Help OFP Editing Center...

[Maldita Vecindad 1]

quoting wolfbane from OFPediting Center:

"11/26/2001 - Morning Speech.. | Posted by Wolfsbane

...'Free'... Play that word around inside your head, and listen to how nice it sounds? It's a lovely concept, isn't it?

Just a pity it's not a realistic concept...

For those of you whom are regular visitors to Operation Flashpoint Editing Center... You may all have noticed that as of late, we have come on hard times.... Continued Bandwith problems have lead us to cut off one of our most popular attractions, the Addons Depot..

Since this site first began, it cost money... Taking it from the pockets of those that ran it... With Tigershark putting in almost $700 in total at the begining, and myself, Wolfsbane, now juggling various loans and debts to get enough to go Dedicated Hosting.

We have lived by the prophecy of 'Free' and would never have wanted to have it any other way.. Those of you that visit the Forum will remember our replies to various suggestions about donations and other schemes, by saying we would pay for it ourselves until it became impossible to do so.

When I first joined this site, it was big, and I added my bit to it in the form of the Workshop... Since being 'promoted' though, I've had no time for my hobby section, and dealing with questions and complaints, problems and challenges has taken up the rest of my time, whilst also supporting the heavily over-worked Tigershark.. I vowed I would do my utmost for this Site, to keep it going, to keep it live... Then one day I wake up to get an email saying:

"Wolfsbane, if you want this thing, it's yours..."

As Tigershark, the man whom in essence is a God to us here at the Team, had finally had enough, one complaint too many, from people whom just don't seem to grasp how much work we put into this.. Bandwith problems, complaints, staffing troubles, site overhauls, content update, plus a full-time job, plus a girl to love, plus the whole 'sleep' thing, was too much for the poor guy...

After a nights sleep, all was well(ish), but this is the extent to which this site affects us, and shows how much we put into this... We don't do this for fun anymore, we want to get it back to being fun, but right now it's an immense strain on all of us.

How do you think it feels, coming home with your Lady, sitting down, having a drink, listening to some music, then saying:

"Back in a tick, need to check my emails.."

Because you know there is going to be forty or so complaints plus another thirty queries and questions, and if you don't keep up with it, it mounts up into a massive pile you never get through...? It's honestly not funny...

I myself am on a two week holiday away from work... I have so far spent about five days of that holiday dealing with the site, worrying about the site, and spending every possible minute online, trying to fix and update the site. When I'm meant to be on Holiday... Relaxing...

Tigershark sat down and played OFP the other day for the first time in months, he had completely forgot how much fun OFP actually was to play... It's a game, and we provide information and other applications to go along with the game... Why can't this be as much fun as the game?

So, after much thought and consideration, Tigershark and myself have came to several Options, each presenting us with it's own pitfalls and bonuses. Here are our final options:

Close the site - We get our lives back, get to go outside more often, and can spend time with our women. In return though, we lose a wonderful, wonderful website...

Close the Addons & Missions Section - Free up the majority of Bandwith, but lose some of the most popular aspects of the site.

Accept Donations - For 5000 Visitors per day, if 2000 people donate Å1/$1 just once off (Not every day, as some twat interpreted it as), that's Å1/$2000 - Enough for a years Dedicated Hosting.

We have honestly discussed every single idea open to us, over a phone-call which cost somewhere in the realms of Å60/$110, we honestly rattled our brains over every single concept possible.

Many ideas were brought forward, such as authors host their own Addons/Missions on their own space.. This lead us to believe that as had been stated by a poor chap in the Forums, they too would exceed the Bandwith limits imposed upon them by their Providers, and also opened up the question of broken links, failed downloads, and that we would still get the complaints!

Suffice to say, we have gone with Option Three, the Donations Idea.

Here is how it would work:

Using PayPal or other methods as preferred, such as people in the UK using Switch/Solo or Bank Transfers, we would offer a chance for people to give something back to the team that have for the past several months, bust every pair of balls in the house to give the best possible service, offer the most content possible, with the livliest Forum in the Community, and the most in-depth resources database ever.

If everyone donates just Å1/$1, we would be able to afford a Dedicated Server for over a year, and with that Dedicated Server, we could host as many Addons as possible, with as many Missions as possible, and keep on growing, bringing you the best online OFP experience you would ever have, as the game itself continues to grow out of all proportions...

We would be able to guarantee complete accessibility to the whole site, with as much Bandwith as possible to let you download as fast as you can, and we would host as much as was submitted... Dedicated is really the only way left for us, and if we hit the Targets, it would let the site explode out of all proportions..

There is a Poll in the Forum in General Announcments Donation Thread... All that we ask is that you think it over, post your thoughts, cast your votes, and lets us know how you feel... We don't want this to stop, because it's been such an experience for all of us here on the team... We don't want to cut back on anything we're offering, because that would make the site less, and let the competition win, and we can't have that, can we?

All we want, is a nod of acceptance from the Community, and we will put these plans into action, and formalise everything, to get us back on our feet as quickly as possible.

So guys, what's it to be?"

these guys deserve the help. the editing center is the best OFP reference sites around.

[theavonlady 2]

Another idea not mentioned is for Codemasters to purchased a high speed dedicated server and pay for serious OFP fan and support sites that are major promoters of the game and a benefit to CM in product promotion and support.

Who CM hosts would be CM's decision.

The cost to CM is trivial compared to the benefits their customers gain from these sites.

I'm forking out a trickle of money compared to The OFP Editing Center. Yet I'm not willing to put up more. This has, for example, forced me to find someone else kind enough to host my mission packs, as I do not have an account with enough space for them.

[RN Malboeuf 12]

how much do you pay a month for the servers?

and what is the usage a month?

we have 4/6/8/10 gig transfer rates and might be 1/4 the cost

[Maldita Vecindad 1]

I definitelly agree with Avon....

Hope Codemasters do something about it.......(But I wouldn't put my hands in fire )

[Maldita Vecindad 1]

bump!!!

[theavonlady 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from RN Malboeuf on 1:10 am on Nov. 27, 2001

how much do you pay a month for the servers?

and what is the usage a month?

we have 4/6/8/10 gig transfer rates and might be 1/4 the cost

<span id='postcolor'>

I'm paying US$6.00 a month at PARCOM for 45MB of space and unlimited transfer. They've relocated the FAQ on a faster business server because of the high hit rate.

I wouldn't think of leaving them. Support is amazing and I've had the owner involved when things weren't fast enough (which they were anyway).

(Edited by theavonlady at 8:58 am on Nov. 27, 2001)

[RN Malboeuf 12]

thats about the same as our 50 meg pakage, it's $7 US I think ($15 CND) and offers 6 gigs with 50 emails

It's can't be unlimited since they moved you, reading a web page does not bump up the transfer rate, if ppl are dloading addons you posted allot then that will (I was assuning by FAQ you ment the web page not any linked addons)

200 dloads of the 32.5 meg file of 1.30 patch was 6.2 gigs in just a few days we made it availble, our own site still has a 10 gig limit which sets off warning bells at 8 gigs (it's funny when your email system explains to you how much it costs for going over and you own it)

to actually run a file site will cost allot either way from the looks of it

Asking CM or BIS to host does not seem a verry good idea when thier own servers fail in high traffic, sking them to installa fiber line to thier bulding or rent one some where might not be cost effective yet for such a Young Company

[RN Malboeuf 12]

I also want to know what the OFPediting center paid

I would glaly Donate except I don't use Pay Pal

you can't expect every one to go rushing to a form of Online Pay ment that they never used b4

also you may have 4000 hit a day but that sound unreliable

our site statitics show IP counts which gives a little better idea of how many different users hit you hourly/daily/monthly/yearly/ and it can even rule out your own hits

taking your Forum's user count and subtracting 10% and then multipling it by 2 would actually give you a better guess a how many real users you have at your site (it's in no way corect but is still more realistic)

[theavonlady 2]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Quote: from RN Malboeuf on 4:14 pm on Nov. 27, 2001

Asking CM or BIS to host does not seem a verry good idea when thier own servers fail in high traffic, sking them to installa fiber line to thier bulding or rent one some where might not be cost effective yet for such a Young Company

<span id='postcolor'>

No. What I meant was that CM would pay for a dedicated server at a WEB hosting company and let each promoted site's adminstrator's handle their own WEBs. This takes 95% of the headaches off of CM's shoulders.

[RN Malboeuf 12]

I have never seen compainies do this yet

I've seen it done, but never my the makers or publishers of the game

(Edited by RN Malboeuf at 12:17 pm on Nov. 27, 2001)

[VecteR 0]

why don´t they just join the gamespy network?

as far as i know there is no planetoperationflashpoint.com and gamespy is always looking for people that start new websites in their network.

ok - you have to display ads but if your site is good you get unlimitet web- and filespace (fileplanet.com) and nearly all features of webservers you might need.

plus the publicity of the gamespy network (banner rotation on the other network homepages) etc.

if they don´t like to open a new site they surely would be hosted by tacticalplanet.com with almost the same features.

counter-strike.net for example is also hostet by gamespy