Edit:
I'm simply blown away with you goats. I was expecting a somber farewell in this thread but instead you've done the exact opposite; pulled off a rally at the bottom of the 9th. On a personal note, and this may seem sentimental, but you have given me a new hope for Voat at very dark time for me.
All I can say now is: Let's do this! I think your message is clear. We have a ton of work to do, a short window in which to do it, and I fully understand I can't do it alone. We will need all hands on deck if Voat is to have any chance at survival.
I will post the plans I have for Voat as well as a status update on your contributions by Monday.
P.S. Old goats, be nice to the new kids. ;)
Original Post
As I sit here about to write one of the most difficult announcements yet, I was just reminded that my account is one month shy of three years old. Nearly three years ago I came here from Reddit when the vote counts disappeared and I felt I could no longer trust what I saw. Nearly three years ago I met @Atko and started contributing code because I believed in him, his mission, and what he was doing. So much has happened during these last three years.
I know a lot of you are new, but Voat has been through a wild ride, and never at any point was it an easy one. My memories are bittersweet when it comes to Voat. I’ve sacrificed the best years of my life for Voat, I’ve lost my business partner whom I miss a lot, I’ve lost people in my life, I’ve given up golf which was my passion, and even with all this I still believe in Voat. I still see the dire need for Free Speech in this world, I fear a world without it, and I still will do anything I can to continue providing it.
But alas, I am powerless to keep Voat running without financial support. As of right now Voat has no solid commitments. Voat has always needed a financial partner whom had balls of steel and backing deep enough to give Voat the capabilities to run as an actual business (being able to hire staff and set itself apart from its competitors), not just a one man show. Potential investors have one or the other of these traits, but we have yet to find one with both. In this day and age, this is Voat’s unicorn.
In the past Voat has been lucky enough to be part of special programs designed for startup companies which gave us free licensing on various products and significantly reduced hosting costs. These programs have since expired and we are now paying full costs. Last month was our first non-discounted month on Azure and the usage was $6,600.90 USD. Donations, ads, and merchandise only put a dent in this and this is the primary reason why we have not launched another merchandise run. And begging for donations was always something we hated doing.
I’m writing this announcement to prepare this community, and the Voat family, for the possibility of a closure. I’m not certain on timing and I have too much invested in this place to give up just yet, so I cannot provide any timelines. In the meantime, I will soon be scaling back all Voat’s servers by at least 50%. I will also turn off some features that are resource intensive.
Voat needs funding. Without it, Voat will be no more.
Voat needs an Angel
Canary
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
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AOU ago
I would invest without hesitation, if only I haven't had to support my family.
Best thing I have been able to do is reporting all these resource hungry spammers with all the other great voaters at RS.
Owlchemy ago
Same here, and attempt to add decent content to hopefully attract more. It's all a sad situation. If only we could twist the zillion spammers arms and talk them into buying ads instead of trying to cheat the system, we'd be fine. But unfortunately, that will never happen.
Cynabuns ago
You are another of the spam ninja's who help to make my job that much easier - thank you Owly :)
Owlchemy ago
Sad times. I hate to see this place go, I've invested time, and hopefully decent content and have always tried my best to be a contributor, but alas, financially, I can't do more ... so I try in other ways as do many of the Great Goats I've met here do. It's really a shame because those who have put all their effort into destroying this place are the only winners. I've seen so many good people pushed away because of stupidity of our 'children and village idiots' that it truly pisses me off. But what can you do, it is what it is and I'll hang in here and keep plugging away, as best I can, but a dark cloud seems upon us.
Cynabuns ago
Let's all keep pushing away in the different ways that we can each help, whether it's a buck or two now and again, or reporting spammers or submitting content. We all win when Voat wins :)
Owlchemy ago
That's my theory, too ... take care!
AOU ago
I had a few spammers buying ads (their domains showed up in the sidebar). ^_^
Owlchemy ago
Great. I try to tell them to buy ads often myself, but more often than not am ignored or they swear they aren't even spamming. The whole spam battle thing seems endless after awhile, but you and I keep plugging away ... we do what we can do.
AOU ago
Catching them in /all a few seconds after they submitted their spam is the most efficient thing to do. If only putt would give the ban hammer to someone trustworthy (e.g @cynabuns), we could get them out pretty much instantly. They would end up spamming voat seeing it doesn't bring any traffic to their spam domains.
Owlchemy ago
I thought that was a great idea when you first proposed it awhile back ... and it would be effective. But we may now be past the point where any of this matters, I'm afraid. But I'll keep up the fight until they turn out the lights, as will many of the other good guys in our midst.
AOU ago
Count me in.