Download isn't working.

[Fdino 23]

4 hours ago, PeacePuma said:

Friend, keep calm... this is like a developing news story. We need to think about what to do. Neither my $10 nor the other person's $160 will solve a debt instantly, because this needs to be constant. That's why I'm suggesting ways where the lack of money can be compensated with new, interesting, and attractive material for enthusiasts who do have their $10 to get your MiG-29 UB or a skin for the new Argentine F-16... You have very interesting things on your profile, that can add value to the site without putting your wallet at risk, guys... I'm not just a pretty face (ahem... ahem), apart from painting skins for endless 2 weeks (which I think it's advisable to release now), I'm also a salesman and this place is very sellable if we all work on it... I want to make it super clear, I'm not some kind of communist, (and I'm very far from it) but I do believe in the common union of people and that's powerful... the rest is just simple political discourse, here we make sense of the essence of collaboration.

If you're following my idea, this transcends the fee that Erick has to pay annually, this can be a place that can contribute to a friend in need, no one is free from misfortune and we can empower ourselves to help a brother... but we must be intelligent and put our talents to work.

So, friend @bazillius, take a deep breath, I also exploded for 30 seconds, but then you have to open your mind and most importantly you have to let your guard down.

Friend. And this question goes to Erik. Can you tell me, besides me, how many foreigners there are on the site. Because then I see which community on Facebook I promote. I participate in some foreign communities.

[Fdino 23]

4 hours ago, PeacePuma said:

Friend, keep calm... this is like a developing news story. We need to think about what to do. Neither my $10 nor the other person's $160 will solve a debt instantly, because this needs to be constant. That's why I'm suggesting ways where the lack of money can be compensated with new, interesting, and attractive material for enthusiasts who do have their $10 to get your MiG-29 UB or a skin for the new Argentine F-16... You have very interesting things on your profile, that can add value to the site without putting your wallet at risk, guys... I'm not just a pretty face (ahem... ahem), apart from painting skins for endless 2 weeks (which I think it's advisable to release now), I'm also a salesman and this place is very sellable if we all work on it... I want to make it super clear, I'm not some kind of communist, (and I'm very far from it) but I do believe in the common union of people and that's powerful... the rest is just simple political discourse, here we make sense of the essence of collaboration.

If you're following my idea, this transcends the fee that Erick has to pay annually, this can be a place that can contribute to a friend in need, no one is free from misfortune and we can empower ourselves to help a brother... but we must be intelligent and put our talents to work.

So, friend @bazillius, take a deep breath, I also exploded for 30 seconds, but then you have to open your mind and most importantly you have to let your guard down.

What other suggestion? And it also works for Erik. You can make additional packages in special seasons. Like the Gift Bomber that a modder made, where there's a tornado throwing gifts. And with that special offers. For example, with each registration, a free Christmas template or bonus. They could also hold competitions between members in SF2 online. This would work.

 

[Fdino 23]

Erik, what do you think of what I suggested for Peace Puma? Here in a community that participated in Nintendinho, the tournaments always generated more attractions and attracted attention. Then for the winners, you can make offers on the package or offer one bonus or another. Oh, I don't know how it would work. I am going to sleep now. More time. I apologize to Muesli. I thought you were my Fuck.

[PeacePuma 606]

1 hour ago, Fdino said:

I didn't understand. Why should I prepare for a wave of hate? Isn't it good to promote the site here in a Facebook community to attract more people?

I'll tell you the joke... but in exchange talk to me internally so that the modders and the old ones who are very hard (but deep down they are very tender) can read what we talked about above and give their opinion without getting lost in this ping-pong.

The joke is that at some point FB through 2 profiles were hated here because subscribers published CA material without consent ... I was there so I can attest that it was real but they were not former members but newbies who either did not know the rules or did not respect or his mother ... anyway, then it was solved, a little external relations and today the atmosphere is calmer.

Edited Friday at 06:48 AM by PeacePuma

[alexduck511 30]

joined the forums 4 years.Have paid the memdership before

I understand is a hard choices.

Runing a Website need a lots times and moneys.especially for a not big forums but have lots of data to maiantain.Advertising earnings rarely.

but for the third world. 10usd per month not cheap,its fact.

so why not get more opitons,like 0.99 per hour or 3.99 per week,not 6usd for 2 days.and why not use more payment methods.like alipay or others.In my country,paypal is not user-friandly.

hope CA become better and better. if i solve the problems of my paypal.i will give a helping hand anyway.but have other payment method is better.

[froggy 11]

Hi Erik,

comment and suggestion from a 'taker'.

First bear in mind that I know squat about running a web site and that, before your explainations, I had very little idea (if any) about the cost of it.

I am not a rich man (not even close), but I leave in a safe and reasonably comfortable country (except for the weather), I have a roof over my head and food in my plate everyday, and I have a computer. So I cannot complain and, although I rarely have £50 left at the end of the month, I could probably part with a tenner once in a while.
However I do not doubt that some people struggle much harder and see even $7 as quite a significant amount of money.

I also agree that nothing can justify that you alone have to pay for everything, and asking the community for some contribution is only fair. And I also understand that, if volontary contributions do not cover your expenses, you have to change policy.

But something seems a bit weird, and possibly unfair, to me: someone who just wants a small file (some gadget or eye candy) and does not plan to download anything else for some days will pay the same as someone who downloads ODS (pretty much a full new game).

So, as alexduck511 suggested, I think it would be interesting to have more payment otpions.
I don't know how feasible it is (if at all) but why not have the options to buy individual file, priced according to the size, without a subscription. For example, for any file up to 10MB you could charge $1, then add 10 cents per extra MB (these values mean that a 70MB file will cost more than a 2 days subscription).

Examples:

If someone wants EricJ's Tunguska (6MB) and Gepard's Panzerpack (5MB), that'll cost 1 + 1 = $2 - quite affordable.

If someone want the 3 vol. of yakarov79's Cold East Ground Objects (214MB, 385MB, 75MB), that'll be 21.4 + 38.5 + 7.5 = $67.4 - much more than one month subscription.

 

Again, I don't know how feasible that would be and wether it would be worth the trouble for you (and it may also depend on how Paypal charges you for the transactions).

However, that should solve the problem of multiple accounts which, according to the figures you gave, is indeed a disgrace. It may also allow some people to spread their expenses.

Sorry alexduck511, I'm well aware that wouldn't solve your Paypal problem.

Happy New Year everyone!

Franck

[+Erik 1,921]

To those commenting,

This thread has become large and difficult to read. I read everything posted here. Your suggestions are important and I welcome them. When I've done the homework you've all assigned me, I will have answers for you. My grandfather used to tell me, Erik you've done a lot of speaking, now is the time you listen. I will follow his guidance and get back to everyone as soon as I'm able.

Thank you again for your suggestions.

Erik

[+Erik 1,921]

1 minute ago, samuelffer said:

Therefore, the genius who created the site should have thought that it costs a lot to maintain a site, and not whine about taxes and make money off of other people's creations. People post mods while they make money off of creations. Hugs to you.

... 

[+EricJ 4,309]

And roger...

Anyway the "problem" with charging by download is now do we get a cut of the payment? While financially I'm doing good, there comes the time of "If I'm making X mod/skin/etc. do I get to charge a price and set that price?" Overall it's a neat idea and keeps costs down (and people will be able to afford a mod/skin/etc. DCS allows most content (I've seen missions able to be bought, but I haven't been on there in a long time to get a read on what they allowed to charge). But again if that goes through then it's just a headache as well and of course the opinion of people who think it should be free, and so on. I mean no matter what Erik does somebody is going to complain, and frankly it's his choice because it's his server, not mine, so his server, his rules, and so on. I mean I think paying for a subscription is right now fair, but overall if it goes to charging for a mod, then that may be a good solution, maybe in the short term or whatnot.

[madvad 668]

Possible solutions that I would implement, and some of them I already implement on my website:

1 - In order to download, a new member would have to have X (days, weeks?) registered for this function to be released and he would have to introduce himself in a new members' thread created specifically for this purpose.

The result of this is that it would end (or would MUCH reduce) the number of people cheating and creating new profiles to bypass the download limit.

2 - I play other games, like Assetto Corsa for example, and there are countless sites for downloading mods. Almost all of them direct you to download the mod from an external repository like ModsFire.com (example image attached).

I'll be honest in saying that I don't know exactly how it works, but perhaps if we used this to host mods from now on it would reduce the amount of space and bandwidth needed. And as time goes by, we should upload old mods to these platforms as well (it would be a great opportunity for modders to take advantage of this and update their mods to make them even more attractive).

The effect of this will not be immediate, but the tendency if we adopt these solutions is to use less and less bandwidth and storage and Erik will have fewer and fewer or almost zero bills to pay.

3 - Maybe we should show the world that we exist and bring in people who don't even know SF2.

Make videos on YT about the mods, create a CombatAce - SF2 community channel allowing anyone who wants to contribute and the monetization of the videos would be directed to cover the costs.

 

Continuing with subscriptions could be valid, those who subscribed would have advantages, such as exclusivity in new mods such as early access, perhaps a review of the prices would be good (I'm not going to cry about my conditions, things are the way they are, when I can pay, I will, when I can't, I won't and we move on).

At the moment, my insights are these.

What I know is that although the measure taken is well-founded and fair, it may have been poorly implemented and generated the chaos we are seeing.

If we continue like this, the result will be that many modders will leave here, upload their mods to other platforms (like the ones I mentioned above, for example), and this will become a "select club" with no new members, until CombatAce inevitably succumbs because the subscriptions of old members will not be able to cope with the huge amount of mods that are already hosted.

[+EricJ 4,309]

6 minutes ago, madvad said:

Continuing with subscriptions could be valid, those who subscribed would have advantages, such as exclusivity in new mods such as early access, perhaps a review of the prices would be good (I'm not going to cry about my conditions, things are the way they are, when I can pay, I will, when I can't, I won't and we move on).

 

This

[SUDNAVY 134]

I think what the Chinese friend said earlier is very good. For the Dutch, a dozen dollars may only be the price of a takeaway meal, but for most Chinese, this is the entire income for several days or even a week. Our Prime Minister said that there are 600 million people in China whose monthly income is less than 1,000 RMB (about 140 US dollars). But the point is not here. For Chinese people, using PayPal to pay is not only a troublesome choice, but also a risky choice. Ubiquitous network monitoring and financial monitoring put us at risk of being summoned by the police when paying to foreign websites.

[SUDNAVY 134]

Of course, my income can allow me to pay these dozen dollars, but I think the website should also provide corresponding high-quality services? And I think this will cause many creators to leave. I think it is a better way to make high-quality campaign MODs and charge for them, just like the previous Desert Storm MOD. And I paid for the Desert Storm MOD. If such a high-quality MOD can be provided, I am willing to pay for the part that I am interested in.

[+Muesli 2,203]

I am really really really getting pissed off by now...

Being European or from the US doesn't make us richer or more privileged than anybody else...
Yes... income may SEEM higher, but so are all expenses... I am not gonna repeat myself in total, but I can say that I pay a subscription for CA despite the fact that I cannot afford it. A computergame and its mods are part of a hobby, if you can't afford it that's too bad but still no disaster. If life really sucks and dealt you a bad hand, I figure that you have other worries that are more pressing than financing your hobby. You have to give a little to take a little...

Instead of going after 'you are richer, I am poorer' whining, read the first text which explain why we are at this point and go after the leeches with more than 1 account. And if you are on of these freeloaders... I already told you what you can do.
Still seems to me that a subscription model is the best and easiest way to go... things do not need to be more complicated and costly than it already is.
 

[+daddyairplanes 10,578]

so everyone bitchin about it, pulling the income card, pulling the exchange rate card, answer me this:

where are we going to read you bitch at when combatace.com goes 404? where will you be gathering to say what should have been done when the lights go down?

you all seem to be the experts, so this would be useful to share

[+daddyairplanes 10,578]

11 hours ago, bazillius said:

Most, I repeat, most people on the planet live on a couple of dollars a day. Not an hour, but a day. In the US, you have 7% inflation.

that is true

can you telll me how many of those are on the internet via computer and modem, let alone flight simming on non basic computers?

my point on finances is that if you have the capability to play this game of ours, and to come to this website, you probably arent poverty stricken nor living off of a few USD equivelant a day

[+EricJ 4,309]

11 hours ago, bazillius said:

That's the price of fast food for you. Most, I repeat, most people on the planet live on a couple of dollars a day. Not an hour, but a day. In the US, you have 7% inflation. I asked my US friend how this inflation affected him. He said, well, vegetables have become a little more expensive. And here in the third world, our asses are exploding from your inflation. As you can see, I'm not the only one who wrote that the dollar has doubled in price in a year.  You in US are out of the real word away

Currently inflation is at 2.75%, so it's not inflation that's causing high grocery rates. I mean we can go over it, but the fact is that while some claim the economy is "bad", which it isn't, shows you may need to check your numbers. I mean yeah it's some money to get groceries, but so far we're not at 7%.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=current+inflation+rate+in+us

Edited Friday at 04:00 PM by EricJ

[+Svetlin 568]

Happy New Year, guys. Let's be reasonable and patient, and think once again over what Erik has decided to implement in order to keep CA alive. Having the possibility to choose between a 2-days, a monthly, a 6-month and an annual subscription is already good enough and actually gives good opportunities. I myself come from a poor country (as compared with the developed countries in the EU and USA) and know well the hardships that come with the lack of money (though not to the same extent as some of our fellow members). Paying a fee of USD 1.00 probably costs more than the fee itself, so to me that makes no sense. Also I think the above suggested payment per file size is not an option either. One who is having difficulties to spare USD 9.95 for a monthly subscription will hardly ever be able to spend USD 60-70 for a single mod. And the high quality mods are large in size. Those who can afford to spend USD 60-70 at once would most probably prefer to go for a 6-month subscription (USD 49.95). For me spending at once USD 89.95 for an annual subscription comes a bit steep, however I do intend to make use of the monthly subscription option. I have already purchased a monthly subscription as a start. There will be times when real life will be keeping me away from actually playing SF2 and paying for a subscription then would not be justified, but that is what the monthly subscription is for. Furthermore, those of us, who cannot afford a long-term subscrition, we need to consider - do we really need everything and all at once? High quality mods take time to be created. Everyone must wait weeks, months, even years for a desired mod to be shared, once the modder considers it ready. Some mods even never get finished and released for various reasons. That said, how hard could it be to wait a month or two more? Do we really need to have every mod right after it got uploaded? Is it better to never get a mod (simply because CA is no longer there) than wait a month, or two more knowing it is avavailable to get at CA as soon as one can afford to pay the subscription? No one is asking for a continuous subscription (though it would definitely help Erik a lot), so if one cannot spare USD 9.95 today, one could start saving and spare the money in 1, 2 or 3 months, as long as it takes. Buying a monthly subscription several times a year is a good solution and already a generous option that Erik is giving us. Let's be reasonable and patient. If PayPal is not an option for everyone and other convinient options exist, then adding these would be helpful to keep CA alive.

The above of course is not intended for those who come here purely to get free stuff and do not care about CA and the little community we have. They will not change no matter what we write and actually I have nothing to say to them, they are not worthy of the attention. In fact I support anything that will stop such people from expoiting CA.

[froggy 11]

Hi Svetlin,

Your point is absolutely right.

But I was not suggesting to replace the subscription system. I was just saying that adding a payment per file option could be usefull fore some.

My examples were meant to show that is you only want a small file you can afford it right away, but is you want a big mod, a subscription is a much better option.

That was just an idea, and I agree that the extra charge for a $1 payment might defeat the purpose.

Cheers

Franck

 

[+FETCH2015 13]

I done my part.

Good luck fella's, nobody out there has done more over the years.

If a more permanent solution is required to preserve the collected data, email me Erik

I must really like you guys ... because I freakin' hate PayPal.

just sayin'

[+Menrva 4,245]

2 hours ago, samuelffer said:

People post mods while they make money off of creations. Hugs to you.

Me and pretty much all of the other modders here have never made a dime out of our own mods. I worked thousands of my own hours of life in order to produce several high quality freeware mods, always released for free for others to enjoy. Enjoy your ban.

If I ever see other comments with such accusations to us modders, consider yourselves insta-banned.

[+yakarov79 11,265]

6 minutes ago, Menrva said:

Me and pretty much all of other modders here have never made a dime out of our own mods.

thought you were going to pay me with pecorino romano...every 3 months.

1 hour ago, froggy said:

I was just saying that adding a payment per file option could be usefull fore some.

As you might know my position about paying a subscription. I would deliberately make the mod even bigger. I am not sure if everyone would be happy about it.

And by the way...If paying by files... then another whining...example - This file - F-960 Silly Vengeance was here before for free...and everyone downloaded it for free....but only me has to pay! ....

4 hours ago, froggy said:

If someone wants EricJ's Tunguska (6MB) and Gepard's Panzerpack (5MB), that'll cost 1 + 1 = $2 - quite affordable.

If someone want the 3 vol. of yakarov79's Cold East Ground Objects (214MB, 385MB, 75MB), that'll be 21.4 + 38.5 + 7.5 = $67.4 - much more than one month subscription.

exactly. Had I known I would increase size of the files by bigger textures, and a few more models....

 

1 hour ago, Muesli said:

Being European or from the US doesn't make us richer or more privileged than anybody else...
Yes... income may SEEM higher, but so are all expenses...

Amen.

I am paying 39% tax ! lucky me. (just that everyone is complaining...so why not me. And I have 35cm of snow on the streets and no one is cleaning this..even if I am paying tax subscription)

 

Everyone. Please read what Svetlin wrote in a few posts above. read again and then again.

No one is saying to pay every month. It is not like there are tons of mods every week. Yes years before..But not anymore..At least for now. 

 

2 hours ago, madvad said:

If we continue like this, the result will be that many modders will leave here, upload their mods to other platforms

many modders will stay here. I will stay here (complying with a claim that some modders are part of IlluminCAti) And I will continue to upload only here...

But I would be very angry if my files were being uploaded somewhere else.

 

 

 

and now read again what Svetlin wrote...

And amen to that too.

 

my advance apologies to everyone else for replying to this comment:

3 hours ago, samuelffer said:

First, I don't have time to create things. If I did, I wouldn't even be on this forum. Second, your situation and that of others are not same. Therefore, the genius who created the site should have thought that it costs a lot to maintain a site, and not whine about taxes and make money off of other people's creations. People post mods while they make money off of creations. Hugs to you.

Fuck you.

[+whiteknight06604 939]

2 hours ago, EricJ said:

Currently inflation is at 2.75%, so it's not inflation that's causing high grocery rates. I mean we can go over it, but the fact is that while some claim the economy is "bad", which it isn't, shows you may need to check your numbers. I mean yeah it's some money to get groceries, but so far we're not at 7%.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=current+inflation+rate+in+us

not to get into a political discussion but inflation is CURRENTLY at 2.75% all the previous increases are stacked, the last few years worth of high inflation didn't go away. so yeah inflation is lower now but it's still increasing and nothing happened to lower the prices from the years of massive inflation that bloated prices for just about everything. bad energy policy, the pandemic and so many missteps in economic regulation led to the increase the last couple years. Only recently has the increases stabilized but nothing has reduced as of yet. I'm paying massively higher prices today for groceries than I did a couple years ago and nothing short of an economic boom and deregulation in some areas will change that. 

[+EricJ 4,309]

1 minute ago, whiteknight06604 said:

not to get into a political discussion but inflation is CURRENTLY at 2.75% all the previous increases are stacked, the last few years worth of high inflation didn't go away. so yeah inflation is lower now but it's still increasing and nothing happened to lower the prices from the years of massive inflation that bloated prices for just about everything. bad energy policy, the pandemic and so many missteps in economic regulation led to the increase the last couple years. Only recently has the increases stabilized but nothing has reduced as of yet. I'm paying massively higher prices today for groceries than I did a couple years ago and nothing short of an economic boom and deregulation in some areas will change that. 

Yeah fair enough, but bazillus is saying it's 7%, and I don't expect inflation to go down anyway, but it's not 7%, so got it.

[+daddyairplanes 10,578]

1 hour ago, yakarov79 said:

thought you were going to pay me with pecorino romano...every 3 months.

is there a pack of American every other week option?

1 hour ago, yakarov79 said:

exactly. Had I known I would increase size of the files by bigger textures, and a few more models....

 

need me to hook up a decal pack for ya?