FTR Shutdown – Aftermath

Hello everyone,

I feel I should write something intelligent, deep and touching, so you can have a good laugh and joke about feel trips, but… somehow words don’t come to me.

When I wrote the “shutdown” post in the morning, I was in gloomy mood and what I expected in response was some trolling, some “thank you’s” and maybe like 50 bucks donhated in total from the most loyal readers. I wasn’t sure what to do next (that’s why it looked like I change my decision from day to day). Maybe that was also because I didn’t realize until today the real significance of the statistics, the meaning of the fact this site has tens of thousands of readers. When you look at it, it’s just a number – at least it was for me, until today.

Well, long story short, in a matter of hours, you guys donated over 2500 Euro. Hell, you made my Paypal account shut down, Paypal now thinks I am some kind of drug lord or something :) Needless to say, this is enough to run for months without ads – and that’s exactly what will happen now. I am impressed beyond words. There have been more than 400 separate donations and some crazy guys donated 100 Euro even. Before, I had a plan to thank every single person who donated, but holy hell, when I got home and viewed my e-mail account, I was like:

 

 

I think instead of some long speeches (well, posts) about how grateful I am to each an every one of you and instead of spending time making lists of everyone who donated, I will dedicate that time to bringing you even more news, more stuff, more articles, I think that’ll be more useful for everyone.

For the Record will continue and will upgrade in time.
The first thing to come will be the QA option. As I wrote a few times before, at this very moment it’s being “beta-tested” (questions have been posted, so far no answer from developers, but that’s okay, we’ll get it to work).

It’s my turn to keep the promise and worry not – I will. I am proud to have such wonderful readers. Let’s kick it into overdrive!

With kind regards
Silentstalker

PS: Too much pathos? How terrible. Seriously, I gotta do something with that type of writing.

188 thoughts on “FTR Shutdown – Aftermath

  1. Glad to hear it! Shows that there are nice people on the internet after all…

  2. Congratz mate. As I have told you in our private conversation, you are making a hell of a job. Were I not a poor, poor fucker, I’d send you something too, but… you know how this goes…

  3. “Needless to say, this is enough to run for months without ads – and that’s exactly what will happen now”
    Just put this adsense on – more money, less problems for you. I don’t think anyone will have any problems with that :) Really!

  4. This reminds of National Public Radio is America. Most of its funds comes from listeners in a few key “fund drives” per year. Maybe have a bi annual fund drive for FTR? Ask readers to donate once more in time?

    Of course maybe there are other methods of income FTR could try as well

    • NPR? Holy shit. I don’t mind a little fundraising, but the kind of begging those people do is fucking intolerable. I don’t need to see that on my favorite blog as well.

      • Well seeing as this is the main source of new in English…. Fundraising drive 1-3 times a year? Plus an attempt to get ad revenue back? Why not? Got nothing to lose and much to gain.
        .
        If the viewers spread the word in advance of the drive, and there are enough viewers, why not?

  5. Classy response. I am glad some of us were able to convince you to continue. Once I get a job again you will receive my vote of confidence too.

  6. Always happy to help and support people who put so much work and dedication into our favorite game. You deserved it and i’m looking forward to the upgrades.

  7. hallaluja but anyway don’t work yourself to death and that time if you need it to work out you personel problems

  8. Having been at work all morning and then out and about the remaining hours of the day, I read both posts and while I was disgusted by some of the naysayers, this is proof that there are more people supportive of you than we are would like to kick you into the dirt and break your teeth.

    Keep it up, I’ll be hitting the tip jar occasionally when it comes back online.

  9. Thank you for your valuable work SS! Not just best wot blog but best unofficial wot site in the internet!

    • But…. He IS our statistical drug dealer.

      When I’m bored I spam refresh this site for more news and get completely zoned out untill a new post shows up.

      I need help, don’t I?

      • I’d say it oughta be pretty hard to become a proper succesful druglord with *legal* drugs, given that it is the illegality that adds most of the mark-up the underworld lives off of.

  10. Great to hear. Much like the Community response in Australia atm for the bush fire communities, good to see the FTR community band together to help out and keep it up and running..

    Great work all,, get back to work SS!! lol

    Duck

  11. “Despite all the previous donations, it’s possible I will still shut down for personal reasons.”

    Well, ppl dont read…2.5K Euros going to waste….

    SOON!

  12. Great news.! Now, keep what you can deal with. Don’t burn out man, there will be another hiccup, there always is. Take what’s unneeded and keep up the good work with everything else!

    • Agree with this – work sustainably, that way youo can keep going.

      Glad I got in early and my donation went through.

      Also agree with comments above that you should still get some kind of adstream back up and running for regular cash inflow.

  13. Congratulations! Now you know how it feels to build something important and get rewarded for it. It’s a great feeling.

  14. Hey frank, i really like this site, and if it were to ever go down i would be very depressed. I look forward to reading the Q and A daily, i made it into a routine lol, thanks for all of your hard work. I have no problem donating to keep this site up, as i visit almost 5 times daily. (More than i visit facebook lol)

  15. BANZAI! BANZAI! BANZAI! Now I don’t have to go looking for another site for WOT info anymore.

  16. For us NA guys, your blog is pretty much our only insight into the devs’ opinions and plans outside of the heavily filtered official news. Sure we have the Chieftain, but he’s not as much of a part in the decisions. Your translations become Word of God for us, and I think a lot of us would have lost interest in the game if we were stuck in the dark without them. Thank you, SS, for all the work you put into this.

    • +1 for Asia server. This is the “only” site for us to get this kind of info. Maybe a little more on Asia server – you always forget us. :)

      Glad to see the silent [non-trolling] majority have again spoken louder with action than words and made donations.

  17. I heard it can be a pain in the ass to get the money from paypal once they shut down an account. Good luck with that.

  18. You just saved me about 10 bucks because I didn’t read FTR today until now. I would have donated.

  19. VERY AWESOME! I am so glad to know that you’re not going to have to shut down one of the BEST sources of info for not only WoT, but real-life tanks!

  20. WOOT! Great news, it would have been a severe blow to the WOT community if FTR had shut down!

    WG would have had total media control in NA and would have been able to mold players as they pleased. Eventually this would have resulted in Russian mind control over millions of people in Europe and North America.

    Thank you SS, you have saved the world* yet again.

    *that is: the World of tanks! :)

  21. No funds at the moment but when the house sale goes thru this week and the credit card isnt glowing red, myself and my two sons will make a donation. Keep up the good work.

  22. Stuff like this makes me happy. Glad to know so many are willing to contribute to something like this.

  23. Please let us know, if you have further trouble getting the money from paypal.
    And dont be too excited about it! Like others have said before: The hype arround WOT may pass. So take your time for friends, family and yourself. Find your life-work-balance, so you can enjoy this “ride” in the long term! :-)

  24. You didn’t get more than 2500 euros? Oh well… know that your site and the time you spend on it is worth many times that ammount to us readers!

  25. Congrats SS!

    May this be the first of many improvements

    PS: ban Anon already will ya? ;)

  26. So much ” I wil quite” and “cry me a river” only for ” do do donate” :D +2,5k Eur lol, bitch now you have to work hard, btw nice tactic, you got dumb Eu morons to donate very good trick. BAsicaly its very good scam, like with all these “SOS. Help Africans kids” on facebook and so on. Epic.

    • He’s telling the truth quite obviously, for instance, analyze the site and see that there’s no more advertisements? I wonder why, BECAUSE his ad-sense account WAS closed. You guys jump to conclusions too quickly, why don’t you try running a site out of your own money, to have ungrateful people like yourself criticize everything you do.

        • *shrugs* Mate, there is one major difference. When you donate money to “poor children”, you donate and that’s it. You won’t see your money again and apart from good feeling, you won’t get anything. But here, I am not “holding FTR hostage”, I AM the blog and it depends on my work. Some “nice” messages compared me to a bank robbery hostage taker, but when a hostage taker walks away, bank will work as usual, FTR won’t. It also means that it’s an investment and obligation, before, I could have stopped at any time. Now I HAVE to go on, anything else would be unfair. Can’t say I am happy about that obligation (I was happier with the ads), but that’s how it is.

          • Ignore them. Those are just some trolls who wanted FTR to shut down because the only thing that made them feel happy and superior was the ability to read WOT news directly from the Russian forum unlike us “EU morons”.

            Now that FTR continues the only thing they have left is their Gopnik lifestyle in some emotionally cold hellhole in bumfuckistan. I would be pissed too!

          • Jeah we will see what the future brings. Im used to it that you wanna quit all 2-3 months …

            Next time just write “i need money” and dont use a gun like “donate or ill quit” … but i know thats not your style.

            • What the fuck is this ‘we’? You don’t speak for everyone who visit this blog. Do Frank own you money or something? Oh yeah that’s right, he doesn’t own you a damn thing.

            • You RU server folks should put some aloe vera on it asap.

              The amount of tears and butthurt, cause of FTR still going on, is simply amazing.

    • Your tears taste really sweet, Bundle. Also thanks for keeping up the good work Silent, it is much appreciated. :)

  27. SS, always remember that the most vocal members of the community, the trolls and naysayers, are not the majority. A lot of people, like me, just enjoy reading your site everyday. We may not say much or be very active, but when push comes to shove, as you saw, we come out of the woodwork. Personally was expecting for more than 2500 euro, but if it helps run the site for half a year, that’s great.

    Also, i’m serious, keep on Paypal, you might not see a cent of that money for a good few months if you don’t.

  28. People need to stop spending to much money on stuff on the internet. 100 Euro? Jesus Christ, someone truly wants a love affair with you SS.

    If everyone just donated 5 Euro each or even 2 Euro and there was 1000 contributors it would be more than enough.

    • So you’re some kind of donation police now? If a person feels this blog is worth the 100 Euro, that’s his/her business. Not yours.

      • Don’t depend entirely on donations, sir. DO look for an ad partner who will bend to YOUR needs and those of your target audience.

      • Jeah not in the next 2 months?? Then are the 2,5k Euros gone?? Not bad! The release of the PS4 is in November ;)

        • What you fail to realize is that the majority of people who donated yesterday don’t give a flying fuck about how SS wants to spend the money. For all I care he can spend it all on weed and cheap hookers, because he delivered a great and free service for a long time already, and even if he still shuts down some time in the future, the money we spent is seen as a payment for all the previous months of work that he has done.

          Also, since the concept of spending money for something you enjoy is so alien to you, you sure as hell did not donate anything – so why do you care at all?

          • Hear, hear. If you donated now it can also be seen as a thanks for all the previous work that went into this blog. SS could pull the plug on it tomorrow, and that’s ok, because it’s his time and nerves. The money could be a nice retirement present because, let’s be honest, this blog kept us informed and entertained for many months which is practically a service people pay for if they are satisfied.

            Glad to know we could help, and if this means you will carry on with this then it’s great news. You shouldn’t feel forced into it because of the donations, from my point of view it was a thanks overdue, and not a loan for the future.

          • Because this bozo is a hater and can’t stand to see people get rewarded for their hard work.

        • Ramrod, what a fitting name, just like that rod that up in your ass. It’s plain as day that you have an ax to grind with SS. You’re not even trying to hide it. Tsk tsk. Pathetic.

  29. I hope you had some nice pizza ^.^

    Anyway, some suggestions:

    1) Do not blow too much money (if any at all) on a designer for a site rework. The blog format you have right now is fine and works nicely for a blog.
    2) Even though you can run without ads now, do not waste time. Instead, immediately look for different ad partners. You do want ads on the site, occasional fundraisers are not a reliable way and may at one point backfire hard.
    3) Do not overwork yourself :)

    • 1) Yes, that is the plan
      2) Yes, I have already begun
      3) Well, it’s an obligation and also a whip. Not sure many percieve, but since today, things are different.

      • I’d rather you don’t hire designers and buy yourself a lot of icecream instead :)
        If sites are too flashy they are annoying in an office environment especially for project managers.

  30. i will donate next month, a promise is a promise
    damn CC failed me for the last time, i get it changed these days

  31. You hear that WGEU? Frankie ain’t dead. Frankie says bring it! /TheBoondocksEdWanslerIII

  32. I don’t know if you’ll read this far, but maybe you should try something like what Penny Arcade did. They ran a kickstarter where if it reached a certain amount, then the website would run ad free for a year.

    Just a thought.

  33. Great news to hear, I can still think positively of humanity. :)

    SilentStalker, great work and really listen to Obst!

  34. SS, you deliver a great product. That deserves renumeration. I would still run some ads, because even in socialist Europe, you are allowed to turn a profit! Please continue to deliver a top flight site. Thanks for all your hard work.

  35. I bet dingishere donated nothing because he is a tight arsed loser. Then again I here the rent boy business doesn’t pay well for ugly toe rags.

    • Well, you can directly send throug flattr money to silentstlaker via his contact email.

      He will recieve a notification for every time he will get money ;) I’m gonna start to make it that way.

  36. nice! I couldnt donate (unemployed) but Im grateful to guys who did!
    this is how the real community acts. Im proud of you all :D
    and SS, keep it up!

    delict

  37. Awwwwww, this post gave me a lot more feels than the first one…

    I’m unemployed (again…), but I earned some moneyz lately, that should be on my account next month. If I don’t forget, I’ll donate.

  38. Great that so much Donations were gathered and while im a bit short on money i also gave what i felt fair for all the infos and knowledge i found here, keeps my faith with this community opposite to some of the comments posted here before.

    Personally i absolutely dont mind a lil ad banner on top of the site as it is erm was on Ftr., yes now you got a lot to run the site but that will run dry in a few months so id rather keep some adds and save up for things like the adsense disaster and similar stuff.

  39. Anyone noticed how the EU forum moderators moved the FTR shutdown topic to off-topic immediately, while on NA forums they let it be? Eu moderators are commie scums!

    • I love how all this shutdown drama came up like some sort of trolling WG EU xDDDD Just when they got their hopes high SS burned them down :D

  40. Good works SS and glad you can keep it going. Official forums are so full of shit that this is only news site that i use for Wot so few euros for it was really Worth it :)

  41. This is the best WoT related site in my opinion for the news alone… I wils you keep it clean and simple.
    Focus on the awesome news with a minimum of features available (stats, polls and interesting historical stories)

  42. “Paypal now thinks I am some kind of drug lord or something :)”

    Well,
    maybe you are a kind of a drug lord :D
    at least for us FTR-addicted folks XD

    Glad to see you are going to kick in the overdrive.

  43. Nice to know some people care.

    Just be careful to not get arrested/fined for tax fraud or something ;)
    (srsly that’s something you need to keep in mind, you can’t just be “gifted” with such money…)

  44. Just after you got their hopes high that you might shut down FTR you disappointed WG EU :P
    I’m really glad you’ll continue to do this. I’m sorry i couldn’t donate anything since i’m a poor motherfucker who plays this game on standard account xd

  45. Congratz SS, I’m glad you’re still gonna write :)

    And, pathos? Care to elaborate, anyone?

    • Pathos.. To appeal to the emotions of your audience…

      Strictly speaking, this post doesn’t have much “pathos,” it’s more related to empathy and gratitude….but the original one about shutting down did have pathos….

  46. It’s really nice to see that this site will stay alive. I follow this page for long (atleast 3 months while it was still a blog), and it has always been a source of reliable information. I would also like to thank all the people that post the stuff on this page (Zarax, EE, Priory_of_Sion and other I can’t remember right now). Also I would like the guys that donated to keep this site going (I’ll do my part ASAP).

    Silentstalker, keep up doing good work, and know that there are A LOT people that support you.

  47. Whoo, great news indeed. I read this site pretty much everyday if I can. If you need donations in the future, I’d be happy to spare something for all your effor SS. Keep it up! :)

  48. Somebody made 2.5k EUR on WoT and it’s not WG. Now that may actually have some interesting consequences :)

  49. Problem: SS’s adsense account got shut down
    Solution: Shut down his paypal account! That’ll fix everything.

  50. I have started playing WoT half a year ago and your page is a daily reading for me. Please continue the great job. I sent a few bucks too.

  51. Trust me I would have donated something to the site to help, but alas I have no money (plus I’m in the US, so the exchange rates means that it wouldn’t have been as much as some of your European donors).