A public call for funding (announcements)

submitted ago by Atko

During the past 24 hours we have witnessed a large influx of new users. Current stats show that Voat has been visited by 168,213 people in the last 24 hours alone, making 9,571,200 requests and burning through 117 GB of bandwidth. We are currently running at 300% our normal volume. You can see the spike very clearly here.

Because of this, we were forced to scale up our hardware to accommodate the new users, but this will incur significant costs which we won’t be able to cover without your help. Voat gets money primarily from your donations and ad-sales, but ad-sales have so far been unable to cover the expenses. In the past 24 hours, we have received $1,085 in donations and ad-orders through our store http://store.voat.co, and $180 through bitcoin. This is amazing and we sincerely thank you for every dollar you contribute to keep Voat online, but our past experience shows that donations and ads combined can no longer cover Voat hosting fees.

Voat also has a major flaw: we have no fulltime staff. Voat is currently managed by two people who have full time jobs “on the side”, which makes things very complicated. Voat needs fulltime staff to monitor the servers, respond to support and abuse emails, process donations and keep the wheels turning. With donations alone, this has not been possible so far, resulting in poor site performance and user experience.

We have all witnessed in one way or another how a website which takes on investors can slowly degrade and become outright unusable. Given our commitment to Freedom of Speech, we have to be very careful about who we partner with. Because of this, we have rejected several offers from investors who we believe would not be compatible with Voat’s core philosophy. For the record, we have had investment offers from all over the world during the past 2 years, many of which we were either too busy to entertain or too concerned with underlying motives of the parties involved.

So, what do we do?

We want to keep Voat alive. We want to be able to work full time on what we love and do best. We don’t want to change what Voat stands for or Voat’s core principles, and thus we need your help. If you have contacts or relationships with potential investors who also believe in and support our Freedom of Speech commitment, please let us know and please let them know that we need their help.

Until we have a permanent solution, we need you to donate, buy ads and merchandise (to be announced soon). Every bit helps.

Edit 1: typos

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ThatOnePrivacyGuy ago

Upon joining, I immediately looked at donating - but decided against it when I couldn't do so without providing personal information or tying the donation to my account by logging in, even by Bitcoin. Am I missing something? Is there a way to donate anonymously?

I also looked at making an ad, but it appears that "payment options" gets skipped and I'm forced to pay with a credit card, I can't win!

Edit: Donated direct to Voat's coinbase wallet address, but I'd still like to place an ad and pay with Bitcoin.

stickittotheman ago

How about mailing address to send cash

Nekochan11 ago

Voat needs to have a talk with some banks (or credit unions or whatever) and get a method set up so that people can donate money directly to voat with secure credit card payments.

nmgoh2 ago

Heh. This is a fun paradox. You want to support a site all about honesty, transparency, and freedom of speech, but you don't want to donate because someone could track who's paying them.

Donbuster ago

So voat is run by two guys, and everything is handled personally. I'm sure ad purchase over bitcoin will be possible eventually, but in the meantime, why don't you ask them? Create a throwaway email account, send a message to [email protected], and they should respond in a few days. I would be shocked if they don't say yes to an anonymous ad buy over bitcoin.

KinkRaven ago

@atko you should replace the coinbase deposit address with a Ledger Nano S hardware walllet.

You can then accept bitcoin and ethereum, securely and completely under your control. Coinbase is fighting the IRS right now and is probably not a great place to have donations routed to (and it's less secure than using a hardware wallet).

Ping me if you need help or have questions.

cheers

Baccarat ago

The advertising service here needs a makeover IMHO. I'd be lifetime purchaser if Voat could improve the ad platform :)

0fsgivin ago

Yes...they have been silencing liberals for quite awhile under the guisse of "off topic"

https://voat.co/v/whatever/1347811

exhibit A. https://voat.co/v/TheDonald/modlog/comment <-- that spam? adverts? child porn? Nooo...its off topic! not a slipper slope at all #safespace.

but don't worry im just a tinfoil hat idiot. Atko won't sell your asses out as soon as inevitably the liberals come here and they are worth more advertising dollars. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2005/oct/10/mondaymediasection9

But rest assured im just an asshole. And this isn't Digg 3.0.

0fsgivin ago

I wouldn't donate. You're only a cog in the wheel. Censorship already had reared its ugly head here.

https://voat.co/v/TheDonald/modlog/comment <--- thats not spam, its not CP, and its not adverts. He allowed censorship of liberal views until liberals go tired of reddit. But if you like conservative views being censored to pander to you next. don't worry Im sure thats coming next. Since advertisers pay more for young people. and liberals tend to be that.

Rebel_Media_FTW ago

VISA and Mastercard issue gift cards that work exactly like a CC online. Most banks issue them and 7-Eleven has them as well.

Some of them require an online activation to track use/current amount, but don't verify the name/address you give.

Banks generally allow you to put an exact amount you need over $20 + a small fee. so get one for the money you want to donate and then toss the card. no security worries.

ThatOnePrivacyGuy ago

Sure. But I can pay with Bitcoin without having to leave home and drive to two other places. I'm just saying, how badly do they want donations?

xster ago

I don't see any issues supporting Voat in the most public way possible. We are the people. Would have liked a 27$ option too for sentimental value

canbot ago

How do you propose they make that happen?

ThatOnePrivacyGuy ago

They can roll their own bitcoin address and give you the address. This would mean I don't have to use coinbase's system.

Dereliction ago

You don't have to use Coinbase's system. Just send it to the address found here: https://www.coinbase.com/voat.

indiglo_girls ago

Your Voat account IS anonymous. You, or at least I, did not have to provide any personal info to open the Voat account.

riggington ago

This. But I have 2 accounts here now. First I made on paogate, and wasn't here for long, that was with a name that's kinda personal. This one I made when they banned pizzagate and I'm here to stay. This one isn't really tied to me.

So I donated and gave my info and gave the other username. I don't really mind giving my credit card info, but I'd like to not tie it to my account.

Grumpy_Old_Man ago

I donated by credit card, the same as I would buy something from Amazon I don't understand what the big deal is.

WeekendBaker ago

Being associated with a site that says the n word.

I think I'll chip in a tenner tomorrow.

Never_Over ago

this is what killed it for myself aswell, sorry Atko

Sephel ago

Yes yes yes yes yes. This. I had committed to a donation until I realized I needed all my personal info.

sielinda ago

Yes! Right

DiscontentedMajority ago

Plus there's this. Which does not inspire me to hand over info.

brass ago

That's what I bumped into as well. I'd even accept paypal as an option. :/

DiscontentedMajority ago

I just use bitcoin

brass ago

I dumped all my bitcoins and mining setup at nearly the peak value a while back. The return paid for all my stuff and electricity and a vacation. I figured I'd never get that lucky again, so I've walked away from bitcoin entirely.

DiscontentedMajority ago

I don't mine anymore as it's not worth trying to keep up with Chinese farmers, but I still had some bitcoins in an online wallet.

Circle makes using bitcoin super easy.

Isis_Pizza ago

Yeah that's definitely sketch at best. I'm sure the mods at Voat have good intentions, but that's a red flag in my eyes.

dv1155 ago

Lie. The only thing that gets checked is your zip code. Enter anything you want into the name and street address field.

Sephel ago

I was not aware. "Lying" implies I knowingly provided false information. You truly believe I attempted to lie about this?

dv1155 ago

What? No, I'm saying you should enter false information into the fields, the only thing that matters in the zip code. When I've donated I've been John Smith and 123 Fake St in my zip code.

Yiziola ago

ditto

Fahrvergnaked ago

Same here.

deformedwarf ago

You can donate without providing personal info here: www.coinbase.com/voat

Fred-Stiller-OnAWire ago

The Coinbase link (https://www.coinbase.com/voat)) should have a "Use bitcoin address" option which shouldn't require an account unlike the "Use Coinbase wallet" option which will require one.

AOU ago

If you click the bitcoin address in the coinbase page, it will open your default bitcoin client.