The Important announcement from Ickie..

[warchild]

I'm forwarding this just as I read it.. Enjoy ..:::


http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/images/icons/icon28.gif Seeing Red



I am seeing red. lol

changes I made to the download section:
members download speed is set to 56K
members+ download speeds set to 128K
Charter Members set to 5120k (5Megs)
5$ Gets You MB's

[Aviator32]

There's a download section?

[warchild]

Yup... Just click on the "Home" button above and you'll see the various download areas listed in the middle of your screen :)..

[jimjones]

It might be helpful to spell out how one achieves mb+ and charter membership.

[Ickie]

to become a Charter Member is simple just donate.

You get many privileges beyond Member+

adon library below

[Navy Chief]

to become a Charter Member is simple just donate.

You get many privileges beyond Member+

adon library below

How long has SOH been online? I've been a member since 2005, but just wondered!

NC

[Ickie]

Sim Outhouse went online in 2000, we are from www.combatfs.com (http://www.combatfs.com) which we own and it went online in 1997. Everyone said we would never make it without advertisements, lol

[SolarEagle]

Wow, that seems a bit lame to me, charging people for freeware. I mean 56k is a joke. I wonder how freeware authors feel about a sites charging for their work, which is essentially what you're doing. Not only that but you want people to pay for amounts to the most pain in butt library out there. Its too bad what this site has become.

[Ickie]

no one is stopping you from leaving, people who donate to pay the bandwidth bills should get the fastest downloads not free loaders like yourself.

[N2056]

Nobody is forcing you to be here...:kilroy:

Edit...Ickie beat me to it!

[Warrant]

Wow, that seems a bit lame to me, charging people for freeware. I mean 56k is a joke. I wonder how freeware authors feel about a sites charging for their work, which is essentially what you're doing. Not only that but you want people to pay for amounts to the most pain in butt library out there. Its too bad what this site has become.

????????

Nobody here has charged me for anything. SOH sometimes asks their members to donate, for the site, on a volunteer basis.

What site are you talking about?

[SADT]

And even if you dont use the library, your donation helps keep this fantastic site operational! :)

[empeck]

Honestly, sorry to see SoH has taken this route. I like these forums, and people here, SoH is the only non-Polish place I read everyday and post from time to time. I understand why you've decided what you did, but still I don't think limiting downloads for non-paying members to 56k it's a best idea.

I've donated few bucks this and last year, it's not much, but just can't afford more. I've donated it to support a site I like, not to gain some privileges. Just my point of view, it's your site, do whatever you want.

[gigabyte]

And even if you dont use the library, your donation helps keep this fantastic site operational! :)

AND free of "Sponsored by Google Ads".... Big Big +

[Roger]

It means that as a basic member you are not excluded from the library. As a Charter member there are benefits, such as faster downloads. Flightsim and Simviation have had a similar regime for a long time now. With $8000 to collect for this year's bandwidth on 2 servers it demanded selling the features of Charter membership. There is no membership fee to get the fastest download speed, just the benefit of donating $5. In the UK that's about the same as a pint of beer.
I simply can't understand the reticence of some members to throw away a few bucks to enable a site like the SOH to stay on air for another year.

[Warrant]

I do donate (sometimes more then once a year) in various amounts because i want to, not for download speeds! The privileges are a great reward system, but definately not a decision-maker for me!
I like this site, and i love to see it alive and well, and without all those idiotic add's.
If lesser download speed is an issue for anyone, just donate and keep the site alive. Donating makes you sort of a "part owner", no :censored: SOH will grant you higher download speeds and privileges for it!?! If you sponsor a football-club do you also expect to sit in a back row every game/match?

I'm very much in favor of the donation/privileges policy here!

[Bone]

The cost of doing business gets more expensive every year. Someone has to pay the bills.

[wbuchart]

…I didn’t even know there were additional benefits. I just donated to keep a great site going because of some great downloads but also just to read some of the forums to get some good advice from some very talented developers. Even though I don’t upload any of what repaints I do (because they aren’t very good yet) , what I can do I can do because of this site, and that gives me hours and hours of enjoyment. So what are hours of enjoyment worth to me? More than I’ve donated so far…..
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p>When these guys talk in the forums, they reach and influence more people than they may think.</o:p>
Thank You Guys for all the advice to a rookie…….

Edit : well, what I can do with FS2004 and CFS2....

[Sieggie]

If you are donating for the DL speeds you are prolly making a mistake. I donate because I would go nuts if I could not log into the forums to get timely info and if the bandwidth goes away the forums disappear also. Many of the other sites limit your DL speed, bandwidth is not free despite the fact you may feel entitled to OPM. I don't see the problem.

[Milton Shupe]

SOH is my daily web browsing. The aircraft my team create are released here before any other site. I also moderate at the FS2002/2004 forum and the Aircraft Design forum. So I try to donate in many ways, moderating, particpating, assisting, creating freeware with my team, creating SOH Team freeware, and monetarily.

I also create tutorials to help new designers; I communicate regularly to help others and to ask for help. It is through this medium that teams are built, products are improved, friendships are made, news is shared, and products made available through uploads and downloads. I cannot donate a lot monetarily but I try to pull my weight to help this great site grow and survive.

There have been many improvements over the last year and membership continues to grow and mature. The few bucks I kick in and the other things I do is for the good of the community, the site is our medium. Where else can you get such a deal.

[OleBoy]

And to add,

The members that are here who do interact with forum know the benefits. How you or any members perceive that information and go with it, it's up to them. I can honestly say that SOH is the best flight simulator forum there is on the net. I've learned a lot. I've shared in return and helped where I can. What can I say? Sim-Outhouse is all I need for me to enjoy the hobby of flight simming.

[JAllen]

It is so easy to put a 'negative spin' on anything if you really try. I am amazed. I am new to forums and especially SoH. I greatly appreciate this site and that's due to everyone here. Any time I can contribute some little thing it is a thrill. A few dollars to keep it going... money well spent. Stay positive everybody, being negative causes wrinkles. LOL

Jim

Long live SoH

[norab]

I donated before the download speed announcement, not because of it and I donated last year when there was no "additional incentive". I enjoy my time here in the forums and the people I've met, figuratively, through them. If you hang out around here the information and talents you can learn from these marvelous people border on priceless. It is a pleasure to be able to help out in some small way.

[SADT]

Stay positive everybody, being negative causes wrinkles. LOL

Long live SoH

That quote applies to many people in my life LOL :icon_lol: ;)

[crazysundog]

I don't post often, don't think I've ever downloaded anything, and didn't even notice there are no ads. I donated to keep a great community ticking happily away.

Thanks to all SOH staff for keeping a great site going!

[Kiwikat]

So do those who donated at the FC get "slower" speeds for the downloads on this server? :wavey:

[icarus]

server bandwith cost a lot, yes you can take a server for less money but then you will have a server with many problems, often not online, with secutiry problems, with bad performances and more...many people think having a website about something of fun do not cost nothing or low money...take a server up takes a lot of money, when a website then disappear they say ooooooh...there is not anymore...the cause? cost! there is no need to be agree or not agree, if you want continue having a website people have to support it not only say i will never visit or i m not agree....there are five or six websites that have a very good library of files since 10 years and more and this is a fantastic resource for cfs1-2-3- and all fs world. What if all new people coming in the fs world didn't have that resource? Probably this hobby will not continue And more a website is succesfull much money needs. You daily pay for something you need, a coffe a newspaper or something else, why not a website that you like?

[Gdavis101]

Great site and great bunch of people! I have no problem giving $$ to SOH. :salute:

[wombat666]

There's many a good reply here, but the one to keep in mind id 'you get what you pay for'.
IIRC almost all the better known FS sites have limits to non-subscribers, either download speed limits, number of downloads over a given time or download size limits.
SOH is a bargain with more bang for your buck than any other FS Site.

The only other site I actually subscribe to is a 'Motor Race Forum', where non paying members get 100MB over 24 hours and more advertising than any sane person should have to put up with.
I don't 'need' any privileges, but I believe in supporting a worthwhile cause.
:ernae:

[Overshoe]

I don't often use the filebase, not much there for me :) I don't often post because I have nothing useful to add to most threads, I don't always agree with some of the stuff that goes on here, but I depend on SOH for unbiased (though sometimes opinionated) news about the hobby. Sure I could spend 18 hours a day reading forums, or I could come here and get the digest version. I'm retired and on a fixed income but the little bit I can throw in the kitty will help keep this resource available. I hope I'll be around next year to kick in a few more bucks.

[expat]

The two things - among a number of others - valued most here are:

1) sharing of know-how - it saves signficant time when one is "stumped" by a problem only to have some kind help from people here and presto! it's sovled; and

2) the shared enthusiasm and camraderie with others with respect to our common interest in avaition and its history.

Not to mention the good nature, good humor and above all the generosity of people here in sharing their talent and effort. Guess it's a "sharing" kind of place . .

[Aviator32]

I never use the library here so paying for faster download speeds is not an issue. With respect there are better and more established sites for downloading freeware after all and more than one of them at that. I haven't really used much freeware since FS9 anyway, payware has moved on to such a degree that most freeware seems too amateur by comparison now with a few exceptions. I also have no problem whatsoever with advertising and really don't notice it on any of the other sites I visit, FS related or otherwise although I do respect the decision not to have it here even though it means you have to ask for money directly instead when it's not really necessary. If I had to pay a subscription to visit any forum then I would find another one. The other day I visited here and wasn't logged in and all the forums were listed as 'Private' and I had a horrible feeling that SOH was going the 'You have to be registered to view the Forums' route which would be the death of it. The fact is there are lots of FS related sites out there these days populated with most of the same users and most of the same topics day in day out. The general atmosphere is different depending on where you go but the content is basically the same. It's true this is one of the nicer ones most of the time but I'm afraid I have no particular loyalty to this one any more than I do to Avsim, Simviation, FTX etc etc, certainly not to the extent where I would be prepared to pay money to keep this one going one above all others.

I was wondering what was going to happen once the $8000 was reached (it may well have been already - last night it was up to 93% or so). Surely then an announcement will be made that you have what is required to do what you needed the money for and anything collected beyond that will go to charity? I think I would feel very uncomfortable if you kept collecting money which was unaccounted for.

[Ickie]

$8000 is what is needed to get SOH by for the year, and from time to time things just happen which I have to put out money for and it is nice to have it so it doesn't come out of my pocket. Often it does. Most of the time you never notice the that we are having something wrong which needs fixed and costly. From time to time we donate to good causes, again it is nice to have money on hand.

What I want to know is, why members who never donate, do all the bitching?

[Tim-HH]

Hi,

the only benefit I would like to have for my donation is that this great site stays online. We made our goal so quickly this year that I do not see the need to restrict the non-donators. I wish that the members of this forum will donate because of the great community and not because they get restricted otherwise.

I have the fear that the non-donators will feel like 2nd class members and therefore leave the SOH forum. That would be a huge loss for all of us. Also we have to understand that - especially in our current economic situation - it's simply not possible for everyone to donate.

So let's keep the Sim Outhouse fully open to everyone...that would actually be the biggest benefit from our donations! :)

Greetings
Tim

[Ickie]

the hole/pipline to the internet is only so big, I have to deal with 400 users in the forums at any one time, and 1/3 are downloading, this server can only handle so much, if 400 people was using your computer what would you do. if I let everyone throttle up than these forums would not work or would be so slow. we have always had the download speeds throttled down. I look at the logs everyday this takes hours, and I see people who start 100 downloads and run this all day long and the server loads are running high so I have to do this to keep things running at an even pace. Not to mention the 2/3 of the visitors who never sign up and 1/2 of them bots which is another story. We beg people to ask to be a member+ and the speed is set to 128K for them.

sign up if you want my job, it requires 18 hours a day oh btw no pay, and a vast knolege on running servers. I get hate mail all the time, if you would like this abuse than you are the man!

[Ickie]

If you want a taste of What Will Happen, then I will turn all restrictions off and walk away.

[Ickie]

have you had enough, that was just letting them 100 who are just members download at high speen, they took all the bandwidth.

now I have to repair the data base

[Ickie]

restrictions are back on

[Aviator32]

Why don't you just get rid of the library? If it's that much trouble, people will (and do) upload elsewhere. Just get rid of it. Why would that be so bad? Or maybe donate the contents of the library to another site if necessary. Maybe someone else here would like to host it? It sounds like it's not worth the hassle and would make your life much easier if this was just a forum site. I don't know why you would do something if it caused so much grief?

Any takers for the library? Do we know how many files are only hosted here and aren't duplicated in other libraries?

[Ickie]

Aviator32 you are a misserable person.

[Ickie]

This is a privately owned website and I will do as I need to do.