own a website and i only pay $20 a year for domain and around $5-6 every few months for the storage.

This site has several gigabites in data, as well as it sees several gigabitems of data a month in uploads. We had to upgrade to the max plan because of it. An average website not only doesn't receive the amount of views we have but also doesn't have as much of self hosted files. Ant database type website costs significantly more due to the fact that it hosts all uploads directly to the database.

 

[LTN Games]

Okay, I'm finally able to chime in on this topic and as many people have great points and opinions to this discussion many are flawed and spoken with a "Vendetta" yes I said it, I know many of you who have replied have past emotions" of the administration and the way things were handled a few months ago and a few small disputes between that time and now. While I agree with many things that are said here, the one thing I found odd was that the replies made it sounds like Xyphien is telling the members of the community it's a requirement to donate. I did not get this vibe from this donation request at all, all I see was a small request for those who are willing and able to donate and help out the admin of the site. Maybe Xyphien could have worded it better but in all honestly it seems okay to me.

Now on to the other things I want to mention, a donation is not very much to ask for considering the amount of features "free" members receive, we have a Wiki( although not used much) we have free blogs and we have a very friendly member base. The most important part to it all (to me at least) is the resource database and it's selling and purchase options, to me this alone is worth $1 that Xyphien is asking of the members. Being able to sell resources, games and anything RM related is a huge plus to me and many other people who are looking for a way to sell their resources. I find this option alone is a great to be free when in reality this type of thing can easily be put into a premium membership along with the blog but it's free and I'm glad that Xyphien makes enough through donations or his own job to be able to provide these features for free and I'm also happy enough that Xyphien has it in him to ask for donations to keep these things free.

Anyway that's not my main point, to me this request did not seem like much and it's the only request I've seen for a couple months or so (aside from the banner) I know everyone has a right to their opinion and I respect that but sometimes you need to see the whole picture before stating an opinion. For example, you can't just purchase cheap hosting on a shared server like HostGator, we need a dedicated IP so we don't have shutdowns randomly, we need an unlimited bandwidth and space so that we can host the resource database. Along side that we have a secure IP to go with it, all these things cost extra and if you go cheap well let's just say this place would hardly run and we would have 10 times more dissatisfied members because of server hanging, shutdowns and insecure IPs. The price for hosting a year, for a decent host should be no less than $80 and for extra features and security it can cost double that $150 is a pretty average price for a good host.

Aside from all this mumbo jumbo, when it comes down to it, it's up to the members to donate and it is perfectly acceptable to ask for a donation, and most donations never really reach the mark we ask for, so as Xyphien as mentioned every little bit counts even if it's just a dollar you have sitting in your paypal.

 

[Iron Croc]

Dropbox. Imgur. MegaUpload. You don't NEED all that fancy crap. It boggs down the site and you're trying to do what not even some Fortune500 companies do.

Just trim the fat! You don't NEED all these bells and whistles! Period!

 

[Amysaurus]

@LTN Games Hope I’m not coming across as someone with a vendetta - I don't intend to. Unfortunately, it's rather difficult not to be a bit sour when your post gets deleted because it wasn’t supportive.


To elaborate on my point - it’s fine to ask for donations every once in a while; however, it should not be happening this frequently, and not for the reasons they’re being requested. Basic functions like posting and data storage should not be falling on our shoulders at this point.

Along with that, there’s already a donation banner and page, a page for premium membership, and more than a few posts like this one. It’s very obvious that this forum either very much needs or very much wants our money - we don’t need to be informed of this again. The fact that this site isn’t getting more donations probably means that people simply don’t have the funds available to make a donation.

Besides - if Xyphien is consistently not reaching his goals, that just means they weren’t realistic in the first place.


I don’t feel like I should have to add this, but having access to a member base and being able to sell resources is not special at all. Every community has a member base, all of them are just as friendly as this one, and you can sell resources on nearly any forum without giving the site money in return. The only “different” things this site has going for it are the (very much underused) Wiki, and the ability to sell games.

 

[LordBones]

People just don't want to click away from the site for Mega.