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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Zardoz ago
Would it be crazy to run a massive fundraiser on R/The_Donald ? well it would be hilarious and could it work?
It does sound like we need a based patriot, a grand angel investor.
Tydude ago
To be fair, $6k a month is really nothing if you consider the size of the userbase of voat plus how important that we all know it is. We don't need millions in seed capital, I'm willing to bet that a well advertised patreon would easily cover all costs associated with running the site and then some. Most people don't donate because it's so opaque at the moment.
Patreon is the wave of the future RE: projects like this and has kept many a youtuber going despite the adpocalypse trying to shut them down.
Dick_Tits ago
There are 6,000,000 subscribers on the_donald. If ever subrscriber donated 1/10th of a cent we'd meet voats goals.
Zardoz ago
Oh, yes I suppose Patreon would be a good one. I have heard more Youtubers are going that way.
I suppose the vote guys don't want to ask for money (they seem apologetic about it) but really - they are fully in the right and welcome to have a big open pledge drive, put a big fat 'PayPal Donate' banner and ask if everyone can post some 'Patreon' types of links.
And some kind of 'Angel Investor' would be awesome too. I'm told Gab.ai might have had a special blond millionaire author lady 'angel invest' to help get them started and stable. Sure that would be good stuff! Hey, who knows, maybe Don and Eric know some philanthropists who want to drop by and put in a few bucks!
sensitive ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/6bxejd/pedes_voat_might_be_going_under_you_can_help_save/