July 2021 Donations & Finances

[Cipher]

Hello everyone!

 

As always with these posts, I’d like to drop a quick reminder that there are more ways to support Homecoming than just through donations. For a general overview of the different ways you can help Homecoming, check out this thread.

 

We’re always in need of more people to help test upcoming updates on our public beta server; the bug reports and feedback that we receive from testers helps us immensely. For more information on how to get started on the beta server, check out our Read This to Get Started thread and the rest of the Beta Forums.

 

Additionally, if you have Discord Nitro then please consider using a Nitro server boost on our public Discord server. Maintaining over 30 Nitro boosts gives all of our members new and enhanced features on the server including additional emojis, a higher upload limit, better voice chat quality, and our vanity URL. Click here to read more about Server Boosting. We’re currently at 44 boosts and will lose our Level 3 perks if we drop below 30 for more than a few days. We greatly appreciate everyone who has put their Nitro boosts towards our Discord server!

 

---

June 2021

Last month we accepted $8,175.22 in donations, $114.77 over our target for the month. As always, all remaining funds will be put towards our operating expenses for the upcoming month. Note that $1,677.14 went towards covering the initial order and setup cost for the new SCALE-2 server ordered in May and is not included in the breakdown below.

 

Here is the breakdown of what June’s funds went towards:

• $4,290.45 for our hardware infrastructure from OVH
• $1,823.00 to pay our latest legal invoice
• $121.58 for our Google G-Suite services
• $75.00 to renew our forum software license
• $25.00 for our Air instance from Paperspace
• $20.00 to recharge our Twilio balance
• $10.00 for a domain renewal
• $10.00 for our Atlassian Jira (Cloud) service
• $9.73 for security / administration software
• $8.56 for the AWS EC2 instance serving our email

 

 

---

July 2021

The donation target for July 2021 is $4,353.49. Here is a breakdown of how the funds are allocated:

• $4,290.45 for our hardware infrastructure from OVH
• $121.57 for our Google G-Suite services
• $25.00 for our Air instance from Paperspace
• $10.00 for our Atlassian Jira (Cloud) service
• $9.73 for security / administration software
• $8.56 for the AWS EC2 instance serving our email

---

 

Our donation system will be open as of the time of this post with a donation target of $4,353.49 and will automatically close once that target is met.

 

As always, thank you for all of the support!

 

- The Homecoming Team

[Kendalls]

Always happy to donate. 

😊 

[Asacledhae]

You were late today, but I've been waiting for you.

You didn't get away again this month.

Happy to contribute again.

 

Thank you for everything, and have a nice day.

[Ghost Warrior]

I got to donate!

[starro]

thank you homecoming supporters, community and hc team

[Glacier Peak]

When I managed to get in, it was sitting at 99% fulfilled. I was still able to drop my donation. Whoo hoo! Extra for the great customer service this month.

[wjrasmussen]

I got up early and it is already done.  Next time. 

[Bopper]

3 hours ago, wjrasmussen said:

I got up early and it is already done.  Next time. 

It's not done on the first day of the month. It's done on the last saturday of the month. Your next opportunity to donate will be for August, which will be opened up on Saturday, July 31st.

[wjrasmussen]

6 minutes ago, Bopper said:

It's not done on the first day of the month. It's done on the last saturday of the month. Your next opportunity to donate will be for August, which will be opened up on Saturday, July 31st.

Well, that is a big difference. Thanks for the info

[JayboH]

How many years is the community expected to pay the lawyers for these NCSoft negotiations?  It's been two so far, yes?

 

...or is that not part of the $1,823.00 to pay our latest legal invoice?

[GraspingVileTerror]

I understand your point of view, @JayboH.  I'm not a fan of the clandestine stuff either.  Not remotely in the slightest.  And the costs do add up, and there are a number of reasons any of us can be uncomfortable with that.

But at the very least the Homecoming Team have been very open and direct about where the money is going in a lot of ways.  More so than commercial publishers/studios ever do, despite the fact they -should.-  While it would be ideal to have a breakdown of finances which could reveal what particular legal services are actually being paid for, I think this is a field where greater transparency is regrettably not going to be forthcoming, even -if- negotiations are successfully completed some day.  It would be quite the bold move to actually reveal something like all the details of a negotiation with a video game publisher!  Pretty much unheard of, short of a lawsuit forcing the information out during discovery.

 

So, operating with the knowledge we presently have, I think the best we can do is ensure any potential donors are fully aware of what's known, and encourage the Homecoming Team to be more forthcoming as possible.

1:  Legal fees are a part of the monthly donation, and donors do not get to choose which departments of Homecoming LLC their money is spent once sent to Homecoming.

2:  The cost of the legal negotiations (or lackthereof) are at least likely parcelled with the overall legal fees.  This is not confirmed, but reasonable conjecture based on implied messages in official statements from Homecoming Team members.

3a:  Individuals who do not agree with this policy of secrecy (or any other policies enacted by Homecoming) may choose to withhold their potential donations at the individuals' sole discretion.

3b:  Until such time as Homecoming demonstrates actionable information to meet those individuals' needs to confidently feel their informed consent has been sought, it's reasonable for those individuals to decline sending donations.

4:  Homecoming's mission statement and messages made by members of the Homecoming Team have stated that you do not need to donate to play, and that donors do not receive any substantial preferential treatment.  While this is not necessarily always going to be the case, it has remained true so far, and the Homecoming Team probably recognize that ever reneging on that would be very terrible optics, even if they felt they had justifiable cause.

5:  Up to this point, there has been no evidence to suggest the Homecoming servers are at risk of shutting down, as there appear to be sufficient donors willing to provide their money with the current policies.  Everyone should feel comfortable knowing that contributions are still being made to maintain the servers here, and therefore should not feel undue pressure to donate if they're uncomfortable.

[Abraxus]

6 hours ago, JayboH said:

How many years is the community expected to pay the lawyers for these NCSoft negotiations?  It's been two so far, yes?

 

...or is that not part of the $1,823.00 to pay our latest legal invoice?

 

If you have misgivings about it, feel free not to donate.  It's totally your prerogative.  They are upfront about the portion of donations that goes towards this, so nobody goes into this blind. 

[JayboH]

2 hours ago, Abraxus said:

 

If you have misgivings about it, feel free not to donate.  It's totally your prerogative.  They are upfront about the portion of donations that goes towards this, so nobody goes into this blind. 

I'm asking a question; wouldn't the majority like to know anything regarding it at this point, especially if fees are required?  What is the community paying for exactly?  What are they doing that it takes over 2 years for any news at all?

[PeregrineFalcon]

3 minutes ago, JayboH said:

I'm asking a question; wouldn't the majority like to know anything regarding it at this point, especially if fees are required?

I don't know if the majority of people playing on Homecoming would like to know. You don't know that either. Perhaps you could start a poll or conduct a survey?

[JayboH]

22 minutes ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

I don't know if the majority of people playing on Homecoming would like to know. You don't know that either. Perhaps you could start a poll or conduct a survey?

I indicated I don't know by asking the question.

[Glacier Peak]

I can't speak for the majority (who on these forums can, anyways?), but I am not interested in knowing. Thanks for asking though!

[JayboH]

There will be an end to it I assume, with either failure or success, either way the costs will be less.  I am wondering if we have an idea if that failure or success will be anytime soon.  The lawyers sure are asking for a lot of money each month.

Edited July 14, 2021 by JayboH

[Abraxus]

4 hours ago, JayboH said:

There will be an end to it I assume, with either failure or success, either way the costs will be less.  I am wondering if we have an idea if that failure or success will be anytime soon.  The lawyers sure are asking for a lot of money each month.

Show me a lawyer who doesn't charge exorbitant amounts of money for services, and I'll show you a lawyer you don't want to be dealing with on anything important.

[JayboH]

2 hours ago, Abraxus said:

Show me a lawyer who doesn't charge exorbitant amounts of money for services, and I'll show you a lawyer you don't want to be dealing with on anything important.

Yeah no kidding

[EmperorSteele]

To be fair, the lawyers weren't charging us much during covid, if at all; see here: 

I think this month was the highest they've ever charged (though I'm not 100% sure). I don't know if that means something big happened, or if that was just a cumulative amount for billable minutes back when they weren't sending invoices.

[AboveTheChemist]

I did a peek back through the past 13 months of donations breakdowns (starting in June 2020). These were the legal invoices I saw (rounded to the nearest dollar):

 

June 2020 - $132
Nov 2020 - $406
March 2021 - $622
April 2021 - $1225
June 2021 - $1823

 

That averages out to roughly $325 per month for that period, which is about 5-10% of the typical month's expenses (roughly eyeballing it, I didn't do a detailed tabulation of all expenses).

[Abraxus]

1 hour ago, AboveTheChemist said:

I did a peek back through the past 13 months of donations breakdowns (starting in June 2020). These were the legal invoices I saw (rounded to the nearest dollar):

 

June 2020 - $132
Nov 2020 - $406
March 2021 - $622
April 2021 - $1225
June 2021 - $1823

 

That averages out to roughly $325 per month for that period, which is about 5-10% of the typical month's expenses (roughly eyeballing it, I didn't do a detailed tabulation of all expenses).

I'd chalk it up to the cost of doing business, especially in a situation like the one we find ourselves.  I mean, technically this shouldn't exist, and yet it does.  That doesn't come without some legal vulnerability that HC is attempting to deal with.  I can't speak for the other servers out there, as I don't play on them.  But, they too are in a legal situation that they are likely just not prepared to deal with, should it become necessary.  Frankly, I feel better about the continuity of this place knowing that what can be done, is being done, even if I don't know exactly what that is.

[AboveTheChemist]

3 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

I'd chalk it up to the cost of doing business, especially in a situation like the one we find ourselves.  I mean, technically this shouldn't exist, and yet it does.  That doesn't come without some legal vulnerability that HC is attempting to deal with.  I can't speak for the other servers out there, as I don't play on them.  But, they too are in a legal situation that they are likely just not prepared to deal with, should it become necessary.  Frankly, I feel better about the continuity of this place knowing that what can be done, is being done, even if I don't know exactly what that is.

I agree, and the cost certainly seems reasonable to me based on the numbers I saw and the work that I believe is being done. I was mostly trying to put the legal fees into perspective over time, especially given the 'sticker shock' value of the most recent entry.

[JayboH]

Interesting.  Just makes me hunger for information.

[Abraxus]

1 hour ago, JayboH said:

Interesting.  Just makes me hunger for information.

We all want to know all the salacious details of what's been going on with the legal stuff.  But, I've always figured they'd tell us when they could, and not a moment sooner.  So, in the meantime, I'll play, and enjoy the fact that the game is back, against all odds.  Anything else is a bonus.

Edited July 14, 2021 by Abraxus