Feedback for SimStuff.com As many of you are well aware of, SimStuff is running into massive financial problems. We've already used 1.12 Terabytes of bandwith as of today, and our end of month projects are 1.5-1.6 Terabytes. (1 Terabyte = 1000GB) Over the last several days, our core staff has been in discussion on potential solutions. Several concept ideas have been developed, however there is a great chance of alienation. Therefore I want to get your feedback on all proposed ideas and see which methods are fesible. Target income: 500-1,000+ USD Premium Services - We've been looking into creating premium services for people who subscribe. Naturally, these premium services will run on a month to yearly basis. If we do decide adding premium services, it would include faster promotions on these forums, increased PM space, better avatars, and status recognition. Ads - Yes the dreaded ads proposal is back. Without a stable source of income, desperate times call for desperate measures. Of course, we don't want ads. However if we are hitting 1+ Terabyte, we're going to be dying fast. Expected revenue: 60.00USD+ Restricted Downloads - Okay, this is almost like a subscription model. It's more of a semi-subscription model. This will encompass basically 3-5 of the days of the week to randomly lock. The rest of the days will be free. I'm open to any other suggestions you may have as well, so please take a moment to post feedback on the proposed ideas and any other ideas you might have.
Sad Its sad you've run into financial problems. I'd gladly help but I can't 'cause Im only 14. However, this is the best site for downloading custom creations Ive seen, because it's free for all and you're got some really talented creators. It'd be a huge loss for all die-hard sims fans out there if you'd have to close the site And about your ideas, I think they'd help, but it wouldnt be nice with subscriptions, because then poor teens like me wouldnt be able to download most of the stuff (I get sooo irritated on TSR! ) but at least that'd be a solution. I think the best solution would be if anyone who'd be able to donate like 5$ would do it! It's not that much money but if 20 reeeaally nice guys would do that, you'd already have 100$! And of course could be an option to let donators download some extra cool stuff. But this requires that people actually are willing to help. It's easy for me to say what people should do when Im only 14 and aint allowed to donate but I'd be so happy if you'd continue running the site. Its actually the first thing I do when I come online - check if there's anything new in here! So keep the good work up! (and sorry for my bad English, I live in Finland and English isnt my mother tongue at least I hope you got my point..)
Sorry to hear you guys have run into financial trouble. It's a shame when a non-profit site offering free content runs into problems purely because it supplies a great service and is so popular. I know it comes down to survival at the end of the day so I certainly wouldn't begrudge you introducing a subscription service. As you've pointed out in the past, this isn't about making a profit, it's about covering the costs of running the site. Could you perhaps include new content in the subscription section and mark out some of the older work for a free-to-download section? This means you'd get subscribers but still not alienate those who can't afford a subscription. How intrusive are the ads you mention? No-one likes to see ads, but if they're the kind that you can stick at the top or bottom of the page then that might not be so bad. I've surfed enough sites to develop a blind spot for ads like these now so they wouldn't bother me all that much. Pop-up ads can be a real pain if you don't have a filter to stop 'em, and the ones that sit on top of the main body of the page are very frustrating, especially when you can't find the 'close' icon! The restricted downloads option is a more patron friendly way a tackling the problem, but there is a danger of it backfiring. If people can't get at the content when they want (especially if this feature is random and you can't predict what is on offer and when) then there is a danger they could stop visiting the site altogether. I can certainly see the reason for suggesting it as I can see you're opposed to introducing subscriptions, but make sure this option doesn't harm your site if you decide to go with it.
Popups are most definitely out of the question. The market has sorta fallen out with the introduction of XP SP2. Most likely it's going to be banners.
To be honest, I dont have a problem with ads and your first priority has to be to yourselves and your ability to keep the site going (I'm assuming that just jacking it in isn't really an option you want to entertain). At the end of the day, the site is costing you cold hard cash to keep going. while it would be nice to be ad free, subscription free and open to everybody, that situation can only continue as long as your pockets are deep enough to sustain it. I'm not much of a site programmer, but perhaps another option to entertain is a free site containing ads with the option to become a VIP member for $x a month which gives you an ad free site and other such gubbins that you can think of other than the warm fluffly feeling of helping to support a site you enjoy to entice people to join (prioritised downloading of new content rather than the random suggestion maybe?)
We can't go away I would hate for us to be locked down on certain days. That would reduce the traffic that the site has provided over the last days. I am proposing we work up some money for bandwidth costs. I am willing to pay a large sum so that we don't have to resort to ads and banners just to be in. I am totally against going subscription and plenty of sites have done that. I don't want us to be another site going that route. If we can get more donations our way, I think we can make the site thrive and ultimately stay online for a longer period of time. If anyone has decent graphical site design skills, I am desperately looking for some extra staff help. If you are interested, send me an E-mail or PM.
