"What's that red and blue thing?"
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Thread: "What's that red and blue thing?"

  1. #1

    "What's that red and blue thing?"

    Long-time members know it well. If you're new to this forum, allow me to explain. This site has never charged a membership fee. This site has also never had ads on any page. That means that throughout the year, there is no incoming revenue to support the cost of hosting and maintenance of this site. All staff, all the way up to the top admins, are volunteers. So without the support of our members, this site would cease to exist. We currently have 49,284 members on our roster. Granted, there are probably more than half that have left for whatever reason. But if we could get just 5% of our members to donate only $5, that would put us way over our goal. Sadly, that won't happen. There are usually a small core of members that donate every year. Will you be join that group this year? You'll get two things in return - your username will have a Charter Member title, and you'll get the satisfaction of knowing that you were willing to help keep this site going. All you have to do is click the Contribute Now link on the right end of that bar and follow the prompts. Payment is through PayPal.

    If you don't like PayPal, there is a link right above the card logos to a thread with alternate payment methods.
    Last edited by Tom Clayton; February 4th, 2023 at 08:00.
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  2. #2
    Donated in Ickie's memory. Glad to still have this place around.

    Y'all are my people.


  3. #3
    SOH-CM-2024 SpaceHippy1975's Avatar
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    Done, always glad to make a contribution for such a useful site.

    Keith

  4. #4
    Alternate payment link has been updated.
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  5. #5
    Done! This is an awesome site and I really enjoy coming here. The members are very helpful and the atmosphere is non-toxic.

  6. #6

  7. #7
    @Tom Clayton: what's the deadline, i.e. the last day donations can be made?

    Cheers,

    Priller
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  8. #8
    I'll check to see if there's a desired date, but I think​ donations are open year-round.
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  9. #9
    Let me rephrase: when is the bill due?

    Priller
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  10. #10
    Per Dave:
    Our year runs June 1st to May 31. We have until Mid May to reach our goal.



    Apparently, quotations don't count toward the ten-character minimum post length...
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  11. #11
    I haven't been on SOH as much the past couple of years, since getting into MSFS, but I will ALWAYS contribute to support of this site. Over the years, I have made a few friends (hopefully no enemies!), and the amount of knowledge gained from fellow members has been extremely helpful.NC

  12. #12
    Done. I rarely post, but the comaraderie and help here is top notch.
    Don H

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  13. #13
    Things don't seem to progressing, so I donated a second time, like last year.

    Priller
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  14. #14
    I'm probably gonna do the same thing this weekend when I get paid.
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  15. #15
    Just curious... It's not an expense (it's a free program), but it definitely would require a time investment from admins here. Has there been any consideration of moving to a more modern forum app from vBulletin, such as Discourse?

    I'm not sure how tied in the library is to VBulletin -- if it's powering downloads, it might not be viable due to how much would be involved in migration.

    I'll stick around either way. vBulletin is old, cranky, hard to deal with, and looks out of date, but that also describes most of us forum denizens, so maybe it's appropriate.

  16. #16
    One of the things that always impressed me with our site is we never had to worry about raising the funds for the year. For a number of years we seemed to break records on how fast the goal could be achieved.


    Those days seemed to have died. We could probably point the finger at Covid or a poor economy, but the bottom line is our donating community is shrinking. A few years ago within a month we would have had over 300 individual donators. This year 2 months into the drive and we only have had 174 donations with a couple of members donating twice (myself included).


    Our yearly costs


    Server Lease $6,200


    cPanel account $772


    Domain name renewals $500 estimate
    • Sim-outhouse.com 4 years @ $25 /year
    • Sim-outhouse.net paid until 2028
    • Ronnylarson.com 5 years @ $25 /year
    • Hall18.com 5 years @ $25 / year
    • Hall-18.com 5 years @ $25 / year
    • ford-tri-motor.net (.com, .org) TBD


    Total $7,472


    For those of you who have donated Thank You.


    For those who have not, your help is needed.
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  17. #17
    SOH Staff .."Bartender" AussieMan's Avatar
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    I will copy your complete post to the Cantina.


    Cheers
    Pat


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  18. #18
    In post #16 it is mentionned that total costs are $7,472, we're at $7,640, so we got there!!

    Priller
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  19. #19
    Tom - is there an annual subscription mechanism for SOH so that we can just sign up and the annual (or quarterly) subscription fee gets debited automatically or is it just the ad hoc donations.

    I wonder also if, given the time & effort now required of you guys in raising funds to cover costs, there is a case for allowing some limited and very entirely relevant advertisements on the site?

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by collensr View Post
    Tom - is there an annual subscription mechanism for SOH so that we can just sign up and the annual (or quarterly) subscription fee gets debited automatically or is it just the ad hoc donations.

    I wonder also if, given the time & effort now required of you guys in raising funds to cover costs, there is a case for allowing some limited and very entirely relevant advertisements on the site?
    I like the subscription idea.

    And in stead of allowing even limited ads, I would support limiting the rights/downloads and what not of people who don't contribute. If only because it saves in bandwidth. Just a thought.

    Priller
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  21. #21
    SOH-CM-2024 Cees Donker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Priller View Post
    I like the subscription idea.

    And in stead of allowing even limited ads, I would support limiting the rights/downloads and what not of people who don't contribute. If only because it saves in bandwidth. Just a thought.

    Priller
    Hear, hear!

    Cees

  22. #22
    Having ads is something that has long been said will never happen here, and I'm in favor of that concept. Besides, having seen some of the borderline inappropriate ads that have been displayed on flightsim.to, I would hope to have some sort of vetting/screening system in place to make sure only approved ads get through. Another thing to consider is that this site may have several thousand enrolled members, but only a small percentage of that number is active. Advertisers don't want to spend anything unless they can be assured of having enough traffic to make it worth their money.

    I would be in favor of a monthly subscription service ($5.00/month) in return for more/faster downloads from the library, but even that would come with headaches. We'd probably have to switch forum platforms in order to accommodate the financials.
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  23. #23
    SOH-CM-2024
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    $25.00 more going out in the post this morning. If more is need, more will be sent. Best informative Flight Sim forum out there, can't begin to tell you how much I have learned from the experts here on liveries and scenery.

    Cazzie

  24. #24
    Given that it was a bit of a struggle this time round, what measures can be taken to reduce costs before this time next year ?

  25. #25
    I have been thinking a lot about that. The topic will get its own thread discussion in the future.

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