i'll be adding the rewards for donators over the next few days. thank you again to everyone that contributed.

i always regret having to ask for donations-- it's a method of last resort to keep things running. i've been running FFS for ~11 years now, and in that whole time we've only had to ask for donations about half a dozen times. unfortunately a decent number of those were in more recent history as we lost a major advertiser about a year or so ago that's hit us rather hard. my goal is for this to be the last time we'll ever need to ask for emergency donations.

after the donation rewards are taken care of, i'll be working behind the scenes to both find ways to reduce our overhead costs and find other ways to bring in more revenue. i have a few leads on new advertisers which should hopefully make things much smoother in the future.

thank everyone so much for helping out, the site wouldn't be here without you <3

PS: if you donated and the email for your forum account doesn't match your paypal email, send me a DM on here listing the amount donated and what email you donated from.

Sarah, I was happy to contribute $50. I believe that my email is the same for both- Jeff

Glad to help and support the community :)

The emergency message asking for donations said that anyone who contributes $25 or more would get a "lifetime mass-downloads account at Galbadia Hotel." But Galbadia Hotel hasn't been working in a LONG time. Are you planning on fixing it?

I just took a look at the last "thank you for the donations" thread from the previous emergency donation drive in October, and the people who asked this question were totally ignored. What's the deal?

Sarah I http://www.youtube.com/user/Fira777/videos mentioned ffshrine donation needs.

The emergency message asking for donations said that anyone who contributes $25 or more would get a "lifetime mass-downloads account at Galbadia Hotel." But Galbadia Hotel hasn't been working in a LONG time. Are you planning on fixing it?

I just took a look at the last "thank you for the donations" thread from the previous emergency donation drive in October, and the people who asked this question were totally ignored. What's the deal?

Related to this...are a large portion of the costs stemming from GH? Because as stated, most of the links there no longer work so honestly it might be better to just take it down to save on cost...

I'll just quote a small research here, because it seems to offer a few tips:


Original message written by bobobo1618 [#source] (http://np.reddit.com/r/gamemusic/comments/30m1z7/offtopic_ffshrine_a_useful_resource_for_rare_game/cpu2no1)

What are their server costs though? That's what I'm dubious about. My feeling is that they're doing it wrong and spending a ton more money than they should on either a shitty provider that's overcharging them or a great provider that's overkill.

I had a look into it and it looks like they get around 430000 visitors a month (http://www.trafficestimate.com/ffshrine.org). Assuming a generous 10 page views per user, that's 4.3m views per month, which works out to around 2 views per second and assuming an average page size of around 1MB which is an estimate way above what I really expect, they're looking at about 4TB of traffic a month or an average of 2MB/s.

To serve a site like that, they can bring bandwidth down to a point where it's negligible by using a service like CloudFlare which will cache all their static assets for them and has the handy side effect of mitigating DDoS.

As well as that, they can stick the site on a dedicated server like this one (http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-md) for a relatively small amount of money. 64GB of RAM and a quad core CPU should be far, far more than they need to serve that site well. That server also happens to come with 300Mbit/s of unmetered bandwidth.

As for how they're currently working, they appear to be using Apache still, which is a bad idea (http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Web_Server_Performance_Comparison). They should be able to drastically reduce their server load/cost by swapping that out for a more modern setup like NGINX with PHP-FPM.

Aaaand for the server they're currently on, according to the BGP announcement for their IP address (which is exposed, why are they not using a CDN?), they're currently using Hivelocity (https://www.hivelocity.net/dedicated-servers/) which looks like a fairly reputable bunch but their prices are hardly budget considering their $129 server is roughly equivalent to a 40 EUR server (http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-lt).

Anyhow. They don't need nearly as much money as they're asking for to run a site like this. They just need that much money to run it the way they are now, which I'm not sure is the optimal way to do it. If I were them I'd be asking for around $900 which is enough to run one of these (http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-md) for a year. And I think even that is overkill.

EDIT: Now that the link is back up I can see a bit more about their setup. 30TB of bandwidth has me WTFing a bit but I imagine it's a result of Galbadia Hotel. That can still be reduced by using a host that doesn't charge for bandwidth. Their '3 servers' thing has me a little WTF as well. My guess is Apache is eating the web server and they need to step up the caching on vBulletin to ease up on the database server.

And on the subject of Galbadia Hotel, they could really do a lot better by moving it to a P2P based system. Serving Magnet links and using their server as a seed would reduce a ton of bandwidth without reducing performance for clients.

EDIT 2: There are a ton of optimizations they can make without even moving. A quick test shows (http://www.webpagetest.org/result/150329_RD_3W4/) that they haven't turned on even the most basic performance optimizations for their web server, with no client side caching headers for static assets, no keep-alive connections to get requests through faster and no compression on many of their assets. Hell, just throwing mod_pagespeed (https://code.google.com/p/modpagespeed/) into Apache could do wonders.

EDIT 3: I'm not saying their claims in the donation plea are false. It's entirely possible that it costs as much as they're saying.

What I'm saying is that it doesn't have to cost as much as they're currently paying. They can get cheaper, faster servers elsewhere and set their software up a little better.

EDIT 4: So I've heard that GH has been down for at least a year. That means they don't need the 'file server' they're requesting donations for. That leaves ~2 request/s average MySQL and web which should easily be handled by a single dedicated server like this (http://www.online.net/en/dedicated-server/dedibox-md).

EDIT 5: P.S. if they're running 3 servers at Hivelocity, they're paying an absolute minimum of $300, for which they could easily attain unlimited bandwidth, which they seem to be advertising as expensive.

And, as I've stated elsewhere, the perks which are being offered to those who donate are currently useless; the Galbadiia Hotel portion of the domain has been deader than dead for a long time. There aren't that many reasons to help keep this place online, not in the state it is now, at least.

Despite I seldom visit FFShrine, I could find most of my wanted items here =)
For the first posting here, would like to say I am very glad that I somehow helped this community...

PS: Did not know my e-mail address was not matching with the e-mail used for donation and changed my e-mail in FFShrine. Could you kindly have a look once more?

Glad I could throw something the sites way.

The emergency message asking for donations mentioned "lifetime mass-downloads account at Galbadia Hotel" for anyone who gave $25 or more. But none of the downloads at Galbadia Hotel have worked for a LONG time. There are people in the last donation thread from October who brought this up, and they were totally ignored - http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/thanks-donations-~-181185/

Are you ever going to get Galbadia Hotel working again?

hm, this is my fuckup-- i hadn't realized that part of the donation message wasn't updated. the plan is to get GH's downloads working again but that's next in line after the advertising; my time needs to be spent on that first, then i can work on the GH problems.

if anyone donated on the GH level and would like the forum perks instead let me know and i'll gladly swap them for you, even though the forum perks are supposed to be the higher level. otherwise i'll add the GH perks to your account and they'll be there when we get things sorted out.

like i said, things have been a huge mess since we lost that advertiser, most of my time related to FFS has been trying to sort that out first. GH will come right after that. i really apologize to everyone it's taken so long.



I'll just quote a small research here, because it seems to offer a few tips:


And, as I've stated elsewhere, the perks which are being offered to those who donate are currently useless; the Galbadiia Hotel portion of the domain has been deader than dead for a long time. There aren't that many reasons to help keep this place online, not in the state it is now, at least.

that post is a combination of good advice and really bizarre misinformation. the "traffic estimator" they're using is not even REMOTELY close to accurate, the only way to get accurate traffic stats is directly from the servers, anything else is just that-- estimates. they're usually based on toolbar installations and are off by a ton. the estimates they have are lowballed by an absurd amount. as a consequence, the kind of hardware they're thinking we could run on isn't viable at all-- we use much beefier servers than that. they also don't seem to understand "unlimited bandwidth" isn't really a thing... hosting providers advertise that, but you don't ever actually get "unlimited bandwidth."

a lot of the other things they mentioned (some backend software changes, possibly using cloudflare, etc) are the things i was alluding to in the backend changes above to try to reduce costs-- it's true we can optimize some things and bring costs down a bit, but nowhere near as low as the level they're claiming is possible

i'm working on adding the perks in but they have to be done manually-- my estimate is they should all be finished within the next three or four days at the most, since i need to do this in between some other obligations :)

thanks again everyone <3

Yeah Sarah but your term "too long" as in LOTS OF YEARS of expecting an update for GH is beyond reasonable, if your personal life is priority's just tell us that don't lie to us saying I ain't got time or ads.


IMO your running this site out of member integrity, when you lose that, you'll lose the site. Why not make it comfortable for us?

Glad you're back. I donated 25$, but my Email is not matching. I'll send it to you via PM.

Yeah Sarah but your term "too long" as in LOTS OF YEARS of expecting an update for GH is beyond reasonable, if your personal life is priority's just tell us that don't lie to us saying I ain't got time or ads.


IMO your running this site out of member integrity, when you lose that, you'll lose the site. Why not make it comfortable for us?

What he's saying is fuck GH, drop that shit.. if we are going to donate to help keep this shit running.. drop the useless shit that only 5% of the traffic goes to.

$2400 for 3 months is fucking ridiculous.

I mean how much space is actually used for all those mp3s?

What he's saying is fuck GH, drop that shit.. if we are going to donate to help keep this shit running.. drop the useless shit that only 5% of the traffic goes to.

$2400 for 3 months is fucking ridiculous.

I mean how much space is actually used for all those mp3s?

I agree. Galbadia Hotel is a relic and everybody here is scratching their heads about the current significance of it. You expect us to keep donating to run something that doesnt even work, whose content is ancient and outdated, and whose users are probably random web hits who dont even use the forums like the actual posters who provide new and lossless rips?

You can try and reduce overhead costs, run on better software, and get new sponsors, but it still sounds like youre trying to tug the Titanic with banana boat.

Isn't GH mirrored at Kingdom Hearts I*nsider anyway? http://downloads.*********.com/ Has been for years...unless their copy is still tied to ours functionality-wise....which sounds retarded so forget I said that

Edit: Oh. How interesting. Their name is actually censored. The mystery deepens.

Nobody uses GH? Do you even have the slightest idea about how many websites/blogs/users/etcetera around the Web linked to it? Heck, some even wrote small download managers which would "mass-download" every MP3 of a single page, partly making the Download Links section (you've read it right, years ago there weren't three different sections for Video Game / Film, TV / Anime music) of the forums not that useful: some of its appeal came from the fact users were offering albums hosted on GH in convenient packages.

In case you didn't know, folks, FFShrine has been around for years, same goes for Galbadia Hotel. Think about what it means for a moment: years hosting that quantity of sheet music and MP3 files. That being said, I believe the server dl1.ffshrine.org/ died "definitely" around 2013; while there were hiccups prior to that year, issues got fixed and everything returned working. Why do I say this? Because I've used Galbadia Hotel, I've successfully downloaded stuff off it in 2012.

What the hell?

'GH is in desperate need of donations right now; it costs almost $2,000$ a month to run. If we don't recieve the donations to keep afloat, Galbadia Hotel will no longer exist.'

It's just different audiences. GH mostly attracts casual people who are just fine with getting quick and easy MP3 rips. The forum, specifically the most popular Lossless Threads and such places, are full of much more hardcore/audiophile members.

Because I've used Galbadia Hotel, I've successfully downloaded stuff off it in 2012.

Yeah that was 3 years ago. There is a lot better and cheaper alternatives than spending that much in 3 months. So in short term.. Sarah's getting ripped off. And I'll say it again. Hosting copyrighted files on its own server is a very bad idea.

GH mostly attracts casual people who are just fine with getting quick and easy MP3 rips.But as pointed out those MP3s haven't been available for two years or so now.

I'd like to chime in with the rest and ask directly for some solid information about why the hosting costs are $2400 per quarter to run a web forum of this scale.

What the hell?

'GH is in desperate need of donations right now; it costs almost $2,000$ a month to run. If we don't recieve the donations to keep afloat, Galbadia Hotel will no longer exist.'

Some obviously dubious shit going on here. Hm...

Like we payed her rent and some kegs of beer... she sure hasn't appeared after she collected her paycheck look at her last login date.


Just like politics, promises and hope are crushed by greed

Heh, seems to be some kind of habit, now, leaving without giving answers to the ever-present questions. If the whole thing is true, I honestly wish you, Sarah, to resolve this situation. Okay that life does get in the way and it must always take precedence, but hell, are there Staff members which actually get to take care of the "website" part still active? I mean, what's up with the silence-treatment? I get the feeling the Shrine has been pretty much left on its own.

At any rate, I'm going to take a few wild guesses: one of the advertisers pulled out because of some kind of report to Google Adsense and the likes (the sections of this place gaining most activity/attention are those swarmed with illegality… It could have always dawned on those advertisers that it wasn't really looking good for them).
How are resources for GH and the forums pooled together? Given what others have already stated (GH's MP3 pretty much being mirrored over at KH+The website's ongoing malfunctioning), wouldn't it be better to drop the corpse, somehow?

It's obvious the community would like some actual answers, some transparency. FFS may be a good place to get the most recent soundtrack, but it is hardly the only one this good; folks will leave this, to quote the words of a friend, sinking ship. I don't know what kind of crap you're going through, but I wish you the best. One last thing: if keeping the Shrine online has become too much of a problem, maybe you should consider closing it.

Hi Sara-
Yes, I donated $50. on Mar 29th from a different email address than you have on record for me. It was from [email protected]
Thanks,
g'per

Good evening, everyone. How was your day? I hope it was good, mine turned out to be a very interesting one. Please, if you would lend me a bit of your time, I'm convinced that what you're going to read won't be a waste.

As most of us know, we've got three donation~drives with such short amounts of time "in-between them," that lead me to have a few suspicions; so, ever since the board got closed again I've been dedicating some time to a little research of mine, and I think I've come up with enough stuff to disclose, make what you want of it:

- First things first, let's see to who ffshrine[dot]org belongs: if we can trust MYIP.MS, a person called ****** Nicholas (http://myip.ms/info/whois/96.31.69.127/k/3099856207/website/ffshrine.org). Let's take note of that address.

- WI stands for Wisconsin, am I right? Sarah stated she's been having financial troubles, that's okay: we have a general location, I think we can all agree also on just how much FFS is an illegal source of revenue, so let's check if she shows up among the delinquent tax payers (http://www.revenue.wi.gov/delqlist/nmallN.htm)… Oh?

******, NICHOLAS | 2809 UNION ST MADISON WI 53704-4513 USA | I | $41,505.70

Nicholas ****** is indeed there. Let's move on. I've come to discover you have a Twitter-handler, too, and you've been rather active as some, what is it called, Anti-GamerGate icon. Months spent tweeting about that stuff, and I should believe you didn't have a fucking minute to bother answering some legitimate questions brought up here, over time? Sigh. Useless to think about it now. I Went on with the digging (won't bore you with the details, folks don't worry) and I've discovered my assumption about advertisers pulling out of FFS because of illegal activity wasn't that far off (http://8archive.moe/gamergate/thread/189853), still, I've got to say you're clever: you did all you could to bring troubles to a website, citing violations of TOS (http://www.reddit.com/r/GamerGhazi/comments/2ly73c/8chan_is_asking_for_donations_via_paypal_its_a/), yet, you are guilty of violating another point of the very same TOS with the Shrine and according to the link I've posted previously, you've got to taste your own medicine. Served you right.

- You seem to have some trouble with the Dept. of Revenue (http://wcca.wicourts.gov) and I know myself, because of family-related stuff, that things with the court may become very expensive.


So… Where does the money coming from donations go? Some of it will indeed go toward server-costs, but I hardly believe this place now needs that much to stay afloat.

30tb a month of bandwith usage... i don't buy into that. i call that bs. gh is dead and from what i saw it's filepost links and the like.

a forum, even as big as this one, doesn't blow 30tb of data in a month.

i highly recommend to drop dead money grabbers like gh. move to a better and cheaper server. use different filehost, e.g. mega pro, mediafire pro or even drop them all together and let the users take care if things in that matter. works so far pretty good.

and answer the bloody questions. people gave you their hard earned cash and have a right to know.

Thats nothing Leon Scott Kennedy... this (https://forum.encyclopediadramatica.se/threads/sarah-butts-sarah-******-nicholas-nick-e-******-thread.20264/) link provides more.

Thats nothing Leon Scott Kennedy... this (https://forum.encyclopediadramatica.se/threads/sarah-butts-sarah-******-nicholas-nick-e-******-thread.20264/) link provides more.

Lol I literally just got done reading the 8chan thread and ED article....surprised I'd never heard of this before.

Lol I literally just got done reading the 8chan thread and ED article....surprised I'd never heard of this before.

Gosh me too O____________________________O

I've about had it with this fucking site runned by a tranny pedophile'd "IT" can someone start a new VB bulletin site, I would be happy to put $100 down to get it running.

Well I will enjoy getting what I can first like.........

So... You're telling me the people donating had basically supported Gamergate without knowing it? OH WOW.

No, she is against GG. Besides, the donations probably went to her landlord and grocery bills.

Nobody uses GH? Do you even have the slightest idea about how many websites/blogs/users/etcetera around the Web linked to it? Heck, some even wrote small download managers which would "mass-download" every MP3 of a single page, partly making the Download Links section (you've read it right, years ago there weren't three different sections for Video Game / Film, TV / Anime music) of the forums not that useful: some of its appeal came from the fact users were offering albums hosted on GH in convenient packages.

In case you didn't know, folks, FFShrine has been around for years, same goes for Galbadia Hotel. Think about what it means for a moment: years hosting that quantity of sheet music and MP3 files. That being said, I believe the server dl1.ffshrine.org/ died "definitely" around 2013; while there were hiccups prior to that year, issues got fixed and everything returned working. Why do I say this? Because I've used Galbadia Hotel, I've successfully downloaded stuff off it in 2012.

In 2005-7 I used Galbadia Hotel alot to get my first taste of many OSTs. However that time has passed. As you said the server imploded. Most of us moved on to lossless. I think we need a consensus about where our money is going…

I just glanced at the articles everyone posted about Tranny Sarah Butts and her fantastical private life. Starting to regret I donated money to this place.

Does anyone really think we are going to get satisfactory answers about this any time soon? Since the place will undoubtedly go down again in the not so distant future, in order to pay for His/Her delinquent taxes, we need some serious discussions about FFshrine alternatives, since even though Im sure we all already visit other sites, this one was something special.

[deleted]

Good work, detectives.

I don't care so much about Sarah/Nicholas's personal life and "quirks" (to put it mildly)... but if s/he extorted money for the reasons s/he seems to have....

Then shame.

Well, I'll echo what was tangotreats' suggestion: if you want to keep in touch with certain users, folks, now it's time to come up with different means of contact. Skype, Twitter, Facebook, AIM, other boards… Possibilities are endless.

I don't know what to think about the whole situation myself, honestly; I'd like to think "innocent until proven guilty," but evidence is out there. It is my understanding Sarah tried to delete some "nasty threads" from the Shrine, in the past, but the Internet hardly forgets. This thread will probably end up deleted, I'll get banned/doxxed by her twitter accolades (not that I care), or… God forbid… Sarah will actually spill the beans, for once. Truth, that's all I'd like to hear.

No, she is against GG. Besides, the donations probably went to her landlord and grocery bills.

My bad, didn't read it well. Please, all those who want to stay in touch, PM me. I'm feeling like these are the last days of Pompeii.

Same here I would like to stay in touch but I dont use facebook, Twitter, or any of those things but, a email might work perhaps I might get a account. I have yahoo or windows messager.

I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!!!
I mean, I like turtles...
I mean, I'm just gonna come back later to see what what will become of this.

Facebook and/or Skype is open.
Join me in oblivion. We shall dissipate into the void together.

Wow

Wow

I also play World of Warcraft if anyone ever wants to go fishing. I like fishing, it's relaxing.

I too would like an answer as to where our money has gone, but I kinda almost don't wanna know. I donated $100 last summer (and never got more PM space or anything to show for it, but whatever) and I think I'd just be better off not knowing what it went to.


I also play World of Warcraft if anyone ever wants to go fishing. I like fishing, it's relaxing.

I've never played WOW and mark my words I never will

I've never played WOW and mark my words I never will

Served you right.

Didn't I call that shit or what!!!

I do have facebook and skype. and some people here, I would like to keep in touch indeed. :/
serious shit, but I will do like Milo.....

Perchance it would be prudent to start a thread with a poll that lists several suggestions as to where we could migrate to. I don't think it would really help posting your personal accounts here, there would be far too many options for anyone to register to and keep in touch with everyone. That is unless you just want to keep contact with one or two people, then it'd be fine.

For most people buying soundtracks is not feasible due to the part of the world they live in. Buying most physical releases would be a pricy endeavor (or simply because you don't own a credit card). It would really be a shame if there no longer is a place people share these things. One doesn't have the luxury to choose one's musical predilections nor the place you were born in.

EDIT: Perhaps there could even be a forum where people have to register with some requisites. I mean my MEGA account was recently compromised resulting in all my uploads being deleted. It would be splendid if such things could be circumvented with someone somehow regulating the members.

Regards.

I'm down with a new site, its time for a revolution! We need someone extremely active in the scene with running a VB Bulleting site, from what I read it's only $249 (assuming a month) using the latest version v5.0

I would be happy to throw donate my money on this approach. There's even a free trial to experiment why not give it a shot?

/ffshrine/ - Video Game Music Downloads (http://8chan.co/ffshrine/)



If you want something more of a forum where you can get points, then this is not for you.

This is just a temp board while someone else makes a forum.

It's currently empty as of now.


Also, I turned on the archive so the threads you made in the past don't die forever, I know it's not the same but eh, It'll grow, eventually.

I'll start uploading my music there, as in pasting the MEGA links I've uploaded while here and new ones to comes while I look for a new cyber home, you are free to join, this entire drama thing basically killed my boner for ffshrine, especially the anti GG thing the leader had, so that's pretty much an incentive for you to come here- It's Gluten Free people!

Peace.

I'm Thinking of hosting this, would it be a bad idea to have vBulletin host it? I can handle $40 a month, what do you guys think?

http://www.vbulletin.com/en/checkout/cart/configure/id/785034/

I'm Thinking of hosting this, would it be a bad idea to have vBulletin host it? I can handle $40 a month, what do you guys think?

Shopping Cart (http://www.vbulletin.com/en/checkout/cart/configure/id/785034/)

Hmmmm not bad at all :B

I can't seem to view the second page (settings: 50 posts per page).

I think its more than enough for us and it can be a well dedicated site for us pure VGM lovers, besides hotlinking is all we would be doing not uploading to the site.

If you're talking to me, no one has posted yet ;-;


I just made it in a hurry, if you're not talking to me then my mistake.

I've just been busy as hell and I made it in a hurry, It would be cool if users made their own designated threads, I want to upload heartgold/soulsilver and just get the heck out of here, there's like one guy really wanted me to do it and I feel like a jerk because I haven't uploaded yet.


Neochip, DO IT. <3

i thinking also that backup/alt site good idea. if war on ffshrine, can having backup, not just cast out for internet and hoping for finding good place (tehparadox ok, but not same)

So this is how it's gonna go if I'm not mistaken, Neo_Chip's website as the main website for everyone here and my website as emergency backup source in case something goes horribly wrong, correct?

I'm carefully considering it mordidcrab, at minimum I can keep that new site alive in payments in case I disappear. I just wish someone with more dedication can step in, I feel like I do much better at supporting than providing.

Give me a day or 2 and will consider it, although from my current standpoint its a clear go.

If ppl want to speed things up, maybe making a large skype group would be helpful? It would help with real time communications.

Just don't make a backup site hosted somewhere where copyrighted work is not allowed and expect everything to be fine...

I'm still cautious, should I make /ffshrine/ an unlisted link in case some anti-gg jerk goes in a reports all the links to the 8chan mods, would they even care?

I don't wanna re-upload everything in case my MEGA account gets nuked....while having others people's link downed as well, it would be extremely infuriating, should I hide it and only have people with the link enter it? Sure it'll be smaller but also safer, someone would spread it and we'll see how it goes.

Also, Neo_Chip, just do what makes you comfortable man, you should have a big donate button on the website and just pay what it tells you what you owe, and stockpile the extra money in case you don't get enough funds for a certain months, at least- that's what I would do.

It is a $249 one time, non-refundable payment for a new vBulletin 5.0 license (which includes 4.x.x, which is what ffshrine runs on).

So when you factor in purchasing a domain name and monthly hosting you're looking at probably $300 in startup costs.

Looks like I'm late for the BIG party.

I'm also in favour of a whole new site under our full control, but a full suite like vBulletin is not a good solution IMHO. I'd suggest we go for a more generic webhost so we can choose and tailor our software more freely on top of it.

Again I'm an IT guy so feel free to count me in if you need a site admin or other tech-related role.

phpBB and SMF are some nice free alternatives.

Say "hi" to Randi for us, Sarah.

ED will be most interested.

http://media.giphy.com/media/sMTVmMIl7S4bC/giphy.gif

They see me postin', they hatin'

phpBB and SMF are some nice free alternatives.
Besides traditional forums, I'm also thinking about going blog/SNS style, which could be more convenient managing posts, subjects and user groups, etc.

A dedicated thread should be made for determining and voting on options. Currently discussion is split between this thread and the Lossless VGM thread, making it hard for people to track discussion/options if they aren't aware of that. Also, it has only been 1 day. I'm sure there are several users that have not seen this information at all, or who chimed in earlier with their 2 cents but haven't had the chance to check back yet.

Yeah, I'm gonna stay on this thread now for the sake of being on-topic, anyway, I put a disclaimer on the website.


Posting links in the open might indeed be a bad idea, so in case there's a crisis or forum boards are unavailable for whatever reason, then people can share links with each other through e-mail or other means of contact.

Also just for discussion as well until a dedicated board is made.

Though I do commend you, folks, for the initiative displayed in "setting up show" elsewhere, I'm still interested in seeing what Sarah's actions are going to be, it's obvious some shady things have been exposed, but there's also her side of it to hear (that is, if she even bothers to show up, past experiences have me doubt she will, but hope's the last to die).

Also, folks this has been the third donation drive, someone was bound to do some research "behind the scenes".

Yes! Exactly, I'm still waiting for what she has to say, I'm glad people have finally seen behind "The Courtains" in a way, but I'm still curious if she'll be able to at least try to redeem herself, this board is so comfy to me. It's like a snug digital blanket.

Will she have a moment of comeuppance, or will it just get worse?

Nobody knows, and that's only half the fun!

Inb4 she bans me, I see it coming miles away.

What if she bans everyone in this thread? 0_0

I wouldn't give a fuck, personally, the only thing I'd be losing is an account on one board. If anything, I'm gonna laugh at the lame attempt to cover crap up. It's not like my "findings" aren't publicly, hmmm, "achievable"? Anyone could dig that information, it's only matter of using a few tools and being able to connect dots.
Though I neutrally respects every user and I'm honoured to say I do think of some as actual friends, the biggest bulk of users is for me only an amount of John and Jane Doe(s). That being said, I'm not gonna lose sleep if I no longer have any kind of contact with the Shriners; I didn't register here to make friends, I came for the downloads.

I don't even care if FFS gets closed down, it wouldn't be the first board of its kind I see "die" and it won't be the last, plus:

- As far as illegally sharing is concerned, there are alternatives which are just as good.
- What made this place great are the users: take those away. Shares which have been going on here could also be elsewhere; try not to have some kind of "attachment" cloud you, folks: ultimately, it is just a board.

Tsundere~

Well duh. I feel hardly FF or Shrine about this place itself. It's the people that matters indeed.

I'm late in that party lol !

I'm a web designer ( and game designer too ) and for the last couple of month I'm working on a sharing/forum site.

So, if the idea of migrating to another website still continue to grow, I will be able to help.

( I precise that, this site will be about everything ( anime , music etc.....))

(Also, for those who know me in the Lossless thread, this is why Metropolis Street Racer is not uploaded yet, this release will be the first OST to be shared on this new site :p )

I did stay for the people, I just wonder where the rest are gonna go....

Vrantheo or zaykho could you check on an estimate of total costs? That way we can all see clearly how much it will costs to run a site with listed features...

Comparing costs openly would be wise to get the best deal.


My method for vBulletin costs me just $40 a month for 75GB of bandwidth hosted with them, which includes a blog and bunch available features as a standalone purchase which costs a single $249 purchase plus a webhoster costs.

I can donate for the initial cost of a new page is set up... so count me in on anything.

Can't believe it's been almost 10 years for me, from being a GH contributor to a lurker....the news wasn't surprising to me since I've seen these donation drives lately with growing suspicion each time.

Also, I wanted to say thank you to the community for sharing your audio rips, albums, game rips, etc.

Maybe a new thread would be a good start if the community wishes to look for other alternatives? Perhaps we can use an IRC hub/channel to discuss these things as well if this thread is scrapped or we're all suddenly banned. Looks like Morbidcrab's board on 8ch also works too.

If anything, we need another forum that's a backup but always online in case another donation drive happens. Obviously a permanent solution would be preferred. Much appreciation to whoever decides to fund another forum for this faithful community. I'll definitely re-contribute again if it happens.

Echoing what zaizaizai and GoldfishX have said in the lossless thread, I wouldn't recommend the vgmcentral DC++ hub anymore, the new admin that took over a few years ago is barely online to moderate users and it's practically dead, half of the active users moved to their own IRC hub. I wouldn't object to starting our own DC++ hub with an active moderation team and encrypted connections though...

Vrantheo or zaykho could you check on an estimate of total costs? That way we can all see clearly how much it will costs to run a site with listed features…

A friend of mine owns SeraphimLabs (http://www.seraphimlabs.net/) which seems cheaper than vBulletin. Not really advertising for him but just taking him as an example, as I figure there should be even better deals out there. I can't estimate how much storage and bandwidth we just need, though.

As for software features, I'd consider GNU social (aka StatusNet) or Friendica. Even though I've never ever been on big SNSes like Twitter or Facebook, but they're more organizable than plain forum boards.

I did stay for the people, I just wonder where the rest are gonna go....

Honestly. This place was my second home, or part of my own home. Although Leon is right, and I do agree that we can migrate to some place else, I still feel that will not be exactly the same. A lot of people in here were almost like "family". Talking about bad days, good days, sharing experiences, a new manga I/him/her wanted so much for nostalgia.
I actually don't have any place else to go besides this "home" where I thank so much since 2007 for all the beautiful people I know today, and all the shares we got to each other in here.
being it rare or not, fun thing is, someone would buy something and share with everyone. Illegal as it may keep saying, I don't feel like it, because it's shared between friends, right? :/
My income is so bad, that I hardly can contribute with anything, besides my existence. :/

Pardon my shameless thread hijacking, but Let's Talk About "The New Plans" Here Instead (Thread 188018).

I will respond on those two thread:


Well as for me they are nothing to pay now, since I have already bought my site. ( ~60€ [65$] / year )

Here what I have for now: (but don't forget if the traffic go very high, I can add boost to this server with low fees)

HDD : 100go
Traffic : unlimited
SQL : 200mo (a bit light)

+

PHPbb : free (not need Vbulletin, since I'm working on my own forum, phpbb will be temporary)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cost for 1 year : ~60€ [65$]
Cost for 1 year if traffic go higher than 2000 per day : ~90€ [97$]
Cost for 1 year if traffic is the same of FFshrine, ~11 000 per day : ~190€ [206$]

Say it ain't so, Sarah? :(

While I do hold out a tiny modicum of hope that this isn't what it appears, I do agree with others who've had growing suspicions with each passing donation drive. I've been on my message boards and forums in my time, and I'm pretty sure this is the only place I've ever seen completely shut down while begging for donations. (Sure I've seen others go down for other reasons, but not for fundraising!)

Also, a note: Regardless of whatever wrong Sarah may have done, can we please not use transphobic language (e.g. "tranny") in calling her out? Call her out because of her willful misuse of funds and tactics in unfairly seeking more. But that has nothing to do with her trans gender and is a slur against trans individuals as a whole--and it's simply not cool. We're better than that after all. :)

My opinions:

-the new site should have nothing to do with FFShrine, in the name or implied... maybe name it like Video Game Music Downloads or something
-seeing that Sarah tried to take down sites in the past (eg. on that Gamer Gate board, leading to the retaliation of people reporting FFShrine to the advertisers), we have to make sure it's super secure and not easy to report
-I don't think HCS or a Chan-type site is any good for this type of thing.... a standard forum like vBulletin would be best IMO
-Once we have a site open we should redirect people there through our download links, like in the lossless thread, to make sure the migration is successful and no one's left behind.

zaykho: so you're saying you have a site ready to go? :O

Zaykho I am interested in your upstart forum. Its much further along than the other guys. Lets not all get ahead of ourselfes yet and start purchasing hosting packages.

Well I've been suspicious for years, mostly the first time I can recall the seeing the overall asking (total) amount needed. Per month. But I was also under the impression that often times when requests go up for donations, the payments are already months behind. But that was probably just me trying to make sense out of the amount of money.

Well I'm all for moving somewhere else if anyone has any suggestions. I have Skype, multiple e-mails.
I prefer however not to be sent direct files through Skype... it is a slug. So normal hosting sites like mediafire, mega, and such should still be used for speed.

As for a website, if anyone has any suggestions I'm listening.

Hm, it would be interesting to read also what other Staff members have to say about this, well, those who remained, that is.

If I click "what's new" I can see fragment of posts from here but it still just redirects me to first page...


What are you guys talking about now???

If I click "what's new" I can see fragment of posts from here but it still just redirects me to first page...


What are you guys talking about now???

Page 03:


Page 04:


Regards.

I actually don't have any place else to go besides this "home" where I thank so much since 2007 for all the beautiful people I know today, and all the shares we got to each other in here.
being it rare or not, fun thing is, someone would buy something and share with everyone. Illegal as it may keep saying, I don't feel like it, because it's shared between friends, right? :/
My income is so bad, that I hardly can contribute with anything, besides my existence. :/

Mine is too, that's why I try to at least do some gamerips nobody else has done, no matter how slow- hell, you guys are the entire reason I began dedicating time for these things, and there are still more to come- just, not here, If everything goes smoothly, I'm gonna migrate to zaykho's website.

I don't have much nostalgia for this place, but I do understand how crappy that can be and I'm real sorry to hear that, just when I was getting reeeaaal settled.

Ah, thanks for pics. Nothing happening.

/going_fishing

i've been out of town because my girlfriend was having a bit of a crisis so i can't be on the forums. i'm working on adding the donations.

i'm... horrified at what i came back to here. i'll make every attempt to be as transparent with all of you as i always have been, i'll answer any questions you have.

this misinformation is coming from a group that's harassed, stalked, doxxed, sent myself and my family death threats. you can read about what happened to me here: http://tinyurl.com/mmdseet


Every piece of information they uncovered was used to harass. I was sent those pre-transition photos and told I would never be a woman. My dox and deadname were repeated loudly and repeatedly, even by the biggest figureheads of their movement. One them openly encouraged people to harass me with said photos; even before that encouragement, it had already happened hundreds of times. Photos of my immediate family members that had passed away were sent to me with vile messages—some blaming me for their deaths. I was tweeted pictures of my house, along with messages asking if I would rather be shot or stabbed. Threatening emails were sent to my friends, some of which were severe enough to require contact with the police.

My websites were taken down from distributed denial of service attacks. GamerGate websites openly posted instructions on how to illegally gain access to my servers via SQL injection exploits; this was used to leak chat logs between a small group of friends from almost a decade ago. Campaigns were launched to bombard advertisers on my sites with lies in an attempt to get them to pull out.

Boards that encouraged SWATs posted my information, including my address and that of my family’s. Numerous critics of GamerGate had already been victims of SWATs, one of which resulted in over twenty police being deployed. The board responsible bragged frequently about a woman’s dog being killed by the police in one incident.

My brother passed away six years ago; he left me Sadie, his pitbull. For weeks after my information appeared on that board I would wake up in cold sweats fearing I would lose her.

these are the people this information is coming from. they're harassing me and making up lies about me. yes, i am in debt, which is why i can't cover the costs myself anymore-- that does NOT mean the money for donations goes to that, it never has. not a penny of it goes to my debt.

the very people harassing me are the reason the donations situation is as it is now. i had to pay for additional server security, DDoS mitigation, frequent security audits, additional backup services and much more. they've also bombarded our advertisers with lies trying to get them to pull out.

i've run this site for over a decade now. i've put thousands upon thousands of my own dollars into this site as well as thousands of hours of time. i know i haven't been around as much lately, and i feel very guilty for that-- running a site for this long takes a huge toll emotionally. it's kind of heartbreaking to see after this much time and everything i've put into it, people are going to believe a group of trolls and villainize me over their lies instead of standing by me.

i'm going to make sure ffs survives, and as i said earlier, i plan for this to be the last time we'll ever need donations.

i'll answer any questions you all have, and i'll be transparent as possible. but please, before you believe any of that bullshit, know that you're believing people who have tried to had me swatted, have sent death and rape threats to myself and my family, and have grossly and repeatedly violated my privacy, and have overall made a game out of trying to destroy my life. i've had to contact the police multiple times because of what's been going on.

i'm going to stick by FFS no matter what. i hope you all do, too. i promise to be around more and answer any questions you have. please, read the above article. look at who you're choosing to believe. these are people that aren't doing everything they can do harass and terrorize me.

...
this misinformation is coming from a group that's harassed, stalked, doxxed, sent myself and my family death threats. you can read about what happened to me here: http://www.ravishly.com/2015/03/02/sarah-******-hate-movement-gaming-threats-abuse-bullying
...


Link does not work.

I'm not a mercenary or a person to try to ruin your life, but you've abandoned 'the community' and have kept quiet for a loooong time. You should not be surprised of this uprising...

You done fucked up bra...

Link does not work.
Last name is getting censored here on the board:

n y b e r g

I thank you for posting that, Sarah, going to read now.

Link does not work.

try now. it should work.

Here is the correct link to the article:

http://www.ravishly.com/2015/03/02/sarah-******-hate-movement-gaming-threats-abuse-bullying
I Set Out To Expose A Hate Movement In Gaming -- So They Set Out To Destroy My Life*|*Ravishly (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ravishly/i-set-out-to-expose-a-hate-movement-in-gaming----so-they-set-out-to-destroy-my-life_b_6894418.html)

I don't mean to be THAT guy but somebody has to do it, what makes you think they will stop? Or are you going to get some sort of protection? I mean, you've had quite the history with this, and that's a giant understatement, I just feel that you need to take a break or something, I don't know, you've left...quite a mark over the years is all I'm saying, some things I wish I've unheard, and I mean, you're going agaist gamergate for pete's sake, get yourself together, do you know what GG is actually trying to accomplish? I'll give you a hint, they are not the same people who are harassing you, that is for certain, you've had your glasses scratched and tinted and maybe you've accused the wrong people, that's understandable, it's happened to everyone, I know it seems like you're against them for the right cause but that isn't truth, maybe down the road you've played with fire and had some no-gooders pin bad things against you.


All I'm saying is, think things through, deeply, lay-low a little, be like a mirage or something, come out when the tide has calmed, of course it isn't easy, bullying is a shitty thing, but accusing the wrong people of these things is nearly as bad, just try to refresh yourself and try to start new in your own terms.

Also, where are the server costs? Do you have a screenshot or a bill by any chance?

http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131129050054/steven-universe/images/7/71/Tumblr_mwxti3jGsV1rcmzqeo3_400.gif

Posting this .gif in case I get shot down.

Forum got fixed! I can browse by page now.
Going to read article, too.

I'm not a mercenary or a person to try to ruin your life, but you've abandoned 'the community' and have kept quiet for a loooong time. You should not be surprised of this uprising...

You done fucked up bra...

i've run this site for over a decade. yes, at various times i've been less present on the forums as i was previously. i always was handling things behind the scenes, always. from FFS's finances to the server administration to the security to backups. yes, i view my not being here as much as a failure. but no, that isn't the same as abandoning the place. read that article. look at what's happened to me in the past 8 months-- that's a big part of why i haven't been around.

FFS will stay up, and i'm dedicated to getting more advertisers so we don't need to ask for donations ever again. i'm going to try to be around on the forums more.

It does not seem very wise for someone with so much debt to be running a website that they cannot afford. The site means a lot to you, obviously, but you should consider passing the reins to someone more qualified while you sort out your personal issues.

What this website needs right now is an administrator that is active, competent and stable. And that isn't you.

I don't mean to be THAT guy but somebody has to do it, what makes you think they will stop? Or are you going to get some sort of protection? I mean, you've had quite the history with this, and that's a giant understatement, I just feel that you need to take a break or something, I don't know, you've left...quite a mark over the years is all I'm saying, some things I wish I've unheard, and I mean, you're going agaist gamergate for pete's sake, get yourself together, do you know what GG is actually trying to accomplish? I'll give you a hint, they are not the same people who are harassing you, that is for certain, you've had your glasses scratched and tinted and maybe you've accused the wrong people, that's understandable, it's happened to everyone, I know it seems like you're against them for the right cause but that isn't truth, maybe down the road you've played with fire and had some no-gooders pin bad things against you.


All I'm saying is, think things through, deeply, lay-low a little, be like a mirage or something, come out when the tide has calmed, of course it isn't easy, bullying is a shitty thing, but accusing the wrong people of these things is nearly as bad, just try to refresh yourself and try to start new in your own terms.

Also, where are the server costs? Do you have a screenshot or a bill by any chance?

http://static4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20131129050054/steven-universe/images/7/71/Tumblr_mwxti3jGsV1rcmzqeo3_400.gif

Posting this .gif in case I get shot down.

Dude, that was so….deep.

;)

---------- Post added at 05:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:43 PM ----------


Sarah:

1. Youre in debt. Even if you say that the money wont go there, that doesnt make things any different
2. Youre not all that active even though you want to be
3. Youre emotionally troubled thanks to this drama
4. What the hell is Galbadia Hotel doing and how much Donations is it draining?
5. Just saying you hope we wont need donations if we get more advertisers doesnt meant youve solved anything.
6. The situation isnt getting better just because of telling us about the GamerGate drama, which frankly isnt the issue here.

I don't understand the need to bring the Gamergate stuff into this. The whole thing is a vitriolic shit show and please everyone - Sarah's view is only one side of that whole shebang, but this is not important. You can go read about it online and form your own opinion.

Sarah, can you just provide an explanation of why FFShrine needs $2400 almost quarterly? Without GH functioning, both the traffic and bill seem very exaggerated. Even at say, generous 10K visitors and 10 daily page views at 1MB each, it doesn't add up. Not to mention the donation thing going on at GH right now...

Having run several of my own forums in the past, I had some doubts about how the website could cost that much when it's basically only hosting text, but now that I see who the detractors are and who the admin is, it's pretty obvious what's going on. Those people really need to work on creating better excuses for their hate rhetoric. "Ethics in forum administering" isn't very much different from "ethic in games journalism". Fail, ffshrine detractors. I was rather indifferent to the success or failure of this website before, but now I will actively root for it to continue to dominate the soundtrack sharing world.

Having run several of my own forums in the past, I had some doubts about how the website could cost that much when it's basically only hosting text, but now that I see who the detractors are and who the admin is, it's pretty obvious what's going on. Those people really need to work on creating better excuses for their hate rhetoric. "Ethics in forum administering" isn't very much different from "ethic in games journalism". Fail, ffshrine detractors. I was rather indifferent to the success or failure of this website before, but now I will actively root for it to continue to dominate the soundtrack sharing world.

The detractors is us, who paid the donations. GameGate can go fasturbate muriously in the ether of irrelevancy where it belongs.

I don't understand the need to bring the Gamergate stuff into this. The whole thing is a vitriolic shit show and please everyone - Sarah's view is only one side of that whole shebang, but this is not important. You can go read about it online and form your own opinion.


Gamergate is another side, reading the story she said about the people from there DDoS'ing the website THUS building up the costs. Of course it's a shit show, but it's still related to this ordeal like it or not- my sarcasm didn't really show this time, did it?

Despite the circumstances about everything that has happened to you Sarah, we owe it to ourselves to have an alternative place if something does happen to this place, either another donation drive or if these "violators" somehow take the site down.

It's sort of surprising, at least if I were in your shoes, you didn't just "give up" on the community and closed the site down while all this was happening, it would've saved you a lot in terms of your finances. I can understand if it's the community you've created this past decade is something you don't want to lose, which would give you a valid reason to further protect us with the additional server security and backups. If you really cared about us though, you should be supporting us as we look for an alternative place, not to keep us here and continue to pay you these exorbitant prices for additional services to the server we never knew existed until now.

Can you also talk about how the GH portion of the site influences these server costs? You haven't updated GH in the past 8+ years and many others, including myself, would suggest removing it if you can't find advertisers. (EDIT: disregard, looks like GH has been down since 2013!)

Where are the server costs coming from now?

So, I've been reading that article and to speak bluntly: shit doesn't add up. I've come across stuff which contradicts parts of it and this is a rather big side-note that I'm putting up first: you avoid once more to come clear in some way about server costs for this goddamn domain; that certainly doesn't help with the "picture" some of us have of you, now, here at the Shrine. We'll let it slide, let's go back to the article and the post now:

- You couldn't come to the board because you were out of town with your partner, how come you had time to argue with folks over at Twitter in these days?

- "GamerGate websites openly posted instructions on how to illegally gain access to my servers via SQL injection exploits;" - This right here is a pile of bullshit, that was done by a group named NotGoatseSec, a group not affiliated with GamerGate (tweet got posted same night of the hijack) (http://tweetsave.com/notgoatsesec/status/552023805905100800), video here (http://a.pomf.se/uywpgz.webm).

- ""Boards that encouraged SWATs posted my information, including my address and that of my family’s...." - Boards? Board. What you are trying to pass off as an attack from multiple sides came from "/baphomet/" alone, a board on 8chan which doesn't have any affiliation with GamerGate, either. They also just happened to be angry at you because you went after 8chan's funding. I won't doubt that there were scummy human beings which crossed the line with threats, our species "caused" two World Wars, for fuck sake, but there was no proper campaign to bombard advertisers with lies, there was a thread (which I've linked to) where people who got pissed off at you going after 8chan's funding decided it was payback time.

I've not only looked at your article on Ravishly.com, looked at the website as a whole, seems rather strongly feminist and Anti-GamerGatish, I hope you'll excuse me if I don't think that is a valuable source.

The detractors is us, who paid the donations. GameGate can go fasturbate muriously in the ether of irrelevancy where it belongs.

The way I read the thread, it was merely people calmly and politely asking questions until a couple of posters with obvious GG bias came into the thread and starting making wild unsubstantiated claims, posting totally inappropriate crap (it's 2015, can we please stop using the word "tranny" already?) about the admin's personal life in an incredibly impolite way, and only then did people start stirring up s*** about misappropriation of donations and starting a new competing website. This thread has been being manipulated by people with an agenda and it's not even very subtle.

Sure, Sarah could be more transparent with how she runs the website but if I were adminnning a forum of this size I sure as hell wouldn't want my character held responsible for replying to every little question about the site in every little thread.

---------- Post added at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------


seems rather strongly feminist and Anti-GamerGatish, I hope you'll excuse me if I don't think that is a valuable source.

Yes, instead we should only trust information from people who believe certain genders and orientations are more worthy of being treated respectfully and humanely than others and have the staggering audacity to identify with such pre-1800s-style mindsets as if it were a matter of pride.

While we're at it, the KKK should be the only source of news about inner-city issues. Just so there is no pro-compassion bias. Can't have that.

The way I read the thread, it was merely people calmly and politely asking questions until a couple of posters with obvious GG bias came into the thread and starting making wild unsubstantiated claims, posting totally inappropriate crap (it's 2015, can we please stop using the word "tranny" already?) about the admin's personal life in an incredibly impolite way, and only then did people start stirring up s*** about misappropriation of donations and starting a new competing website. This thread has been being manipulated by people with an agenda and it's not even very subtle.

Sure, Sarah could be more transparent with how she runs the website but if I were adminnning a forum of this size I sure as hell wouldn't want my character held responsible for replying to every little question about the site in every little thread.

---------- Post added at 06:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:07 PM ----------



Yes, instead we should only trust information from people who believe certain genders and orientations are more worthy of being treated respectfully and humanely than others and have the staggering audacity to identify with such pre-1800s-style mindsets as if it were a matter of pride.

While we're at it, the KKK should be the only source of news about inner-city issues. Just so there is no pro-compassion bias. Can't have that.

This is BS. The people like LSK who started to snoop into Sarahs background did so because we werent getting answers about what was going on with the site. We are kind of starting to now, but not at a satisfactory level.

All the GamerGate BS is a sideshow to this ongoing, grand-stand carnival act called Donation Theatre. As LSK explained, Sarah is skirting responsibility and apparently falling back on sympathy that may not entirely be due.

- "GamerGate websites openly posted instructions on how to illegally gain access to my servers via SQL injection exploits;" - This right here is a pile of bullshit, that was done by a group named NotGoatseSec, a group not affiliated with GamerGate (tweet got posted same night of the hijack) (http://tweetsave.com/notgoatsesec/status/552023805905100800), video here (http://a.pomf.se/uywpgz.webm).

I've not only looked at your article on Ravishly.com, looked at the website as a whole, seems rather strongly feminist and Anti-GamerGatish, I hope you'll excuse me if I don't think that is a valuable source.

Bingo Baby, there we go- GG isn't related after all, on her side it apparently is, as I said on my original post, GG peeps won't do this kind of thing because that's not what they stand for, but Sarah says otherwise, but we all know that's bull- nothing but a distraction.

---------- Post added at 06:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:45 PM ----------




Yes, instead we should only trust information from people who believe certain genders and orientations are more worthy of being treated respectfully and humanely than others and have the staggering audacity to identify with such pre-1800s-style mindsets as if it were a matter of pride.

While we're at it, the KKK should be the only source of news about inner-city issues. Just so there is no pro-compassion bias. Can't have that.

What the /hell/ are you going on about?

The way I read the thread, it was merely people calmly and politely asking questions until a couple of posters with obvious GG bias came into the thread and starting making wild unsubstantiated claims, posting totally inappropriate crap (it's 2015, can we please stop using the word "tranny" already?) about the admin's personal life in an incredibly impolite way, and only then did people start stirring up s*** about misappropriation of donations and starting a new competing website. This thread has been being manipulated by people with an agenda and it's not even very subtle.

Sure, Sarah could be more transparent with how she runs the website but if I were adminnning a forum of this size I sure as hell wouldn't want my character held responsible for replying to every little question about the site in every little thread.

Any "GG bias" began when problems were a result of Sarah's own GG bias. Much like how Benji kept running his mouth about how he ran /baphomet/, he became a target as a result. Sarah's personal bias with GG inadvertently led to problems here. That is the only bias here. Considering the facts, it is wild speculation that the donations could be going anywhere besides the forums. But seeing as she hasn't bothered to explain the cost to us, despite mounting tensions and questions, this raises many red flags.

The fact stands that the donations have become more frequent. Whether that's because GH is a sinking ship, or because the Sarah's personal drama has drawn negative attention here (thus the need for funding better security measures? Could this also be why advertisers have withdrawn their ads?), it doesn't matter. There's a damned liability here and an explanation is not forthcoming, though she's probably typing one as I speak.

My point is: we're being asked to pay, and frequently at that. There should be 0 question of where that money goes and how it's used. There should also we complete transparency as to why the costs are so high. If that's because of GH, then I feel the donators at the very least should have the right to decide its fate. If it's because of personal problems with Sarah, then that makes her a detriment to the state of this forum. Perhaps taking a step back would be in order, either from the forum or removing herself from the problem. Either way, the situation has been placed in much doubt for the users, and considering the murky depths are only getting deeper, with no clear, concise answers, it's no wonder people want to jump ship.

Oh and "every little question" has been "Why does this cost so much?" It is the most frequent and persistent question, and a true answer is never given.


2/10 for making me reply.

Oh and "every little question" has been "Why does this cost so much?" It is the most frequent and persistent question, and a true answer is never given.


Look around for 5 minutes if you don't understand why it costs so much. GH downloads are unsecure annd available to every leacher, DDOSer, bot and spider in the world. That's a bandwidth nightmare and should be taken down ASAP, otherwise anyone who hates the shrine is free to spam GH downloads all day and night and saddle them with skyrocketing costs. If you want to demand change, focus on that, not these BS intrusions into the admin's personal life from people who's agenda is so obvious they have to keep repeating that they have no agenda.

Yes, instead we should only trust information from people who believe certain genders and orientations are more worthy of being treated respectfully and humanely than others and have the staggering audacity to identify with such pre-1800s-style mindsets as if it were a matter of pride.

While we're at it, the KKK should be the only source of news about inner-city issues. Just so there is no pro-compassion bias. Can't have that.
I didn't say that, but frankly speaking as a 27 years old adult which is nearing 28, I'm rather wary of trusting claims provided by someone which conveniently side-steps what fucking started this mess around here:

The deal with amount of money implied to be needed by servers.

The graphs posted in that reddit research I've quoted in the first page might very well be wrong, I don't know, but at least they're there. Sarah, on the other hand, what has oh-so-graciously gave us up to now? Her word. That's it. I'd like to have some fucking prove. dl1.ffshrine.org is dead, bandwidth nightmare my ass.

Yes, instead we should only trust information from people who believe certain genders and orientations are more worthy of being treated respectfully and humanely than others and have the staggering audacity to identify with such pre-1800s-style mindsets as if it were a matter of pride.

While we're at it, the KKK should be the only source of news about inner-city issues. Just so there is no pro-compassion bias. Can't have that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYiCPmwOV4A&t=1m1s

I didn't say that, but frankly speaking as a 27 years old adult which is nearing 28, I'm rather wary of trusting claims provided by someone which conveniently side-steps what fucking started this mess around here:

The deal with amount of money implied to be needed by servers.

The graphs posted in that reddit research I've quoted in the first page might very well be wrong, I don't know, but at least they're there. Sarah, on the other hand, what has oh-so-graciously gave us up to now? Her word. That's it. I'd like to have some fucking prove. dl1.ffshrine.org is dead, bandwidth nightmare my ass.

We the same age bro. ;) I turn in July.

God fucking dammit, gotta get some popcorn.

Sarah, on the other hand, what has oh-so-graciously gave us up to now? Her word. That's it.

She's given you a functional, massive soundtrack sharing paradise for an entire decade, whilst miraculously navigating the minefield of music copyright legality. If you have a problem with the way she is doing it, go try to do it better yourself.

I am still confused with one thing.
Sarah, don't you have people in here you trust? The other Admins are what to you?
My point is, why did you not let those admins know about all this issue in the first place, and evade this "uprising"? Maybe I am being an ass and assuming something I don't know, but maybe if you had shared those infos with the admins only, you all might had a found a way or discuss between you what to do?
I know personal life and all, do not want to give too much show about it, but don't get me wrong, the articles does sound like a show to me, although I also feel that you wrote it with all your guts.
Galbadia Hotel should not be there anymore, is not doing anything at all at this point. Taking it down would save some more money.
Are you rally talking from your heart that you want to keep FFS alive? If so, I commend you for that, because, many want a new website, and I am not against it; maybe I am too fond of this place or maybe my own psychologically issue of "moving to a new house again" does not let me accept it and go to a new "home".
I swear I am trying to understand Leon's points and yours..... But the only thing I can do right now Is give you the benefit of doubt. Please.... Don't be "courage the cowardly dog" and "make me look bad". :/
http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqzm8svYL31r2x6cpo1_r1_500.gif

We the same age bro. ;) I turn in July.

Leon Scott Kennendy and Vyse Legend are late 20s?

That's the least surprising thing I've read all week.

Sure, Sarah could be more transparent with how she runs the website but if I were adminnning a forum of this size I sure as hell wouldn't want my character held responsible for replying to every little question about the site in every little thread

It's not "every little question" in "every little thread".

We've had 3 donation drives asking for thousands of dollars to support the site in a rather short period of time. For a while now people have been asking "Why does the site cost so much? Is it because of Galbadia Hotel? Why can't we get rid of that part of the site? Where does all this money we're giving you go in terms of the site?"

Can you tell me where she's given the answers to any of these questions?

Sarah is very good at giving very vague blanket answers to any and all concerns.

Like saying that she was out of town, coming back, and saying that she is shocked to see all this hubbub about the financial situation of the forums. That's all she's really said that has any substance or relevance to what is important to us. She has focused instead on telling us how everything we've read about her is a lie, and that GamerGate has a lot to do with this situation.

Except that it really doesn't. That debacle has a lot to do with her own life, not to the ours or the forums's.

If Sarah wants to show she has strong character, she doesn't have to refute the claims that have been made about her. All she has to do is tell us the truth about where the money is going... for better or for worse.


Yes, instead we should only trust information from people who believe certain genders and orientations are more worthy of being treated respectfully and humanely than others and have the staggering audacity to identify with such pre-1800s-style mindsets as if it were a matter of pride.

Leon never said that. He's trying to say that it seemed a little convenient for Sarah to link to a website with that sort of background to support her claims.

dl1.ffshrine.org is dead, bandwidth nightmare my ass.

I don't know when this just happened, but that has to raise some eyebrows. (EDIT- Looks like they have been down since 2013!)

I'll ask again: where are the server costs coming from now?

She's given you a functional, massive soundtrack sharing paradise for an entire decade, whilst miraculously navigating the minefield of music copyright legality. If you have a problem with the way she is doing it, go try to do it better yourself.

Oh Sarah, where would be be?!!….

If Sarah wants to show she has strong character, she doesn't have to refute the claims that have been made about her. All she has to do is tell us the truth about where the money is going... for better or for worse.


Fair enough. I will withhold final judgement pending clarification on this matter. And maybe in the meantime, anyone who has a problem with the way ffshrine is being funded should just stop giving money, instead of posting personal, bigoted attacks against the admin.

i've been out of town because my girlfriend was having a bit of a crisis so i can't be on the forums. i'm working on adding the donations.

i'm... horrified at what i came back to here. i'll make every attempt to be as transparent with all of you as i always have been, i'll answer any questions you have.

this misinformation is coming from a group that's harassed, stalked, doxxed, sent myself and my family death threats. you can read about what happened to me here: I Set Out To Expose A Hate Movement In Gaming?So They Set Out To Destroy My Life | Ravishly (http://tinyurl.com/mmdseet)



these are the people this information is coming from. they're harassing me and making up lies about me. yes, i am in debt, which is why i can't cover the costs myself anymore-- that does NOT mean the money for donations goes to that, it never has. not a penny of it goes to my debt.

the very people harassing me are the reason the donations situation is as it is now. i had to pay for additional server security, DDoS mitigation, frequent security audits, additional backup services and much more. they've also bombarded our advertisers with lies trying to get them to pull out.

i've run this site for over a decade now. i've put thousands upon thousands of my own dollars into this site as well as thousands of hours of time. i know i haven't been around as much lately, and i feel very guilty for that-- running a site for this long takes a huge toll emotionally. it's kind of heartbreaking to see after this much time and everything i've put into it, people are going to believe a group of trolls and villainize me over their lies instead of standing by me.

i'm going to make sure ffs survives, and as i said earlier, i plan for this to be the last time we'll ever need donations.

i'll answer any questions you all have, and i'll be transparent as possible. but please, before you believe any of that bullshit, know that you're believing people who have tried to had me swatted, have sent death and rape threats to myself and my family, and have grossly and repeatedly violated my privacy, and have overall made a game out of trying to destroy my life. i've had to contact the police multiple times because of what's been going on.

i'm going to stick by FFS no matter what. i hope you all do, too. i promise to be around more and answer any questions you have. please, read the above article. look at who you're choosing to believe. these are people that aren't doing everything they can do harass and terrorize me.

I honestly think you should just stick with the forums. Like everyone else said, GH is not really worth holding onto anymore. You could move the files over to a MEGA account and pay a lot less. I don't think you are using 4TB of MP3 content, so it would be more than enough, worse case You can always open a 2nd account. I pay like $28/mo for 2 TB.

i've been out of town because my girlfriend was having a bit of a crisis so i can't be on the forums. I'm looking at your twitter history. You didn't have time for the forums, but you had time to spend hours each day arguing with strangers and organizing Monster Hunter hunts with anti-GamerGate figureheads like Chris Kluwe and Zoe Quinn? It doesn't add up.


the very people harassing me are the reason the donations situation is as it is now. i had to pay for additional server security, DDoS mitigation, frequent security audits, additional backup services and much more. they've also bombarded our advertisers with lies trying to get them to pull out. First of all, it ought to be rather simple to post the invoices for those services to back up your claims. You pretty much owe that to your donors at this point.

Second, Leon Scott Kennedy linked to the thread where they organized to report you to Paypal and Google AdSense. There were no lies in it. You also conveniently left out the fact that you went after their site's funding first using the exact same tactics. That seems to be what motivated them to report you.


look at what's happened to me in the past 8 months-- that's a big part of why i haven't been around.The identity of "srhbutts" was unknown before January of this year, so "8 months" is an exaggeration. You completely ignored the people who asked you questions about the donation drive back in October when no one knew who you were, but you had more than enough free time (hours each day, in fact) to hunt for GamerGate nonsense to screencap and tweet and to argue with people on twitter. You can't blame GamerGate for that; that was entirely your decision. What you're saying now comes off as an attempt to blame GamerGate for everything, but these problems existed months before your identity was known.


Look around for 5 minutes if you don't understand why it costs so much. GH downloads are unsecure annd available to every leacher, DDOSer, bot and spider in the world. That's a bandwidth nightmare and should be taken down ASAP, otherwise anyone who hates the shrine is free to spam GH downloads all day and night and saddle them with skyrocketing costs. If you want to demand change, focus on that, not these BS intrusions into the admin's personal life from people who's agenda is so obvious they have to keep repeating that they have no agenda.Galbadia Hotel's download links haven't worked since 2013. The server where the mp3's were hosted is completely offline and has been for a long time.

I don't know when this just happened, but that has to raise some eyebrows.

I'll ask again: where are the server costs coming from now?

This is exactly what I'm waiting for.

She's given you a functional, massive soundtrack sharing paradise for an entire decade, whilst miraculously navigating the minefield of music copyright legality. If you have a problem with the way she is doing it, go try to do it better yourself.
I won't argue that, I'll be more specific:

Donation drives occasionally happened back when Galbadia Hotel's downloads were working, at the time I had no troubles believing the site needed that much to stay up. Thing is, Galbadia Hotel has been dead at least since 2013, amount of money asked by those donations drives never changed, for once, and Galbadia Hotel is still not working.
Am I to believe she plans to fix stuff, seriously? I don't give a shit about GamerGate+Anti-GamerGate movements, that's simply stuff which came up on my research... And whatever's going on with that crap seems to be keeping her away from this place, a place which, in case you've forgot, she's supposed to administer.

And just a side note, I never gave a cent to this place, I really wanted to back when Galbadia Hotel was working, but I had to provide for my family first. I'm not doing this because I am worried about where my money went, I'm a Moderator of the Shrine, the role requires me to at least try and look after the community's best interest. This whole deal qualifies as community's best interest.

And whatever's going on with that crap seems to be keeping her away from this place, a place which, in case you've forgot, she's supposed to administer.


Unless I missed something, the site is still going strong, and is the only HTTP source of aggregation and downloads for a vast majority of the content posted in the forum. I'd say she's doing more than a good enough job. If she is asking for money and people are giving it, where is the problem? Unless the site stops working, which it hasn't (aside from the GH issue, which I hope is adressed, as there have been many different claims about it in this thread alone). Even if some of the donation money were going to personal expenses, which I don't believe it is, there are many people here who would be more than willing to help her out, considering the safe haven she's kept alive all these years for so many people. There is simply no problem here unless people want there to be one.

Again, if people are unsatisfied with the ratio between the amount of money ffshrine is asking for and the service they are providing, the rational, non-GG-bias thing to do would be to simply start a better website for a lower cost. Personally I don't think that's very feasible considering the amount of negative attention a music sharing site will inevitably attract, but if this is really about believing the money is being misdirected for personal use, then it should be relatively simple to prove it by starting a better site.

I can see both sides here....I was massively scammed by a fantasy football website last year which made off with almost a million dollars of players' entry fees, the admin riding off into the sunset after claiming a web developer took the money and filing for bankrupcy. So I know both from obvious reality and from recent personal experience that everyone asking for money on the internet is not on the up-and-up, and I have plenty of reason to be paranoid. As I stated in the beginning, I was dubious about the supposed costs of running ffshrine at first also. But I'm also dubious about the motives of anyone who would publicly side with GG principles and be okay with calling someone a "pedophile tranny" as was stated earlier in the thread and was what got me riled up. I am not talking about anyone in particular (except whoever said that, I don't feel like going back and reading it). It's just really rude to come into someone's own "house", (even if you have partially funded that house with donations, you sure didn't do the hard work to build it and keep it going) and insult them like that.

Unless I missed something, the site is still going strong, and is the only HTTP source of aggregation and downloads for a vast majority of the content posted in the forum. I'd say she's doing more than a good enough job. If she is asking for money and people are giving it, where is the problem? Unless the site stops working, which it hasn't (aside from the GH issue, which I hope is adressed, as there have been many different claims about it in this thread alone). Even if some of the donation money were going to personal expenses, which I don't believe it is, there are many people here who would be more than willing to help her out, considering the safe haven she's kept alive all these years for so many people. There is simply no problem here unless people want there to be one.

Again, if people are unsatisfied with the ratio between the amount of money ffshrine is asking for and the service they are providing, the rational, non-GG-bias thing to do would be to simply start a better website for a lower cost. Personally I don't think that's very feasible considering the amount of negative attention a music sharing site will inevitably attract, but if this is really about believing the money is being misdirected for personal use, then it should be relatively simple to prove it by starting a better site.

I can see both sides here....I was massively scammed by a fantasy football website last year which made off with almost a million dollars of players' entry fees, the admin riding off into the sunset after claiming a web developer took the money and filing for bankrupcy. So I know both from obvious reality and from recent personal experience that everyone asking for money on the internet is not on the up-and-up, and I have plenty of reason to be paranoid. As I stated in the beginning, I was dubious about the supposed costs of running ffshrine at first also. But I'm also dubious about the motives of anyone who would publicly side with GG principles and be okay with calling someone a "pedophile tranny" as was stated earlier in the thread and was what got me riled up. I am not talking about anyone in particular (except whoever said that, I don't feel like going back and reading it). It's just really rude to come into someone's own "house", (even if you have partially funded that house with donations, you sure didn't do the hard work to build it and keep it going) and insult them like that.

Maybe we did a bit overboard with the snooping about Sarah and her sexuality. But in order to fully support the site, and to get a sense of confidence (and Im convinced) about the operation of the site - which frankly shouldnt be all that far fetched because many of us donate - we wanted more openness about the costs. Its still forthcoming.

Well, if you consider putting up a donation-notice every few months+citing perks which are currently (and potentially) useless+avoiding to give straight answers to ever-pressing questions "still going strong", I don't know what to tell you. I've been contacted privately by a few users in the past about those donations and quite honestly, I didn't know what to tell them. I do like the Shrine, but I don't like it enough to go through any of that ever again. You want me to be a part of your team? Give me reasons to trust you. This isn't the first piracy-driven board I get to moderate, not even the first this big, I can hardly stand what I've been seeing here.


If she is asking for money and people are giving it, where is the problem?
You know, this hasn't happened in a few years, but humanity seems to have reached a new low for me, just now. Where is the problem with that? Perhaps it's because of the way I've been raised, but if I think something is fishy and money is "part of the picture", I'm at least going to share my doubts with the very same folks which are sending money off frequently to who-knows-where. Am I to believe FFS still costs this much? Prove it, word alone won't be enough, any more, what I've found changed the opinion I had of the individual behind the Sarah alias… For worse.

Even if some of the donation money were going to personal expenses, which I don't believe it is, there are many people here who would be more than willing to help her out, considering the safe haven she's kept alive all these years for so many people.

Even if users here were just as willing to help Sarah out as they are the Shrine... there's the paradox of sorts that's been created by the lack of communication between Sarah and the Shrine: how much money does she ask for, yet how much money does she need?

Sarah hasn't done much to support herself in her own words. She's just linked us to an article about how she's harassed, and she let that article do the talking without saying much herself.

Because Sarah dodges the basic question of costs for this site time and time again... it's making her very untrustworthy, and if she'd come out and tell us what's happening to the money - be it for the servers or for her own use - we'd all feel a lot better about her as a person.

Is Sarah a bad person? Is she a good person? I don't know, and we can't know because despite her 13000+ posts here, she's done very little lately to give us a reason to trust her about anything she is asking of us - including trusting her.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if Sarah wants a good relationship with the people of the Shrine, all she has to do is tell the truth. Wouldn't that be easier for everyone? The truth might hurt, yes, but... any words about the matter are a lot more powerful coming from her than from any article she can link to.

After the evidence that Leon and others have presented, I have a low opinion of Sarah right now. But if she can just say something that she can prove is the truth, I'd respect her that much more, no matter what.

Well, if you consider putting up a donation-notice every few months+citing perks which are currently (and potentially) useless+avoiding to give straight answers to ever-pressing questions "still going strong", I don't know what to tell you. I've been contacted privately by a few users in the past about those donations and quite honestly, I didn't know what to tell them. I do like the Shrine, but I don't like it enough to go through any of that ever again. You want me to be a part of your team? Give me reasons to trust you.


You know, this hasn't happened in a few years, but humanity seems to have reached a new low for me, just now. Where is the problem with that? Perhaps it's because of the way I've been raised, but if I think something is fishy and money is "part of the picture", I'm at least going to share my doubts with the very same folks which are sending money off frequently to who-knows-where. Am I to believe FFS still costs this much? Prove it, word alone won't be enough, any more, what I've found changed the opinion I had of the individual behind the Sarah alias… For worse.

But people still donate to the Catholic Church. ;)

But people still donate to the Catholic Church.

Followers will sign over %10 of every pay check to this church.
AA/NA members will always sign over percentiles of their pay checks, too.

Okay guys, lets keep this civil. The only two concerns at the moment should be two things:
1.- Where the funds have been spend on?
2.- The lossless thread new home.

Anything besides this has been sort of said or shown already and I think there is no need to raise more concern from it.
We have no need to take part on matters that are outside our current interests... which is to keep going on, not to become fragmented.

Even if users here were just as willing to help Sarah out as they are the Shrine... there's the paradox of sorts that's been created by the lack of communication between Sarah and the Shrine: how much money does she ask for, yet how much money does she need?

Sarah hasn't done much to support herself in her own words. She's just linked us to an article about how she's harassed, and she let that article do the talking without saying much herself.

Because Sarah dodges the basic question of costs for this site time and time again... it's making her very untrustworthy, and if she'd come out and tell us what's happening to the money - be it for the servers or for her own use - we'd all feel a lot better about her as a person.

Is Sarah a bad person? Is she a good person? I don't know, and we can't know because despite her 13000+ posts here, she's done very little lately to give us a reason to trust her about anything she is asking of us - including trusting her.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: if Sarah wants a good relationship with the people of the Shrine, all she has to do is tell the truth. Wouldn't that be easier for everyone? The truth might hurt, yes, but... any words about the matter are a lot more powerful coming from her than from any article she can link to.

After the evidence that Leon and others have presented, I have a low opinion of Sarah right now. But if she can just say something that she can prove is the truth, I'd respect her that much more, no matter what.

Socran's Razor: "Never attribute to massive stupidity by someone else, what could be explained by a tiny bit of stupidity on your own part."

"Doc, I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you invented. Now I need your help to get back to the year 1985."

Sarah hasn't done much to support herself in her own words. She's just linked us to an article about how she's harassed, and she let that article do the talking without saying much herself.

Because Sarah dodges the basic question of costs for this site time and time again... it's making her very untrustworthy, and if she'd come out and tell us what's happening to the money - be it for the servers or for her own use - we'd all feel a lot better about her as a person.


If you had been involved in harassment wars like that, you would want to avoid talking about it as much has possible. This I also know from personal experience as my father is a paranoid schizophrenic who made my upbringing hellishly dramatic in a similar way to what Sarah has been through, albeit for completely different reasons. Just linking to such an article in a large public forum like this, is more than we have any reasonable right to expect and I applaud her for that level of transparency.

As far as "the basic question", perhaps the problem is that she doesn't know. Web providers don't exactly love to be transparent with their customers if they believe they stand to make a buck. I'm sure whoever is hosting this site knows what a traffic gold mine this is and they're going to milk it for all its worth. If huge corporations like Comcast and the big 4 wireless providers still routinely get away with bill-inflating bogus charges and phantom bandwidth metering to their customers despite tight regulations, who knows what kind of deception the provider of this website is foisting upon Sarah and whoever else is helping run the website, especially given the security concerns Sarah has mentioned today. I'd put my money on the host inflating charges before I'd believe the prevailing suspicions in this thread. If Sarah were this con artist some of you seem to believe, I think she could do a whole lot better job extracting money from the numerous users of this website than what she is doing...in fact I think there would be more (fake) transparency in the form of doctored charts and fudged stats, if she was trying to lead people on. What I'm seeing are not the actions of a con artist, they're the actions of a busy, overwhelmed person who deserves patience, respect, and, at the most, gentle inquiries into where the money is going.

There are many people here who would be more than willing to help her out, considering the safe haven she's kept alive all these years for so many people. There is simply no problem here unless people want there to be one.


The problem is that she's lying about it instead of being upfront about it, while making it mandatory to donate to god knows what to be able to access the website, furthering the point, to access the work that other people have done, that's why some are moving out, she's only keeping it for sharing, she isn't uploading everything to these servers, she isn't tagging all of the music, she isn't ripping, she is only housing this website which shouldn't be more than a couple of hundred a month, which makes it clear of one thing, it's going somewhere else because she has yet to post solid information about the costs.




Again, if people are unsatisfied with the ratio between the amount of money ffshrine is asking for and the service they are providing, the rational, non-GG-bias thing to do would be to simply start a better website for a lower cost. Personally I don't think that's very feasible considering the amount of negative attention a music sharing site will inevitably attract, but if this is really about believing the money is being misdirected for personal use, then it should be relatively simple to prove it by starting a better site.

Exactly what users are doing as I type this, including myself, thank you zaykho- you will save us all.


I can see both sides here....I was massively scammed by a fantasy football website last year which made off with almost a million dollars of players' entry fees, the admin riding off into the sunset after claiming a web developer took the money and filing for bankrupcy. So I know both from obvious reality and from recent personal experience that everyone asking for money on the internet is not on the up-and-up, and I have plenty of reason to be paranoid. As I stated in the beginning, I was dubious about the supposed costs of running ffshrine at first

That's nice dear, sucks brah, do you know where the money is going then? If no, what you're saying is basically filler, we don't yet know where exactly the money is going, what we DO know is that it's not going towards ffshrine so we can't justify (or at least lessen) the motives of butts.


I'm also dubious about the motives of anyone who would publicly side with GG principles and be okay with calling someone a "pedophile tranny" as was stated earlier in the thread and was what got me riled up. I am not talking about anyone in particular (except whoever said that, I don't feel like going back and reading it). It's just really rude to come into someone's own "house", (even if you have partially funded that house with donations, you sure didn't do the hard work to build it and keep it going) and insult them like that.

It's derogative and rude, I do agree, but as rude as it may be, it's factual information, she is a transgender and she /is/ into children, BUT that's not what this thread is about, take it to twitter, also, stop bringing up GamerGate for god's sakes, that has nothing to do with this, from what I'm reading, you know very little to nothing about them and you're just piggybacking on what some "feminists" are saying, if you're getting angry at that then take it up with him, not us, stop venting out where said person can't see it, also, do not get offended on her behalf, if she doesn't care about it you are going to look like a damn fool.

---------- Post added at 08:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:59 PM ----------


Okay guys, lets keep this civil. The only two concerns at the moment should be two things:
1.- Where the funds have been spend on?
2.- The lossless thread new home.

Anything besides this has been sort of said or shown already and I think there is no need to raise more concern from it.
We have no need to take part on matters that are outside our current interests... which is to keep going on, not to become fragmented.


This, This, This, THIS.

Morbidcrab is there an instance of pederasty occurring in your sig?

My childhood of being flogged by nuns is acting up right now, because of that.

If you had been involved in harassment wars like that, you would want to avoid talking about it as much has possible.

I'm not referring to any involvement she may have with GamerGate and its unfortunate repercussions for her. I don't care about that. None of us ought to. It's her life and she's doing what she will with it.

What I'm referring to is her consistent evasion of answering the question of where does the money go? Instead she links us to an article and has that tell the story with little connection to our interests.

And if she honestly doesn't know where it goes (though I would hope she has some inkling of an idea of why the site would cost so much)... then she can say something like, "I don't know why it costs this much, and where this much goes and where this much goes... but I can tell you that your money is going to the wellbeing of the site, and if you want a more detailed answer I can do some digging." At least then she would have something to say for herself, and we'd all feel a lot better, wouldn't we?

Morbidcrab is there an instance of pederasty occurring in your sig?

My childhood of being flogged by nuns is acting up right now, because of that.

I...can't believe that's a real, word. If you're being honest about it, I'll change it.

And it's actually negative man.

Negative Man - EarthBound Wiki - This wiki stinks! (http://earthbound.wikia.com/wiki/Negative_Man)

Obvious GG ambassador hypocritically accusing others of having their facts wrong in typical GG fashion while spewing rumors and hearsay and calling it facts.

There is no proof that the money is not going exactly where we have been told it is going or that any lying has occurred.

And it's utterly hilarious that you say I'm bringing up Gamergate when the first person to mention it in this thread was a detractor of Sarah's actions calling her anti-Gamergate as if that was some sort of insult...

Now unfortunately I must depart because I don't need any more brain melting stupidity in my life today. Fortunately, I have already fulfilled my daily Ess Jay Double Yew Forum Post Quota and can rest in peace... ;)

I...can't believe that's a real, word. If you're being honest about it, I'll change it.

And it's actually negative man.

Negative Man - EarthBound Wiki - This wiki stinks! (http://earthbound.wikia.com/wiki/Negative_Man)

No I was being sarcastic, because of Kaylani mentioning her father and her past….for some reason.

pederasty is often used to describe the sexual behaviors of the church and its victims….and ancient Greek philosophers and their happy fun times.

But seriously it does look like two Spongebobs are going at it in your sig.

There is no proof that the money is not going exactly where we have been told it is going or that any lying has occurred.

No proof... but lots of suggestive evidence.

There is no proof that the money is not going exactly where we have been told it is going or that any lying has occurred.

And it's utterly hilarious that you say I'm bringing up Gamergate when the first person to mention it in this thread was a detractor of Sarah's actions calling her anti-Gamergate as if that was some sort of insult...

Now unfortunately I must depart because I don't need any more brain melting stupidity in my life today. Fortunately, I have already fulfilled my daily Ess Jay Double Yew Forum Post Quota and can rest in peace... ;)


Feminist Logic, Everybody.


http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrlfchWJPA1qeakgbo1_500.gif

What I'm referring to is her consistent evasion of answering the question of where does the money go? Instead she links us to an article and has that tell the story with little connection to our interests.


When there are personal attacks the first thing you're going to do is respond to the personal attacks, that's obviously why she posted that article, in response to the goons "accusing" her of being a "pedophile tranny". If people want to calmly and rationally discuss the finances of the website they should do so in another thread, or better yet privately, because this one seems long gone to those espousing a certain "agenda".

I did think of the hosting-provider inflating costs possibility myself, but then again, what has been Sarah's behaviour doesn't lead me to believe that's the cause of the issue. I'm a human being, prone to commit mistakes and though I certainly don't think I am smart, I at least like to entertain the thought I prioritize efficiently. Any issues revolving around money happens to be a big issue for me and it generally is the same for a lot of other individuals, as far as I've seen. So, if we suppose she's getting screwed by the provider and I was in Sarah's shoes, I certainly wouldn't be spending my time on Twitter, I'd move to sort out the issue.

EDIT:
The goons accusing her of being a pedophile tranny has been only one person, Neo_Chip, if I recall correctly... And he's been called out on it.

Blah Blah Blah

I thought you were done, guess the patriarchy needs a few more slaps eh?

Feminist Logic, Everybody.


http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lrlfchWJPA1qeakgbo1_500.gif

Okay, you win. This is clearly the greatest argument in the history of the internet and proves that ffshrine is stealing all our money and using it to fund feminist journalists to rant against theh evil menz. Congrats brah.

---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:43 PM ----------


I thought you were done, guess the patriarchy needs a few more slaps eh?

You seem to be going out of your way to add new posts every time I try to log out, at first I wondered why you cared so much, then I saw your "Location" and understood everything..

What is Gamergate? It sounds like I'm opening a "gate", taking lossless VGM files and then closing the "gate" on my way out.

When there are personal attacks the first thing you're going to do is respond to the personal attacks, that's obviously why she posted that article, in response to the goons "accusing" her of being a "pedophile tranny". If people want to calmly and rationally discuss the finances of the website they should do so in another thread, or better yet privately, because this one seems long gone to those espousing a certain "agenda".

Paedophile Tranny is the name of my local punk band.

Okay, you win. This is clearly the greatest argument in the history of the internet and proves that ffshrine is stealing all our money and using it to fund feminist journalists to rant against theh evil menz. Congrats brah.

---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:43 PM ----------



You seem to be going out of your way to add new posts every time I try to log out, at first I wondered why you cared so much, then I saw your "Location" and understood everything..

I care about this issue a lot, I just find it gleeful that you people really do try to always to move the goalpost, I didn't want to argue about off-topic garbage, yet you kept insisting. Back to twitter you go.

So, all of what you said has been filler, do you know what's going on with the money?

Guys….can we just agree to drop GamerGate as subject here? Come on…. the whole thing was a joke from the get-go. Politics and videogames should not mix...

Anyone up for a new thread?

I care about this issue a lot, I just find it gleeful that you people really do try to always to move the goalpost, I didn't want to argue about off-topic garbage, yet you kept insisting. Back to twitter you go.

So, all of what you said has been filler, do you know what's going on with the money?

it's kinda funny how people who employ the tactic of moving goalposts then turn around and accuse others of doing it when they are the ones who have been doing it the whole time. sort of similar to the concept of gaslighting in abuse situations actually. and then he/she goes and suggests starting a new thread.. i guess 8chan considers their mission accomplished in this one.

I'll quote my post on the new page, just in case you've missed it. Oh, and I assure I didn't mean any insult by mentioning Anti-GamerGate, originally, but it's not like you're going to give a fuck about what I say, right? :


I did think of the hosting-provider inflating costs possibility myself, but then again, what has been Sarah's behaviour doesn't lead me to believe that's the cause of the issue. I'm a human being, prone to commit mistakes and though I certainly don't think I am smart, I at least like to entertain the thought I prioritize efficiently. Any issues revolving around money happens to be a big issue for me and it generally is the same for a lot of other individuals, as far as I've seen. So, if we suppose she's getting screwed by the provider and I was in Sarah's shoes, I certainly wouldn't be spending my time on Twitter, I'd move to sort out the issue.

EDIT:
The goons accusing her of being a pedophile tranny has been only one person, Neo_Chip, if I recall correctly... And he's been called out on it.

Filler

Alright, bring up points, what have I done that's hypocritical? Where am I moving goalposts? Bring them up, come on, I'm not afraid of being wrong, All I'm focusing right now is where money is going.

But I know trying to argue with SJW is like trying to punch a concrete wall, they won't listen.

Do you know where the money is going?

There is no proof that the money is not going exactly where we have been told it is going or that any lying has occurred.

I'm sorry, but over $2,000 (I believe it was $3,200 this last time, correct me if I'm wrong...) a month for server costs is incredibly unrealistic, especially knowing that the GH download server has not been up since 2013! A forum like this would likely not be anymore than ~$100 a month, and even that may be too high.

I'm sorry, but over $2,000 (I believe it was $3,200 this last time, correct me if I'm wrong...) a month for server costs is incredibly unrealistic, especially knowing that the GH download server has not been up since 2013! A forum like this would likely not be anymore than ~$100 a month, and even that may be too high.

Sarah had to purchase a special edition 3DS to play MonHun with her AGG brethren in the pantheon of Anti-GG heroes.

No no of course all the money goes to the server…. the private MonHun server she is secretly running alongside FFS.

I'll quote my post on the new page, just in case you've missed it. Oh, and I assure I didn't mean any insult by mentioning Anti-GamerGate, originally, but it's not like you're going to give a fuck about what I say, right? :

Then why did you bring it up? As others have stated, it's completely irrelevant. I am sorry if my attitude has come across as being a poor listener and "not giving a fuck", as you seem to be one of the more reasonable posters in this thread. It's just a hot-button issue for me and the drifting of the questions from being about money to being about Sarah's personal life seemed really fishy, especially considering the history mentioned in the link she posted, no matter how much of it is true and how much is journalistic "enhancement".

Anyway, to your point, I have worked in IT all my life. Some people just don't understand the fine details of how computers and the internet work, especially when numbers are involved. Sarah seems like the kind of person who would get bills from web hosting providers and get anxious about paying them, rather than running numbers and verifying their accuracy, which has to be incredibly hard on a forum of this magnitude anyway. Perhaps she should recruit someone she trusts to handle that aspect of running the forum, and some of these issues might go away. I agree with the posters who have suggested she may be trying to handle more responsibility than she has time and energy for at this stage of her life, I just think we should give her every benefit of the doubt until we have more solid facts. I also think that what seems like evading questions is just her being overwhelmed by seeing so many questions, claims, accusations, and implications directed at her. When you see someone digging into your personal life on a public forum you're not going to be thinking about financial questions for a while. Granted, if we get on more information about where the money is going, it's going to seem suspicious, but for now I see no reason to believe it's not going to the upkeep of the website. Given my professional experience, Occam's Razor says its far more likely to be the web hoster if anyone is scamming here.

Just linking to such an article in a large public forum like this, is more than we have any reasonable right to expect and I applaud her for that level of transparency.
...

What I'm seeing are not the actions of a con artist, they're the actions of a busy, overwhelmed person who deserves patience, respect, and, at the most, gentle inquiries into where the money is going.

Uhhh....wut?

First off the article in question is public information and does come up quite easily in cursory searches. Secondly, the people who have donated repeatedly deserve some transparency in the question of where their donations are being used. A little specificity isn't gonna hurt. I don't approve how the admin has dealt with the whole donation thing with basically locking up the forums until people donated (?).

The admin's personal life is not important or relevant. But when it has a direct link to why the site is even in rough waters in the first place then maybe some questions arise. And they have to be answered because this is not a one-person blog, this is a community.
Complete transparency cannot be expected but simply linking to an irrelevant article is not enough. It tells us more about how the admin is going through tough times because of her political stuff, then about why the site is in financial troubles. This is not about GG. This is not about admin's sexuality, that has been a topic of discussion in other places where the sole point is to malign her but here in this discussion, it's utterly irrelevant. Her sexuality or her preferences otherwise have no impact on her ability to keep this site online. Her debt has some relevance because it adds another layer of mystery on top of the current state of vagueness regarding the usage of the money.

It's looking like this topic could create a rift here and that doesn't need to happen. This is going to go around in circles until in the end people get pissed off at each other and do some stupid symbolic gesture or leave on bad terms. That is until Sarah provides direct specific answers to direct questions related to the site.

I'm sorry, but over $2,000 (I believe it was $3,200 this last time, correct me if I'm wrong...) a month for server costs is incredibly unrealistic, especially knowing that the GH download server has not been up since 2013! A forum like this would likely not be anymore than ~$100 a month, and even that may be too high.

If I were the web hoster and I was not morally upright, you can be damn sure a website with this much traffic would not be running for $100 a month unless the customer was smart enough to prove I was scamming them.

Okay, now I must force myself to close this damn tab before I go insane.....ahahahahha

Filler Filler Filler

Where is the money going?


Where is the proof?

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/929/354/d91.gif

Then why did you bring it up? As others have stated, it's completely irrelevant. I am sorry if my attitude has come across as being a poor listener and "not giving a fuck", as you seem to be one of the more reasonable posters in this thread. It's just a hot-button issue for me and the drifting of the questions from being about money to being about Sarah's personal life seemed really fishy, especially considering the history mentioned in the link she posted, no matter how much of it is true and how much is journalistic "enhancement".

Anyway, to your point, I have worked in IT all my life. Some people just don't understand the fine details of how computers and the internet work, especially when numbers are involved. Sarah seems like the kind of person who would get bills from web hosting providers and get anxious about paying them, rather than running numbers and verifying their accuracy, which has to be incredibly hard on a forum of this magnitude anyway. Perhaps she should recruit someone she trusts to handle that aspect of running the forum, and some of these issues might go away. I agree with the posters who have suggested she may be trying to handle more responsibility than she has time and energy for at this stage of her life, I just think we should give her every benefit of the doubt until we have more solid facts. I also think that what seems like evading questions is just her being overwhelmed by seeing so many questions, claims, accusations, and implications directed at her. When you see someone digging into your personal life on a public forum you're not going to be thinking about financial questions for a while. Granted, if we get on more information about where the money is going, it's going to seem suspicious, but for now I see no reason to believe it's not going to the upkeep of the website. Given my professional experience, Occam's Razor says its far more likely to be the web hoster if anyone is scamming here.

Actually I think youre on to something here. In fact I think it was brought up months ago that Sarah had to take on all of these new expensive security, backup, etc. measures in order to combat DDoS, and manage the b/w. it might be possible that all these services together demand such a high cost.

---------- Post added at 08:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:10 PM ----------


Uhhh....wut?

First off the article in question is public information and does come up quite easily in cursory searches. Secondly, the people who have donated repeatedly deserve some transparency in the question of where their donations are being used. A little specificity isn't gonna hurt. I don't approve how the admin has dealt with the whole donation thing with basically locking up the forums until people donated (?).

The admin's personal life is not important or relevant. But when it has a direct link to why the site is even in rough waters in the first place then maybe some questions arise. And they have to be answered because this is not a one-person blog, this is a community.
Complete transparency cannot be expected but simply linking to an irrelevant article is not enough. It tells us more about how the admin is going through tough times because of her political stuff, then about why the site is in financial troubles. This is not about GG. This is not about admin's sexuality, that has been a topic of discussion in other places where the sole point is to malign her but here in this discussion, it's utterly irrelevant. Her sexuality or her preferences otherwise have no impact on her ability to keep this site online. Her debt has some relevance because it adds another layer of mystery on top of the current state of vagueness regarding the usage of the money.

It's looking like this topic could create a rift here and that doesn't need to happen. This is going to go around in circles until in the end people get pissed off at each other and do some stupid symbolic gesture or leave on bad terms. That is until Sarah provides direct specific answers to direct questions related to the site.

Im so turned on right now, I love trying to unravel the mystery what lies beneath Sarah's kimono of Matryoshka dolls.

;)

Im so turned on right now, I love trying to unravel the mystery what lies beneath Sarah's kimono of Matryoshka dolls.

;)

that just sounded........ I am scarred now



Where is the money going?


Where is the proof?

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/929/354/d91.gif


this is actually getting a difficult question to see the light....

Orie, its meant to be a metaphor. Not real kimono. No.

Because of all the new attention, I wonder if FFshrine bill for this month will exceed past records?

::busts out credit card::

something is off, and I can't stop thinking in that. Kaylani brings some interesting argument, but....

I SUMMON MORDICRAB


Where is the money going?


Where is the proof?

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/929/354/d91.gif

this is actually getting a difficult question to see the light....

People are trying to argue about shit that doesn't matter or go anywhere, it's all a big circlejerk between people at this point.

So, that being said, I'm just waiting for sarah to share information about the bill, that's all that matters right now

Counter-question: Why shouldn't I had to use that term? I've took a look at her Twitter-feed, it's rather obvious she's opposing GamerGate, I don't know why and it has never been my concern. To me, it sounded more like calling a White/Caucasian a Caucasian.

Yeah, I've been snooping around a bit of personal info, but as you can see from my message at the start of page #2 of this thread:

1) What I've disclosed could potentially be found by anyone.

2) Any of my findings basically lead to the next one. I've looked up who was registered as owner of FFShrine.org (and found a general location, by extension, not my fault, it's been provided by the website I've used). Given I had a location, and I had at least a rough idea of just how much illegal revenue this domain (both as Galbadia Hotel and board) may generate, I've checked if the owner was also recorded as some kind of tax payer having illegal sources of income, turned out she is recorded and she also owes a nice sum of money.

3) That coupled with the latest donation drives and the short amount of time passed between them piqued my curiosity, understandably. In this very thread I was among the firsts to call for transparency, and even in my research post what I've asked at the end is still: where the fuck does the money you get from those users go?

I have a server with a nice amount of Terabytes of storage and unlimited bandwidth, which I use for personal backups, I get to pay €900 every 3 months and while it has been brought to my attention I may be getting ripped off myself, the fact they aren't the +$2000 dollars this place has always been asking for made those findings above a bit more "trustworthy" to my eyes.

That being said, as some of you have pointed out, there's no evidence the Shrine-community's money isn't going where it's supposed to end, but there's also no evidence for the contrary. After all this time without answers, you can't really expect everyone to stay still and simply accept it at face-value, suspicions are bound to be raised.

There's always the possibility that the numbers are legitimate but Sarah has no idea how to manage money. Hence why Sarah is in a large amount of debt.

I am on to One focus at a time.
Right now we need to know the costs, why, how much, for what?

then we move to a Second Focus, and after that the third. Getting all shit together in the same quarter will result in what you (Morbidcrab) notice above.

Focus One:
Money!!!


Let us wait then and see about it.

Counter-question: Why shouldn't I had to use that term? I've took a look at her Twitter-feed, it's rather obvious she's opposing GamerGate, I don't know why and it has never been my concern. To me, it sounded more like calling a White/Caucasian a Caucasian.

No reason, Just that Kaylani is an agenda-driven feminist with daddy issues….or something.

Because of all the new attention, I wonder if FFshrine bill for this month will exceed past records?

::busts out credit card::

By keeping mum on the status of the donated money, Sarah has kind of shot herself in the foot.

I know she said we won't have to worry about donations in the future... but what if we do have another drive? Almost no one will donate this time unless Sarah promises a real look behind-the-scenes at where the money goes and why, or something else really, really, really worth it.

Sarah just tweeted out a screencap of something she found while reading through the largest pro-GamerGate subreddit. I guess she gave up on this thread and is focusing on that instead.

Sarah is on Twitter right now

Let me know when she's taking a dump.
I need to know everything every single minute of the day.

I'm just saying that there are a lot of questions in this thread, and instead of answering them she's gone back to tweeting about GG stuff.

It seems there's only one question of concern here.

And until it gets answered directly, there's no point in anything else.
How many threads have been created?

I see everyone has taken a liking to excercising their rights in fulitlity.

You're right, but the fact is that she could have answered it by now by just posting the hosting bills. That would have shut the doubters up. Instead, she's gone back to the GamerGate slapfight on twitter.

I have never seen a forum post their bills. Just the target number required. And even that's not always so.
And most of them go on a monthly basis.

I believe this place goes quarterly?

No bills required, just some accountability to restore the confidence which has been lost.

Sarah mentioned during the last drive that March 31st was the last day we could donate... so yeah, I think we're quarterly.

Too bad for you, Spark, I did see Staffers support their claims with bills.

I'm just saying that there are a lot of questions in this thread, and instead of answering them she's gone back to tweeting about GG stuff.

This is hilarious, I'm done. I'm so done.

I guarantee no one can answer this question.

Why was Sarah asking for donations for GH, when the shit is dead?

I guarantee no one can answer this question.

Why is Sarah asking for donations for GH, when the shit is dead?
Still asking



---------- Post added at 09:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:19 PM ----------

Oh and dl1 is down.

>Recent Checks



Thank you for the new material.

Thank you for the new material.

:erm: Should ask mods to change the name of the thread to add "NSFW".
Anyone who comes up with a new topic, gets followed by I came pics.

Also throw in hot chicks pics and hot dicks pics.

i've been out of town because my girlfriend was having a bit of a crisis so i can't be on the forums. i'm working on adding the donations.

i'm... horrified at what i came back to here. i'll make every attempt to be as transparent with all of you as i always have been, i'll answer any questions you have.
I'm trying to be respectful, but this game of 'hiding under the bed' has to stop. To be clear I'm not an affiliate of gamersgate. Some know me as a sparce contributer here and this place has served my VGM needs and has exposed me to many soundtracks I've never heard and enjoy, so I thank you for that.


But let's be clear and honest, your response was an emotional post NOT a straightforward answer we needed . Life is tough I wish you didn't have to go through your past experiences which is possibly why you've taken personal decisions that I don't agree with but I can't judge you I'm not God. Honestly I can give a rat ass about your problems.

The problem I have with you is 'your hiding something' and not only have you fooled me, but the thousands of other members who honest-hearted donated to you. To make sure you know you will never get a goddamn cent from me I lost all trust on you.



• — When the fuck were you going to tell us all about "REAL REASONS" of the high costs of FFShrine servers?
• — Why did you use the excuse of Galbadia Hotel as the high cost when it was, according to you, EXTRA SERVER PROTECTION costs?


Either way you LIED to us, why would you do something like that when you had the entire community's trust?



But I'm also dubious about the motives of anyone who would publicly side with GG principles and be okay with calling someone a "pedophile tranny" as was stated earlier in the thread and was what got me riled up. I am not talking about anyone in particular (except whoever said that, I don't feel like going back and reading it). It's just really rude to come into someone's own "house", (even if you have partially funded that house with donations, you sure didn't do the hard work to build it and keep it going) and insult them like that.
Excuse me is she (goddamit he, it whatever 'it' classifies itself) sucking your dick or something? you seem to take a 'fair' approach but tend to be defending her with 'maybe' situations. I agree with some of your points but get real man, there's vague explanation on Sarah's defense to justify costs that I feel abused all the members here at FFShrine with LIES.

Also Sarah IS a "transvestite" from the photos on the sites linked previously. You know... 'transform' from a male to a female. Tranny is not an insult its defining Sarah what she wants to be considered.

I'm not aware of the pedophile comments, but reading through her past posts talking about children is fucking scary and is NOT normal. So both statements I've are valid and are the truth. So calling her that is a bad thing when she wants to be considered like that?

I'm just saying that there are a lot of questions in this thread, and instead of answering them she's gone back to tweeting about GG stuff.

http://i.imgur.com/FnL3jSb.gif

(goddamit he, it whatever 'it' classifies itself)

Oh good, we've reached that level of this forum.

I could never be that harsh, but yeah, Neo_Chip speaks the truth, even if he seems like he was possessed by TheUltimateKoopa.

Also, I think that's a chick, man.

---------- Post added at 10:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:52 PM ----------


Oh good, we've reached that level of this forum.

It begins, who wants to check their privilege first?

Check Your Privilege | Know Your Meme (http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/check-your-privilege)

For those who don't go to 4chan anymore...

This is hilarious, I'm done. I'm so done.

So what there's only a few things important to note after reading all this:

Where is all the donation money going? (an issue of integrity, and by extension how reliable is Sarah given the debt issue)
The quarterly(?) cost of this place (by extension, why are we supporting an empty shell website aka GBH)
Backing stuff to the new website since a backup of the lossless thread + others is important..

Non important info:
Gamegate nonsense
Further delving into Sarah's life than what's already been shared
Passive-aggressive remarks made by various people who help derail the focus of the topic.

Though it seems that people misconstrued the purpose of why people are getting upset, and it has nothing to do with being ungrateful or personally attacking Sarah, the issue is that there's so many factors going on behind the scenes and on the stage that it's difficult to truly believe that people who donated for the cause of keeping this place alive, that their money is potentially being put into Sarah's pocket for non-shrine reasons. So far I can see the only next steps really is to help further establish a presence on the new website when it's ready to go, and to figure out what exactly needs to happen. I propose the question about a new IRC channel, or network to help get people to gather there, and I mentioned Qnet because it has a nifty +x function for masking ips. But if there's nothing else, then aside from the issues stated previously, and getting activity on the site when it's ready, I think that things are ready to go.

I hold the opinion that even Sarah's latest message (the one which brought up the Ravishly article) only ends up further "strengthening" the evidence suggesting not all of the money may be going towards the Shrine's server costs. Life dealt her a bad hand, huh, welcome to the club. Too bad the Shriners don't really give a crap about any of it, they want straight answers about where their money has been going… And thanks to the evidence presented, there aren't many folks which would be satisfied just by her word.
I get the impression she's acting like a cornered animal attempting to make herself look like the victim and I don't know about you, folks, but I've never seen a honest person so often conveniently side-stepping what have come to be pressing questions; as I've implied in my previous message: I've witnessed Staffers actually backing their claims when their behaviour got questioned in pretty much the same way, Sarah, on the other hand, is just convincing me all the more she's got some shady crap to hide, in regards to the destination of Shrine's donation-money.

i had to pay for additional server security, DDoS mitigation, frequent security audits, additional backup services and much more.

Hi Velocity hosting (https://www.hivelocity.net/ (https://www.hivelocity.net/)):

Bandwidth = $99 for 10TB/monthly, $199 for 20TB/monthly. Also plans for unmetered, but if you go over for every Mbps it's $5
DDoS mitigation = $39/monthly
Backup Services (daily) = $29 for 20GB/monthly to $1,199 for 5TB/monthly

Their barebones server setup is entirely free unless you want faster CPU cores, extra memory, and an additional hard drive, among other fancy things like raid cards and hardware firewalls.

I don't know what you're doing with security audits and the additional security, but I can't see any reason this place is costing over $2,000, let alone $3,200 a month/quarter. We don't need DAILY backups for a forum, I'm sure most of us can deal with making the posts/threads once again from a monthly/biweekly backup.

Even if all the money is truly going towards ffshrine, we should leave because of sheer incompetence in managing the service. No way a site like this should cost $800/m. By my estimate it should cost closer to $80/m, including backups, security and DDoS mitigation. Get two cheap Dedis from Kimsufi/OVH as primary and backup and CFs free or $20 tier for DDoS mitigation. Also has the benefit of SSL.

Kimsufi : le serveur d�di� pas cher ! (http://www.kimsufi.com/)
https://www.cloudflare.com/plans

Wow, very much to read here.
*interested in this conversation*

The "explanation" we got is a joke nobody is laughing at. And at this point i don't even think we "need" an explanation because there are only two realistic possibilities, she's either stealing money and/or completely incompetent. Both are good enough reason to move somewhere else.
The main point is: this is a sinking ship. And when you are on a sinking ship it's better to get the hell out before it's too late.

Well, i think it's time i said a few things.

I've been friends with Sarah for a few years now, so i know her a lot better than you guys and know about her character. She's not a thief, she's not taking the money and spending it on her own personal stuff, any donations she gets go back into the forum. Just because she's not talking openly about the financial details of the forum doesn't mean she's taking it for personal use, i'm sure many of you wouldn't just post openly about your financials on a forum. Yes, some of you did donate and are entitled to what you were promised and i would like to see everyone that did donate get everything they were promised, but getting financial details as to where the donations were being spent wasn't part of that promise. I also don't get paid for being an admin here, just thought i'd mention that because i saw LSK having to state that before in the lossless vgm thread.

Also, the last time we asked for donations was back in late October of last year and before that it was late January. You're not being asked to donate for each month, it was a total of 6 months, so that's about $400 a month. The donations we get from that message on GH and the message at the top of your emails from the forum are very small as is, the only real donations that come in is when Sarah has to close the forum. I've asked Sarah to add a donations meter on the forum for monthly goals but she doesn't want to add this because she doesn't want to ask for donations on such a large scale in the first place. She has paid costs herself out of pocket during the times where we didn't ask for donations and didn't have to close the forum but she's not financially able to do this anymore.

If there were any shady goings on here i wouldn't want to be a part of it but i know Sarah and i know that nothing like this is happening.

I appreciate you've shared your knowledge, Jessie and I mean this, still, can't say I'm okay with how things have been handled even under torture. "Upping" the costs like that may very well be a business plan, but perhaps a little edit of that donations message is in order, at least for the time being, can't blame folks for "WTFing" a bit about that.

Also, I've found and shared evidence showing how the deal with Advertisers pulling out of FFS is most likely related to her own actions against another place, that in turn affects her ability to keep up this place. I didn't want to snoop around, but stuff like this effectively turns her into a potential liability to the existence of FFS. I fancy a replacement, personally, but then again: I'm not the one who has to make that call; there's no shame in dropping out. That goes along with the fact she is currently struggling to support this place financially, too.
I entirely disagree with your statement about how users shouldn't be getting financial details as to how the money gets spent, you are attempting to get them involved in matters related to costs and it's their money they're sending off, they have a right to know how it's gonna be used, and if they don't happen to trust the mere word, heh, suck it up. (EDIT: Felt I should clarify my last statement: I certainly don't mean making that stuff public knowledge, you at least owe something to those who donate, should they want proof).

I'm still standing by my statement. Without GH, those donations would go a hell of a lot further.

I�m disgusted by the vile and vicious sexism one can find in this thread. Against women and transgendered people. The amount of ad hominems in this thread trumps the height of the Mount Everest. Basically, they boil down to "she�s transgendered so she isn�t able to handle finances". WTF?

Should she be inclined to post financial information about this forum, it would be something I�ve never ever experienced in all my years (decades, really) surfing the net and being part of countless forums. But I did indeed experience that some places close after a while, it happened and still happens all the time. Should she decide to close down FFShrine... well, so be it. There will always be something else to replace it. Still, as long as it is here, I will continue to stay and support it, and I will not waste my time spewing crap about someone I don�t know (reading her tweets doesn�t qualify in claiming to know her).

I don�t care who runs the site. I don�t care if she�s transgendered, gay, black, white, fat, slim, short haired, long haired, whatever. I do care however that she�s a person... a human, some of you have obviously forgotten what that means. So stop your fretting and harrass someone else, will you? Or go out and get a fuckin' life. Needless to say that I�d prefer the latter.

Oh, of course, I forgot: that would mean that some of you would need to get out of your basement, which I fear you won�t be able to since you�re so fat from all the pizza and soda you�re regularly consuming. After all, aren�t all gamers basement dwellers? And wasn�t that just the biggest ad hominem of them all?

The "explanation" we got is a joke nobody is laughing at. And at this point i don't even think we "need" an explanation because there are only two realistic possibilities, she's either stealing money and/or completely incompetent. Both are good enough reason to move somewhere else.
The main point is: this is a sinking ship. And when you are on a sinking ship it's better to get the hell out before it's too late.



---------- Post added at 10:07 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:58 AM ----------


I�m disgusted by the vile and vicious sexism one can find in this thread. Against women and transgendered people. The amount of ad hominems in this thread trumps the height of the Mount Everest. Basically, they boil down to "she�s transgendered so she isn�t able to handle finances". WTF?

Should she be inclined to post financial information about this forum, it would be something I�ve never ever experienced in all my years (decades, really) surfing the net and being part of countless forums. But I did indeed experience that some places close after a while, it happened and still happens all the time. Should she decide to close down FFShrine... well, so be it. There will always be something else to replace it. Still, as long as it is here, I will continue to stay and support it, and I will not waste my time spewing crap about someone I don�t know (reading her tweets doesn�t qualify in claiming to know her).

I don�t care who runs the site. I don�t care if she�s transgendered, gay, black, white, fat, slim, short haired, long haired, whatever. I do care however that she�s a person... a human, some of you have obviously forgotten what that means. So stop your fretting and harrass someone else, will you? Or go out and get a fuckin' life. Needless to say that I�d prefer the latter.

Oh, of course, I forgot: that would mean that some of you would need to get out of your basement, which I fear you won�t be able to since you�re so fat from all the pizza and soda you�re regularly consuming. After all, aren�t all gamers basement dwellers? And wasn�t that just the biggest ad hominem of them all?

Im gonna save you alot of grief and myself alot of typing, frankly: you are wrong. This is about finances and timely updates. Everything else is a sideshow.

Sorry about your experience, SonicAdventure, I've spent more than 10 years on the Net and I've seen boards where Staff had no trouble supporting their claims by posting financial details, I've been a Staffer myself on a few. I guess some individuals don't really tolerate getting questioned like this. Heck, I'll tell you something else: Spring 2005, subject of it all a place which dealt with scans of comics/books (donations-drives happened, but that's implied by now), the day when its fate had to be decided eventually came, since the Staff actually asked users to support the board's continued existence, they also thought those very same donators got the chance to have a say in its fate.
Completely unusual and weird? I agree, but I've respected the folks running that place a lot for such decision and their transparency. You're gonna bring others into payment-related matters? Then it is no longer your decision alone what the fuck happens to your domain, or how it's gonna get handled.

I�m disgusted by the vile and vicious sexism one can find in this thread. Against women and transgendered people. The amount of ad hominems in this thread trumps the height of the Mount Everest. Basically, they boil down to "she�s transgendered so she isn�t able to handle finances". WTF?

Should she be inclined to post financial information about this forum, it would be something I�ve never ever experienced in all my years (decades, really) surfing the net and being part of countless forums. But I did indeed experience that some places close after a while, it happened and still happens all the time. Should she decide to close down FFShrine... well, so be it. There will always be something else to replace it. Still, as long as it is here, I will continue to stay and support it, and I will not waste my time spewing crap about someone I don�t know (reading her tweets doesn�t qualify in claiming to know her).

I don�t care who runs the site. I don�t care if she�s transgendered, gay, black, white, fat, slim, short haired, long haired, whatever. I do care however that she�s a person... a human, some of you have obviously forgotten what that means. So stop your fretting and harrass someone else, will you? Or go out and get a fuckin' life. Needless to say that I�d prefer the latter.

Oh, of course, I forgot: that would mean that some of you would need to get out of your basement, which I fear you won�t be able to since you�re so fat from all the pizza and soda you�re regularly consuming. After all, aren�t all gamers basement dwellers? And wasn�t that just the biggest ad hominem of them all?
Again with the transvestite... holy fuck


Pardon my language but, when has Sarah's sexual orientation mattered in all of this? If you read my posts, (which I'm sure you didn't) why do you keep blowing this up to make it look like the 'main' issue here?


Last I checked Sarah clearly stated answering everyone's little questions, and knowing the scale of the issue this has brought I would assume she would have given an answer by now.


So we keep waiting, making her activities heavily suspicious, wait don't say it! Cause I know someone's going to say it. "She's probably too busy to address answers". Uh no, she knows what she's doing and she better come up with a good thorough post addresing the previous issues.


One last thing, drop the transvestite topic as I have never made that the issue. Apparently acknowledging people for their orientation gets you a 'callout' here.


Some people's children... goddamn

Sarah is factually not too busy to play Monster Hunter and blather about gaming politics, so it mean she prioritizes those things over FFshrine.

Sarah is factually not too busy to play Monster Hunter and blather about gaming politics, so it mean she prioritizes those things over FFshrine.

And it wouldn't be such a big deal if she were doing those things instead of telling us about the site if it were just her money going into supporting it.

But when it's thousands of dollars of other people's money, that's when she should start prioritizing FFShrine over her other activities.

Sarah will be posting an update on things later, i've been talking to her on fb, so please be patient.

I've been on two different forums popular forums with the same amount of traffic where they have asked for donations, but they don't lock the entire place down at ransom and it's generally a MUCH smaller amount. On one occasion with one of them I remember the place was shutdown for a month or two from a lack of donations, but we had alternatives to retreat to while until it came back online. They also have legitimate bonuses for donating, like being able to close their own threads they started, they can change their own forum names themselves, and having special sections of the forums just for donators. What is offered by ffshrine? Unlimited downloads from GH? Seriously? Privileges to download not only from a dead place for almost the past two years but has also caused a humungous bandwidth leech in the past, which most of us believed was the reason for the donation drives from the start!

I'm not trying to justify leaving this place entirely or donating here in general because a lot of places do it! It's the AMOUNT that is concerning us. We want answers and we're not getting them.

We need to be searching/developing a backup forum that a majority of users have decided to move to if another lockdown occurs again, and, currently, no one really knows of one. Personally, I feel like that's the entire objective of locking down the forums in the first place because of this very reason, whether you believe or not; we have content that will not likely be found elsewhere in the internet.

Sarah will be posting an update on things later, i've been talking to her on fb, so please be patient.

Does this include giving the donators what they were promised, but never got?

The donators will get everything they were promised, i will help in whatever way i can to see that they do get them.

And it wouldn't be such a big deal if she were doing those things instead of telling us about the site if it were just her money going into supporting it.

But when it's thousands of dollars of other people's money, that's when she should start prioritizing FFShrine over her other activities.

as i mentioned in the previous post, i'm out of town. as such, i don't have access to my regular computer so it's harder to get some shit done. regardless, i have been working on FFS stuff-- i'm following up with advertisers right now. people are kind of making me work on two fronts, one to put out this fire & ridiculous conspiracy theories and the other on actually fixing things.

the user perks are coming soon.

there are good reasons to have been concerned. i don't fault anyone for that. but the conspiracies and ridiculous theories are just absurd.

jessie pointed out to me that two of the messages (on GH and in the forum mail) are really outdated and reflect old, not current costs. i think that's where the source a lot of the concern is coming from. i apologize those were still up, that was my fault. i'll be editing them momentarily.

the numbers that people are throwing around are... from people that have no idea what it takes, financially or otherwise, to run a site like this. bargain basement servers from kimsufi are for things like seedboxes for torrents and sketchy sites, they're awful for a big site like this. as sites grow in size, the headaches grow exponentially. people are using traffic estimates that aren't even *close* to on track. someone compared what a site like this uses to a 200mb sql database... that would be taken up in no time at all. our database is *gigabytes*.

i don't know if people remember, but a few years ago everyone was complaining about the speed of the forums. the reason why that went away? we upgraded our servers. tiny bargain basement shady sites aren't meant for these kind of sites.

we run three separate servers, none of which are from sketchy sites. they're from reputable hosting companies. the last time we tried using a sketchy one, they disappeared overnight and we had to use a months old backup. i don't want that happening again.

historically, GH has paid for the forums because forum advertisements don't work quite as well. that's the reason i'm not ditching the idea of GH but there are some technical headaches that need to be sorted out.

i've kept FFS running for over a decade. i'm willing to answer questions, i'm willing to do what i can to restore faith but please stop with the conspiracy theories-- realize where these malicious lies are circulating from and take them with a grain of salt. my grand plan was to scam $2,400 out of people after ten years? that comes out to $20 a month... it'd ridiculous. i wouldn't dare throw FFS down the drain over that.

as jessie said, the last time we asked for donations to help the site stay afloat was half a year ago-- that comes to ~$400 a month. that doesn't even cover everything, the idea that i'm taking this money for myself is ludicrous.

i've done everything i can to keep FFS running this whole time. nothing's changing that. my number one priority is going to be making sure FFS is sustainable.

PS: cstrife, i'm definitely willing to entertain additional perks for people. i have no issue with people offering constructive criticism at all!

Sarah, just screenshot your server costs. Then get some technical assistance to bring your costs down. You'd save money and apparently a fuck of a lot of drama.


I'm still standing by my statement. Without GH, those donations would go a hell of a lot further.I don't know how many times this needs to be pointed out. Galbadia Hotel has been down for two years and as such cannot have had any effect on the site's finances for the last three donation drives.

Hi, I'm no one, you don't know me, I don't know you. And because that, I cannot pass judgement, nor I'm interested in digging for you info, what you've done or things like that. Not being rude, just letting you know I could care less about the drama, mainly because all I care is this forum that is like a second home for many of us.

First, thanks for taking the time to address the concerns of everyone around here. Just a little nitpick:



there are good reasons to have been concerned. i don't fault anyone for that. but the conspiracies and ridiculous theories are just absurd.


I haven't seen any conspiracies around. What Leon shared, as he pointed out, is information anyone can find on the internet. Gamergate and such things are none of my concern. That said, all I want to know is this: will FFShrine continue existing? That's pretty much the bottom line. Since I have not contributed in the donations (not because I don't want to, but because they happened the same time I had no extra money to do some support) I won't ask you about anything regarding donation perks and that.

Bottom line: All I want you to know is that I could care less about the drama. Just want to know if this place will go on, what will be done to keep people happy and how can we contribute if anything. Thanks for your time and have a good day.

I appreciate your response to us Sarah, but I still have some further concerns.

Why three separate servers? (GH+forums+???)

Why are the costs so large when GH has not been operable for awhile though? Your size issue can be solved in two ways: prune all threads from 2010-older and (unlikely as you're not ditching it I guess...) everything on GH. I honestly don't know why you've been keeping threads since 2006(!) available, but I would correct in that most of those download threads back then have dead links and are of no use to anyone.

Also, daily backup plans are ridiculous to any IT junkie you would talk with (and Hi-Velocity's backup rates are insane compared to doing this yourself). Your security measures as well that you've included are ridiculous, but based on your circumstances with your life, I can't exactly argue against. DDoS'ers are gonna DDoS.

If you don't have the time to correct the outdated donation message costs and not taking into consideration cleaning up the forums, may I suggest handing the reins over to someone(two, three, four individuals?) that are willing to try and find ways to trim areas that are bloating the site?

Not to be rude, but you're showing me that this is a sign of laziness on your part.

the three servers are web, DB and (what was) a file server but is now for backups. i'm going to be looking into trying to trim some of the costs soon here. the old messages aren't pruned for a simple reason... ad revenue comes from views, but repeat visitors earn almost nothing. the old threads bring in search traffic, which is what makes advertising on the forums possible. i think a lot of these concerns come from misconceptions (the outdated donation messages, the reasons why we don't prune the forums, etc)-- which is why i'm willing to discuss all of this

i'm not using hivelocity's inbuilt backup, btw. i agree that their costs are absurd for that.

my priority right now is: change donation messages -> add perks for donators -> follow up with additional potential advertisers -> try to trim costs. i'll be updating this thread as progress is made

AFMG: FFS isn't going anywhere :)

You could still prune other things. Inactive users, users with 0 posts, PMs, etc.

You could still prune other things. Inactive users, users with 0 posts, PMs, etc.

YES.

The download section of the forums is obviously the most used, and many people join up just to get their links, without even a "thanks". There are members who have been here for many years with not one post. I'd love to see these users pruned, and it will only help the Shrine.

Thank you for the follow-up. Now we're getting somewhere....

Again with the transvestite... holy fuck


Pardon my language but, when has Sarah's sexual orientation mattered in all of this? If you read my posts, (which I'm sure you didn't) why do you keep blowing this up to make it look like the 'main' issue here?

Since you�re asking so nicely about it I will remind you of the two times you mentioned it yourself:

-> #post191 (http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/thank-you-donations-3-update-ffshrines-finances-187582/4.html#post2930239)
-> #post32 (http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/thank-you-donations-3-update-ffshrines-finances-187582/#post2929153)

Judging from these comments of yours, her gender expression / identity did indeed matter - at least to you, you made that perfectly clear when you were running out of arguments. Before I forget, you actually were the first to give some importance concerning this particular topic in this thread. You started it - so don�t start to whine now when you meet some opposition.


One last thing, drop the transvestite topic as I have never made that the issue. Apparently acknowledging people for their orientation gets you a 'callout' here.


Some people's children... goddamn

Be a dear and see above, will you?

And while you�re doing that, do me a favor and read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

The issue is that a person's sexual orientation is THEIR OWN BUSINESS and is not in the slightest bit relevant to the topic under discussion - which in case folk have forgotten whilst engaging in petty bickering, revealing personal hangups and ingrained bigotry, and making unwarranted and inappropriate invasions into somebody's private affairs for no reason... is about MONEY. Namely, how much does FFshrine actually cost to run, where are the donations going, why are perks offered when they don't exist, and why have questions about this topic been evaded in the past.

These questions are being answered - slowly - although I have to say I am NOT AT ALL HAPPY with the revelation that the costs have been deliberately inflated in order to speed and increase donations. Let's not beat about the bush; that is lying to make money. It's not a "business plan" - it's a lie. If the forum's financial model depends on deceit, you have a problem. I know that it's tempting to overstate costs to build up an emergency fund, but seriously... that's no way to run a railroad. (And nobody knew that, anyway - you ask for more money than you need, it looks like you're spending $400 on the forum and $2000 on a Caribbean cruise. Just say "We need X, but please donate whatever you can so that we can build up funds in case of problems in the future."

Be transparent. Explain. People are giving their money. They deserve that much - and frankly, if they don't get it, they will vote with their wallets and the next donation drive will crash and burn. Every single donation drive, I mentally put aside $100 which I would have happily donated if I'd had confidence in the process. I didn't, so I haven't donated. That's $500 you don't have because I felt like something fishy was going on. People are kind, and very generous, when they have confidence.

As a suggestion, next time donations come around... Don't shut down the forum - open a thread, sticky it, stick a banner up "ATTENTION! WE NEED $xxx BY xx/xx/2015 OR WE'LL HAVE TO CLOSE" and link it to the thread. Rally support. Post updates. "Thanks to Tangotreats, Leon Scott Kenedy, Vegeta, and Neo_Trip for donating today! Thank you so much guys, we've only got $xxx to go, keep it up!" Maybe even have a "today's biggest donation gets a big perk" contest. Maybe even do a lottery - every day random donator (entry requirement is to have donated more than $20) can win $30. Yes, you erase one of the donations, but you make it fun, and people who are having fun spend more money.

The more people talk and engage about the donation process, and talk and engage WITH the people asking for the donations... the happier they'll be to donate, and the more they'll give. The "sudden hostage" model might seem like a good one but it really isn't. It's a way to prevent people talking it out before they give. It's a way to stop them knowing how much OTHERS are giving and what their thoughts are. It's taking advantage of uncertainty and desperation. It's just not cricket, folks. Putting up a message saying "we need money NOW NOW NOW or you'll lose all your stuff and lose contact with your friends"... Just doesn't wash well with me.

NONETHELESS, Sarah deserves a round of applause for sticking on topic and actually addressing the grown-up issues instead of rising to this shameful display of childish mudslinging.

There are unanswered questions and shady areas, but things are making more sense than they did. I am very grateful to her for her efforts for (and financial commitment to) this site which, frankly, treats her like complete and utter shit sometimes.

YES.

The download section of the forums is obviously the most used, and many people join up just to get their links, without even a "thanks". There are members who have been here for many years with not one post. I'd love to see these users pruned, and it will only help the Shrine.
Among those leechers some of you despise so much may be individuals helping with donations and, on a level which strictly concerns users and uploaders, leeching refers to someone which downloads and doesn't bother to interact, right? Well, half of it sucks, the other half is still awesome news for the community as a whole: they download->they potentially extend the "life" of a link by 30/60/XX number of days. They don't really deserve much of the crap folks seem to be sending their way.

Onto the rest.

Hm. Thanks for the recent answers, Sarah. Guess I will still have trust, another chance is deserved, but I'm gonna be honest: I've stirred up the drama and even now I don't regret it, I've seen users waiting too long for answers they weren't getting. For what it's worth, all I've come across has been seen through the eyes of an outsider whose pressing concerns were trying to understand the reasons behind the silence and offering some possible answers to the community. Now, I'd like to get a bit more info on a few things:

- Jessie mentioned suggesting the addition of a donation-bar to the place, and I also recall other users bringing it up over the years. Would you consider attempting that some time in the future? It may help, it may not, but to me a donation-meter still sounds better than completely shutting down the board to put up a notice.

- I'm not privy just to how much Jessie can actually do as Admin, so I may very well be talking crap, but: do you have someone helping you completely administer things? (I mean stuff like managing servers, fixing up the occasional technical issue, adding those perks) If not, would you consider looking for someone? I do understand finding someone to trust with such privileges is hard, but it seems you can use the help.

A year and a half ago I made a suggestion that fell on deaf ears in this forum which Tangotreats touched on briefly in his summation.

Thread 161972

historically, GH has paid for the forums because forum advertisements don't work quite as well. that's the reason i'm not ditching the idea of GH but there are some technical headaches that need to be sorted out. This implies that GH actually made money back when it was still working. If that's the case, why have you kept it down for so long?

And what kind of "technical headaches" are there in a site like GH that's nothing but files and download links? That sort of thing should be far simpler from a technical perspective than a forum.

Yay, some progress.

I'm going fishing.

Long posts keep getting quoted as is without briefing down, doubling the height of walls

Sure, can't expect everyone to do things by hand, so at least a collapse function could really help. Keep it in mind when making your site, @Zaykho.

Well Sarah I'm glad you finally reinstated your account. You have been utterly inaccessible for YEARS. The forum is very poorly moderated.

I think you should dump Galbadia hotel ENTIRELY. it obviously costs you an enormous amount of money and I know that i never use it. the quality of the mp3s is very poor and not worth my time. The method of download is slow and tedious. GH serves no purpose but to cost you enormous amounts of money and then once a month make the community angry because the forum gets shut down. It is the forum that really matters, not GH. Sarah, you obviously make quite a bit of money. Why don't you save and/or invest it instead of dumping into GH? Maybe you could use the future proceeds on an online project which is better or more interesting to you.

I think sarah and i should discuss these things over dinner... I like a clean kitchen and expect delays

Tsk... Clearly missed the point.
Since you�re asking so nicely about it I will remind you of the two times you mentioned it yourself:

-> #post191 (http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/thank-you-donations-3-update-ffshrines-finances-187582/4.html#post2930239)
-> #post32 (http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/thank-you-donations-3-update-ffshrines-finances-187582/#post2929153)

Judging from these comments of yours, her gender expression / identity did indeed matter - at least to you, you made that perfectly clear when you were running out of arguments. Before I forget, you actually were the first to give some importance concerning this particular topic in this thread. You started it - so don�t start to whine now when you meet some opposition.



Be a dear and see above, will you?

And while you�re doing that, do me a favor and read:

Transgender - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender)
ad hominem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem)


Well its been great being a member here, I for one cannot believe it has gotten this far for Sarah to act its downright ridiculous and is a crystal ball of this sites future.

You See when something's wrong in the forum, wait a couple months for your admin to reply or how about this forget about receiving an answer, its a pattern Sarah has built-up. I'm not convinced any real progress will be taking seriously. Your approach of "let's keep it together guys" doesn't instill hope rather acts more like a whistle to calm everyone's attention.


Please do me a favor and delete my account from this shithole managed forum. Thank you and I hope your members are giving what they are promised...



-Neo_chip

Neon-chop we will remember u bro even though its been short.

i've been out of town because my girlfriend was having a bit of a crisis so i can't be on the forums. i'm working on adding the donations.

i'm... horrified at what i came back to here. i'll make every attempt to be as transparent with all of you as i always have been, i'll answer any questions you have.

this misinformation is coming from a group that's harassed, stalked, doxxed, sent myself and my family death threats. you can read about what happened to me here: I Set Out To Expose A Hate Movement In Gaming?So They Set Out To Destroy My Life | Ravishly (http://tinyurl.com/mmdseet)



these are the people this information is coming from. they're harassing me and making up lies about me. yes, i am in debt, which is why i can't cover the costs myself anymore-- that does NOT mean the money for donations goes to that, it never has. not a penny of it goes to my debt.

the very people harassing me are the reason the donations situation is as it is now. i had to pay for additional server security, DDoS mitigation, frequent security audits, additional backup services and much more. they've also bombarded our advertisers with lies trying to get them to pull out.

i've run this site for over a decade now. i've put thousands upon thousands of my own dollars into this site as well as thousands of hours of time. i know i haven't been around as much lately, and i feel very guilty for that-- running a site for this long takes a huge toll emotionally. it's kind of heartbreaking to see after this much time and everything i've put into it, people are going to believe a group of trolls and villainize me over their lies instead of standing by me.

i'm going to make sure ffs survives, and as i said earlier, i plan for this to be the last time we'll ever need donations.

i'll answer any questions you all have, and i'll be transparent as possible. but please, before you believe any of that bullshit, know that you're believing people who have tried to had me swatted, have sent death and rape threats to myself and my family, and have grossly and repeatedly violated my privacy, and have overall made a game out of trying to destroy my life. i've had to contact the police multiple times because of what's been going on.

i'm going to stick by FFS no matter what. i hope you all do, too. i promise to be around more and answer any questions you have. please, read the above article. look at who you're choosing to believe. these are people that aren't doing everything they can do harass and terrorize me.
K. I have a question. And you specified that you'd answer ANY questions that we have.

So. Are you Sarah, then? As in THE Sarah? Or are you her hubby? Because in your post you specifically describe that your girlfriend is having a crisis. So we can only surmise two things in this scenario:

1) You are Nicholas ******, hubby to Sarah. (Very likely, but why don't you post under your own account if you don't want any transparency? You're hiding under someone else's moniker, AND you're taking thousands of dollars from your forum members. STOP WITH THE FUCKING BULLSHIT.)

2) Somehow the dog that you two are keen to have sexual relations with has learned to type on a computer keyboard, and even knows how to give us this typical political bullshit that Sarah has been stuffing down our throats for eons. Seems impractical, but hey, I didn't know Sarah is a tranny, so who really knows what's possible anymore.

Anybody else find it strange how, during the time when the forum is offline and its collecting donations, that it doesn't show anywhere how much money has been accumulated? Just very vague, and brazen updates that could be fake. Example: "WE NEED $800 LEFT IN ONE DAY OR THE FORUM WILL BE DOWN FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!"

What if, in that instance, one person donated $800 then and there, but you didn't turn the forums on at that moment, because you're such a scuzzbucket that you wanted to keep getting as much money as possible, and thus more donations came in, well beyond the already ludicrous $2400.

I don't really give a shit if you are horrified by the stories and the facts that have been coming out in the last several days. That's personal life that you have leaked in one way or another, and it's turning its ugly head on you. The most of us have normal lives, and aren't buried to our knees in debt. We manage things just fine. Stop using excuses and figure your shit out. And using forum members are as exploit to paying your debts. Sorry, I mean covering the bandwidth fees for the fucking desolate Galbadia Hotel.

I also find it histerical how you're quick to play the victim card, and accuse people of "invading your privacy", but also stating that they're lying. What if they DID invade your privacy, but found out that you're a scum bag? Technically it's true that they're invading privacy. But you're fucking with people in multiple aspects.

Can't deal with it? Pass the deed of FFS to a group or an individual that the community deems appropriate, stop posting pointless shit on your Twitter, and fucking go dark. Stop telling these stories to people. That way nothing CAN be leaked. If you want to fuck your he/she wife, and take your dogs dick in the ass, go for it. I couldn't care less. But the moment you post any of that is the moment you void the right to play victim and whine that your disgusting secrets have been exploited.

Same goes with charging an obscene amount of money for emergency funds. I don't care what you're using it on; but I think everybody can agree it isn't what you're saying its for. Go ahead, prove us wrong. Show us every fucking cent and where the money is going. I DARE YOU.

Please do me a favor and delete my account from this shithole managed forum. Thank you and I hope your members are giving what they are promised...



-Neo_chip


NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Well, i think it's time i said a few things.

I've been friends with Sarah for a few years now, so i know her a lot better than you guys and know about her character. She's not a thief, she's not taking the money and spending it on her own personal stuff, any donations she gets go back into the forum. Just because she's not talking openly about the financial details of the forum doesn't mean she's taking it for personal use, i'm sure many of you wouldn't just post openly about your financials on a forum. Yes, some of you did donate and are entitled to what you were promised and i would like to see everyone that did donate get everything they were promised, but getting financial details as to where the donations were being spent wasn't part of that promise. I also don't get paid for being an admin here, just thought i'd mention that because i saw LSK having to state that before in the lossless vgm thread.

Also, the last time we asked for donations was back in late October of last year and before that it was late January. You're not being asked to donate for each month, it was a total of 6 months, so that's about $400 a month. It says on GH that we require $2000 a month but that's really just there to encourage people to donate, it's a business plan to ensure you get enough donations to cover your monthly costs, which it doesn't even come close to. Maybe if it said a lesser value we'd get more donations but on the other hand it might even be less. The donations we get from that message on GH and the message at the top of your emails from the forum are very small as is, the only real donations that come in is when Sarah has to close the forum. I've asked Sarah to add a donations meter on the forum for monthly goals but she doesn't want to add this because she doesn't want to ask for donations on such a large scale in the first place. She has paid costs herself out of pocket during the times where we didn't ask for donations and didn't have to close the forum but she's not financially able to do this anymore.

If there were any shady goings on here i wouldn't want to be a part of it but i know Sarah and i know that nothing like this is happening.

umm yeah this doesn't help one bit either. atleast in her case.
https://forum.encyclopediadramatica.se/threads/sarah-butts-sarah-******-nicholas-nick-e-******-thread.20264/

[16:04] Sarah: My wife and I are new to the K9 thing but are very aroused by it. We have both tried oral on our K9 but his Knott goes away after just a few minutes and loses his hard on. Is there anyway to help him keep it up? Also my wife wants to see me get taken anally by our K9. Is there any real difference between anal and vaginal K9 intercourse."

NONETHELESS, Sarah deserves a round of applause for sticking on topic and actually addressing the grown-up issues instead of rising to this shameful display of childish mudslinging.


+1,000,000

encyclopediadramatica

What the hell does that have to do with donations?

Is everyone from 4chan?

I think I get it... Sarah is a lesbian!

Also how exactly does GH pay for the forums, if its not donations? I don't see no advertisements on there.

Can someone explain this to me?

Thinking through the current situation once again....

If we can sustain advertisers, as Sarah has mentioned, we supposedly wouldn't have these large donations required from the community. What's going to keep them from dropping us like the other ads did in the past?

My concern now is, if these new ads get pulled, Sarah,

Are you going to continue holding onto GH and these dead threads hoping for other advertisers to support us, which will thrust all of your high server costs onto the community? (Like you have for the past year or so)
OR
Will you "trim the fat" and move to a smaller host knowing this isn't going to happen anymore, which will reduce costs you're going to require from the community?



Once again, I'd like for the community to suggest some alternatives, a second ffshrine, to retreat to if the ship goes down, no matter how unlikely it may be. I haven't heard any updates from Zaykho and I guess Neo_Chip will no longer look to assist us.
Maybe this thread (Thread 188018) would be better for that discussion instead of this one.

It's cute that whoever is posting under Sarah's name claims that they're dedicated to finding more advertisers, but that's not a plug-in-a-hole-of-a-leaking-ship solution. That's not even a bandaid. That's a I HOPE TO FIND A BOX OF BANDAIDS TO PUT ON THE HOLE OF THIS LEAKING SHIP. I really hope that kind of statement isn't pulling the wool over anybody's eyes, because it's just asinine.

You're going to need more than advertisers to help with the forum. And I do mean the forum singular, because that's the only reason any of us are still here. If it were just GH, we'd all have fucked off to somewhere else a long time ago. FFS is the only reason we're still here, and visit frequently, and why people actually donate. So, let's just talk about FFS' future, because it's pretty clear the only person that cares about GH is Sarah, and it clearly isn't enough to ensure stability.

And, anyway, if advertisers were hesitant towards helping because of the whole piracy thing, what makes you think they're going to magically close their eyes now and write off checks to you? Because you think if you're dedicated to searching, it'll happen? Really, I'm not being a smart ass or a cunt, I'm legitimately curious as to what your reasoning is. I'd love to hear it.

---------- Post added 04-10-2015 at 12:07 AM ---------- Previous post was 04-09-2015 at 11:41 PM ----------

As a side note, does anybody want to do some investigating into this Kaylani.Larelli individual? I'm a bit suspicious of them and their rather aggressively defensive motives.



Right now, the person only has 24 posts, half of which come from this thread itself. They (I'm thinking it's a female name but that's speculation on my behalf) also have only been registered under this account since March 2015. And they are talking as if they know a lot about the situation. Much more than someone who has only been a member for one month.

So, either it's a former user, or, it's someone that doesn't want to talk more than they want to on their real account. Perhaps Sarah is having a case of split personality disorder?

And, anyway, if advertisers were hesitant towards helping because of the whole piracy thing, what makes you think they're going to magically close their eyes now and write off checks to you? Because you think if you're dedicated to searching, it'll happen? Really, I'm not being a smart ass or a cunt, I'm legitimately curious as to what your reasoning is. I'd love to hear it.

You wouldn't believe the bullshit I could get away with asking marketing firms for advertisements on a site that's clearly involved in piracy. :D You're usually only caught-and-dropped when you get reported, which so happens to be the case with this, uh, movement of individuals that did this to the previous advertisers. Also a concern for these supposed new ones that we're about to obtain, hence my post before.

What the hell does that have to do with donations?

Is everyone from 4chan?

You do have to understand that sarah's into some shady shit according to the posted thread and it doesn't stop there either.

I'm not gonna be here for a bit so I'll leave a friendly reminder; a local PSA, there are still some shitposting users that are desperately trying to change the subject, ignore them for now, do not let their stupidity suck you in like a black hole as sarah's life/orientation/favorite color/blood sugar, etc is NOT our top priority and/or business, arguing about it will not change anything or prove some kind of point in this situation. Our main priority is about the server costs and donations. the people who want to change the subject can go argue on tumblr.

Just please, please PLEASE, do NOT get distracted.


Thank you!

^^^^^^^^^^
I think this is the first truly complete reasonable post I read today* here in this thread.

*today in my time zone

http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/about-donations~-167299/

http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/latest-donation-drive~-172322/

Thread 181230

http://forums.ffshrine.org/f7/thanks-donations-~-181185/

I don't know if any of the user found in the threads above ultimately got their perks, but given they've tried to remind a few times how they had yet to get any of that crap, I'd be inclined to believe they also would have stated they… Huh… Finally got it. Just proves of rather crappy/lazy management, not like there's a lack of that, anyway.
I've forgot to mention yesterday the business plan of inflating the costs is a disgusting move on your part, but whatever, tangotreats pointed it out much more nicely than me.
I do "know" Sarah was currently following up with 2, sometimes 3 advertisers in multiple instances (messages are spread in this very section of the board and on the Facebook's Shrine group). Is it now hard for you to find advertisers? Then, shouldn't you have done something "drastic" about it sooner? You've stated on Facebook the resources for GH and the rest are pooled together, but that shouldn't be hard to fix: backup the board somewhere (I guess that would require quite the downtime, but I think that would be the first downtime users are going to be happy about), wipe everything else… GH and that useless website about the FINAL FANTASY series (not updated in years)… And restore the board.

Also, while I agree we shouldn't dwell too much on the whole deal with GamerGate/Anti-GamerGate/Sexual activities, most of you are forgetting all of that adds another side to the problem which does concern the Shrine, potentially a lot: I don't care myself if all of the information brought up is true or false, all I see is that you, Sarah, have become a target of harassment (whether justified or not, again, I don't give a fuck about it), at least part of those folks knows (or should have I used know?) you run FFS, it also has, thus, become a potential target of attacks perpetrated by them. If you really care about this Shrine as much as you've said you do, please, please understand that is time for you to retire and hand ownership to someone "neutral". Having your character still attached to this place in such way now adds another layer of danger which, frankly, we can (and should) do without.

So. Are you Sarah, then? As in THE Sarah? Or are you her hubby? Because in your post you specifically describe that your girlfriend is having a crisis. So we can only surmise two things in this scenario:

1) You are Nicholas ******, hubby to Sarah. (Very likely, but why don't you post under your own account if you don't want any transparency? You're hiding under someone else's moniker, AND you're taking thousands of dollars from your forum members. STOP WITH THE FUCKING BULLSHIT.)

Just to clear it up, there aren't two people. Nicholas and Sarah are the same person. It's more of a before-after thing. Anything more is irrelevant to the donations situation.

Also, while I agree we shouldn't dwell too much on the whole deal with GamerGate/Anti-GamerGate/Sexual activities, most of you are forgetting all of that adds another side to the problem which does concern the Shrine, potentially a lot: I don't care myself if all of the information brought up is true or false, all I see is that you, Sarah, have become a target of harassment (whether justified or not, again, I don't give a fuck about it), at least part of those folks knows (or should have I used know?) you run FFS, it also has, thus, become a potential target of attacks perpetrated by them. If you really care about this Shrine as much as you've said you do, please, please understand that is time for you to retire and hand ownership to someone "neutral". Having your character still attached to this place in such way now adds another layer of danger which, frankly, we can (and should) do without.

Thank you for that statement. I was going to try to discuss that situation without offending Sarah or anyone else on either side, but you said it better than anyone.

The extra security in place may protect us, but, we are the ones paying for it in the end, since Sarah cannot. I think that should give everyone a voice in where ffshrine goes and what should happen. This is as much as our home as it is for Sarah, Jessie, Leon Scott Kennedy, myself and for over 13,000 active members in the community.

The business plan thing i said was more speculation on my part than actual truth, i hadn't talked to Sarah before i posted that, so i apologise for that. As Sarah pointed out, it was an outdated message that she removed after i pointed it out to her.

Clearly, many people here in this thread do not appear to have any life to speak of.