City Council Cipher Posted June 1, 2019 City Council Share Posted June 1, 2019 Hey everybody! It’s the first of the month so it’s time to talk finances again. I would like to start this post by reiterating how thankful we are for the community’s tremendous support. The last month has been incredible :) Last Month Last month we accepted $6,953.34 in donations after PayPal fees. Here’s a breakdown of where the funds were used (in no particular order, some servers we had to order later in the month to scale up and the DO bill took a while to pay because of PayPal): $3,229.46 to pay our DigitalOcean bill. Unfortunately as many are already aware, PayPal was not being particularly cooperative with us and we had our funds locked for a while. This meant that our DO bill continued to rise very quickly and ate through our contingency fund by the time we were able to migrate to OVH. This left our balance at $3,723.88. $339.00 to pay our cost of incorporation to form the LLC. Our Registered Agent is northwest in Delaware. Because of our situation at the time we needed to expedite the company formation which cost a little extra. Our intention is still to move forward with opening and operating under a non-profit (501c3/4) in the near future but there were a few reasons we decided to open an LLC first (and this was after speaking with a business consultant): it gave us more flexibility to move funds and establish ourselves before operating under an NPO - we did not have the option of funding the NPO’s account ourselves and co-mingling funds under an NPO will cause you to lose all coverage from the corporation should an issue be brought up in court and can cause a lot of other problems. As an SMLLC we were able to move funds (so long as they are tracked very carefully and thoroughly documented) to make sure we kept all of the bills paid - which we had to do multiple times because of PayPal. NPOs take more time to setup than LLCs - the time from submission to formation for our LLC was under 8 hours and we needed the entity up and running within a day due to our situation at the time. We will still be able to move all of Homecoming’s assets, and the LLC itself, under the NPO once we do have it setup. This left our balance at $3,384.88. $3,807.62 to order our servers at OVH. All of our servers were ordered with NVME SSDs and the gigabit vRack upgrade ($23/mo upgrade per server). Our SQL database servers (2) both have Web licenses costing a total of $128.80. Here’s a breakdown of what we have at the moment: 7x Advance-5 (96GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $354.99/ea 2x Advance-3 (64GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $160.99/ea 2x Advance-2 (64GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $126.99/ea 6x Advance-1 (32GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $102.99/ea 2x SQL Server 2016 Web license @ $128.80/ea This left our balance at -$422.74. $480.00 to purchase Windows OS licenses. We actually got a fantastic deal on OS licenses that’s saving us a ton of money compared to paying monthly through OVH’s license system. Our servers are using 10x Server 2016 licenses and 6x Server 2012 licenses. This left our balance at -$902.74. $199.99 to purchase a Code Signing Certificate from GoDaddy. We’re still working on getting through the verification process (I’ve reached out to an accountant as we need a letter authored by an accountant or lawyer to continue with the verification process) but we hope to have this ready by next patch. This should help with all of the false antivirus flags that keep happening after every patch. This left our balance at -$1,102.73. This Month Now that that’s out of the way, let’s outline our upcoming and recurring expenses. In addition to our upkeep, we would like to transition to better forum software and add a few additional servers. Here’s what we’re looking at for this month: Recurring (current): OVH:7x Advance-5 (96GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $354.99/ea 2x Advance-3 (64GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $160.99/ea 2x Advance-2 (64GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $126.99/ea 6x Advance-1 (32GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $102.99/ea 2x SQL Server 2016 Web license @ $64.40 ea Total: $3,807.62/mo Expansion OVH:1x Advance-3 (64GB memory, 2x2TB NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $213.99 (recurring)1x SQL Server Web license @ $64.40 (recurring) Server 2016 OS license @ $35.00 (one-time) This server will take over central services & deployment duties and will be responsible for making regular full database backups. [*]1x Advance STOR-2 (4x12TB HDDs + 2x240GB SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $188.99 (recurring) 1x SQL Server Web license @ $64.40 (recurring) Server 2016 OS license @ $35.00 (one-time) This server will act as the central database for EU and serve as our primary backup target for all servers. We have other backup sites, but we would also like to have one on our current network. [*]1x Advance-4 (256GB memory, NVME SSDs, 1Gbps vRack) @ $331.99 (recurring) Server 2016 Datacenter OS license @ $60.00 (one-time) This server will host our development servers and the beta mapservers. The Datacenter license is to allow us more flexibility with virtualization through Hyper-V. Miscellaneous We would like to migrate to better forum software. We’re currently looking at Invision Power ($300 + $40 every 6 months) or XenForo ($160). We are going to be using G Suite Basic for email and better collaboration going forward. We’re already heavily using Google services (such as docs) and paying for Business email through IONOS out of pocket. This would amount to around $60/mo. We need to recoup our negative balance of $1,102.73, so this will be tacked onto this month’s expenses. In total we will be looking at $4,671.39 per month for hosting expenses, $60 per month for G Suite, and $430.00 for one-time expenses this month. We also need to recoup our negative balance of $1,102.73 and would like to refill the contingency fund of $1,250.00 (note that once we have our contingency fund we will not have to tack this onto further months unless we actually use the funds).This all totals up to $7,514.12. As of the time of this post our donations will be open again at https://forums.homecomingservers.com/donate/ and will automatically close as soon as this month’s goal is met. Thank you again for your continued support. As always we’ll do our best to ensure that this remains a fun and welcoming community for all :) Cipher City Council If you need help, please submit a support request here or use /petition in-game. Got time to spare? Want to see Homecoming thrive? Consider volunteering as a Game Master! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fista Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Donated. Good luck to us all! Because there is a city in the Midwest that is continually threatened by a silver backed gorilla and is protected by a man who can run faster than the speed of light. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DestinyPlayer Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I'm a tad short on money due to being a poor Russian student so I can't donate, but I guess I'll jump in and give a personal opinion on something. I'd say that XenForo is the better option for forum software, purely from experience. Judging by what I see on SufficientVelocity and SpaceBattles, the software is not only well-ish designed, but has a few features that I'd never really seen on most other forum engines, such as the Alerts feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakdaw Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 It's worth putting a few bucks towards your goal. Thanks for all you do! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skiff11 Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Donated, I really appreciate you guys bringing back my childhood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChzBoi Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I'm in for few bits! Keep up the great work - thank you all for bringing it back! 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aerous77 Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 "You've donated $15.00 USD to Homecoming Servers LLC" Confirmed! You guys deserve it! Thanks for all you do! "Who am I? You sure you want to know? The story of my life is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale... if somebody told you I was just your average ordinary guy, not a care in the world... somebody lied." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greel70 Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Made a small donation. You guys are great keep up the amazing work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChzBoi Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 .... bringing back my childhood. Bah - for bringing back my middle-age! :-* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insulinboy Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 donated 50, thanks so much for all you do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tsalaroth Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 multiple donations from us! thanks, guys! glad we got a chance to pitch in this time. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raysfan47 Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 donated Thanks for setting this up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoggieCanada Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I donated $13.98 CAD which is $10 US. I plan to do this every month as a kind of subscription. I mean, sheesh, I play on CoX so I might as well do my part in some small way, right? Good luck with the donation drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinematics Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Donated (gladly)! 8) My family of four plays - same as before the shutdown in 2012 - so this was done on their behalf, too. Depicted in profile photo: Gamma Raze on Everlasting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinzen Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 15 from me :-) Thanks for all you do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branr Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Donated $20.00 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffeh Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I don't have much to give, but I'm glad to help a little :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Takel Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 The financial transparency is nice to see. That said, it depresses me to be reminded that antimalware software actually gives as much weight to code signing certificates as it does, given the prevalence of fraudulently acquired certificates. I guess it makes some degree of sense for non-enterprise AV deployments, though, since there's still enough of a cost to getting hold of them that they're unlikely to be used for generic "thank you for spending $600 on an iPhone game, please open the attached notavirus.pdf.exe to view your invoice" mass emails. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryMayhem Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 yes, I was able to donate before it closes out this month, looks like it will soon be closed again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowWolf5144 Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I want to donate, how does one go about it? I can't seem to find the thread that talks about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obsidius Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Got to donate this month! :D Obsidius Excelsior Server | The Nightwatch NW-738 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agent_Green Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Glad to contribute! Thanks for the excellent work you guys have done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solvernia Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I've never seen such a professional attempt at running a private server before. This is some next-level transparency, too. I dig it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Obsidius Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 I want to donate, how does one go about it? I can't seem to find the thread that talks about it. Here :D https://forums.homecomingservers.com/donate/ Obsidius Excelsior Server | The Nightwatch NW-738 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkbytes Posted June 1, 2019 Share Posted June 1, 2019 Happy to donate to the cause! Thanks so much for all you've been doing these past few months! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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