The future of DRD Team
Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2013 14:45
With only $120 raised in the last donation campaign, I've decided that the time has come to ... well ... "make do with what I have."
I've contacted the owner of MancuNET and DRD Team will be having a new home within the next month. Fact is, I am not very aggressive (or much of a marketing personality) to have continued the donation campaign and done what I really needed to do to get the money for the entire year. But there were other factors influencing the decision, as well; if my marketing weakness was the only issue, it would not have come to this.
What about the money that was already donated?
Because the transfer is not going to be free, I will be refunding the 2013 donation money at a prorated amount, which will be the year's entire donation pool minus costs post-transfer. Everyone will get a portion of their money back, but some will be needed for fees - after the total costs are calculated, they'll be subtracted from the donation pool and a percentage will be calculated; everyone will get the same percentage of their total donation amount returned based on their original contribution.
Why this change now?
$40/mo for a website that gets less than 10k hits per month is a VERY huge amount. Previously the cost was justified with all the extra services that DRD Team ran, such as IRC and project SVNs (not to be confused with the SVN site which is still used quite frequently and will be continued after transfer), which, fact is, aren't really used anymore. If the community doesn't use it, why charge them for it?
But HPACK uses the DRD Team SVN!
MancuNET might be willing to take that over. It's one thing I forgot to discuss that with Mike, but I will soon.
You're giving up on this way too easily, you miserable crone!
That may well be, but $40/mo is a huge financial responsibility - at least it is, for me. Even when the donations come in, there's still other fees such as taxes, domains, as well as paypal and bank fees. My friend has been kind enough to front most of those fees, but there comes a point when one has to just say ... it's just not worth it. Fact is, personally, I need to cut costs across the board. Giving up a website is not the only thing that I've done to accomplish that.
Who is MancuNET? Why them?
MancuNET is owned by Mike "Mancubus II" Lightner who is a very long-time member of the Doom community and tends to be more active on Doomworld than anywhere else (at least, that I've seen). He's the one who currently hosts both the ZDoom and GZDoom SVN's, and probably a countless number of other things too. He's one of the more trusted and looked up-to members of the community, which is why he was my first choice for taking over DRD Team. As far as hosting goes, I'm fairly confident that this is a man who has his things together, and I have faith in DRD Team's future with him.
Who will admin DRD Team?
Not much will be changing there. I will likely retain my status unless I am voted off the island for some reason. If that happens, Enjay and Blzut3 are the two that will succeed me. Obviously, Mancubus II will be getting ownership status, which implies admin as well. I will continue to support and try to improve DRD Team after the take-over, but I will probably work a little bit more in the background.
What now?
DRD Team will continue on. And it will continue going strong! It won't be the same as it has always been, but it will still be here, and it will still focus on its primary goal: to empower the community, especially developers, but also as a resource for players as well.
... and those ads?
They'll be removed. If Mike wants to put ads of his own in, that's his decision.
I've contacted the owner of MancuNET and DRD Team will be having a new home within the next month. Fact is, I am not very aggressive (or much of a marketing personality) to have continued the donation campaign and done what I really needed to do to get the money for the entire year. But there were other factors influencing the decision, as well; if my marketing weakness was the only issue, it would not have come to this.
What about the money that was already donated?
Because the transfer is not going to be free, I will be refunding the 2013 donation money at a prorated amount, which will be the year's entire donation pool minus costs post-transfer. Everyone will get a portion of their money back, but some will be needed for fees - after the total costs are calculated, they'll be subtracted from the donation pool and a percentage will be calculated; everyone will get the same percentage of their total donation amount returned based on their original contribution.
Why this change now?
$40/mo for a website that gets less than 10k hits per month is a VERY huge amount. Previously the cost was justified with all the extra services that DRD Team ran, such as IRC and project SVNs (not to be confused with the SVN site which is still used quite frequently and will be continued after transfer), which, fact is, aren't really used anymore. If the community doesn't use it, why charge them for it?
But HPACK uses the DRD Team SVN!
MancuNET might be willing to take that over. It's one thing I forgot to discuss that with Mike, but I will soon.
You're giving up on this way too easily, you miserable crone!
That may well be, but $40/mo is a huge financial responsibility - at least it is, for me. Even when the donations come in, there's still other fees such as taxes, domains, as well as paypal and bank fees. My friend has been kind enough to front most of those fees, but there comes a point when one has to just say ... it's just not worth it. Fact is, personally, I need to cut costs across the board. Giving up a website is not the only thing that I've done to accomplish that.
Who is MancuNET? Why them?
MancuNET is owned by Mike "Mancubus II" Lightner who is a very long-time member of the Doom community and tends to be more active on Doomworld than anywhere else (at least, that I've seen). He's the one who currently hosts both the ZDoom and GZDoom SVN's, and probably a countless number of other things too. He's one of the more trusted and looked up-to members of the community, which is why he was my first choice for taking over DRD Team. As far as hosting goes, I'm fairly confident that this is a man who has his things together, and I have faith in DRD Team's future with him.
Who will admin DRD Team?
Not much will be changing there. I will likely retain my status unless I am voted off the island for some reason. If that happens, Enjay and Blzut3 are the two that will succeed me. Obviously, Mancubus II will be getting ownership status, which implies admin as well. I will continue to support and try to improve DRD Team after the take-over, but I will probably work a little bit more in the background.
What now?
DRD Team will continue on. And it will continue going strong! It won't be the same as it has always been, but it will still be here, and it will still focus on its primary goal: to empower the community, especially developers, but also as a resource for players as well.
... and those ads?
They'll be removed. If Mike wants to put ads of his own in, that's his decision.