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britpol
I've recently joined this site as I saw the good, well some, downloads are. When I tried to download guess what... I have to pay. Premium Membership at 83p per month. Now that is a rip off. Sorry to say that but it's true. Just how many 83p"s are there? Probably 1000's Also, what about people who live in countries like Poland? I'm a Brit but I've lived and worked here for 18 years. I'm a teacher and I earn less than 500 pounds a month and to most Poles, that's a lot of money. Many earn 100 pounds. How can they afford this money every month. I know many, many FM players here and abroad and only one was a premium member but he's not now.
Sites I belong to ban members from placing links that point to this sites charged for downloads.
Yes, I probably will be banned for this but it's not fair to make it impossible for people from poor countries, or pensioners like me who have to work to live.
Come on people. Work out how many people pay and you'll see how good a business this is. Please don't say 'Support this site'. People have bought it many, many times.
Waiting to read any comments prior to my ban.
Thanks in advance,
britpol
TomDixon77
As Tom said it costs a lot of money to run a website, just because people have paid once in the past doesn't mean Rob doesn't need more money to keep it going, the site needs a continuous revenue, as with any business. It's probably more important then ever now due to the noticeable drop in posting as old regulars have ceased coming on here.
And also why would anyone ban you? you have aa right to express your opinion just like anybody else.
Rowan
I know that sometimes the alternative links can be a bit unreliable, but this is largely down those sites themselves and we're always trying to improve those.
You should really look into the facts before launching an unwarranted attack on a site (and webmaster) that tries it's best to provide good services for it's users.
Of course we won't ban you for airing an opinion, just make sure it's better informed in future
Poe
Crane
Erm, no you don't. Everything is available for free. Stop lying.
Even on £100 a month 83p isn't a lot at all.
Footygamer
2) To fund those free downloads we pay for a business account with rapidshare and recently uploaded.net as well. That requires at least 25 of those 83p's (we get about 78p) per month.
3) We also now have our own seedbox meaning people get super fast downloads from our torrents. That requires another 38 premium memberships, so we're at 63 now.
4) Then there's our actual server, that's a basic fee of £480 p/m, we have some extras and domain fees to pay ontop of that as well but I can't remember of the top of my head. Even at that £480 that requires 615 subscribers taking our total to 778.
5) As it is most people feel the way you do and don't pay, which is fair enough, the files are there for free, why would you pay? That's stupid. Last time I checked we had 400 something subscribers, it's probably over 500 now since we get a boost when a new game is released. We also make commission from selling the game.
6) This year is the first time we've ever had money left over. If you've been on the site for very long you would know that 2 years ago I lost $1000 in 3 days by trying to use a new, faster download service, to make everyone's experiences better. Rowan actually spent some time on the phone with me when I was close to closing and deleting the site for good. I asked for donations specifically to recoup that $1000 and got £30, so clearly if we just ask for donations people aren't going to give, we need to give something back, hence why we use premium memberships.
7) Did I use the money we had left over this year to recoup that $1000 (about £800 at the time)? No I didn't, instead I invested in the seedbox I just mentioned and, if you'd been here two weeks ago you'd know, that the site was running so slowly it was unusable. What does this tell us? It means our server STILL isn't sufficient for the traffic we get. Thus i've also invested in a bigger datapipe, which will be installed in December, increasing our bandwidth from 100mb/s to 500mb/s. This is not going to be cheap, but i''m buoyed by the fact that we actually made a profit in the past 12 months and hope that we can continue doing well over the next 12 months to compensate for this additional cost (to clarify, the cost of the datapipe is more than the profit we're making, so we're going to be back to a loss again, but i'm hoping income will increase over the next 12 months to cover it i.e. when we make profit it's re-invested back into the site).
8) Why do I do this and incur losses every year? Three reasons 1) I enjoy it 2) i'm a web developer by trade and take the things I build and learn while making this site and apply it to my work life, so I do get something back 3) For most of the year the site doesn't use all the resources that we pay for, so I often use the sites resources for my other personal projects, which allows me to justify the personal costs of running the site.
Oh and one final note:
WHEN WE ASK FOR DONATIONS WE EXPLAIN ALL OF THIS, IT'S WRITTEN RIGHT FUCKING THERE. WE EXPLAIN THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO PAY AND IT'S JUST A DONATION AND WE EXPLAIN THAT WE'RE NOT A PROFIT MAKING ORGANISATION AND YET YOU STILL FEEL THE NEED TO COME HERE AND GIVE ME AND EVERYONE ELSE SHIT BECAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING TWAT
Poe
Footygamer
Rowan
PS. Rob, prob worth moving this to the Site Feedback section, I know it didn't start off well, but the thread now contains some very clear and concise explanations...oh and some comedy swearing
TomDixon77
antuono
britpol
Nice to read the comments and especially from Rob at the end. Clearly shows the level of intelligence. Can't find anything to say, swear. Infantile. Now am I giving everyone shit. I think Rowan said 'Of course we won't ban you for airing an opinion, just make sure it's better informed in future,. where is the shit there?
Tell me, which is correct here then,
'but i''m buoyed by the fact that we actually made a profit in the past 12 months and hope that we can continue doing well over the next 12 months to compensate for this additional cost' 'Why do I do this and incur losses every year?'
Tell me why links to this site 'for free downloads' are banned on my FM sites? Why not just say come to my site, pay a monthly premium and download.
But if you check around the different FM sites. Put britpol in Search and read my and more importantly your comments. By the way, to advertise on these sites charging for ANY service, is banned. Doing as you do is 'Spamming'. Just relax, I'll forward your profits comments ('but i''m buoyed by the fact that we actually made a profit in the past 12 months and hope that we can continue doing well over the next 12 months to compensate for this additional cost'
I told sites my intentions to get you to admit your making money = business and your response gave me the proof. Silly, silly.
britpol
TomDixon77
Nice straw man there, just ignore the bits that don't support your ridiculous position and focus on the one line that means you can go 'Aha! See? They're money grabbing gits!'.
How many FM sites are we talking? Because there aren't many left. Wonder why that is? It couldn't be the cost of keeping them running could it? Naaaaah.
Rowan
Crane
SniperLFC
I thought that was obvious
Footygamer
I did find something to say but once again it seems you haven't read it. There were 8 points you've failed to respond to and yes I vented my frustration using swear words because I get alot of abuse via PM/email/facebook about "forcing people to pay", when I (and others) spend alot of time making sure that these files are available for everyone for free.
You missed the point where I said the profits have already been re-invested into the site so we're now making a loss again. I've also been in charge of the site since October 2008, that's 5 years, hence the "every year" part, one year we made a profit and that was re-invested straight away which still results in a loss (if you'd like to talk about things from a business perspective)
I'm not sure what this means.
We have good relationships with many other FM Fansites and I met many of them in person just a few weeks ago at the SIAS meeting (Sports Interactive Affiliate Scheme, for which we are a Gold member due to our continued contribution to the community).
I'll be interested to see what comes off your attempts but anyone with the ability to read (I can't fathom how you claimed to be a teacher) will be able to see what I said about RE-INVESTING THE PROFITS. You can't re-invest unless you make profits.
Poe
I reckon I lose more than that every month just by coins falling out my jeans in the car or something.
K3V0
edallen2
The first few words of the blurb about the membership is "you dont have to pay....has there are free mirrors". "this is a fansite run by fans" which is most fm sites.
This site is the first site I come to see if there are any new fixes, packs, skins has this site is one of the better ones around. For every one prick like britpol then 10's of others that recommend this site to others either by twitter, facebook, blogs or other sites if certain things are not available on that site.
To every one that is involved in creating fixes, packs, skins and running the site, thank you for making the FM games more enjoyable to play.
Britpol, each site has their own list of acceptable hosts, some are banned has a lot of their users were having issues with them either links containing malware, viruses or they have their own aggreements with hosts which included not having anyother hosts on the site.
Is it worth it? depends on what you want.
mons
But then you realise that for every idiot braying into the wind, there are many others who use and appreciate your work, and you are somewhat mollified. The sense of entitlement of some people is really astounding.
Jason
huiop2
now tell me for god's sake just how did you missed the part circled in red???
Shedender
sirchinny
This guy is trolling surely.