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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Riva ago
What kind of monthly membership would come close to covering this cost? Of the 'literally doezens' of us, are we talking $10 dollars per month per active member? $100 dollars? Give us a number. I wouldn't mind setting up a recuring subscripton to keep this place free speech (And make sure someone doesn't come in and say hey, we own you now, take those down - cuz that's what's going to happen when a single entity owns this.).
But srsly, if the math doesn't work out, delete this thread, put the site up for sale on empire flippers and get your money back (as much as you can). There are peopel who would kill for this much ready made traffic, even if it is full of us goats.
9138901? ago
If every active member paid $10/month that would be WAY MORE than enough. Way more.
More realistically, if a small minority of the active members paid $5/month ($10 if you can afford it) that would cover things nicely.
If every active member was donating monthly the necessary payment would be less than a dollar each. That will never happen, though, which is why persuading people to donate $5 or $10 a month is ideal.
Riva ago
Why not just charge a 1USD membership fee? I'd gladly pay.
9139009? ago
I would as well. The problem with mandatory memberships is the majority of people would refuse to pay, either because of financial issues or (more prominently) a hesitancy or refusal to pay with (non-anonymous) credit card.
Better is to persuade people to pay the $5 or $10 a month if they can afford it. I know many of us can. Pursuing anonymous ways to pay would help out a lot I'm sure, but the problem is PayPal can't be trusted as history has shown, and bitcoin is tough to use.
I think Patreon would be feasible.
Riva ago
Or, we can open temporary membership.. That gives some advantages like Reddit good. I was paying 2.99 per month for Reddit because I used it a lot. I'd love to do that here as well. We can have a free tier, but offer a membership as well. Make the 'regular' membership accessible to everyone and give some advantage. This also protects against a single big investor coming in to buy the place because we can't afford it.
9139175? ago
Pre-paid credit cards work.
9139630? ago
Thank you!!! That's good to know. Will be picking up a pre-paid card to donate tomorrow and I will make it a point to pay my Voat fees once a month. More than worth it to keep this site going.
9139278? ago
That's certainly something for people to consider if no new system is implemented immediately and people want that assured anonymity.