[Drunken F00l]

Last month (and looking like this month) I've had to put a lot of money out of pocket into the servers. In November, we only received $188 in donations out of a hopeful $680. And so far this month, we've only recieved 8% of the goal. If this trend continues, I cannot continue to pay the server costs. So there are a few options.

1) Switch donator benefits to a monthly subscription (this is easy to do since TF2Items.com premium memberships already give reserved slots on all servers).
2) Get more donations (like with this forum post and advertising donator benefits and stuff).
3) Reduce costs (get rid of some servers).

Let's be clear about where this $680 goal comes from.

Box 1 - Xeon 3460 / 8GB RAM - $228/mo.

• Valve maps 1
  
• 2fort instant respawn
  
• 2fort no mods
  
• No crit server

Box 2 - Xeon 3210 / 4GB RAM - $224/mo.

• Valve maps 2
  
• Goldrush
  
• Arena
  
• Prop hunt

HLStatsX for 6 servers - $27/mo.

The remaining $201 helps cover the cost of the website, databases, email server, idle servers, etc. I'd be open to reducing the goal as well since TF2Items premium service and advertisements helps reduce this remaining $201 a bit.

I don't like option #3 because you can't really pick which TF2 servers to get rid of. One of the two boxes has to go which means all four servers on the box and neither of those combos are good.

I know we've discussed this before, but this time it's real and not just speculation. Something has to actually be done this time.

There's no poll attached to this thread, because if you actually have an opinion I'd rather you spend 30 seconds and tell me about it.

[Snarf]

Plenty of servers do donator benefits I don't have any specific ideas for what would be a good benefit but I know you won't be selling admin or anything dumb like that.(putting a small ad on the server probably wouldn't hurt as i'm sure most people who play on the server don't visit the website)

[Frankster]

How about setting some kind of expiration to reserved slots, not monthly but perhaps something reasonnable depending on how much you've donated.

Donators benefit that I've seen on other servers are really lame please don't do that... I think your servers are very appreciated for being pretty much vanilla, I think the sole benefit of having a reserved slot should be worth it for most people.

Maybe just advertising that there are reserved slots and how to get them when joining the server? Just today I had to inform some people about how to get a slot...

Also maybe making these forums friendlier and advertising them (and this site) would help making the community stronger.

[Adder]

Make a premium monthly sub of 5-10 dollars or w/e


Add more detailed stack tracking for donators if they check their stats in game.

Make a system to where if enough donators (say 10-12) type 'rtv', then the server can vote on what the nextmap will be from the 3 available nextmaps instead of only being able to skip one.

Thats all I got so far.

[Butane]

think I mentioned this long before, but ohh well:

yearly reserved slots with benefits, tiered based on the amount of servers someone wants to play on (they get cheaper per slot the more you get) also if you do it monthly some people would forget/find it a hassle(like me). this way you only have to spam it once a year to remind people.

$10 for 1 server
18 ....2
26.... 3
32.... 4
38.....5
42.....6
46.....7
50...ALL-including idle servers/tf2items subscription and anyother benefits.


reg donors like me really wouldn't be affected anyhow by the changes above.

[Drunken F00l]

also if you do it monthly some people would forget/find it a hassle(like me).

It would be automatic/subscription based.

[Half-Duplex]

I'll start donating again when at least one of these three conditions are met.

1) No mods no BS #1 gets rid of 2fort.
2) Auto scramble is removed
3) You don't get penalized for switching teams after a ridiculous auto-balance.

SourceOP isn't what it use to be. So I don't care for dishing out anymore cash to make it shittier.

Its not like I'm asking to get rid of all the n00bs lol

[Snarf]

Half-stackplex.

[Hell-met]

HLStatsX for 6 servers - $27/mo.

i hope this is one big joke

[OmegaZero_Alpha]

HLStatsX for 6 servers - $27/mo.

i hope this is one big joke

No, lets get rid of hlstatsx completely and lose shit loads of donors to satiate a vocal minority.