November 2019 Donations & Finances

[Cipher]

Hey everyone!

 

Quick reminder that we have a have a traditional Halloween themed costume contest happening today at 9pm UTC (10pm BST, 5pm EST, 2pm PST) in Kallisti Wharf on all of our shards. You can read more information about here.

 

As usual on the last Saturday of the month, it’s time to talk Finances and Donations again today. This month will be have the highest donation target yet as we have received the invoice from our lawyers for the services rendered up to September 30th.

 

Our monthly operating expenses have moved up to $4,963.34 after the addition of a new Advance-1 server (you can read about that in our last Donations & Finances post) and additional security software that we would prefer not to name as a precaution.

 

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October Breakdown

Last month we accepted $5,951.61 in donations - $234.73 over our original target for the month. Unfortunately, OVH introduced a $57.99 setup fee in the time between pricing out the new A-1 server and us purchasing it; this amount came out of the overrun for the month. With the addition of the aforementioned service we were left with $179.79 overrun this past month; this amount will be put towards the expenses for the month of November.

 

All of that said, here’s what the funds from the October donation window went towards:

• $4,878.38 to OVH for our hosting costs
  • This includes the additional $102.99 + $57.99 for the new A-1 server
• $1,326.04 to our lawyers for their services up to early October
• $96.00 to Google for our G-Suite Business account
• $30.00 to 1&1 IONOS for domain and outbound (server) email
  • This went down $10 from the previous month
• $10.00 to Atlassian for Jira Cloud (10-user)
• $6.95 to pay for the aforementioned new security software

 

As usual, here's a screenshot of all of our outgoing payments in October. Note that the first bank transfer failed (PayPal is lovely), but the second one did go through. This bank withdraw was to pay our lawyers via wire transfer. Finally, the $6.95 has been redacted for security - that is the aforementioned new security software which has a recurring fee.

 

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November Breakdown

As previously mentioned, we have received the invoice totalling $4,251.75 from our lawyers for most of their services rendered to date; this amount will be included in the total for November’s donation target. As mentioned in our September and October posts, we will not be showing the invoices from our lawyers to protect the identities of the law firm and anyone else who may be mentioned on the invoice

 

This month our lawyers have been providing further advice to forward our goal of becoming a legitimate operation. As part of this we’ve also been re-writing our User Agreement and Privacy Policy, which makes up the bulk of the additional cost this round.

 

After the addition of the new Advance-1 server in October and the aforementioned service introduced last month, our new recurring (monthly) expenses total up to $4,963.34. After adding the total from the invoice from our lawyers and subtracting the overrun from October, the donation target for the month of November comes to $9,035.30.

 

Here is a breakdown of how the funds are allocated:

• $4,820.39 to OVH for our recurring hosting costs
• $4,251.75 to our lawyers for their services rendered up to Sept. 30th
• $96.00 to Google for our G-Suite Business account
• $30.00 to 1&1 IONOS for domain and outbound (server) email
• $10.00 to Atlassian for Jira Cloud (10-user)
• $6.95 to pay for the aforementioned new security software

 

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Our donation system will be open as of the time of this post with a donation target of $9,035.30 and will automatically close once that target is met.

 

Thank you for all of the support as always; this is truly an amazing community and we wouldn’t be here without your incredible support. I hope you have enjoyed the Halloween festivities and we look forward to seeing your amazing costumes in our Costume Contest later today!

Thank you again for your continued support!

 

- The Homecoming Team

[Li_Sensei]

Well, that's the second time since May I've managed to get into the window. 🙂

[Abraxus]

Done, and done!

[Anker Steadfast]

I got to donate !!

 

And we are already @ 20%  😁

 

Edit : 28.8% before I finished my post

Edited October 26, 2019 by Anker Steadfast

[Gauntlet_Prime]

First time I ever made it in time to donate hehe.  Thanks everyone!  Community, Devs, everyone.

[SupportDrone]

Managed to get in again - for the record, having the clear breakdowns of what things are going to is one of the reasons I'm happy to donate. Thanks!

[Troy18]

First time iv ever caught the donation page open for donations.. willing to give to this great game 

[drdread]

First time I was able to donate 🙂

[Anker Steadfast]

I only donated $10 so others have a chance to donate as well.

If it slows down, maybe I'll donate some more, though I doubt I need to.

[Mac]

$15 donated here.  

[ILIWAPCT]

Donated@ 50%

[Tacheyon]

Finally was able to donate.  Thank you for all your hard work.

[SwitchFade]

I was not able to donate last month, due to the cutoff. Because of this I am donating for both months.

 

$60, cash on the barrel head.

 

Thanks, chaps, mighty good show!

Edited October 27, 2019 by SwitchFade

[whiteknight012]

First time donor! Never made it in the window until now.

[Anker Steadfast]

Already @60% of a 9k donation goal, after just ½ hour.

Yeah, I feel confident that we will reach that goat. 😁

[Asacledhae]

Did my part again this month.

Thank you everyone for keeping our game alive! 

[Messenger]

Yes, I agree with everyone's sentiments. Thank you for bringing us back home. I'm glad I was able to pitch in!

Your Friendly Neighborhood Scrapper

[adrobel]

I donated.

[TigerFirehammer]

HAH.  Gotcha, f**kers.  Every time donations have opened, they've hit goal and closed before I had a chance to get in there.  Not this time!

[molleafauss]

Wow. Managed this time to give something before the window would close...

[yukkuri]

I made it in this time! Please have some of my money ^_________^

[Totenmaus]

Happy to have the City back, and happy to donate!

[Kinestron]

Made it again this month. 😁  My nephew managed to catch the window this time.

 

Thanks again, Homecoming team, for all your hard work and volunteering your time and expertise.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Kinestron

[Glacier Peak]

First time donation! Keep up the great work you guys.

[Abraxus]

With the donation target almost doubling since last month, I'm thinking there will be ample opportunity for everyone who wishes to do so, to donate this time. 😉

 

Those legal fees really piled it on, and I don't mind helping pay those at all.  I just hope they result in the outcome we are all hoping for when it's all said and done. 😎