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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9138620? ago
@PuttItOut
Ask for an infowars sponsorship, in exchange we get to see alex jones face everyday
on a fucking banner right there >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
markrod420 ago
if you think infowars won't try to manipulate the content like any other advertiser then you are just lying to yourself about who they are.
9141525? ago
I'd rather have InfoWars trying to manipulate this site to believe in more conspiracies than to have some normie trying to silence the conspiracy talk entirely.
markrod420 ago
a shill is a shill no matter the flavor.
9141704? ago
You don't sound like you're any fun at parties.
SubspaceDistortion ago
<Batman voice> This isn't a party.
Freedom of speech is serious business.
9142123? ago
The normal investor shills for an advertiser-friendly controlled environment.
The InfoWars investors shill for freedom of speech, gun rights, getting the truth out of our politicians and businesses, and occasionally trying to get people to buy their own combination of prepper goods, gun accessories, and vitamin supplements.
Also, InfoWars is more than willing to interview anyone and everyone, while the Corporate Media does pre-interviews and stacks their in-studio audiences and poll respondents, so there isn't a big risk of InfoWars or Breitbart trying to shill us into going too far in either political direction.
markrod420 ago
yeah i dont trust info wars. i dont trust alex jones. i believe they exist to make legitimate issues seem crazy. i dont think they are on our side at all. As far as im aware he basically came out against pizzagate for one thing. am i mistaken?
9142963? ago
He retracted a statement he made about Alefantis because they were preparing to bring a libel lawsuit against him, and knowing the money fielded by the globalists, the lawsuit might have been big enough to make Gawker's destruction seem like a cherry bomb compared to that nuke of a court case.
He still has had MANY people on over the last few months (both pre- and post-election) talking about the pedophile rings all throughout our country that are getting swept up thanks to Trump, he just had to publicly talk distance himself from their "Pizzagate" term because of the time he had spent pointing out their false flag location as a part of the larger conspiracy (even if it is, the evidence for that has been buried too deep for the general public to be willing to hear it).
When he has a chance to calmly explain himself and explain what he is really like or what he really thinks, all of his actions make sense. He learned all of this stuff 20+ years ago from his dad, and has been getting high-level intel for over a decade. He is someone who is very loyal to people until they screw him over, and then he'll curse them out with every breath in his body. He is very protective of his family, particularly his children, and doesn't want any harm to come to them, but if someone brings a fight, he isn't afraid to punch back.
In a lot of ways, he is very much like a true American cowboy stereotype, with the main differences being "he is a bit bigger build than the traditional cowboy image {unsure how much is fat vs muscle}" and "he is getting access to hints of information from the highest levels of government around the world".
markrod420 ago
i want to believe that he is on our side. but the issues ive seen him take on and the way he approaches things i cant help but feel like he starts out legitimate and begins to make valid points and then he eventally goes off the rails and begins to make the entire issue look like crazy people talk. So far i just dont trust him and ive been watching things from him for like 7 years now.