As promised, here is our financial status as of January 25, 2016.
Our hosting bills for the months 7, 8 and 9 of 2015 (the ones we paid out of pocket): $15'442.89.
CloudFlare DDoS protection for 2015 and Jan 2016: $1'593.33.
We are currently using our startup credits to cover our hosting bills. This will end by June 2016 and then we're on our own.
We have some 21k in bitcoin and a smaller amount in Dogecoin, and we plan to use this to cover the costs we paid out of pocket. PayPal donations have also helped cover some of the costs above and costs prior to 7 2015. We plan to decrease our hosting costs by further optimizing our platform, but there is also an option to migrate to another hosting provider if we can get more value for our money.
We are in the process of setting up our merchant account with a US bank, and if all goes well, we should be able to sell products and services and process credit cards.
If I missed to mention this, Voat is now a registered Delaware company and me and PuttitOut are the sole owners. Company registration is also another large cost which we covered ourselves. We have not taken any investments (although we did receive quite a few offers and inquiries).
With massive optimization and cost cuts, starting with July 2016, our monthly costs will easily go above 5k and we will obviously need your help to stay online. I may have missed to mention some costs, I will update this announcement if I remember anything. Please note that I wrote this in haste (I have a full time job which is rather exhausting as you may have noticed).
@PuttitOut: please feel free to edit this thread if you wish to add something or correct any mistakes I may have made.
If you have ideas what we can do to help keep Voat online, this is your time to shine. One-time sale of products/services usually don't work in the long term, so we need to think of something which will provide recurring income.
I have to run out, but I'll be back later to answer any questions you may have. I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas.
Finally, a big thank you to all who donated, but also thank you everyone else who wanted to donate but could not, for whatever reason.
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rwbj ago
So $5k a month. That works out to about $166 per day. Here's a really simple idea: for $10 you get to create a post up to 'x' words that's displayed on the sidebar and visible to every single person on Voat - for one hour. Self promotion, subverse promotion, rants, and amateurism in general obviously fully encouraged. Basically you're making a post that everybody will see. That's cheap enough that I think you'd have no trouble whatsoever filling it out and may even have to turn down people who want to buy up too many hours. A full month's booking works out to be $7,200 in revenue for Voat.
Keep it fun and simple. So no special rates relative to display time for instance. If somebody gets stuck at 4am (relative to voat primetime) sorry - buy another slot, it's only $10! And only display what time the ad will be shown once the person has paid. The touchy issue would be what's allowed content wise. The racist folk would line up from here until next year to be able to have a racist rant viewed by every single voater at $10/hour, so you'll have to make some decisions that are going to end up with people upset either way you go - but aside from that this seems like a simple and all but guaranteed way to keep Voat a truckin and even make a few bucks for you guys that started the show.
Gill6150 ago
by far my favorite here, I think if racist comments get up. They get taken down, with no refund. They lose out on their hour plus the 10 bucks.
frankenmine ago
Voat is dedicated to free speech. I think you are looking for safespace dot com.
Gill6150 ago
Racism should not fall under free speech.
frankenmine ago
Unfortunately for you, it does, and it will continue to for as long as we all live. Get used to it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/05/07/no-theres-no-hate-speech-exception-to-the-first-amendment/
Gill6150 ago
I didn't mean that's what the first amendment says. That's my personal opinion. If you're okay with racism in any form, you are a terrible person. (Not saying you directly, just saying in general.)
frankenmine ago
You made a universal statement. That is more than personal opinion. It is a claim of fact and it is wrong.
You are against arguably the most fundamental human right there is, the right to free speech. You are a terrible person. Saying you directly.
Gill6150 ago
I made a statement about my opinion.
frankenmine ago
No, you didn't. Your statement is right up there. We can all see it. And you are still lying about it. Holy fuck, you're shameless.
Gill6150 ago
My statement does not say anything to suggest one way or another. No way for you to know my intent on the subject. I told you, then you call me a liar. I'm not sure what you mean.