Manx Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 After holding negotiations (i use that term loosely) between myself and my HostCo., i'm sorry to have to inform you that they are refusing to allow me more diskspace without me jumping up to a new website tariff. This would entail me having to fork out an extra £300 ($430) p.a, on top of what i am already paying £200 -- $717 p.a in total. All i asked from them was that i wished to increase my diskspace allocation, but they have informed me that due to the huge amount of bandwidth that the site also takes up, they are not prepared to carry on supporting the site unless it moves to a new rate -- basically, what they call their "corporate" package. I have spent the last few weeks trying to find some alternative arrangements, but i have had no luck. HostCo's i have contacted, are not prepared to provide services to sites using in excess of 30 GB p.m. without either going onto business-like accounts or even having dedicated servers. Now, as much as i have loved running CM's, and as enthusiastic as i am about the game it is suppporting, i cannot afford to continue maintaining the site under these financial conditions. Since i have very little diskspace left to play with, i can only advise anyone wanting to submit stuff to the site do so elsewhere. There are plenty of other great CM site around who i'm sure can help out. CM's is paid for up until Feb/March 2002, so everything that is currently on there will remain -- i just won't be able to add to it. I have reached this decision not solely due to this situation -- some of you who have been following CM for some time will be aware that i have had troubles in the past with Server Hosts because of bandwidth issues (CM's is currently being hosted on it's 4th). Virtually every single month i have had "warnings" telling me to cut down on my bandwidth usage, or have the plug pulled out. p.s - Maybe now i will actually get the time to play this bloody game! See you around on the board. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzman Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Sorry to here that Manx. Oh well may be in two months there will be CMHQ update... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juju Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Groan! Again! That's a damn shame Manx. Killed by your own success. I hate it when that happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Sorry to hear about that, Manx. Your site is one of the best. Perhaps you could start rotating out older mods to make room for new ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGMB Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Sir, As Doug said, why not start to dump out the older mods, and make CM's more of a hotline update kinda site (you know... the first place to ahve the DL's)? :confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gyrene Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Manx, those are really bad news for modders & CM players alike... Well have to find a good alternative. Gyrene Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Manx, a) thanx for everything you will find out that CM is an excellent game c) I wonder why BTS don't host the mods on their server Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pascal DI FOLCO Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Manx, if you stop updating the site will just DIE !!! :eek: DON'T DO THAT ! You'd rather put on "archive" - and available temporarily on request - a good few of the olders mods (say everything more than a year old), and continue the work and the updates. I'd be really sad if Combat Missions died It's a real problem to find hosting for the numerous wonderful mods, so we'll have to organize and make some choices, it's hard ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sitzkrieg Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lord General MB: Sir, As Doug said, why not start to dump out the older mods, and make CM's more of a hotline update kinda site (you know... the first place to ahve the DL's)? :confused:<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I have to agree with this as well. Maybe start dumping some of your mods that are over a year old. I know it's not fair to people just getting into CM but some of the mods are duplicated at CMHQ and other sites. Maybe some more coordination between sites? I don't know, just making some suggestions. I'VE GOT IT! BTS, hire or pay Manx to update CMHQ and the Battlefront.com website. Madmatt seems to have more than enough on his plate. In the meantime, Manx, sorry to hear this. Your site is the best and has always been one of the fastest to post mods. A sad day for the CM community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OGSF Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Seems like the site needs to find a way to support itself financially. From what you say it will cost about US$1,100 in ISP costs to get the kind of hosting that the site requires. It is obviously a very successful site, and under great demand from the CM commmunity. I for one would be quite disappointed if an excellent resource such as this went away. So, riddle me this Batman... I would be very prepared to cough up a nominal annual subscription fee of, say, US$5.00 for password access to the mods and scenarios on that site. If approximately 220 other cheap buggers around here would be prepared to also cough up less than 10 cents a week that would cover the ISP costs and perhaps Manx would be prepared to keep the site going. Thoughts? One anticipated "protest" might be that Manx could be seen to be profiting from other people's mod and scenario work. To dismiss that notion, he is providing a service. I couldn't get your mods if he didn't run the site. Maybe he wouldn't even make all the money to cover just the ISP bills. But it might mean he can carry on with the response he does get. And if he made any extra, maybe the annual subscription would drop to *gasp* $4.00!!! Or he might get some compensation for his time spent maintaining the site. In any event, if you felt strongly about this point, just don't sign up. The site would be going away or at least "freezing " anyway so you wouldn't miss out on anything. Manx, if you wanted to explore this idea further, perhaps put a "vote" thing on your site (like the CNN site has nearly everyday) to try and guage how many folks would be prepared to support the site financially (if US$5.00 a year, equivalent to less than 10 cents a week could even be called "financial"!) Like I said, I'd sign up. Anyone else here prepared to put their pittance where their clicks are? OGSF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
109 Gustav Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Sorry to hear about that, Manx. How many megs/gigs of space does Missions take up? Maybe you could move some of the old mods to Angelfire sites, then link them to Combat Missions? Let me know if I can help out in any way with The Last Defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Williams Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 OGSF, Good idea. Continued use of a regularly updated Combat Missions is easily worth a few dollars (or pounds) to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fieldmarshall Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Sorry to see it go, I submitted quite a bit to Manx over the years. I am deeply saddend to see it go. On another not I second the subscription fee! I would be willing to pay TEN Dollars (U.S.) per year if it would help stay up. Hell I have some extra cash laying around why don't we make donations!? --Fieldmarshall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foobar Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Willing to pay... combat missions.net is one of the few sites I visit daily! We have to find a way to keep you going Manx! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Johnson-- Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 NO NO NO!!! Don't do this MANX! Try getting rid of old mods, and only hosting new mods for a month or something, then move on to new stuff. Or hand off your scenario section to the Scenario Archive and just stick with mods and tactical types. You can make this still work, while I would like it if you could play more combat missions, I think you can still find some work around. Make sure you are not hosting mods that are already hosted elsewhere, just provide a link from your mod list. Try something, anything man. We can't lose the soul of the CMBO commmunity!! What will happen to the body and mind!!??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGMB Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Soldiers, AS it seems that we have already lost some good sites (CM outpost for example), Im sure none of us want to lose CM's AGAIN! We gotta do somthing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Dorosh Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 109 Gustav has the right idea - put older pages on Angelfire's server and simply link between the two. I have a website on Canadian uniforms in WW II that is actually hosted between two dozen accounts. If you want to clear up some space, you can remove my D-Day assault vests, since they are already hosted on my own site - and make a little bit of room for something new not available anywhere else. I don't think charging money is the way to go; far too elitist and kind of against the whole idea of what mods are supposed to be about. Not to mention the legal question of whether or not BTS gets a share of your profits (not that I anticipate you would have any of those). Keep up the good work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGMB Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Sir, Manx... If you do need to clean up some space for future mods, then feel free to dump my uniform mod. Keep them updates comming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dogface21 Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Im also willing to pay, Ive spent alot of time cruisin around that site,its my top CM site, and Im sure thats the case for many. I also like the suggestion of dumping the old mods, pretty much every lo-res one at least. This is sad news Manx, Im sorry those corporate bastards have got us all by the short and curlies, they must not play CM. Let me know if I can help. I vote for a pay site( never would've thought Id say THAT!)the more people do, the cheaper it becomes. But, taking your own private RL into consideration, a pay site would demand more attention, so its your call of coarse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
109 Gustav Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: 109 Gustav has the right idea - put older pages on Angelfire's server and simply link between the two. I have a website on Canadian uniforms in WW II that is actually hosted between two dozen accounts. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> That's how I'm running The Last Defense, as well. The terrain mods are split between two 50 meg accounts, and everything else is on the main account, which will also have to be split fairly soon. Uploading files can be a pain, since I have to log on to more than one account, but it's the only way I can run The Last Defense on such a low budget. ($0) Besides, I haven't gotten any terrain mods for quite awhile, so it really doesn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OGSF Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Michael Dorosh: I don't think charging money is the way to go; far too elitist and kind of against the whole idea of what mods are supposed to be about. Not to mention the legal question of whether or not BTS gets a share of your profits (not that I anticipate you would have any of those). Keep up the good work.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Well you might be right, Michael, but I think the major issue is the bandwidth. More space is a no brainer, even for an ISP, but as Manx said they whine about the bandwidth and harrass him almost monthly. Upgrading his account would resolve those problems. Moving older mods to other sites will not impact the number of hits or downloads he currently gets, at least not by much. As for the legal issues, I really have no idea except a gut feel for the commonsense of it. He might have to have some blurb that says that folks who submit mods or scenarios do so on the understanding that it is a paid access site etc. He is not selling the game, or even selling mods. Just trying to cover the costs so he can keep going. Maybe he needs a "merchandising license" from BTS, which permits the charging of subscriptions to his site, but not the right to sell CM T-shirts or something. It's a no-brainer that his efforts support the game and the community. In short, his bandwidth issues will not go away, which is why his ISP wouldn't give him more space without upgrading, even if he moves older stuff elswhere. A subscription approach might be preferable to the site closing in February next year. Or donations. OGSF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Commissar Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Manx, How about making a banner section? Are those still being proffitable, because I know that most of us mod whores are loyal enough to open up them banner 15 times a day if it keeps the site up. Of course, the subscription thing would work too. Hell, most porn sites charge more then $5.00 a week! Not that I would know or anything.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scipio Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 That rises the question : how much does it cost to run an own server? I have no idea if this is an alternativ - but I'm also just curious. BTW, where should I send the check? [ 10-20-2001: Message edited by: Scipio ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stingray Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Since we all value your site, it is but fair that we also should contribute to its up keep. Just let me know where do we send our check. Don't leave us ... we need you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Bellator Posted October 20, 2001 Share Posted October 20, 2001 Noooooooooo!!!!! Manx, please consider any of the other suggestions made above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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