SRH, Donations and what I should do with them

[Drakehawke]

Some of you might know that SRH makes a lot of money from donations, more than I feel we'll ever need, we've already made back the money lost from the two months of downtime within two weeks of the server re-opening.

Our server cost is $123.50 per month, which sounds like a lot but it's barely a scratch on the amount of money we have saved up.

That spreadsheet, although should be accurate, isn't really, I have spent some of it on the odd game or ten for myself, and then there's a few other bits and bobs I bought for SRH (domains, etc) that should be taken into consideration. Also please bear in mind I spent about $400 on games for everyone for Christmas.

All things considered we have about $2800 in our coffers right now.

My policy on SRH has always been I take no profit from it, any spare donations are saved and kept in-case there's ever an emergency and SRH needs the money. But looking at that figure I seriously think that it's more than we'll ever need. If we didn't get a donation ever again, I could still keep the server up for nearly 23 months, that's two years I can keep it up and running without getting a single donation.

Some of you will also know I moved out and went to university last September, meaning I'm now in charge of my own money, I was originally fine with controlling how much I spent, but as of late I've become a lot looser about spending money. I've also just had to pay $800 towards getting a house to live in next year.

Most students in my situation would look towards getting a part time job to help with the cost of things, but most students also don't have a community with $2800 lying around in a PayPal account doing absolutely nothing.

Basically, what I'm asking is, do I have the communities permission to use some of the excess money we have lying around for my own personal gain?

[Sonny]

I fully endorse this.

[Tumor]

Do it, you deserve the money for all you have done for this community.

[Calyx]

YES!!!

[Glace]

Yes, you deserve it.

[Hail]

go for it

it doesnt harm us

[Moose]

I'm fine with it.

Obviously you have to think about your future, and paying for university and all the other stuff related to it can be a real bitch. Nothing wrong with paying with the money you made for your community.

[maddawg]

go for it.

[TwoD]

Drake,

You have treated this community like a full time job, and delt with our shit. Of course you can.

[maddawg]

I figured you already did.

[Kerp]

Sure I don't see why not as long as you don't spend everything.

One thing to consider though, what about upgrading the server? I don't know if the server lags anymore with 60+ players on but if it does and we have that much money maybe it would be good to upgrade the server.

[Bee Onette]

(02-03-2013 06:36 PM)Kerp Wrote:  Sure I don't see why not as long as you don't spend everything.

One thing to consider though, what about upgrading the server? I don't know if the server lags anymore with 60+ players on but if it does and we have that much money maybe it would be good to upgrade the server.

I agree with you spending some profit considering you spend so much time on it. But if possible this would be awesome. :) EDIT: While the player limit is fine, is there any way to reduce lag? o3o At times it's rather harsh, not sure if it's the server or the players though.

[Moose]

(02-03-2013 06:36 PM)Kerp Wrote:  Sure I don't see why not as long as you don't spend everything.

One thing to consider though, what about upgrading the server? I don't know if the server lags anymore with 60+ players on but if it does and we have that much money maybe it would be good to upgrade the server.

I don't think our map could hold the 60+

[Ivef]

(02-03-2013 06:41 PM)Moose Wrote:  

(02-03-2013 06:36 PM)Kerp Wrote:  Sure I don't see why not as long as you don't spend everything.

One thing to consider though, what about upgrading the server? I don't know if the server lags anymore with 60+ players on but if it does and we have that much money maybe it would be good to upgrade the server.

I don't think our map could hold the 60+

Server rarely get 60 players on, max I've seen lately is little more than 50.

[Kerp]

Before the update it was usually 50-60 people on and it could be a little laggy sometimes, I'm just saying since there's a lot of excess money lying around it could be good to upgrade the server.

If it's possible

[Hail]

(02-03-2013 06:56 PM)Kerp Wrote:  Before the update it was usually 50-60 people on and it could be a little laggy sometimes, I'm just saying since there's a lot of excess money lying around it could be good to upgrade the server.

If it's possible

that would be legit

[Ozzy]

You do the work, it's your money.

[harvey-morritt]

You spend alot of time on us, so many hours of coding, go for it!
But do leave some in reserve just in case.
Also can't you get more memory dedicated? Like I was helping a friend pick a build server and an option was add extra memory, could adding more reduce lag?

[Phoenix]

your money, use it.
i'll just get my own server.

[Ryladine]

Answers.com Wrote:Free-lance programmers might charge anywhere between $20 or $30 an hour to $200 or $300/hour. It depends on their experience, the industry of their clients, what their specialty is, their location, etc., etc.

Going off this base sum, even if its only $20 an hour, lets say you've spent over the time you've been with srh some 300 hours coding, 300x20=6000

So, you "could" have made 6k dollars doing for someone else what you've done for us for free. Use it, leave enough to give the community a buffer of a few months in case of unexpected shortfall, but you've more than earned it.