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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Nihilist ago
Fuck Microsoft azure. Go 100% Linux to save shitloads.
Licensing fees or for normie losers.
weezkitty ago
I don't get why they didn't start the porting effort before things got expensive. There is really no rational reason to run microshit
ShitArchon ago
I'm still pissed they implemented the Archived Thread feature--and the cutoff is even sooner than Reddit, 2 months instead of 5 months. I absolutely loathe that, it's worse than Reddit. I'd gladly donate if the admins will port to something better at load-handling than shitty Azure and then change commenting back.
JustAPseudonym ago
Why do you not like archiving?
ShitArchon ago
"You can't comment after 3 months" is a bullshit restriction that hampers what I can do. And it's more severe than Reddit.
And look at how they made the trophies ugly in the switch from alpha to beta. I absolutely refuse to donate if the admins have no intention of making the site better, not worse.
VoatRedditPort ago
Honestly, it isn't bullshit. Archiving saves resources/money.
ShitArchon ago
Then why didn't they do it earlier when supply greatly exceeded demand? And again, just because something saves money doesn't mean I have to smile and like the feature. Until the admins have any intentions of implementing the features I want, they're not getting a red fuckin' cent.
VoatRedditPort ago
Honestly? Inexperience. As far as I can tell they are just feeling their way along.
I didn't say you had to donate. But no offense, unless you were personally planning to donate 100% of the operating costs, catering to you doesn't make any economic sense.
ShitArchon ago
We're talking about people who knew what the loads were and even made a map game until Voat could be back online. That's more complex than auto-locking threads after a given time period.
You're correct. And it doesn't make economic sense for me to incentivize behavior I don't want.