Time to Evaluate SOH Viability Is Now

[Milton Shupe]

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]

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]

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

Here is to a Great 2014 for everyone

[ColoKent]

...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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[ColoKent]

...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]

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/sohforum...ht-Server-Poll

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

[Rudyjo]

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]

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

[Milton Shupe]

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.

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

[Flyboy208]

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

[N2056]

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!

[ericts]

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

[stansdds]

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]

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 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]

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]

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]

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

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...ive-Snail-Mail

Here is what the first 2 Donate Pages should look like

[Daube]

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

[Milton Shupe]

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

Ah, thanks for that information; it may be helpful to others. :-)