Time to Evaluate SOH Viability Is Now [Archive]

Milton Shupe

January 12th, 2014, 07:02

In 10 days, Ickie must pay for the flight server, and in 30 days pay for this server. We are at 41% of our goal now.

Because of where we stand now, we must evaluate alternatives to providing SOH services.

As you know, only your donations keep SOH going. As members, we must step up or be willing to consider other sources for our community involvement. Time is getting short and Ickie must consider alternatives now.

Do we wish to support this site and keep it alive and well? Only we as members can answer that question.

Time is getting very short and decisions need to be made pronto.

We need to meet a substantive part of our goal shortly to keep SOH active in its current state.

Decision time.

We greatly appreciate your support. If you can comfortably do that, now is the time to step up.

Thank you for whatever you can do.

Dangerousdave26

January 12th, 2014, 07:34

In the admin lounge we were talking about the good old days when SOH had low bandwidth allotments.

Roger and Ickie were talking about how at the end of the month the downloads would have to be turned off to avoid hitting the bandwidth limit.

Those days maybe coming back soon if we can not raise enough money.

We know we have enough members to support the site but the number of unique donators has been on the decline every year while the number of people who download has continued to go up.

If you find SOH a value to your hobby please donate.

doublecool

January 12th, 2014, 12:00

I have been a fan of the outhouse since joining and have made every attempt to support this site and this hobby...and Developers
a couple things that need to be remembered by the administration
Families
Christmas was less then 20 days ago
Times are still hard for alot
I have tighten my belt on all purchases even for Christmas

just maybe the support drive should be started on a different time frame

This is only a suggestion
as I can tell you, Donating at this time of year can be alitte difficult for some of us however
I have made a Contribution

Thank you Outhouse, Painter, Freeware Developers, Payware Developers for the 2013, some great products :applause::applause::applause:

Here is to a Great 2014 for everyone :ernaehrung004:

ColoKent

January 12th, 2014, 12:18

...make the drop down have contribution options above $100-- seriously.

$150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500 **might** help...

Just a thought-- it's called "suggestive selling"...

Kent

Lionheart

January 12th, 2014, 12:57

This was my worst year yet in business. I wasn't able to donate till just the other day, and it wasn't much. :(

UKMIL

January 12th, 2014, 13:23

I have to add my opinion here.

As an owner of a very successful website, and online flight server, I think the amount SOH is paying seems very expensive. My own hosting, is UNLIMITED, in both data size and traffic, and over the last 12 months, has achieved a 99.9% uptime. It costs around 1% to run compared to the amount being raised here.

Do not get me wrong, it is fully the right of SOH to host and run where ever they choose, but $14000 seems a tad expensive. fell free to ban me if I am speaking out of term, but surely, for the good of SOH and the continued existance, would it not be better to look for cheaper hosting, with the 6000 raised so far?

The flight server is FSHOST run, which is free, and only needs a 24/7 PC to run. I assume SOH is using a dedicated server, but even I can, and do host a 24/7 flight server on my home PC for free, so can this not be an option, and move the hosting away from a dedicated server, to normal unlimited hosting?

dandog

January 12th, 2014, 15:56

OK. First I have donated and will give some more in the next 30 days. I am woefully under employed right now, but SOH is the first thing I look at on my computer, even before my email. That being said, is it possible to post what the money raised is specifically going towards? An actual accounting of what the funds are to be spent on? As UKMIL mentioned, maybe we need to look at alternatives to what we are currently doing. Maybe, as members, we need to be more involved. Me included! I am sure there is a way to keep SOH alive without monetizing the site. I know we have some very intelligent people here to come up with ideas. Soooo....

stansdds

January 12th, 2014, 16:07

This was my worst year yet in business. I wasn't able to donate till just the other day, and it wasn't much. :(

Exactly the same for me.

ColoKent

January 12th, 2014, 16:37

Well, for those of you that haven't been able to "donate very much", please don't kick yourselves-- every bit helps.

Just saying...

Kent

skyhawka4m

January 12th, 2014, 16:49

I'm curious......why can't the site charge for downloads to cover for bandwith?

ColoKent

January 12th, 2014, 16:52

...make the drop down have contribution options above $100-- seriously.

$150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400, 450, 500 **might** help...

Just a thought-- it's called "suggestive selling"...

Kent

Thanks Ickie, for adding the additional contribution denominations over $100....LET'S GET 'ER DONE, PEOPLE!!!!

Kent

AussieMan

January 12th, 2014, 17:00

Some big decisions may have to be made in the next 10 days and your input would help a lot. Therefore I ask you to go to:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?84792-SOH-Flight-Server-Poll

and cast your vote. Every vote will help with these decisions.

Rudyjo

January 12th, 2014, 19:21

I clicked the "SOH Donate Please" symbol next to my user name and was forwarded to the donation page.
One of the "Accepted Payment types" is Visa.
When I got to the page to actually make my payment, it says it only takes PayPal.
I do not have a PayPal account, is there any way you can accept Visa?
I'm sure I am not the only one who for one reason or another do not want a PayPal account.

luckydog

January 12th, 2014, 20:18

Contribution page seems to be out of order.......will try again another day.

Milton Shupe

January 12th, 2014, 20:20

Flyboy208

January 12th, 2014, 20:35

I will definitely be donating this upcoming Friday / Payday .... Mike :wavey:

N2056

January 12th, 2014, 20:40

Just follow the page and pay as a guest, then refuse the invite to sign up for Paypal

That's the way I did it tonight. Worked fine! :wiggle:

ericts

January 12th, 2014, 22:42

I did what I could. Wish I could do more.

stansdds

January 13th, 2014, 01:52

I'm curious......why can't the site charge for downloads to cover for bandwith?

Doing that would violate the EULA attached to some freeware.

HansRoaming

January 13th, 2014, 03:11

Would have to agree with UKMIL, might be worth shopping around even if to go back to your current provider?

Looking through AWS reserved instances (http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/#reserved) would appear to possibly be a saving.

You currently don't do advertising but in this niche field I actually like advertising say on Avsim as it's taken me to new products I might not have heard about or highlighted sales I have taken advantage of.

Daube

January 13th, 2014, 06:48

Just follow the page and pay as a guest, then refuse the invite to sign up for Paypal

Thanks for that information Milton.
That is exactely my problem: yesterday when I tried to make a donation, on the PayPal page, I did not see the place where you can choose "pay as a guest".
If I remember correctly, I could either register, or abort. And I didn't want to register, actually...
EDIT: just tried again. On the main page for entering the credit card info, there are two categories:
- pay with my paypal account
- create a paypal account
And that's all.
It's not the first time I use paypal, but I really seldom use it. It seemed to me that in the past, there was ANOTHER option where you could pay without creating an account.... or is it just my bad memory again ?

Rudyjo

January 13th, 2014, 07:03

Thanks for that information Milton.
That is exactely my problem: yesterday when I tried to make a donation, on the PayPal page, I did not see the place where you can choose "pay as a guest".
If I remember correctly, I could either register, or abort. And I didn't want to register, actually...
EDIT: just tried again. On the main page for entering the credit card info, there are two categories:
- pay with my paypal account
- create a paypal account
And that's all.
It's not the first time I use paypal, but I really seldom use it. It seemed to me that in the past, there was ANOTHER option where you could pay without creating an account.... or is it just my bad memory again ?

I signed up as a guest as Milton suggested, filled out all the required information to make a donation with my VISA card.
I get the message "The card you entered cannot be used for this payment, use a different card or number".

This is the same card I use for all my internet payments.

Milton Shupe

January 13th, 2014, 07:29

If all else fails, there's always the snail mail option:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?84542-Donation-Drive-Snail-Mail

Here is what the first 2 Donate Pages should look like

Daube

January 13th, 2014, 07:59

Milton Shupe

January 13th, 2014, 08:12

SpaceWeevil

January 13th, 2014, 09:36

I'm on the point of donating again because, while I don't use the flight server at all, I'm at SOH every day and can't imagine it not being around. Could you, maybe, give people the choice of which they want to support? Or is it a case of we all sink or swim together?

skyhawka4m

January 13th, 2014, 11:00

Doing that would violate the EULA attached to some freeware.

Then maybe those freeware items could be removed or the author would be kind enough to understand that his work is supporting the site.

ColoKent

January 13th, 2014, 11:06

Bottom line: Keep the donations coming in, folks...we're over halfway...

Kent

OleBoy

January 14th, 2014, 07:17

Then maybe those freeware items could be removed or the author would be kind enough to understand that his work is supporting the site.

Milton has clearly answered this.

SOH has been around for a very long time. Here is a breakdown.

FS Add-Ons Library [8783 entries] FS2002, 2004, FSX/ ALL
CFS Add-Ons Library [7662 entries] CFS1, 2, 3/ ALL
Donationware Aircraft [40 entries]

Now imagine going through each and every entry by hand. How much time are you willing to invest?
Next, try making contact with all of the originators. Most likely this will take years to accomplish, if at all. I highly doubt the results would be worth the time invested.

SOH has been a freeware community (to my knowledge) from the day of conception. I don't see this ever changing. And it shouldn't.

Milton Shupe

January 14th, 2014, 13:24

Ickie has been researching for a better Flight Server deal and came up with a savings of $3000. Therefore the Donation Drive goal has been reduced from $14K to $11K. Thank you all for your feedback, input, and support. And, thank you Ickie for your efforts on this.

Ian Warren

January 14th, 2014, 14:33

I'm more than happy to return that thing they call a wallet if things really get tight :wavey:

Francois

January 15th, 2014, 05:47

This was my worst year yet in business. I wasn't able to donate till just the other day, and it wasn't much. :(

Same for me. Although I am officially a 'payware publisher' my REAL November income after taxes was 95 Euros...... partly because I donate to quite a number of good causes and help out some of the authors.

SO this year $10 was all that I could muster.

Also, indeed, the general economic situation is really bad in some places, notably in Europe. I am trying to raise some money myself for an interesting project and haven't seen more than $ 430 so far. So I guess indeed money is really tight.

Sooooooooo.........

As I understand it, the 'downloads' (and their bandwidth) are the problem, not the forums. Personally I hardly ever download anything, so it is just keeping in touch with the community on the forums. I do the same on my own sites and it doesn't cost me more than a few 100 bucks. Sure, less traffic.

But maybe we should search for a different way to handle the libraries and downloads? Maybe distribute them somehow? I am sure many of us have surplus storage and bandwidth on our Internet accounts?

Just a thought.

Francois

January 15th, 2014, 05:52

The choices are different when you specify France in the country field.
If I set it to United States, then I can log as guest. Cool. Thanks for that, donnation will be done tonight or tomorrow, as soon as I can :)

Yup, Paypal is notably bad when it comes to some non-US countries. I know some of my customers walk away because Papal doesn't accept THEIR Visa cards (if you happen to live in Italy for instance, you're SHOL !).

Daube

January 15th, 2014, 07:47

Just wondering: if I choose the US, I have to enter false information in the city/postal code/ adress etc...
Isn't that a problem, on a legal point of view ?
I have to contact them (Paypal support) anyway, because they keep thinking my email address is of a registered user... and I am NOT registered.
I have used PayPal with that email address several times in the past, as a guest, but I never created an account.
And of course, if I click on 'I forgot the password' button, I never get any email...

Seriously, I hate Paypal...

HansRoaming

January 16th, 2014, 00:17

PC Pilot recently held a fundraiser with streaming video where they did a route flying non stop for 24 hours, inviting participants along, maybe SOH could do something similar?

For downloads and storage of libraries maybe Amazon S3 could offer a more cost effective solution, http://aws.amazon.com/s3/ , it's what I would use for the large multinational I work for if we had this type of site.