86 replies to this topic

[Jay]

We've put up a survey regarding the future of the site.

LCPDFR.com was a small community niche centred around from the LCPD First Response modification, and has now grown into a more general-purpose GTA community with a focus on law-enforcement modding.
Running it currently takes the work of 3x mid-grade VPS servers, 3x load balancing virtual servers and 1x Amazon Cloudfront CDN hire.
All of this doesn't come cheap, and is currently funded entirely by the development team.
We currently don't run ads, based on our previous experience at how misleading they can be and the fact the intrusion doesn't seem to justify the small tip money it provides.

In the month of March alone, we achieved around 1 million pageviews. There's no question the site has evolved to be a large GTA community beyond the predictions we had a few years back.

The site's running costs are on the increase, and we'd like to see if we could implement a system or set of ideas which can benefit the community and at the same time be un-intrusive and yet raise money for the site. We don't want to just go ahead and remove permissions and features without warning or consultation.

If you could find some time to take our survey, we'd appreciate it greatly, and since we value each one of your inputs, we want your opinion.

Take the survey.

[Original Light]

I'll do it now.
Wow, I must say, this is not a good idea. Paying for accounts?

Edited by Original Light, 06 April 2012 - 03:40 PM.

[Interference]

Finished :)

[iAmElvis]

Finished :p

[Slimory]

Finished :p

If paying for account's was or is going to be mandatory i can pretty much guarantee i'm outta here only because i think credit card's are garbage and i will never own one no matter how good the site is.

my bad quoted the wrong one, anyway, finished

Edited by Slimory, 06 April 2012 - 04:44 PM.

[Jay]

I'll do it now.
Wow, I must say, this is not a good idea. Paying for accounts?

I think you're misunderstanding it a little.
If you want to support the site, you'd have an opportunity to donate and in return you'd be given the benefits of being a supporter.
Nothing at the core is changing with ordinary accounts.

The result of this survey will impact the decision on whether or not we implement this, the pricing and what features are involved.

The last thing we want to do is disrupt our user base with ads or with an intrusive system.

[Original Light]

I understand now. I would be more than happy to donate, but if it was forced upon us to pay for accounts than that would be bad. Thanks for clearing that up.

[Sam]

I understand now. I would be more than happy to donate, but if it was forced upon us to pay for accounts than that would be bad. Thanks for clearing that up.

You know that we would never force people to pay for accounts or for the mod. All we're looking to do is find out how we can raise enough money to cover our costs which as of this year, have more than doubled due to a number of factors, with the sheer popularity of the site being the main thing. We've paid for all of the expenses of this mod out of our own pocket for the last 2 and 3/4 years, and while we can quite feasibly keep things going another 6 months, we'd rather look into alternate finance options sooner rather than later, so that we have the chance to shape things around what our members want, rather than making desperate and rushed decisions like removing the gallery for normal forum members overnight.

[Chillytozza]

finished! I think it's a good idea and I'm willing to pay up to so much for it :)

[xKarnage74]

Done, it is a good idea though to add a "Donate" button (if you guys are?) because you guys do a really good job and deserve money for it.

[Break]

There's a donate button right here: http://www.lcpdfr.co...first-response/ for the people that want to donate now.

[Evel]

Submitted a response. I'll also try to scrape some spare money together and donate in the near future.

About that donation button though: Perhaps it should be made a little more obvious? Something like a noticeable link on the homepage perhaps.

[Sam]

Submitted a response. I'll also try to scrape some spare money together and donate in the near future.

About that donation button though: Perhaps it should be made a little more obvious? Something like a noticeable link on the homepage perhaps.

More visible and high profile donation campaigns could be used instead of a system like the one proposed if that would be a better option for all of us.

[Original Light]

More visible and high profile donation campaigns could be used instead of a system like the one proposed if that would be a better option for all of us.

That was what I was thinking. One on the home page or something, in the shape of a flashing lightbar to catch eyes? Just a thought...

[JACK]

Done, I hope you take the time to read it and consider my oppinion along with others, I look foward to your decision once the survey is done and what you will do. Thanks for the opportunity to let us vote

[GTAIVCode3]

I filled it out. Enjoyed doing it! I was thinking of something like this a while ago. I will always be with lcpdfr as long as it lasts.

Edited by GTAIVCode3, 07 April 2012 - 06:32 PM.

[Jay]

This survey ends tomorrow so if you'd like your say, please fill this in today.

Thanks,
Jay

[justdali]

I'm willing to pay/donate if there's ongoing improvements/updates to the mod.

[c13]

One thing that could be done to make people want to donate more is giving them an increased chance at being a beta tester upon donating. Also, the ability to download new mods a few hours before for people who donate than ones who don't would also make people more likely to donate.

[JAM-Justin35]

One thing that could be done to make people want to donate more is giving them an increased chance at being a beta tester upon donating. Also, the ability to download new mods a few hours before for people who donate than ones who don't would also make people more likely to donate.

That will be a far chance of being implemented, Beta testers are hand picked for a reason, they need to test....
If a kid donates, and gets beta tester, and spreads the download because he's young, and doesn't care, then we would have a big issue, its just like donating for moderator, it would be hell on earth here on the forums, plus they would probably never report bugs, and kinda take a S*** on other members by waiving the flag "Well I'm a beta tester, who the F*** are you??". As far as getting downloads first, creators wouldn't like this because this means a delay before the general public can download and enjoy their mods.

Edited by JAM-Justin35, 08 April 2012 - 05:45 PM.