Now that the dust has died down, here is an update on what you goats have done since the Angel announcement. If you haven't read this please do, it's a serious matter.
You have sent in 6.21405968 BTC in total which is approximately ~$12,428.00 USD (using $2K/BTC as price fluctuates). Please note the BTC donations were in a large part made by a single transaction.
Store Transactions:
| Date |
Amount |
| 18-May-2017 |
4,279.00 (USD) |
| 19-May-2017 |
5,200.00 (USD) |
| 20-May-2017 |
2,595.00 (USD) |
| 21-May-2017 |
1,800.00 (USD) |
| 22-May-2017 |
1,100.00 (USD) |
| Total* |
14,924.00 (USD) |
Total Donations:
| Date |
Amount |
| Store |
14,924.00 (USD) |
| BTC |
12,428.00 (USD) |
| Total |
27,352.00 (USD) |
Voat, I'm so very proud of you for pulling together and giving Voat another chance. I personally know that every donation is a sacrifice being made and I won't loose sight of this.
A note on hosting costs:
The value of $6,600.90 (USD) mentioned in the above announcement was for the billing period of 2017-04-01 through 2017-04-30. This means we have another bill coming up in one week. I did not turn down the hardware specs because of the uncertainty of the rather odd T_D advance and retreat we saw. Also, these amounts do not include all bills such as cloudflare and a few other small things were not added in.
This amount only gives us at most 3-4 months of operational only funds at our current burn rate, which isn't much. So now the real work begins.
Next Steps
In the short-run, we have to reduce operating costs significantly (porting to open backends and runtimes) and we need to get organized as a community. I simply cannot manage Voat alone and now is the time I admit this and open Voat up to help from the community. I will need volunteers to help with Voat's operations such sales, marketing, and community relations. If you have a strength and you want to help Voat, please send an email to [email protected] with your proposal. Voat also needs a lawyer for a few small things (our first pro-bono lawyer disappeared on us with no explanation) so if any are out there we'd love to hear from you.
I'm significantly delayed with responding to emails but I am working through them. Also, I am unable to stay on top of PM's through Voat (I have thousands of unread PMs). So please reach out via email if something is important.
I will shortly be making a post to v/voatdev with plans for migrating Voat to an open runtime.
Canary
https://voat.co/v/announcements/1330806
view the rest of the comments →
9232899? ago
I definitely think reducing operating costs is a priority, and I know you need help to do that in reasonable time. We have people from /v/Linux actively working to help with that process.
Specific parts Putt has stated a need for volunteers so far:
Putt, could you go into some more depth sometime soon about the exact work that needs to be done in these categories? And are there any other roles that need to be filled? I think the more specific the stated roles are the more likely people are to reach out.
EDIT: Also, if people stay true to their pledges and if more pledges come in, I'm sure that with reduced monthly costs and more volunteers we can run Voat long-term and smoothly. If you intend to donate monthly and are not on the list I linked to, please contact me so we all have a better understanding of how much we can reasonably hope to bring in each month on our own.
EDIT 2: Also, that title is amazing.
Planet_Terror ago
Will there be any merchandise soon? I've donated $25 a few days ago but would definitely buy some Voat Goat merch! Maybe something for the cars ... that can always give some free advertisement., especially with the cute Goat, I think it may make people curious and come visit.
9267414? ago
We've had merch drives in the past and there are definitely more to come, they just always have temporary merch availability. Shouldn't be much longer before the next one.
Planet_Terror ago
Perfect thanks! I'll keep my eye out for it and donate whenever I have some extra cash.
pnwpatriot97 ago
You need a salesman for voat? MY TIME HAS COME!!!
draegspir ago
This guy.
WeekendBaker ago
I can pitch in for both sales and marketing. Where to post ideas?
9242549? ago
There are many places on Voat you could post ideas. /v/whatever, /v/voatdev, /v/ideasforvoat. If you want a formal volunteer position where you help actually implement the changing email Putt at [email protected].
SpaceCpt ago
I deal with pissed off customers all day every day and come here to escape, but if it means keeping voat alive I would be willing to make a "Mr. Nice Guy" account to help out with that sort of thing.
Broc_Lia ago
I seriously doubt it'll be any use, but on the off chance a need for a 3D graphics artist develops let me know.
9234918? ago
I'd like to see those skills put to use around here at some point, somewhere.
eyeman ago
I'm not the most tech savvy, but would switching to the new cloud storage technology be an option to save cost? I plugged in the cost 6000$ in for azure, and sia tech claims it would only cost 550$ for the same amount on their cloud network. I have no clue if this would work or not, but I thought I would mention it.
9234022? ago
I'm also not certain, but that's definitely worth mentioning. Is Sia Tech an open source company?
eyeman ago
I'm pretty sure, like I said I'm tech illetrate. I just know they are a decentralized cloud storage company that offers some decent prices, and sounds like it would be a lot harder to ddos. I'm not trying to advertise for them thought, just trying to cut some cost for voat.
9234288? ago
Sounds interesting. I'm glad you mentioned it.
1moar ago
I have some significantly cheaper hosting options I checked on, but would need a run down on specifics and current bandwidth and storage currently being used. Scaleable and more, without aws or azure.
Donbuster ago
Hijacking, but the /v/linux effort is being organized in an outside slack team. Invite link here
Anyone with skills to be useful, feel free to join
SecularPenguinist ago
link is dead. I'm a Linux systems administrator. I can't commit too much time but I can definitely spare some cycles.
TheCompanionCube ago
Invite link is dead. I'm a professional sw engineer but don't do web dev, is this something I can contribute to or should i look elsewhere?
9233748? ago
Awesome, thank you for that clarification and further detail. I hear some nice strides have been made.