FTR shutdown

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Hello everyone,

you know how I like to make long dramatic posts :) This will be one, possibly the last one, but it’s important, so bear with me, please.

So, what happened: yesterday I learned that the FTR Adsense account has been shut down, which means there is zero income for me and FTR from ads from now on, I am not even talking about the money from ads that was due next week, that I was to use on some significant FTR upgrades (more on that later in this post). It pissed me off not only because of the money lost, but also because of the fact you readers have kept this site going this way (ads are pretty much the only way a site can support itself in long term and I want you to know I appraciated everyone’s support) and suffered the ads.

The reason for disabling the account is quite a weird one: I didn’t break any policies, I didn’t break any rules, the official reason was this:

“Our specialists have found that your account is related to an account that was disabled for violations of AdSense policies. As previously mentioned, publishers whose accounts have been disabled are not eligible for further participation in the AdSense program.”

At first I was “what the hell”? I never had any second adsense account, let alone one that got disabled. What me and Edrard think happened: about two months ago or so, Edrard got his own adsense account disabled for some strange reason (like wrong positioning of banners). He since then switched to Yandex (Russian version of Adsense). The important part is: Edrard logged once or twice on FTR google account to set up the banners for example, because I am hopeless with IT. Thus, his IP showed in the access log, Google figured I am just helping Edrard circumvent his Adsense ban and disabled my account too. I filed an appeal, explaining the situation, but Google appeals are largely automated and I am not optimistic about overturning this decision. Please note that while I have no doubt this will make some useless WG EU staff-members happy, they almost certainly had nothing to do with this.

So, what now?

For the Record has been one hell of a ride. Since January, the blog grew in visitors from just a random blogspot site to the most visited non-Russian WoT blog in the world. You, dear readers, are why it happened and I am deeply grateful for that. It wasn’t all for free however. In one interview months ago, I said that I work on FTR roughly three hours a day. Well, that was somewhat true then, but it turned out to be wishful thinking. The truth now is that it is usually more, sometimes significantly more. I was always joking that FTR was like my second job, but in last months, this became true practically literally. You can imagine how “well” that worked with real life relationships, but at some point I decided this tradeoff was worth it. Most of the “work” on FTR includes information scouring: where I used 3-4 sources earlier, I check dozens now for every bit of info from the developers. Most I sum up in the QA thread, the important ones get their own posts.

I must admit that it is sometimes tiring. Even the WG EU fails are tiring: as you can imagine, writing something positive is more relaxing than describing that some idiot screwed something up and it reached the point where I ignored one weekend fail in the German community (something about buying two packages and getting third for free, which didn’t work, resulting in a whole bunch of pissed Germans).

Few months ago, this blog was moved from the original blogspot site to this one. The reason behind this was simple: the ads – it allowed me to get something for all the effort I did put into it. But not just that: it allowed FTR to grow – things I couldn’t do before, Edrard could do (setting various WordPress mods, the whole programming work) and I would never be able to do it without his help. As you can imagine, there is a lot of effort behind this site from both of us, let’s not however forget the other contributors either: mainly Zarax, Priory of Sion and Ensign Expendable did a great job writing about various stuff and I am grateful to them for that.

So, this is how it looks now:

Yesterday, when I learned the news, it was in a sort of mixed sadness and relief. Sadness because for all its flaws, this site had an enormous amount of work by me and others invested in it. Relief, because the strain on real life has become a bit too much and the income I had from it (and it wasn’t much) was one of the few ways I rationalized the effort to myself (and others). Plus, as an added “bonus”, this month I have to deal with some nasty personal crap, that (amongst other things) requires a lot of money, so I’ll have to work even harder.

I could go back to blogspot of course and run this stuff there. But honestly, that’s not what I want to do. I am trying always to go forward, not back and not to do things half-way. Cutting back to previous levels is not what I do.

In short: I am ready to shut this site down and step away. I am sure that would make WG EU quite happy.

Or…

There is one more option. I could go all out pro and kick the whole FTR thing into overdrive. It was like a second job before, I could actually make it my second job (even first job, under certain circumstances). Here are the plans I had for this month before the Adsense shutdown:

- new graphic design: with Edrard’s help we’d hire an artist, who’d make some really cool interface for FTR (the money was supposed to go for that)
- new materials and “unveilings”: buying a certain bundle of copies from certain archives (sorry, not going to mention details, promised not to and I don’t want others jumping at it) would produce some very interesting results for German branch
- whole new portal for other games, with more contributors: World of Warplanes, World of Warships, possibly even War Thunder (as you noticed, I didn’t like the tree, but what the hell, won’t judge until I try it out)

but, most importantly

- direct questions to developers (well, daily, possibly every two days, needs to be tested): I made an agreement with a Russian player (for now anonymously, Edrard unfortunately doesn’t have enough forum posts on RU forum to help out) to help ask questions in the developer thread. Basically, you ask, I translate to Russian, he posts it, SerB/Storm answer, I translate it back, you get your answers. Eventually, if I was to… ehm… “obtain” a RU server account with 5000 battles, I’d be even asking directly.

You can imagine how especially the last point is time consuming (especially if you want to have a good response time, that is slowed by having to dig thru the silly questions to pick up the right ones). It requires commitment.

So, here’s the deal:

I think I can setup another ad system on FTR. Bing possibly, but there are other options, I need to discuss this with Edrard further. But it takes time to go live, specifically roughly two months before you get anything out of it.

This is where you come in.

Yesterday (when I wrote the message first on Facebook), some very kind folks donated money (I won’t post your real names, please leave a nickname next time, guys, so I can thank you publicly) even before they knew of my decision. I want you to know I am very, very grateful for all the help, especially when I openly stated I could be shutting FTR down. But FTR needs a bit more to “survive” these two months. In ideal case (I know, I am an optimist), if donations covered those two months of ad income… or even more… well, that would allow me to go all out, as I wrote before. Note that I haven’t posted any specific numbers intentionally, because I don’t want to turn this post into a kickstarter event (tons of legal mumbo jumbo around it), or anyone to feel guilttripped or obligated. That’s not how I do stuff. If you ever wondered how much a monthy ad income was, it was really different, from 250 to 400 Euro. Considering the amount of time I spent working on FTR every day, I don’t think it’s that much :) But that’s just me.

So, right now it’s up to you guys. I don’t want to throw everything away, but it’s how it is. For today and next few days, it will be “business as usual” in any case (perhaps the posts will come a bit later in the day as I wrote earlier, as I said) and I will let everyone know how it all went.

If you are considering donating, the only possible way (I had prepared on short notice anyway) is via Paypal and the Donate button in upper right corner. In special cases (as it happened once before), we could arrange some other option, but that’s for private conversation via e-mail.

Just to be perfectly clear, so noone feels “cheated”: this whole thing is based on faith and respect. Your faith in me, mine in you. It does not oblige anyone to do anything. Despite all the previous donations, it’s possible I will still shut down for personal reasons. But then again, for all my complaining, I liked doing FTR, I still do and I presume I will. Just need to get my shit together this time.

But whatever happens, thank you all.

- SS

318 thoughts on “FTR shutdown”

  1. God damn you maggots, only thinking about making money…..
    One shit went down, oh let’s close the whole fucking blog, thanks!

      • Wow Anon.

        Just.
        Wow.

        Now I’m going to rant, feel free to shout at me.

        I’m not a WG fanboy or anything, but I’m completely fed up with this “gimme perfection for free” bullsh1t that’s rampant in this community. If WG makes a tank you think sucks, you want to stop playing. Without ever thinking that maybe some decisions are business driven (i.e. “we want you to spend gold to free xp through one / two tanks per line so we can make money”). And when people DO realise that, they think it’s somehow satanic. Like WG should not make money. Developers need to get salaries, where the hell do you think that comes from?

        Do you have a job? Do you get paid for it? Would you still do it if no one was willing to pay you for it? I’d wager -> NO.

        Anyway, back to FTR and how that relates. A lot of effort, for no cash? No thank you. I wouldn’t. And don’t come up with the “if it’s a hobby / passion, you should do it for free” crap. The world doesn’t work that way.

        Go for it SS, my donation is in the post.

      • I didnt mean it that way. I meant everybody should donate so this blog will stay alive.

        so Give all your money!!!!

      • Somehow I am under impression that with time you started to like more working on FTR than actually playing WoT which is the main reason for making this blog in first place.

        Not that it matters with current situation or anything like that, but that’s the feeling I got while reading this post… Am I right or am I totally off? =)

    • Would YOU like to go to work and not get paid? One has to earn money to eat, buy clothes, pay rent and so on.

    • Here is what we do: every single reader who have a paypal account makes a donation of 1 euro. I don’t think there is a single person who can’t afford that.

      Judging by the number of votes in the poll I can safely asume that there are at least 2000 regular FTR readers. even if only half of these donate the 1 euro it would cover the cost and I’m pretty sure that some will donate more.

      I’m currently dusting off my paypal account for the first time in several years (and found my balance at exactly 0 -_-) just to help out.

        • I bet it is, did you steal that computer and leech wi-fi and power from your local mcdonnalds or something?
          1 euro is about what you have to pay for a half-decent cup of coffee and I doubt anyone would be unable to spare that…

      • I gave 5 eu, that’s $7.07 US. I read this blog every damn day, because it’s packed full of news about a game I deeply enjoy…I spend $$$ w/WG, who regularly piss me off…so why not toss some to a blog that gives me information? NP, SS you do a great job. I hope enough people put their $$$ where their mouths are and toss you some coin. You do a great service that’s worth paying for. Thanks.

        redwing6 (soldier NBG on NA server)

  5. do u want “fly away” all site, user and community? really?

    make a staff can help u for the website…and wait for a new adsense service.

    where can we send a donation?

    • –If you are considering donating, the only possible way (I had prepared on short notice anyway) is via Paypal and the Donate button in upper right corner. In special cases (as it happened once before), we could arrange some other option, but that’s for private conversation via e-mail.–

  6. It is a good site. but nobody forced u to do this..

    Allthough it is one of a handfull site, where i have disabled my adblocker to support the hard work.

  9. So does this absolutely mean that no more info ? Ive been pretty addicted to your site tbh…even stopped visiting WoT forums as they were useless and this was a lifesaver.

  10. SS, here’s what you can get

    Yahoo ads, Project wonderful, Lijit. infolinks(but that one is annoying).

    PW and lijit work per visits and FTR gets a TON of visits, besides you can have both – they are not as strict as adsense either.

  11. SS – you provide a fantastic service to the WoT community, something that WG EU can only aspire too.

    Whatever you decide to do, and it must be the based on what is best for you personally, you have my thanks for all your efforts over the years. If you can keep going, and branch out into other areas or perhaps a slim-line version of the current site, then great If not, then be assured there are literally thousands who will miss your work and information but will support you in whatever decission you make.

    Let’s hope this is only a short pause and perhaps the begining of something even bigger :)

      • I am truly sorry that this FTR might come to end end, as its the true, 1 source of good info about WoT, and i’ll gladly help with a donation later tonight when I get home to help keep it running.
        Fully understand RL takes priority, but if you can find a way to keep it running i’m sure you will get lots of support.
        How about putting up a survey on how close you are to keeping it alive or something, so we the community can drum up some more people to keep it alive?

  12. Actually this was the only site i disabled my adblock for. I would give monthly 2 euros for you e.g. if like 200-300 people do this we are fine right?

    greets Rich

  13. I just recently started reading FTR regularly (past few weeks) and I have to say I have really enjoyed it. As an avid tanker I love reading the Q&A from the devs talking about the game, information that I, and surely many others, am unable to obtain on my own. Also, as an avid history buff (especially WWII history) I loved reading various posts about prototypes, plans, and the like. I just want you to know that your hard work is much appreciated and whatever decision you make, I wish you the best of luck.

  14. I wish I could donate some money SS, but as I’m studying in university, I have no income whatsoever, and I’m in a shitty personal situation too… :/

  16. No matter what happens, thanks for all the good work SS
    You did more good for the EU community in a few months than an entire company’s PR team in 2 years.

    • Yea, great job man. Sometimes i felt sorry for you when i read all the idiot comments to some posts, since, especially when you tried the Q&A thing. I read your blog almost everyday, always the latest updates on it and no bullshit. Earned yourself a small donation (who cares, gold account costs too…)

  17. Every few months you make such post about shutting this down.

    What i want to know is what is your income from this site? Right now it is obvious the ONLY reason this exists is for you to make money. So share, how much is making you?

    You are eager to fold up on the same day your adsense got pulled (never mind so many other options), without care or a flying fuck about “all the time you claim you’ve invested”.

    Sorry man… you come off as a giant fucking money hungry douche. Its not like this is the first post about it you’ve made…

    • Can you read?
      “If you ever wondered how much a monthy ad income was, it was really different, from 250 to 400 Euro.”

        • Do you really think that he makes a buttload of cash on it? AdSense stuff does not pay that much, and the more popular a site is, the more it costs to maintain it.

        • >you really buy that? lol

          Do you have something more than an unspecified denial of the assertions? Why not at least give us your opinion on what he does actually get, a ballpark figure? Maybe I can help.

          Even if the ad income was somehow $450 a month, every month, that is only $5400 a year, not counting server rent.

          For reference, a $10 meal at your local fast food restaurant every day will be 365 days * $10 = $3650. If it were somehow $800 a month, one meal a day from McDonalds would still be a full third of one’s income of $9600. He would have to take in a regular installment of $1,200 a month in order to meet US federal minimum wage, which is 14,500. Double that and you barely hit median household income, which of course is taxed.

          And note, this is a share between 2 people AFTER the server costs are factored. Server rent alone can easily start at $150 for a modest community. That means $1800 a year for the step up from a geocites site, which of course won’t be the case for very long if For the Record didn’t slip back into that sweet night in the first month. For the Record is large enough to get 70-100 comments or more a post.

    • And how much time you think it takes to generate about 5-6 posts a day, some of them quite lengthy and detailed about war stuff? Would you do it for free?
      Would you run a site which tens of thousand people visit daily? Do you know how much hosting for such a large bandwidth costs?

      Let me say this – I wouldn’t do this for anything under about $200, because it just wouldn’t be worth it, really.

    • Every few months? Did you just pull that one out of your ass?

      Did you even read the whole post before you put down that idiotic comment?

      Fuck off

  18. Wow. :( And I just learned about your site a month or two ago. I hope that something works out in the near future for some more FTW. Love this page! Good luck with everything and thx for all the great articles!

  19. It sounds like “Donate or i will close ftr” … for me its blackmail what you do.

    I Love your work but i dont like that you just want to earn money, and when you dont earn money, you quit.

    • Best statement ever. If your job doesn’t pay you, will you quit? Or continue to work.

      I assume you’re a MUCH better person than I am, because I would walk the fu<k away from a job that doesn't pay…

        • Did he write that he started this out as a job? No, he did not. He wrote that it pretty much BECAME a job over time. So, if he wants to make some money out of it when he’s investing so much time into it for all of us to be able to get the latest rumours, info, etc. about WoT then I say he has every right to.

          It’s SS’s time and if he feels he’s investing an enormous amount of time and effort into it, which is obviously the case, and not getting atleast a little money from it then I think he has all the right in the world to decide to shut it down, unfortunately for us.

          • Well said. Sick of all these people who think Frank own them something when they haven’t donate shit and probably have their ad blocker turned on. Frank didn’t put a gun against your head and make you read his blog.

      • Awesome!!! I need someone in my garden 3 hours a day. When do you start? And you work for free, right? Fantastic.

        Remember to trim those hedges nice and square, otherwise I’ll rage…

    • Ramrod is right, this post looks like: “Oh no! Evil google shut down adsense account yesterday so today I’m closing the blog altogether UNLESS you give me your money!”.

      FFS SS, you could at least try to use different ad provider before writing so dramatic post that the blog takes so much time you will starve to death if you won’t get money in 24h… Suspend it, find another ad site, if you fail in a week or two then ask people for help.

      • wtf, can u read whole article? ss said that other adproviders will pay after two months, and he needs donations for this no income period to get everything running.

        • That’s the problem with people today. Instant gratification and jumping to conclusion.

    • If you don’t quit a job that doesn’t pay you anymore, your girlfriend WILL force you tp do it…so why act like a douche?
      SS, keep up the good work..
      i just know things will work out just fine….

  20. If you ever consider doing the War Thunder stuff I gladly volunteer as help since I was and Iam playing it atm.

    Will also donate as soon as my next salary comes in :)

    • Hey lonigus,

      Played against you in WoT, probably a week ago. Got my ass handed to me, to say the least. Well played :)

  21. Then don’t use Adsense, there is many reliable alternatives. Your whole post sounds like you are very greedy and think of money only.

    Make this site based on subs, who is interested will pay monthly subscription, some stupid money but surelly better than crappy adds stuff.

    • You don’t appreciate how expensive and time consuming getting the sources for some posts is…

    • >accused SS being a greedy moneygrabber
      >offer a subscription based solution

      haha oh wow the delicious irony

  22. Please don’t shut FTR down! It’s a part of my daily routine and I love reading everything that gets posted, as do many others, I’m sure.

  23. I know it is annoying, not funny anymore and so fucking shitty,
    but we need to celebrate…for the Donkey’s retirement.
    I know it is silly, but it was important part of FTR.

  24. to be honest i would probably donate if i was sure it would help ftr stay upp, but you stating you might shut down anyway because of personal problems….well i hope it works out for you!

  25. ” it reached the point where I ignored one weekend fail in the German community (something about buying two packages and getting third for free, which didn’t work, resulting in a whole bunch of pissed Germans).”

    If you refer to the gold package deal (buy two identical packages via o2 or t-mobile mobile payment and get one free), there was no fail on WGs side. It worked, but it’s handling was not very intuitive…which was not WGs responsibility.

  27. After I quit WoT this is the only site which I’m reading stuff about development/news.
    I’m sad about your problems and hope for the best.

    All I can say is that I enjoy your blog but good things never last forever. At least not for free.

    Good luck and take care SS.

  29. Hint for WG tards who read this site (to get info what is their firm workin at the moment now and/or what did they fucked up ;) )
    call SerB and tell him thats really fuckin TERRIBLE that this site may be down

    if u dont get it – and u dont – it’s the best oportunity for WG to improve its reputation among players – sponsorship of this blog while keeping it work independently

  30. If you suffer from burnout just either let it go or look for people to continue it.
    All you are doing here is asking for money and let us decide what you should do with your life.
    If you want to try making a living by creating a community website about Wargaming/Warthunder go ahead but to be honest I see no chance for this blog in its current form surviving this year if you suffer from burnout even if you get ‘donations’ rolling.

  31. I’ve appreciated FTR since you started. Never posted on your site. Anyone who puts in time for anything that other people find reward in is entitled to be compensated, by goods or by currency, if they wish to be. I for one think you are – your product is excellent, informative, entertaining and usually ‘right’.

    So to you, I donate AUD$10.00

    It ‘aint huge, but its still a tenner. I won’t miss it too much and I’m sure that the majority of people who read your site and gain from it would not miss ten bucks in their local currency too much either. C’mon you lot, be decent, do the right thing, reach into your pocket and pull out a measly tenner.

    Thank you for your site, on behalf of the SEA community.

    Tanzer

    • This blog is the best source of information abut WoT in English (or maybe the best overall, I don’t know), good job SS ! I understand it’s a big effort to you keeping this alive, I hope you can find another ads provider, also it’s really a small effort (for those who have a job, etc.) to help the blog by a small donation like I did.

    • Well said Tanzer. And I’ll match your tenner.

      Hey SS; I’ve posted a link to this on our clan forum. Regardless of what happens mate, you’ve put a lot of effort into putting this out. Ta muchly.

      • Good job all, threw in my own “tenner” on top of it. I read this on a mobile device using Pulse, so I “unfortunately” never see ads anyway and therefor am a freeloader. Hope this makes up for it!

        Wish this site would continue but sometimes life is life, SS hope all works out. This blog isn’t worth sacrificing some things in life, we’ll cry but understand…

  32. Is there no way WG themselves would support you, there’s pretty much no communication aside from the ASAP videos for EU and NA. Surely employing you part time is better than making a new office somewhere!

    • SS bucked the system way too much for WG to consider supporting him and I suspect he doesn’t want their help anyway. I respect him for that.

  33. I appreciate all the work you’ve put into this site and hope you will continue to keep it up. I’ve made a donation regardless of FTR living on or not, hope everything works out for you :)

  35. Just contributed !

    Hope this will help.

    IMO, this blog **MUST** live !! Good Articles with interresting contributors, fresh news (even if they “butt-hurting” some people :-) )…..

    Friendly yours.

    • Human being? Bro Google is fucking skynet, good luck with that.

      SS , love the site its a must read for condensing any meaningful WoTs news, not to mention a reliable source of accurate Russian translations.

      Thanks for your hard work and I hope you find a way to continue the site. I’LL send you a few bucks later today.

  39. I’ll donate when I’m on my home computer; how much money do you need to keep you going until the end of the year?

    • He said about 450ish Euro a month so I dropped him a fiver. Donate more if you’re feeling generous.

  40. just made a small donation for the good work you have done. i hope for the best for this blog.

  42. well damn. this was one of the things that got me back into WOT’s, there was someone willing to keep the non-RU servers up to date. sorry to hear you’re leaving silent

    :(

  43. Lolwhat SS.

    Yesterday you sad that: ” I am like 90 percent sure I will quit. I was getting tired of this anyway and Adsense was a huge pain in the ass to setup and the hosting ain’t cheap either.”

    Proof: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=381689651963452&id=283928441739574&comment_id=1907081&offset=0&total_comments=42
    And a picture, if you would delete that post: http://oi42.tinypic.com/14xpa0z.jpg

    And today you say that: “I liked doing FTR, I still do and I presume I will.”

    This stinks like rotten fish.

    • Yes I did, that was the first reaction on the shutdown, like “aaaaand we’re fucked”, combined with the aforementioned personal stuff (we have a saying “čert sere na jednu hromadu” – loosely translated it’s “when stuff goes wrong, all the stuff goes wrong at once”). My opinion on the situation developed.

    • Because no one ever had a bad day and then lashed out on the internet, amirite guise? If he was serious he would have shut it down on the same day.

  44. Silent …….. there always is other way, in time. You are quit hot in mind, but still no work can’t survive without any donation’s our salary. Speaking for my self at work i always read all articles on FTR. You made your and ours days full of new history, tanks, war, and humanity. Lithuanian WOT gamers support your real job an understanding what is white and black just stay cool-head. Best regards.

  45. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments expressed by Tanzer above….

    Come on guys – SS has continued to do a stellar job, and I hope he continues in some shape or form. Like many I am guilty in probably not donating regularly for such a good site and content. And now we all may be suffering for it.

    As a member of COAF on the Asia server, and as a regular reader of FTR, I implore everyone to get behind SS and help him out – just like I did today… just 5-10 bucks will make a difference from all of us!

    In any case thanks SS!

    Regards

    Duckzor

  47. I think the perfect solution would be to someone else knowing russian to take over to let SS have a life, just QA would fine. I think most of us reading FTR for them, also, there are other people who write here articles about other things, so “New SS” won’t need to make them. The obvious problem, finding someone with will and competent.
    Anyway it’s sad that something that should take cared by WG’s community managers is on player’s blog shoulders.

  49. Shutdown this moar like someone stabbing me from behind and want too roar “Will you come back?”. Btw thanks for everything it will write as “Legendary item”. I appreciate all about you SS 07.

  51. That is really sad, FTR is indeed THE biggest and best non-russian news souse out there.

    I suppose that we cannot somehow put pressure on Google (Heh, yeah..) or something, but we can always try a petition or contact an actual PERSON somewhere along the path to automatic account blocking.

  54. The problem is, paypal is not an option for many of us who would like to contribute in some way. I wonder if there is any sensible alternative. How about creating a shop with FTR contributor t-shirts or something like that? I know these shops charge a lot on their transactions, but perhaps it is a way of direct funding for further FTR content?

    • For whom PayPal is not an option? Also in terms of t-shirts and shit like that it has to be very overpriced for an author to get something, as the stores do take their part.
      A solution would be i.e. something virtual (a photo of a donkey) sold on Ebay or somwhere else (Allegro.pl :-)) so that people could pay with i.e. payment cards, or their national trnsfers.

  57. going to donate once i get home.
    to all the haters. wikipedia does this every year as well to make sure they can continue. also silentstalker has kept his promisses afaik since the beginning and the content he provided has grown a lot since his beginnings. so if now he hints he might want to raise it up to the next level i believe him. up to you to decide if you folow him aswel.

  58. ” it was really different, from 250 to 400 Euro. Considering the amount of time I spent working on FTR every day, I don’t think it’s that much :)”

    You’re a goddamn greedy Jew, SS.

    • 3 hours a day, 5 days a week (I’m not even counting the weekend posts we sometimes get) = 60 hours. @ E400 (the higher limit), that’s less than 7 euro per hour.

      Yup, he’s making a fu<king fortune

        • But 7€ per hour is an AMAZING pay, as long as you’re outside of filthy rich Western countries. 400€ per month is enough to make a living in Eastern Europe.

      • Don’t forget the income tax he owes etc.

        Also I can’t believe all the people here claiming he should do it for free and not ask for money. I bet you guys don’t even help out someone without asking for a payment so please could you get of your high horse for once in your life. Geez.

    • I always thought you’re a haughty smartass but I was wrong.

      You’re a haughty DUMBASS.

  59. Bye bye and buy some breath for cz pol ger community, only for this shit we havnt general news in ENG and WG Eu doing nothink becouse of multi dumb pol/ger/cz/sk/other shits multi pulti cultures of retards languages multi core dubper super rubish trash. So we have shit and no info/news, but happy siema bots, hitlers fagots, and slavian shits.

        • Just so you don’t make a fool out of you again: It is called “Multi Kulti”. Multi Pulti seems to be a Russian website about a bear and an owl that looks like Stalin. Happy to help! :)

          • Lol idiot Pulti is nonsles world its doesnt exist lol, again Eu morons like you find somethink where none exsist LOL. Like Eu WG they CANT put all stuff in ENG becouse some siema or german bots cant read it, and they have no time to translate for multi pulti smulti (again ussles letter combination lol) playrbase, so they say gtfo we dont do it LOL. Find BIG problem where there is no problem at all is so european dream team shit. (again its simple random words generation basicaly its sarcasm for multilanguage problems)

            • Oh no! I fell for your little in-joke I had no chance of understanding. I know this feeling from the time I was 12 years old. You are probably giggling like a little child now. But thanks for the explanation! :)

  61. Donated – and don’t listen to the haters who call you greedy.

    Everyone who is old enough to have a job knows that the little free time you have left every day is a precious commodity and very well worth some kind of compensation from the community you do your service for.

    If you think that running a successful website and being some kind of “online celebrity” is itself enough payment for all the hours invested, you either lead a very sad life or are a kid with too much free time.

  62. That’s Google for you… Everything is dandy up to the point where some issues arise (does not matter if this is AdSense, or “free” Gmail), and then you are left alone. No, not alone but in an endless maze of automated replies, without a chance to speak with a living person…

    • And as for the haters… Kids, you have to understand one thing. SS made a commitment. He’s running a website far more influencial (and probably popular) than the official portal. He created a place where we can highlight the Wargaming incompetence, and douchbaggery. Also, he is REGULARY publishing here i.e. Q&A _translated_ from Russian. Yes, other people send him stuff too, but that’s the EDITOR job to select what to publish, do own research, correct an author etc. I don’t really believe he’s publishing all the junk he’s getting. Add to that IMHO quite a lot of mail, chcecking the forums too etc. and it becomes very time consuming. Time, that could be spent otherwise.
      And if you think it’s all about the money… Don’t you think he could have made a deal with WG under a table? Sure he could. But he won’t.

      • We need to speed up development of AI that can interact like humans!!!!! Hurry!!!!!! So no more automated response from support.

  63. “Edrard logged once or twice on FTR google account to set up the banners for example, because I am hopeless with IT.”

    Huge mistake, Google is allergic to suspicious logins. He should have logged in from your computer with remote access. Remember this if you manage to get your account back or if you will use any other similar services.

    As for the money deal, I make mods for games (not for WoT) and they are very popular. It takes extensive knowledge in programming to make them and it also takes up a lot of time. Some people think that a donate button is equal to selling your soul and you should do everything for free, but they are just egoistic pricks who have probably done nothing for free. Ever.
    Ignore morons like them or even delete their comments. This blog has been up for a year for absolutely free for the masses and they should be happy that they got anything at all. Without your work, they would have got NOTHING.

    Consider this before you flame SS for wanting money. Skip the bullshit that “you should do it out of passion” or “you should do it for our thanks”, because honestly your thanks and gratitude doesn’t worth shit compared to the work that he is putting in this blog. I doubt that most of you haters are running similar projects for free, projects that take a lot of time and knowledge so look at your own work before you judge his.

  64. How terrible…
    We still have forum.worldoftanks.ru :P say gg and thanks to idiots CZ/GER/POL who need ALL stuf to be translated for them too

    • How very unfortunate that some people need translations from languages they don’t speak themselves – those idiots! I envy your genius level language skills, never needing a translation for anything …

      • Yeah – english is such a hard language to learn, it even beats klingon in that regard and is forced on on you from ~5th grade at least in germnay … facepalm

      • yeah sorry one of my three languages isnt russian…not just gonna learn it so I can read the russian forums

  65. I just donated a little from my little income :) Hope you are up and running for this year.

  68. OMFG ! , this site was the only one that i visited every day before opening another tab in mozzila :( , hope you will continue the great job :((

  69. I would love to help you, but I’m just a student that earns no money and not really hav money on my own, so good luck with everything and I hope others will be more generous :D

  70. Die FTR die… :D let revolution and shit storm begins, enought to do EU WG job, or LEARN RU buahahaha

          • Ye ok Eu dumb “capitals” morons you have more problems with gays rights rainbows shit, “so called humans” rights, but you suck now for luck of information, becouse retards POL/GER/ZC/SK and other shit insted of use SINGLE ENG for all kinds of news and stuff, you have shit NONE in diferent (“so right” and “all equal”, maybe demand seperate section for gays and lesbians) languages LOL. NOw EAT SHIT i still track all news in RU buahahaha .

            • Problems with gay rights? Uh, could you please elaborate, because I don’t know what you are talking about. It’s certainly not causing any problems for me personally, nor anyone I know.

              Btw, are you suggesting that we sould trade enforced human rights (“so called”, heh) for more information about World of Tanks? Thats pretty bold thinking!

              I am happy that I work with a few Russians who do not share your jingoistic, narrow minded and brainwashed way of thinking. Those guys are actually laughing their asses off right now. :)

  71. Donated few euros and going to give more after i got more money to spend.
    Visiting this site daily and it would be loss if it get shutdown…

  72. BTW i heared that in super test are 2nd France heavies line, another line of mediums (didnt say what country), and 3th germans tds line in development now :P

  73. Your blog is too good and informative to be shut down. It felt so much better to know the future Wot stuff, than having WG EU post it a day before release.. You know, I don’t have a bank account, so I was quite sad that I wouldn’t be able to help you out, but… there is like $2.9 on a paid-to-click account, that i used a long time ago. If there is something I would spend it on, that would be the case of saving FTR – if possible.
    I know it’s not that much, but every cent can be helpful. :)

  76. Do whatever neccessary but don’t quit. Don’t even think about that (or possibly the donkey will rape you, without warning, without lube).

  77. Wow, I almost never write here, although I read here every morning (mostly from my phone, using feedly ).
    These are very sad news, I hope that u will find a way around this :(

  79. Good luck Silentstalker. Maybe it just turn out in to the good site with G AdSense, you just need to contact them all the way every day and one day you will get a real person with some brain activity and maybe you can explain what happens.

    Otherwise there are many more banner factorys ;)

    Keep up the good work and get my donation!

  80. Isnt there some kind of subrscription option? Like Twitch has? A montly subscription of 5 USD for example. Iam sure with this huge audience you could easily get like 1000 monthly income only from that.

  82. SS why not consider turning your blog into a Youtube channel?

    With the amount of people that visit this site you could monetize the videos on Youtube and earn even more than you were getting here. Not only that but you wouldn’t need as much time to get things out because you wouldn’t need to type it all, you could just speak about the cool things you have found out.

    It’s a win win! You make more money and have more time for real life things!

    Think about it! :D

    • Yeah, but that means he’d probably have to spend more time recording, editing and uploading the videos. And people will probably get impatient and stop watching his videos

      So in theory it will take more time than he spends now writing on the blog, and he won’t have time for real life die to the impatience of some readers

  83. Whatever your decision thank you for the time you put into this site SS. You’re a savior for the WoT EU community since WG doesn’t give two sh*ts about its player base. If anything you could go back to your old blog but cut on articles. Just do the Q&A and other news, anything which doesn’t put pressure on your free time. But anyway, I’d donate money to you to keep this going rather than giving anything to fcking WG.

  86. How about a contest for the web-design?
    I think there are a lot of readers who are able to create a nice design for the blog.

  87. Could possibly get a dedicated server with unlimited bandwidth for under 50euros per month easily, Yes it’s not a massive server but it could handle this blog easy enough

  88. Whoa great news! Upon hearing about this we have decided to throw a little party in the EU office. Really superb stuff, I see so many happy faces around, everybody seems to be really enjoying the day! Google keep going on.

    Now let’s see how the other email to the PayPal office about suspending one particular account turns out… Ah, I guess one can’t expect to hit a bulls eye twice a week, or could one? :-)

    • Kurva Silentstalker, always thinking so little of our hard work. Imagine we even proofread our announcements once or twice every year! That’s what you get!

      Everybody, have some free knedlík and pivo to celebrate this joyous occasion.

  89. I just donated 10e. Just to thank you for your past work. No obligation to continue for that, but I surely continue reading if you continue creating content. Only thing I don’t miss is stuff like that donkey-contest. Luckily it’s rare.

  90. When i read a few of the posts here i could puke but hey its like in WoT, the huger the playerbase gets the more fucktards you have in the crowd.

    I can only imagine how much time Frank really invests into this project and therefor he deserves a little extra income from it, if anyone has a problem with that he shouldnt come here or create his own blog of similar quality.

    Also Frank let me say i envvy you for that thick skin of yours, i would have already closed this thing for good after the first few comments.

    So long story short im in with 10Eur and hope it helps a bit and i think its only fair seeing how often i read your blog and find usefull info there.

    One thing, if you change the site i would consider a comment system with registration otherwise you get the same mumbo jumbo as you have now.

  91. Have faith bro. This has got to be the third most used site for me after Facebook and YouTube, things related to WoT are interesting, but I would read this blog even if I wouldn’t play WoT because your and your other writers’ great historical articles. Please don’t stop!

  92. Must be WG’s and donkey’s doing again. Send in the Lorraine’s!!!!!!!!!

    Don’t ever give up SS i been called a evil person for monetizing my stuff before so don’t let those people comments get you down.

    Cheers,
    Anon

  96. Just out of curiosity, how much bandwidth do you use? Becuase I have some dedicated servers I’m not doing much with (one of which has 3TB bandwidth available), and I’d gladly offer free hosting. :) Let me know!

  98. For all those fu<ktards that are complaining that SS is asking for support for all the hours he puts into this ..
    I have about ten open Jobs here in my Company, please come apply – you will be allowed to work 40 hours a week for absolutely no pay and no benefits, i get to yell at you from time to time, though. That sounds quite attractive, doesnt it?

    I am sick of all these ppl wanting everything for free and start complaining as soon as someone wants to receive some sort of reimbursement for his time .. it is SS' time and effort and he can choose how to spend it. He can decide if he wants to do this Project for free, for donations, subscriptions or finance it through donkeysmuggling proceeds. And if he decides that he wants to earn Money from this, then ppl can pay money ot not, but it is totally his right to do so ..
    So you can either be happy that there is FTR and you can read it for free for as long as it is or please just leave, but stop living in your stupid communist world and making idiotic posts..
    ty

    • Because most ftr readers are kids, who never worked for money, they don’t know how much effort someone needs to make to earn even some pocket change.

  99. Donated 10 Euro, just to say Thank You for the great work in the past. I hope You will continue FTR!

    • +1.

      I prefer to spend my money on reading this blog other than some company that don’t care about their community much

  103. Im sure that the crap thats happening in your life is only the beginning..Enjoy fully your miserable life..and dont forget :
    Karma is the bitch,SS!

      • That is exactly what i am talking about.. The weel of karma is getting to get him..For all he has done.
        SS,you know you can not survive in the real life,so you better being a dramaQueen begging for money. You are being so much ridiculous.
        All the bad to you.

  104. Need to wait till I Get paid at the end of the month, then I can send over monies. Someone needs to keep these useless WG bar-stewards in line!

    Also, if I could help out at all, doing proof reads, creating content, any site admin, etc. I’d be more than happy to help out, gratis.

  105. Damn SS you really gave us a scare haha. If you had no intention of closing it down after all why write 8-10 paragraphs about it and then turn it all around in one single phrase. You’re a lunatic :P

  107. If you told us an amount to keep the site open I’m sure a few people would help you out.

    • He did tell you.. he needs 2 months worth. A month is somewhere between 250 and 400. So 800 should be sufficient.

  108. Sorry for non-english post, but it’s faster to wrote in Czech.

    Zkoušel jsi napsat na support k té reklamní službě a pokusit se to rozumně vysvětlit?
    Můžeš jim třeba říci, že jen používáš jeho subdoménu a to je to jediný co máte společného.

    Možná tě jen zablokoval nějaký bot, který jim to kontroluje. Měla by tam být možnost zpětně to prověřit “lidským” pohledem.

  110. I feel sad. Your work on FTR was(and is) terrific and feel that we all loose on FTR´s shutdown. i take you as a Jhon Snodew, you know, showing what WG fails and tries to hide, and everything else that matters regarding WoT. I dont have a PayPal account, but i´lll figure it out to create one and help you by donating something. I mean something, because i live in brazil and here everything cost a lot extra and since i dont know how this donation thing works, i´ll see how i would contribute to help u to carry on.

    Oberth, NA server.

    • i´m sorry for my BAD english, i learned it on my own so i know some things i say may not make sence, i am sorry.

  113. I know this may sound weird at first but still – have you considered working for WG? I know your feelings toward them, but they are aware how unpopular they are and WG Minsk pobably too, so it may be a win-win solution for everybody; you would get steady income and all the benefits of full time job for what you already do, while you already got huge basis of WG players who appreciate your work, so hiring you would be nice step forward for WGEU and WG as whole. Please consider it, applying for job shouldnt take too much time and effort while if I you both agree, it may be nice :) doing what you loveand getting paid for that is priceless

  114. I don’t feel comfortable donating if there are no promises, so all I can give are words. Thanks for the hard work, FTR has been really helpful for me in the past couple of months I’ve been using it. I wish you luck in your future endevours be them official or personal.

  115. Damnit SS, im sorry to hear about the ad overlords being all donkey on you, i hope its sorted out and you manage to recover properly, and even bigger

    and im even more sorry for you, after reading some really, really stupid replies to this topic, i hope that they dont influence you to think that we all are like these d-bags…. really.. poor sods..

    Im sure a lot of NA players support you, since you re pretty much our only source of reliable info, share pretty much our dislike for WG fails,a nd above all, can take a joke or two without incurring in some mindless butthurt mod going all banhammer on us.

    Im sure Daigensui would concur on this as well

    *wil donate*

  116. Its a pity man. This gig you run makes you special among others. Why close it to go back being “regular joe” again? Find ways for partnership, sponsorship, finance. I mean I am sure you got huge visitors volume from gaming community & industry each day/month….you have all the glory and want to throw it away because of an unfortunate event. I’d say to dont give up!
    For those comparing regular daily work to running FTR, its a bad comparison because running FTR makes you someone special who interest large volume of people, while there is nothing special in regular working people to interest large masses of people.
    Keep it going man and look for solutions!

  117. Oh man, im not even gonna to read these comments, don’t wanna rustle my jimmies. It’s sad to see how stupid/careless many people here are, they just think SS should work hours everyday, for nothing. Just ask yourself, would You work at least five hours a day, reading sources and writing a blog, for nothing. As SS said, he gets 250-400e per month for the ads, right? Or he used to get. If he works even 3 hours a day making this blog, that makes 90 hours a month, and a usual work day being about 8 hours, he’d get 250-400e for 11 days of going work. Doesn’t sound like much, does it?

    • agree… but before I donate I want a commitment that he will continue as he said he may just quit anyway?

  119. Oh, what a long dramatic post. I don’t know how it will sound like but long story short.

    Man, if u like it – go for it.
    If not – screw it.

    It’s really simple and there’s no need for long dramatic posts. If you feel need for those long dramatic posts (OH MY GOD!) then I guess you are struggling to shut it down because you like this stuff despite troubles it produces.

    Get a break if you feel tired. Get a help if you feel overwhelmed.
    Go for free server if you don’t have money to maitain a paid one.
    Not a blogspot, there are bunch of really nice free web hosts with tons of free space, sqls and other stuff. There’s just one condtition – no commercial use for hosted site. So there’s no use if you want to earn money from the site.
    That shouldn’t be a problem in both cases if you can get help, because let’s be honest – you can’t run site like this alone for ever.
    In my experience moneyz produces problems so I would look for some volunteers and go for good free hosting.
    I know that at some point you want some reward for you hard work (MONEYZ, hue) especially if you are dedicated to what you are doing but that should come after establishing a base with people who are willing to help you. Before it comes you need some easy solution – either good free hosting or different ads program/partnership (or whatever it calls). You need help in both cases anyway. In my opinion free hosting (so you don’t have to freak out about how you will pay for running a hosting service) will produce less pressure on you and your life but that’s just my opinion. You can go for whatever you like.

  120. I love this blog, and i will donate of course! Rock on SS. This will be hopefully sussesfull, maybe you can connect you to Quickybaby and he can do some Advertisement ;)

    I belive that you will do it. And If not, THX 4 all your work!

    Gloindil

  121. I really like this blog, but in my opinion, if you feel relief, you spend too much time on it. What i would thus suggest, can’t you just reduce the time again, to maybe 2 hours per day? Just post less articles/concentrate on the important stuff. Maybe you find other readers who can further help with articles and/or infos so you don’t have to do so much work.

    Same for the design: Don’t hire somebody, maybe just ask the community if somebody got a good design idea nd makes a scratch, or make a contest or something like this.

    I guess you startetd this as a hobby, so it should keep being fun and you shouldn’t have to make too many compromies for it.

  122. I’ve just donated. In truth, it was long overdue. This site is great and has long been my second stop every morning (after youtube). I hope you are able to continue this work, and if not, it’s been an awesome ride while it lasted.

  123. Man, that sucks to hear about, SS. Whatever happens in the near future for ya, I hope it’s something that you want to do, and no pressure behind you to do it.

  124. then perhaps u should not waste time on doing the gimmicky blogs like ur opinion on WT, WG fails, wot retards and reviews. Just stick to ur niche of providing info and rumors.

  125. If this blog affects yourife really negatively I think it’s not a good idea to continue. Irl come way before internet

  127. I think there will be a good solution for this site.
    Just dont give up, you have a lot of support, and this site is important to many ppl that play WoT.

    You are THE MAIN SOURCE OF WOT-INFORMATION ON THE WEB, dont let anyone bullshit-talk about this.
    If you quit, there is no site that can give us the same.
    You are the investigation journalist, that is the pain in WGs ass.
    And thats good for the game.

    So, i will donate 20€ this week, and i hope enough ppl do this, and give you something back,
    to let you continiue your work.
    Cause, its work, and there has to be an energy flow, so you feel good about what you do, and see it gives you something back.

    I think its best to take an alternative to adsence. I dont think it has a monopol on the market.

    Take your time before you make the final decision.

  129. Now how am i going to goof off for an hour at work lol jk maybe. But really ss great blog if it does shutdown it will be saddening to many. Anywho back to work haha

  130. SS wrote on Facebook: “So I just back and holy shit, I have like 250 new e-mails and none of it spam, everything is support. I don’t know what to say, I did not expect it nearly as much support. Please everyone who sent me a message, be patient for my reply, but from the way things are looking now, FTR will almost certainly go on, with the improvements I posted about today.”

    For me it looks like you got now the money for your ideas and everything is fine now. I got the feeling you just wrote this to get the money as soon as possible. I dont like the way you did this today!

    • Then don’t fucking support him and read his blog. It’s that simple. People will choose to believe what they think is worth believing in.

  133. Go home SS, you’re drunk. Now seriously, i would be very sad if you shut down the FTR :(

  136. Keep up the good job, SS. Dont’ listen to troll wanabees. Go all out to keep this blog online.

  137. FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK

    DAMMIT.

    • After reading, I can wish you a successful resolve of ur personal issues, and a best possible outcome for you.

      Regarding Google – fckin cnts.

      Thanks again very much for spending time and resources into Q&A , FTR blog and this site. If you decide after all to wrap it up, I wish u all the best in future, and drop by sometimes to the channel, u know which one…

  138. keep up the good work SS. this is the only site to get WoT news.
    would be so sad to see it shut down – since i started reading FTR i started playing more WoT :)

  140. I like this site not just for the lulz of reading about portal fails, shoddy WG programming and the name and shame stuff. I like this site not just because it has detailed information on upcoming tanks, trees and patches. I like this site not just because it has historical information on some tanks.

    I love this site because it has all of those. I love this site because you put a lot of effort into it, and it shows quite clearly. Whatever happens, I’ll be there to read about tanks.

  141. Well I wish you luck SS hopefully FTR will be reborn from its ashes and have you ever though of doing the YouTube thing I would subscribe.

  142. OK, this sucks. I probably can’t help you. But I will hope this website survives, because I like it very much and I have since the beginning.

  143. nobody cares about your life’s story and nobody cares that you’re not getting ENOUGH money (because you ARE)

    stop being such a little greedy bitch

  145. Just donated. Keep it going. Good WOT news, but better historical stuff. Saves me $100′s of dollars in books on armor.

  146. Donated.

    Even if you end up closing, I’ll have no regrets, I have enjoyed your contents for months, it was the less I could do.

    Hope you keep on with the blog, and thanks for all your efforts.

  147. I hope you find a way to keep this blog working. I like the way you write about different topics, and without criticism from players WG wouldn’t get better (It might would, but in a slower pace). I don’t think that you have blackmailed the public, I think you are only being honest about your plans. Don’t have money do donate thou, but I will be very sad to see the end of this blog. Best regards.

  148. It’s been a pleasure reading your blog.
    Fan works should be fun. If it’s not fun, something’s wrong.
    Only practical way you could make it a paid job I think is if Minsk hires you. But then, you can’t post WG fails, not fun

  149. I donated. This site is just great, not just as a gaming site, but also for learning about history. I hope that enough money comes in for you to consider keeping up the great work you do!

  150. most people wont understand how business-models and companies work. (in my eyes this blog is like your own company)
    no matter how much you love doing it, you only do it for some time, and when you feel like it. you have been running this blog and posting everyday for so many moons (i come here everyday). i understand that feeling when you are away and can’t make a post at which time this will start to look like a burden than a hobby. money pays and makes it worth your time

    i really hope that you keep running this blog. but i would never want you to do it for free. so whatever your decision be, i wana say THANK YOU for all your efforts and work that you have done.

    hope you get time/chance to read this.
    A fan
    HAVO

  151. I have been reading FTR for 11 months now, so I decided to donate 11€.
    What ever you are going to do, I wish you all the best.

  152. This is one of the few sites I read almost daily along with the main WoT page. Your efforts give so much insight into the game, and definitely contributes to the wonderful community of WoT. I donated what I could afford, so please keep going! All the FTR fans would hate to see you go.

    Best of luck with everything!

  153. Hey SS,

    First off, thank you very, very much for all the work you put into this, and I’m glad it made you some money in the process (probably not as much as the work you put into it, but still).

    Now the serious talk. Let’s face it, WoT is not going to still around forever. It’s a sinking ship as we speak. The deck’s stacked against the game at this point and WG isn’t helping the case one bit, in fact, they’re one of the major reasons for it’s decline. WoWP is DOA, this is because WG made a completely inferior product unfortunately, it won’t have nearly the same size of dedicated user base, and WG can’t even bribe people to play the game for free gold in a shared account. Between WoT and WoWP, it doesn’t bode well for WoWS to boot. Could it be something great? Possibly. But going by the track record of WG, you have to go with their current performance which is in free-fall. WG also made another poor decision of supporting the Xbox 360… right when the machine has become irrelevant, and all support will be gone in a year at most due to the next gen consoles.

    Now, if you were to tie in War Thunder you may be in a better position as this game at least has some potential. People are excited for their tanks segment which will definitely steal away a chunk of WoT’s user base. Their Air segment is superior to WoWP, and the reason WoWP is DOA. WT’s tanks segment will be out within a month, so there’s your hype train. Not to mention that War Thunder will be released on the Playstation 4, not behind a pay wall, and to be honest, there really isn’t many other games there for players to choose from at launch and into 2014, so there will be many console gamers who will pick up and play WT. Then of course, they have their Navy aspect in the wings too.

    TLDR: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, especially one made by WG. Branch out if you wish to continue down this path. I wouldn’t say just for WG and Gaijin products either… cover any WW2-esque products to cover this niche completely.

    If you retire from this, it’ll be a shame for WG’s user base outside of RU. WG’s employees are incredibly incompetent at delivering news, as we all know. WGNA and WGEU maybe the most incompetent employees I have ever seen in gaming to be honest, and no offense, but when a blogger humiliates main company personnel and provides far more valuable content/information, there is a massive issue at hand…

    Anyways, thanks again, and good luck with whatever you would choose to do.

  155. I really appreciate the work you do on FTR, its the ONLY reliable source of WOT info in North America! WGNA is pathetic……….
    I’m afraid I can’t afford to donate money, I wish I could but at the moment its just not possible.
    I sincerely hope you can keep FTR up and running, the entire WOT community benefits from it.

  156. “A king has his reign, and then he dies. It’s inevitable. That is natural order of things.”

  157. I couldn’t be bothered to read all the replies here (was at 275!) but my opinion on this is that FTR is my go to source for WoT. I read it regularly now that I found it and enjoy all the insight it has into WoT. The historical side is an added bonus IMO. I feel that the amount of information I gain from FTR is worth a small donation to say thanks and in hopes of seeing FTR get back on it’s feet in the near future. Good luck SS.

  158. I donated, because I think your site is awesome. But in case you simply don’t find the time to continue with full scope, at least the translated developer answers would be nice to have.

    In case you want to increase the scope, please start with WoWP.

  159. guess i choose to drop off a little somthing anyway, despite beeing a poor ass student i feel getting more FTR is a shitton of value for the money. if you decide to quit…well….consider it a smal payment for the awsome articles. 20 euros…enjoy!

  160. Cant you make new site or new account? On Yiutube you can start again from zero so why not?

  161. Flattr please.
    I spend ~100€ / month on different sites/blogs that way which pretty much is as much as I used to pay for paintball/rc-model/IT magazines in the pre-blog era.

    I´d love to include you in that circle.
    :-)

  162. SS can you keep this post as fist post on the frontpage?
    All the articles above it down scales the importance of this post.

  163. 15 € zo Slovenska. Ziadna almuzna, ale VDAK za dobru pracu. Nech sa i nadalej dari. Viem, co Teba stoji tento blog… sam robim pre hracov WoT videa na YT bez akejkolvek odmeny (ani EURO ;-)). Ak chces pozriet, hladaj WOTmaniaXXL na YT. Som dobry hrac aj vdaka informaciam, ktore dolujes po nete… a tiez vedomosti odovzdavam dalej…. Dakujem.

  164. SS, I want to thank you for all the effort you put into this blog. I think many people will be happy even if you scale your work back to only translating the Q/A (as most of the info can be eventually found elsewhere, but not the Q/A). either way, I hope things work out for you.

  165. Damm, i liked the google addon , they offer me “boiler tanks” and vps hosting all the time lol. Gona miss those.

    On the other news… how much we need to reach the 400 couta?

  166. Hey SS, i do hope you’re not gonna give up the blog! i read everything with great pleasure and im sure everyone else does too. its a shame that im short on money myself, or else i wouldve helped with a donation.

    Good luck and i hope all goes well with you personally ;)

    ~SkarT3

    • weird. the only ones I ran into are the bars at the top and bottom of the page. it is probably counting the google analytics tracking stuff too (which I don’t like)

  169. if I was rich I would give you all the money you need I love this blog and the people who do it good luck!

  171. I donated 5Eu. You do a great job. Earlier today on the US forums, someone crossposted this. I urged people there, that if they like what you’re doing…to put up or shut up.

    redwing6 [soldier, NBG on NA server]

  172. i wanted to donate 10e, but CC expired, need ~1month to replace. sorry.
    damn paypal site only accept US banks for account withdrawals

  174. You do a great job Sir Silent Stalker, keep it up please.

    If anybody just spend 50 cents or 1 Euro, we still can enjoy this nice blog in the future.

    WG should pay u, not this WG guys, who dont make anything. All infos about wot, i get here. For what does WG have employees? Oh i forget -to fuck up specials, rig contests and all other shit.

  175. I forget to add.
    5 Euro to FTR, here we go. maybe i will pay more tomorrow.

    i really really like this blog, most of the time im a silent reader, but i enjoy this site everytime before i went to sleep. :)

  176. SS, why not just use the adsense competitors? I read a article about Amazons new launch of a direct competitor and TBH they have just as large of infrastructure and even host way more things than Google.

    Why does it have to be Adsense or nothing?

    I think you should do a similiar thing like Riverini did from Evenews24.com at first it was a hobby, but he got heavy traffic same as you and the mittani diversified into MWO, WOT/Other WG, Planetside and many many more.

    Seems to me there is amassive niche in these news sites to give us WOT players info on our secondary games.

    People like having a newsite that is primarily there “1st Game” [WOT in this case] and it serving news about there 2nd or 3rd choice of games they play when they are bored. WOT has unique diversity as well, and peoples 2nd favorite games are anywhere from Eve [many started out as our main game, a lot from GoonSwarm and me from PL and NCDOT] which is where the cutthroat attitude of WOT is mainly from I find esp since Eve is massive in Rus as well. Then it gets games like LOL that is straight up Nerdom :) and others like FPS games like Mech Warrior and Planetside and Eve`s Dust514, then back to very mainstream games like Arma and Day-z that are semi FPS but still deeper games.

    Point is players like getting there news about other games from a similar gamer who compares things to WOT. We all speak a similar language by learning these games in depth so it makes it easy to review new games and explain new patches.

    Lastly there is no shortage at all of players who are longwinded and would love to get a shot at writing articles about each of there games very much like Ensign and others but for LOL or Eve or MWO etc etc.

    So, I have seen it be a very successful business model and for NA anyways I can say FTR is basically the official breaking news site that most serious players come to outside the forums.

    Like I said this site is almost exactly how Evenews24 started and that now has started River`s 15 paid employee company, and it also gives him resources to buy important stories from sources who may not have done so.

    So I would think about how far you want to take this, because I think we are ready to support you in whatever you decide, whether it be donations, tons of add revenue that becomes your fulltime job and or help with maintaining admins and engineers for the site and basically whatever you decide.

    Here is a good top 5 adsense competitor. My brother works for Google and im going to ask him to find out the exact way you can make sure to get a real person to review your case.

    Good luck SS hope you remain comfortable :)

  178. While I truly appreciate the effort that you have put in, and would be delighted if FTR didn’t have to shut down, do what you believe is right. Your life is important too. If you’re going to continue with FTR, don’t let it get in the way of your personal life. Hang out with friends, maybe even get some of them to help. In any case, I leave the decision to you.

  180. FTR is more than a blog to me its like watching sportsnet before and after my favourite teams play. You have my vote and my donation bud.

    Much respect from Ontario, Canada.