Trench Wars server fund is in dire straits; donations requested

[Falconeer]

I'll cut to the chase: Trench Wars is broke.







At one time, generous folks put together large prize pools for league wins, and many equally-generous winners chose to donate their winnings toward server costs. This has pretty much been the only thing paying for the server over the past few years.

...

We haven't had a large league prize pool in quite a while. If we're only taking in $5 a month (or, to be more accurate, $4.37 after fees), you can guess which direction our finances will go.

Why not tax the league prize pools? If someone decides to donate to a league prize pool again, the zone could take a 10%-20% cut for services rendered and for hosting. So if someone has a 1000$ prize pool, then the zone gets $100-200 and the prize pool is $800-900 now.

[qan]

Updates:

We're up to $69.26/month, or 39% of the way to our goal!

There's also been a very generous donation of $360, which covers two full months of hosting.

We're now covered for the next 9 months. I'll try to keep updating regularly so long as new donations are coming in.

Can we see a list of names of people that have donated?

I'm not sure everyone who donates will want to be recognized in that way, but please post in the thread if you donate and don't mind.

Why not tax the league prize pools?

A pretty large percentage of people end up donating their winnings to the server fund already. In DT S26, that was 58% of total prizes!

[Asteroid]

MMR dying 6 hours before it normally does, I think this zone is toast tbh, not enough creative thinkers on staff to keep this shit going sadly. I agree with Vys

[qan]

$45 more in one-time donations since yesterday. Thanks to all who've donated so far.

We're still looking for more folks who are willing to put in recurring donations. Even if you decide you can only do a few bucks a month, it still goes a long way toward sustaining the server.

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Things seem to be slowing a bit. I'll start just editing this post with updates unless we have a new big wave of donations.

9/8 update: a $50 one-time donation. Appreciate it!

[mystic_pizza]

had no idea it was this expensive to keep the game running. id be willing to donate if pub wasnt in such a state of decay. happy to see leagues being active but lack of admin involvement in pub and "recent" ship settings nonsense does not inspire confidence in leadership. not interested in funding this operation under current management

[TheSauce]

I accept our new underworld king, hail airduster! let your reign be as fruit loops as our last!

[Omega Red]

$45 more in one-time donations since yesterday. Thanks to all who've donated so far.

We're still looking for more folks who are willing to put in recurring donations. Even if you decide you can only do a few bucks a month, it still goes a long way toward sustaining the server.

---

Things seem to be slowing a bit. I'll start just editing this post with updates unless we have a new big wave of donations.

9/8 update: a $50 one-time donation. Appreciate it!

thank you for the update. Good job everyone, let's keep it going. I believe the transparency in what the costs are would encourage more people to donate, especially considering how in the past the donation fund was mired in controversy.

I think periodic updates would go a long way in motivating people to donate and keep current people trusting their money is being well spent. I also did a monthly donation.

[Tiny]

Is resetting and selling old names even a possibility?

[qan]

A BIG donation came in: $630! Absolute legend. Thank you for that.

Potentially even bigger due to the added stability, we had a $50 recurring and $10 recurring added. We're starting to be in pretty good shape here.

That puts us at $126.54 per month! 70% of the way to having the bill covered. Huge.

Assuming the recurring payments continue, with now $1801.78 on hand, we're covered for the foreseeable future (almost 3 years!). I don't expect everyone can continue to do monthlies forever, though, so if more people are willing to put in, that means increased reliability.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's surprised at how fast we've been able to come together to do this, though. Solid community.

I also did a monthly donation.

TY!

[Warcry101]

Alright, I'll throw my monthly support into the hat as well.

[RageRitual]

A BIG donation came in: $630! Absolute legend. Thank you for that.

Potentially even bigger due to the added stability, we had a $50 recurring and $10 recurring added. We're starting to be in pretty good shape here.

That puts us at $126.54 per month! 70% of the way to having the bill covered. Huge.

Assuming the recurring payments continue, with now $1801.78 on hand, we're covered for the foreseeable future (almost 3 years!). I don't expect everyone can continue to do monthlies forever, though, so if more people are willing to put in, that means increased reliability.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's surprised at how fast we've been able to come together to do this, though. Solid community.



TY!

Now if only we can get a number on how much it would cost to hire outside help to get stuff done. Like the server lag/websites/etc. Then maybe as a group we can reach those goals too!

[mystic_pizza]

thanks for the update but wondering why u are ignoring all feedback & requests for fund usage details

[qan]

Is resetting and selling old names even a possibility?

Names are shared across SSC. Nope.

Now if only we can get a number on how much it would cost to hire outside help to get stuff done. Like the server lag/websites/etc. Then maybe as a group we can reach those goals too!

Probably $1-2K to troubleshoot server net issues which may or may not lead to a solution. If someone wants to spearhead raising the funds I could coordinate it. As for hiring a web or other developer, it's quite costly which is why all of our development is done by volunteers, essentially as an in-kind donation. But could possibly hire a college student for cheap enough that people would want to fund it. Depends on what you're hoping to do.

thanks for the update but wondering why u are ignoring all feedback & requests for fund usage details

Not your personal servant, just a volunteer like everyone else working on TW. Anything I missed that you want covered? Selling TW: no. Just shutting it down: doesn't seem like what people want. Fund usage details: are in post #5, entirely to server costs.

[Airduster]

qan numbah wan, raising money faster than a lady boi on a new arrival bus load full of tw players.

[Asteroid]

Qan why don't you put the server on
ASSS 1.6.1 / Running on Linux 6.2.9-x86_64-linode160, host: sscj, machine: x86_64
I'm sure SSCJ would host it for alot less then half of what you're paying now, something to consider dunno why you're paying that absurd rate, devastation is no where near that price SSCJ #1 Praise the Legend JoWie