Trench Wars Holiday Donation Drive

[Mythril]

Logical missiles

[Mythril]

Tyranny
Tyrant
Trant
Rant
Ant
Faggot
Tyrant
Tyrannical Tyrants
mean people
I am poor and smart
Tyrants
Grasps is a squad captain?
Imaginary boxes
Tyrant
Tyrannical boxes

[Mobey]

Amazing to think PriitK is still forking out for the game servers after so many years. Happy holidays TW.

[Falconeer]

This Falconeer guy is an absolute cancer spamming forums. I disagree with Qan about a lot of things, but the notion that he's stealing from a pot of $100 bucks a month and needs to answer to you is absurd. I'm pretty sure if you can afford to live in Japan, you don't need to be siphoning off $50 bucks a month. He puts a lot of free work into the game, and has earned the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

Why do we let these trolls spam and harass fucking volunteers in a free game?



Also, this might be the stupidest sentence I've ever read in on these forums. You're aware DDOS attacks repeatedly took the zone down and cost us like 40% of the game's population, right?



EDIT: I donated to the cause even though I don't play much anymore, in appreciation of people putting in time and effort to help the zone, and in spite of people like Falconeer.

I think the problem is I'm talking with people who care about politics so they don't take my text literally and read machinations between the lines and secondly that you all fail at reading comprehension. Who said anyone has to answer to me personally? If people want to throw their money away without critical thinking or transparency that's up to them. A donation is freely given because you're ready to part with your money... like giving a gift, when I give a gift it now belongs to someone else to do with what they want. If you need little convincing to give money away then I personally think you are rich or dumb or both.

But I am poor and smart, and I don't just give donations because qan tells me some imaginary box is low on money. I would want screenshots of the drive too, so I can see Apache log files taking up 20 gigs of space... or whatever amount of space it takes to cut a $100 a month price tag to $50... in fact by wanting to see this it means I am actually learning how a server works on top of it. I better learn what is plausible and reasonable within services like this, so then when the next guy I meet talks about apache log files taking up space I can trust him.

This however, is why I personally wouldn't donate. But my points weren't made about me. I was making a broad statement that donors, meaning everyone else... should want transparency to see how their money is being used as well as if it's the most efficient use of the server/funds given that it's a game from 1996 with not a lot of space/speed requirements. I also firmly believe the more transparency there is, the more people will donate. You happen to be the trustworthy naive people of the internet, or maybe you have a history with qan and trust him? regardless people who are more critical thinkers will be won over with transparency and your donations will rise. It's actually for the benefit of you. But you're too dumb to see that.

DDOS for the zone is required, not really for the website, also what year was the game DDOS'ed back when it had 800 players? You think anyone left here can DDOS or cares to? I suppose there is the potential for a random hacker to just pick on the game for no reason. But maybe you were an asshole who banned them for text? Apparently if DDOS is so common maybe it was because your type of tyranny gets around.

If I ever feel like throwing $20 in the trash, or burning it over a fire, maybe I will stop and donate it to qan. You know... because without transparency it would be like throwing my money away to me.

[ogron]

He's not aware of too much that's happened in TW, being a pretty recent player. Thanks for donating, Og. Sorry you didn't get a coupon but I also am willing to bet you don't really give a damn about spacedollars.

Yep, no problem.

lol, no, I don't care about pub bux.

[qan]

You're aware DDOS attacks repeatedly took the zone down and cost us like 40% of the game's population, right?

He's not aware of too much that's happened in TW, being a pretty recent player. Thanks for donating, Og. Sorry you didn't get a coupon but I also am willing to bet you don't really give a damn about spacedollars.

How did you magically find all this space to free up from having a more hard line stance of there's nothing that can be done?

Cleared out the Apache logs, cleared out some old bot logs, deleted the archived version of the SSDL backup (I have it on Cloud storage). Hadn't had time to analyze it properly. I work full-time and have a fairly active social life. May have jumped the gun with the donation drive, but $600 is next to nothing and needed to act fast so as to be able to reach the old players returning for Christmas.

[qan]

(Updated OP with this information)

UPDATE 1: We've migrated to a $50/month plan after re-assessing our server requirements. It's a bit tight, but we can make it work! Zone functionality shouldn't be affected. But please let me know if you notice anything unusual. The zone still needs your donations!

UPDATE 2: The donation page is currently NOT providing coupons for donations, due to a problem with the PayPal handler. Apologies!! (The donations themselves are still going through successfully.) Zazu is working on fixing this problem (thanks Zazu!). I'll be issuing manual coupons for any donations in the meantime, once they're verified from Paypal. Sorry again for this inconvenience.

[ogron]

This Falconeer guy is an absolute cancer spamming forums. I disagree with Qan about a lot of things, but the notion that he's stealing from a pot of $100 bucks a month and needs to answer to you is absurd. I'm pretty sure if you can afford to live in Japan, you don't need to be siphoning off $50 bucks a month. He puts a lot of free work into the game, and has earned the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

Why do we let these trolls spam and harass fucking volunteers in a free game?

The fuck you paying for? DDOS protection?

Also, this might be the stupidest sentence I've ever read in on these forums. You're aware DDOS attacks repeatedly took the zone down and cost us like 40% of the game's population, right?



EDIT: I donated to the cause even though I don't play much anymore, in appreciation of people putting in time and effort to help the zone, and in spite of people like Falconeer.

[zidane]

Miss you too rough

[Soldier13]

This is important for me, might be able to help out. Hope we can most pitch in some money for this game.

[Falconeer]

Honestly qan if the server was for someones personal use + subspace, that's actually fine too... the issue would then be you should probably be paying for the space your files take up on your own, and then hope the donations cover the subspace related stuff... again it's an issue of transparency. It may be that you or the other devs already pay a large percentage of the price and therefore you cover your personal items on the server. But the lack of transparency about that is still an issue, regardless if it works out and it's fair or not. I think people should be let in on the loop of what exactly is going on. How did you magically find all this space to free up from having a more hard line stance of there's nothing that can be done?

The reason it's fine to have personal files, is because buying a whole new server package just for yourselves, would be triple or double costs. It's more efficient to use 1 server package for everything. Just be open about it and people wont have a problem with this and you'll get more donators the more open you are.

[Panda Express]

Unfortunately we're not a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so donations are not tax-deductible. We did take this to a lawyer at one point in time, but it was determined it wasn't really feasible, maybe due to the all-volunteer nature of the project. We'd also probably have to hire an accountant in that case, at least once a year. Sorry if this is a make-or-break condition for you to donate, but we don't have much choice there. Could just put in whatever you pay for a cup of coffee in the morning! Every dollar helps.

The General Fund in this case is just the "pay for the secondary server" fund. This server's main purpose is to run the bots, which provide game functionality across the zone. It also hosts an array of sites on the trenchwars.org domain, and runs our database, which is shared between the bots and the site.


Also, after a few hours of work today I've managed to free up some space on the server, so I think we'll be stepping down to the $50 a month service starting next month, if everything goes as planned.

Thank you for this reasonable explaination. I'm incredibly thankful for the time and effort you and others have put into making the game what it is. Thank you!

A large donation is I'm sorry to say off the table for me but I can do a smaller amount no problem. Is it possible to set up a monthly donation?

[qan]

I have to agree with Falconeer, I'd also like transparency. At first read, I was completely fine with at least a $100 donation, without realizing it was with anonymity.

I donate around 10% of my adjusted gross income to charity annually. Is this considered a charitable contribution? For me to itemize and deduct a donation from my taxes, I need it to be so. Also, what written acknowledgment do you provide with regard to a donation? Say I were to donate $1,200 and cover a year of your expenses; I'm unable to rely on a PayPal receipt.

Also, please explain what the General Fund covers. Thank you!

Unfortunately we're not a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so donations are not tax-deductible. We did take this to a lawyer at one point in time, but it was determined it wasn't really feasible, maybe due to the all-volunteer nature of the project. We'd also probably have to hire an accountant in that case, at least once a year. Sorry if this is a make-or-break condition for you to donate, but we don't have much choice there. Could just put in whatever you pay for a cup of coffee in the morning! Every dollar helps.

The General Fund in this case is just the "pay for the secondary server" fund. This server's main purpose is to run the bots, which provide game functionality across the zone. It also hosts an array of sites on the trenchwars.org domain, and runs our database, which is shared between the bots and the site.


Also, after a few hours of work today I've managed to free up some space on the server, so I think we'll be stepping down to the $50 a month service starting next month, if everything goes as planned.

[Jones]

This game is the best Trench Wars is the best zone Mythril is the best wb. I love you all

[Panda Express]

I have to agree with Falconeer, I'd also like transparency. At first read, I was completely fine with at least a $100 donation, without realizing it was with anonymity.

I donate around 10% of my adjusted gross income to charity annually. Is this considered a charitable contribution? For me to itemize and deduct a donation from my taxes, I need it to be so. Also, what written acknowledgment do you provide with regard to a donation? Say I were to donate $1,200 and cover a year of your expenses; I'm unable to rely on a PayPal receipt.

Also, please explain what the General Fund covers. Thank you!