Administrators Dazz Posted September 20, 2016 Administrators Share Posted September 20, 2016 Guys... I NEED feedback on things around here. I've noticed fewer and fewer members coming to the site. I've been really confused and had to go fishing for feedback. For a while I thought our tiered membership was working, but after fishing for feedback on VPinball I've been wrong. VPU was and has always been about the community for the community. We try to encourage open development and a healthy open atmosphere. We push for advancements for our hobby. We encourage our content providers to allow VPU to have the privileged of hosting and supporting them. I have always tried asking the community for ideas and suggestions on how VPU should operate. Without suggestions from our community I can only do what I believe is right at the time for the community; what is community without the community? As a result, I've removed the tiered membership structure from VPU completely. VPU moved to a membership system due to resources required to run the site and issues that spawned from allowing free unlimited/limit free downloads. In the past we experienced major issues with the server. It was found that these issues steamed from users using download accelerators and ripping the download section. With internet connection speeds today users were able to download the site and max the server bandwidth. This caused slowdowns and the sites to not respond as they should. This has caused major issues in the past and doing the tiers was a recommended solution. I have removed the tiered membership system from VPU completely. Free members are still limited, but the limits have been lowered quite a bit. For the few members that have actually shown their support and purchased on of our tiers; we are going to make it right for everyone. Supporting Members have all been moved to our Supporting Member group. Your experience here on VPU should be more enjoyable already, but we are adding more reasons for our supporting members. Again, I really need feedback... This site is just as much your site as it is mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiva Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Well.... I stopped downloading from here due to the time limit, but now I just can't download period. Everytime I click a link, it makes me wait 15 seconds, then refreshes the page but no download, so click the link again, wait 15 seconds etc. No VP9 DT tables even show up now for me at least, it says there's lots on the category page, but the page that lists them is empty and states there are no tables, so nothing to download. Any ad blockers are switched off. I suggested a while back somewhere else (or was it here) that a lot of us have dropbox that we don't use. Maybe that might be a good solution as there may be incompatibility with the plug-ins to this new version Note that these errors I am getting could be due to the public wi-fi service I get as part of my service providers plan (shaw-go) so there may be a block somewhere. Edit: Getting the download problem everytime no matter what section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Dazz Posted September 20, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted September 20, 2016 23 minutes ago, shiva said: Well.... I stopped downloading from here due to the time limit, but now I just can't download period. Everytime I click a link, it makes me wait 15 seconds, then refreshes the page but no download, so click the link again, wait 15 seconds etc. No VP9 DT tables even show up now for me at least, it says there's lots on the category page, but the page that lists them is empty and states there are no tables, so nothing to download. Any ad blockers are switched off. I suggested a while back somewhere else (or was it here) that a lot of us have dropbox that we don't use. Maybe that might be a good solution as there may be incompatibility with the plug-ins to this new version Note that these errors I am getting could be due to the public wi-fi service I get as part of my service providers plan (shaw-go) so there may be a block somewhere. Edit: Getting the download problem everytime no matter what section. I'm still doing some work on the site right now, but.. you should be VIP in the first place. I just moved you to VIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shiva Posted September 20, 2016 Share Posted September 20, 2016 Oh, thanks. I will give it a go right now. Seems to work, managed to get a fp table at least. Looks like a database corruption with the VP9 DT when the upgrade happened? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider freneticamnesic Posted September 20, 2016 Content Provider Share Posted September 20, 2016 Appreciate it. I am sure I mentioned disliking the tiered thing back when you first switched but never followed up on it. I mean, I can't imagine anyone really liked it... but most people understood why you wanted/needed to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Dazz Posted September 20, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted September 20, 2016 7 hours ago, shiva said: Oh, thanks. I will give it a go right now. Seems to work, managed to get a fp table at least. Looks like a database corruption with the VP9 DT when the upgrade happened? I think what you are seeing are the stupid blank categories that are used as headers. The stupid downloads system does this by default and is stupid. We have been complaining about this to IPS for a while. I just modified code so the child categories should show now. Please check and see if that is what you were seeing. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Dazz Posted September 20, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted September 20, 2016 6 hours ago, freneticamnesic said: Appreciate it. I am sure I mentioned disliking the tiered thing back when you first switched but never followed up on it. I mean, I can't imagine anyone really liked it... but most people understood why you wanted/needed to do it. You were the only person that commented about it, but it was a snarky Fren comment and provided no real information/feedback. Just thought you were being facetious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider freneticamnesic Posted September 20, 2016 Content Provider Share Posted September 20, 2016 My comments are meant to be taken lightly, but certainly not ignored... I don't want to come across as critical on a site like this, but I also want to sort of get the point across that maybe it's not a good idea to make certain changes. Really can't believe no one else spoke up though. It felt like a bad turn immediately. I turned off my donation setup right after that too because I didn't feel like I could keep that going in good faith with the opinions I held, I never want to see stuff become about money though it inevitably does. If you're not able to keep the site going that's fine, I fully respect that and maybe with that kind of openness you'd get some help from people who can host the site or something. Too many times though I've seen small community sites start out free, eventually start charging money, then just shut down, and it felt like this was on the same path. I want to say that in such a clear way but how can I really tell you that when I've never run a site like this? Maybe it's just not possible to run it without losing money and that sucks. If you've read any of my critiques of VPF you'd know that I have serious problems with charging any kind of money for a site that hosts the content that it does. Unfortunately I feel like I'm in the minority, so if no one else speaks up on the matter here, I am not going to make a bunch of noise about it either. Otherwise I just end up sounding like the angry jackie chan fellow who just doesn't like people who run websites.... it's not a good look for me. I'm not really concerned with how people perceive me (as evidenced by the many people I've scorched with critique) but if I feel like I might hold an opinion that everyone seems to be against, then I'm not going to say a damn thing. If there's other people who seem to share a similar opinion, then I'll speak up and make some noise - I don't just set out to disagree with everyone, it just seems that way because when I voice my disagreement, I don't really let the discussion die... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider CarnyPriest Posted September 20, 2016 Content Provider Share Posted September 20, 2016 I take it at face value that VPU was never intended to be a money-making operation. The site operated on a donation model for a long time, and I never recall seeing the tally as anything other than hundreds of dollars behind expenses. No one AFAIK is independently wealthy, and no one should be going into hock for their hobby. It's a beautiful thing that so many contributors have shared their work and members have shared their comments, help, and experiences with the community here with no expectation of any return but some thanks and appreciation. The fact is that it still takes cold hard cash to provide bandwidth and storage to keep these contributions available 24/7. That's just the way it is. When donations don't work, it makes sense to move to a membership model. It galls me that this is perceived as charging money and making profits on contributors when it is really the dues that must be paid to provide a place to hangout, keep the clubhouse lights on and the walls standing. The other alternative is an ad model. Given that this is a tiny site, you'd have most of the space taken up by the shittiest ads and clickbait. No one wants that. It's a wonderful thing that RandR is footing the bill so far at VPinball. If he's spent $2,000 start up and $800 on bandwidth, well, I couldn't afford to do that. More power to him! I would not expect him to continue carrying that load forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Content Provider Itchigo Posted September 22, 2016 Content Provider Share Posted September 22, 2016 I just want to thank Dazz for all he's done here. With my schedule I haven't been around anywhere much, but I see a genuine effort on his part to make this place the best it can be. I also appreciate the freedom we have here. We have some rules here, but it's not NEAR restrictive as vpf. I ran into the same problem early on and Randr sponsored me for a year, if not longer (thanks again). That donation not only helped me to survive, it also helped me to upgrade certain areas. Knowing what I know now, this will always be a losing battle as far as making money. Well that is, unless you're selling something... The Tiered model: I understood when Dazz had to do that, he has a lot of expense here, I never held anything against him for that. I know people have complained, but making money has never been what this place is about. Unfortunately the community as a whole has more downloaders then participating members. I always thought the Beer me was a great idea. It was a way to say thanks to whoever. It was never designed as a way for anyone to get rich, and anyone who thinks it's a way of "buying vp" is just wrong. For the record, I think I've had 2 beers. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get on my jet.... I liked the old layout before whatever upgrade you did, or maybe I just got used to it. I have never been a fan of change.... Thanks Dazz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickwn3 Posted September 22, 2016 Share Posted September 22, 2016 im confused and feeling a little bit ripped off. i paid for a tier 3 lifetime subscription last month. and now i have to pay yearly? and (as of right now) i have to wait 15 seconds for downloads. if i;m missing something please let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Dazz Posted September 26, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted September 26, 2016 On 9/22/2016 at 4:45 PM, rickwn3 said: im confused and feeling a little bit ripped off. i paid for a tier 3 lifetime subscription last month. and now i have to pay yearly? and (as of right now) i have to wait 15 seconds for downloads. if i;m missing something please let me know. don't worry, i'll get it fixed. you do not have to pay yearly and there will be no wait. I've been out of town since Thursday and haven't had a chance to change it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickwn3 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 i wasn't worried. just looking fro clarification. as always thanks for keeping up this site. much respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B2K24 Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I was also a Tier 3 - Lifetime member so if I could get changed to Supporting Member or figure how what to pay to be VIP I'd really appreciate it. I really dislike the idea of download managers and ripping the entire site regardless if supporting member or not. I happily would download one thing at a time (like a newly released Wildman backglass) and have no problems in doing so. I never resorted in doing any kind of mass downloading here at VPU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Dazz Posted October 4, 2016 Author Administrators Share Posted October 4, 2016 12 hours ago, B2K24 said: I was also a Tier 3 - Lifetime member so if I could get changed to Supporting Member or figure how what to pay to be VIP I'd really appreciate it. I really dislike the idea of download managers and ripping the entire site regardless if supporting member or not. I happily would download one thing at a time (like a newly released Wildman backglass) and have no problems in doing so. I never resorted in doing any kind of mass downloading here at VPU. Fixed. It looks like the auto upgrade didn't work and some member status got lost. If I missed anyone else please shoot me a message and I'll get it fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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