Admin We rise like a Phoenix

[Bombardier]

As we rise from the ashes like a phoenix I am proud of us all for what we have achieved in the last week.

Our site will now last another year and things are being put in place to ensure we do not fall into the abyss again next year.

What has happened

As you all know the cost of running a site like ours is expensive and the fees rose this year which meant I could not continue to use my own money, this is also compounded due to having to pay Value added Tax to the UK tax man @20% and a change in my own financial situation which was not helped by the increased cost of living.

I am sorry that the news came so quickly however I thought I had secured a business sponsor but they unfortunately had to pull out at the last minute, hence the short notice from me.

That is now all in the past and I have been working on streamlining our site and upgrading some outdated software.

I have now completed the following

• Software upgraded
• military reviews and resources have now been deactivated as they were rarely used and were taking up valuable server space that could be used for our galleries and forums.
• A Patreon page has been created for those of you that wish to contribute perhaps a smaller amount on a monthly basis. you can find the page here
• https://patreon.com/user?u=58532872...gn=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

I have also spent a lot of time deleting data that was not required from our servers that had built up over the years relating to older and unused software.

The donations page will remain for those of you who would rather make one off donations as and when and don't forget we have our Mi.Net supporter account upgrade which you can find in your profile page, this gives you some more functionality (explained at sign up).

I will also be keeping the 'advertise with us' feature and hope that we can get some business and revenue from that over the coming year.

Regarding Google ads I will keep some on the site but hope to keep them to a minimum as they slow the site loading times and negatively affect the user experience.

The next step is to contact the server (which I will today) and ask them to provide an invoice for the full year, it is better to pay for a year as it provides approx 8% discount, paying monthly is more expensive.

We have raised a large part of that cost circa $3000 and after discussing the matter with my good lady she has agreed to forego her next hair, manicure, pedicure and back waxing so I can use that money to make up the deficit

Thank you all again for your support, may we continue for many more years

With huge respect
Bombardier (Andy)

 

[Bombardier]

I have been mooching around the net to discover how many other forums struggle in the shadow of the social media giants (you know who they are)

I ended up at an old military forum I used to visit and found that they had also clsoed their doors albeit the site is still online no new accounts or posts can be made. The site is militaryforums.co.uk

I found this post which seemed to me to sum up the issues small communities like ours have.

Military Forums story ends here. Many challenges in the world of social media have made it difficult for forums and online communities such as ourselves to remain active and making us fail to create a sustainable platform. Currently social media is designed to be attention grabbing with user friendly apps that has made forums and online communities such as ourselves seem outdated. Social media is the current-day online forum

Without all your help we would have become victim to the monopoly that these large social media platforms have and I am thankful that you all see fit to support our community.

I think this is a battle will will always have and the days of the supremely active sites like MP.Net will be a thing of the past unless we fight back as we are doing now.

Very Very Proud, thank you all again