Future of FRF

[Anonymous]

When i first started FearlessRevolution Forums as the place for cheat engine tables more than a year ago, i never imagined we would even survive this long and it was incredibly hard at the beginning with constant DDOS attacks and no funds but everyone helped and it worked until now. Here is what is going on



The move to xenforo has been expensive - licenses, themes, mods, the chat client - and a lot of that 1931 and 12587 helped tremendously with, wouldn't be possible without their help. The one thing nice about phpbb was everything involving it was free and needed extremely low upkeep. We had to move to another hosting as well.



Something else is happening since the last time i asked for help - we're losing our donators every month - and it's understandable. Nobody will keep donating for life or a year even and i don't expect them to. Look at our patreon page, it's barely helping with server costs. Next month, probably wouldn't It's getting expensive to maintain the site and the support is dropping.



Another thing that's happened is FRF has made its own enemies. You all know what happened to our discord twice now and the DDOS attacks that happen every now and then.



I can't afford it all alone, FRF is not a hobby site anymore and the costs are real. But i am not going to let it get to the point some dick attack it (the douche(s) who hates us will probably ddos us again after reading this) and not able to do anything about it or a couple more donators disappearing and not being able to afford the hosting next month.



I have a few options. Rely solely on donations which i realize having done for a year now is it's not a feasible option in the long term because people get sick of donating constantly or lose interest for whatever reason - the donations are also slowly seeming like less and less as the server costs increase, i can't imagine how it will be a in a year or more. I admit i was a bit naive thinking FRF could be the next Wikipedia running on donations lol. Or i can accept help from people who offered and compromise on the vision i have had for this place, monetize it or probably sell it to someone who can afford it without having to ask for these donations every few months.



I have dreaded this moment but it was bound to happen i guess as FRF gained momentum. You will start seeing ads on FRF soon - i don't know how much that will help though - somewhat?. It's helping run some sites we know, maybe frf too.



And i have to ask for donations again, check out our patreon page it's not good. It will be terrible next month or the month after that.



Donate and help fearlessrevolution survive!



You might have gotten some use out of FRF, help it ?



You can donate using this link



[Link]



Or Patreon if you use that



[Link]



Thank you



TL;DR version: FRF financial situation is bleak even so in the long term and i have decided to run ads. FRF also needs your help so please donate. Excuse the long text, i wanted to be open about the whole situation rather than just announcing a decision.



UPDATE: We're good for now. I have finally given up and set up ads, don't know how they're going to do yet but a couple people pledged to Patreon and Paypal so we're set for a couple months..



I might have to spam a donate button at the top in a few months if this doesn't work out.



Thanks to everyone who donated ?.

[DrummerIX]

Sorry to hear this. I'm getting a nice raise at work, so I upped my Patreon. I hope it helps. Not sure what it costs to run the site, but it's probably expensive. Each person can only do so much, so I hope enough help to keep the site going.

[STN]

[QUOTE="DrummerIX, post: 50604, member: 1466"]Sorry to hear this. I'm getting a nice raise at work, so I upped my Patreon. I hope it helps. Not sure what it costs to run the site, but it's probably expensive. Each person can only do so much, so I hope enough help to keep the site going.[/QUOTE]



It shouldn't be just a few people though supporting the bunch of us. You have already done so much, you shouldn't please!. This is why i have decided to move things in a different direction so i don't have to ask for donations at all. Every time i do, the people who have always contributed so much, up their contributions even more and i feel bad because the rest of the people leech like always.



I made this thread to ask more people to help us not burden the existing donators even more. You guys have been fucking awesome already! :)

[DrummerIX]

Maybe the ads will help you fund the site more easily in the long term. I don't think I can up my Patreon anymore than what I just did. I don't mind because I enjoy making tables and having somewhere to share them with others who enjoy them.



I can only guess the enemies FRF made might be the sites who do business in this area and don't like free competitors or just people that don't like you. I have noticed drama over the years, but I typically don't like to get involved in drama, but that can probably make enemies also when people no longer like you for some reason or another.



Anyway, I hope things continue to work out. I enjoy what I do to help the site.

[notPhokz]

I was always afraid this might happen. But maybe the server cost can be obtained through advertising rather than based on donations? The forums surely get a lot of traffic, because this is the first place people come for cheats.

Now I'm wondering how DarkByte could keep his forums for so many years. It surely wasn't cheap for him.

[STN]

[QUOTE="notPhokz, post: 50615, member: 338"]I was always afraid this might happen. But maybe the server cost can be obtained through advertising rather than based on donations? The forums surely get a lot of traffic, because this is the first place people come for cheats.

Now I'm wondering how DarkByte could keep his forums for so many years. It surely wasn't cheap for him.[/QUOTE]



Through Pay per install (ce installer) and ads on the main site is my guess.



Yeah i am gonna try advertising. Btw just to give you an idea how things are different now versus a year back, nobody has donated except Drummerix since this post got live where people usually chipped in immediately. This is what i am afraid of more so in future.

[Eric]

the ads on the mainsite is already enough to pay for the server. (but then again i usually use cheap hosting and have some experience with optimizing resource usage)



but yeah, i don't mind advertising on here, but please no popups.



what i did for a while on the forum is only show advertisement to unregistered users.



also, when using ads, watch which topics show ads and who your advertiser is.

Google for example will block a whole subdomain if a topic goes about something they don't approve of.

[STN]

God no!, i hate sites that do that.

[koderkrazy]

Traffic on the forum is good, I think game ads will generate good revenue.

If not pay but people will surly click on adds to support the forum...

[bonzay0]

Damn, didn't notice we are in such a bad shape...



Well if my condition will be good in January I'll probably up my donation by 1 more :)



Currently I'm funding my trip to Japan so...



Anyway, things will get better that's for sure. Just need to give people more reason to help out.

Also ads are good, you can do "one time payment for non ads" can also help, I think?



I wish I couldv'e helped more but the trip is currently my top priority.

[Jakerino]

I am a long time lurker as Im sure many people are. This post needs more visibility. I can pledge but it won't be significant.

[Send]

This community has welcomed myself and everyone else with open arms. I'm going through a bit of the same situation, money wise, but I'll try to do what I can. Don't worry, we'll figure something out [USER=1]@STN[/USER]. Love ya brother.



Note:I like Eric's idea of running ads to unregistered users, as most people will come from search engines and don't bother registering. Hell, sometimes I don't bother logging in these days since, you know, I don't do anything BTS anymore. But I do still keep up with the community on a regular basis.



Note 2: Jakerino's idea of more visibility is a necessity, as well. Put this post up as a site-wide (or just above the forum listing) announcement.

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/Slj6Qj4.png[/IMG]

[STN]

We're good for now. I have finally given up and set up ads, don't know how they're going to do yet but a couple people pledged to Patreon and Paypal so we're set for a couple months.



I might have to spam a donate button at the top in a few months if this doesn't work out.



Thanks to everyone who donated ?.

[Send]

Where are they placed? I don't see them, even with uBlockOrigin disabled and logged out.

[STN]

Unregistered users ;)