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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9138763? ago
Ok people hold on I get this, operation outjewjews hope
You make a shit video, like fucking shit no time spent for a start (you can do quality eventually but then it's longer and chances are it will be shit nobody gives a fuck about anyway), as in, idk, a freaking chiptune with a crappy gif for 10 mins, and you upload it on youtube, and you run a fucking ad revenue program shit like pewdiepiped does
And you put that gaddamn shit vid on the front page so we can't forget to watch that stupid shit at least once in a day per user
...
We don't hand you money, we hand you views for your shit youtube channel so youtube hands you money in return through the ads revenue program
@PuttItOut
9138835? ago
YouTube has seen an AdPocalypse. Trying to go through YouTube to get funding, especially where Voat has the views on freedom and having your say that it does, is just foolish at this point, unfortunately.
9138929? ago
What about asking pewdiepew for sponsorhsip ?
He's a millionaire for fuck sakes, 6000 bucks is a fart in the wind for him
Operation nazi shield
He gets featured on voat's front page
9139052? ago
1) I doubt he'd care to support us, 2) he spends all his time nowadays complaining about how his videos were demonetizied and he isn't making any money. He may have millions but he wants more, for himself not obscure websites.