We're in trouble. I haven't wanted to say anything because I wanted to make sure of how bad we were.
I was just billed for November's hosting (billing period starts on the 16th of each month).
We didn't even pull close to what our old hosting costs were before we upgraded. By pull, I of course mean donation levels.
I hate asking for money. When we started this project, we were better off financially. However, I've now got a mortgage and bills to pay. This community is taxing me financially and we're risking losing everything right now.
To those who continue to provide support for our community. I thank you very much. You've helped us continue on this long.
Currently I'm into my credit card pretty deep with this venture.
Starting next month, if we don't start reaching donation goals within at least $200 I'm going to have to cut
WAY back. This means two-three servers tops.
Now, the game servers themselves don't cost me money, but the bandwidth allocation for our colocated machines does. When things were really exciting with TF2, we went over our limit and had to upgrade. Lately, however, it seems both interest in TF2 and interest in financially supporting us has dropped significantly.
We have a couple ventures that we're planning to start that will hopefully generate some money for the community, but those are both at least a month or two away right now.
So, just a heads up. This is the last month I can foot the bill for this place. After that, I'm going to take measures to ensure my financial safety. This, however, means a giant leap backwards from where we are now. That makes me sad. However, consider this: I tend to receive four or five donations a month. It's pretty much the same crowd. A quick glance at our steam community group for WDFNews shows us with 235 members. I recognize not all of them belong to the website portion of the community. But realistically, out of 235 potential people, we average 5 in unique donations. Something about that seems silly.
Let's look at it in another light. If 235 people donated $5 a month, we would have $1,175 to work with. I'm not even asking for that.
If $130 people donated $5 every month, we'd hit our goal of $650 every time. Again, that's unreasonable to assume we'd ever have that many people donating.
However, we have 77 active members of {pDs} as of 11/09. Out of that 77, 62 play on the servers regularly.
If every single {pDs} member donated $5/month (the cost of a cup of Starbucks coffee), we'd be fine. Especially since some people donate $10 or $20. And sometimes over $100. We could easily get close to our goal.
Will we ever require donations to be in {pDs}?
Hell no. It's just something to consider.
The donations average $10 each, with the exception of a few which exceed the $100 range. Yeah, there are a few community members who donate over $100 each month in an effort to help make up for the lack of donations as a whole. am I asking this of you? Of course not. But a few dollars each month to keep this place running doesn't seem like much to ask for.
I can understand people not having money to donate to a video game. That makes perfect sense to me. I can understand not wanting to shell out monthly for a game you can play for free anywhere. I get that as well.
I feel that because I am the person who runs this place, and it's my name on the sign, that I should always be 100% honest with you, my community members.
To the few who do donate. You have my eternal thanks. You know who you are.
Sorry to be such a downer, folks. This is just the way it is right now.