With all the talk about LSPDFR 0.4, it's been a little while since we've provided a general update on our community.  Of course, LSPDFR 0.4 is our main priority at the moment and we'll have more to say about it shortly, but we thought it important to also address and announce a couple of things regarding our community.

 

What our Community stands for

 

Before anything else, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on who we are, as people that run this website, and as a community.

 

LCPDFR was founded, back in 2009, simply because I thought it'd be a fun thing to do.  To play as the police in GTA IV.  It was an idea, ambitious for its time, and nothing more.  I worked on LCPDFR because it was fun, I published it because I thought others might also enjoy it.  LCPDFR has come a long way since then, it has evolved from one person's topic on a forum, to its own website, to its own forum, to its own community.  We've spanned two games, our reach has grown massively, our community is approaching 300,000 registered members.  The amount of work that goes into developing LSPDFR alone is staggering - the time that we've spent on it is measured not in days, weeks or months, but years.  Likewise, the effort required to keep our website online is vastly underestimated - in the past month we've served around 30 terabytes of download traffic alone, and have done all of this despite persistent, targeted denial of service and hacking attacks against us.  To put this in context, if you were to serve 30 terabytes of data through Amazon Web Services, it'd cost you $3,000 a month - and that's just one month of download traffic. 

 

Why do we do this?  Because it's fun.  We love developing our community, we love developing our mod, and we love that other people - complete strangers, from all over the world, from countries you've probably never heard of, from all walks of life... we love that they love LSPDFR.  Our community has achieved incredible things: we've created an entire gaming phenomenon and we've developed things that nobody ever thought would be possible.  Our members have done more than simply play games or make mods: we've fought hand-in-hand against corporate giants (and won), we've transformed peoples' entire lives by sparking new careers and we've been covered everywhere from massive YouTube channels to mainstream media publications.  Heck, we've even triggered out of touch government ministers in Australia.

 

That's not the whole story, though.  Sometimes we are the story.  Sometimes we make mistakes.  We've had catastrophes, like the time where we had a hyped countdown on the website only to reveal a private testing version of LCPDFR that nobody could access.   Our first ever livestream had to be rescued by Steve and Jeff after it started with Prophet driving a train around Los Santos and infamously stating "this is not the preview for LSPDFR 0.3" while our community manager could do nothing but watch helplessly after being accidentally disconnected.  We've messed up releases, we've announced things too quickly, and sometimes we've not announced things at all.   

 

Yet, despite all of this.  Nine years later, we're still here.  We're still making mods, we're still developing this community, and we've stuck true to our principles the entire time:

• Our community is open to all.
• We treat members equally regardless of their status.
• Everything is completely free of charge, with no catches.

 

Why?  It's not about fame, it's not about money, it's not about status.  It's about love.  We love LCPDFR, we love LSPDFR, and we love our community.  We don't think that modding should be hidden in private Discord servers.  We don't think that modding should be something people pay for.  We don't think that modding should be an ego boost.

 

We just think that modding should be fun.  It should be open, and it should be free.  That's what we stand for, and that's what we do.

 

How you can get involved

 

Last year, we opened up applications to join our Community Team for the first time.  This resulted in a couple of new faces joining our moderation team and upon reflection, we think it's a good change in approach from previously handpicking staff members ourselves.  We've decided to open these applications again, and would invite anyone who is interested in volunteering some of their free time to moderating our community to apply by following the link below.  Our volunteer Community Moderators are a vital part of everything that we do, and it wouldn't be possible to maintain the community without them.

 

To find out more and to submit an application, please visit: http://lcpd.fr/staffapp

Very well said👍🏼

I think everyone just kinda forgot how far things have come, and instead looks at all the negatives.

Big Heart  <<33

 

Quote

To put this in context, if you were to serve 30 terabytes of data through Amazon Web Services, it'd cost you $3,000 a month - and that's just one month of download traffic. 

 

I've never thought that the cost of running LSPDFR.COM is this much.

Kudos to the site owner and management to keep this wonderful site up and running!

5 hours ago, Sam said:

"If you were to serve 30 terabytes of data through Amazon Web Services, it'd cost you $3,000 a month - and that's just one month of download traffic."

This made me TURN OFF my ad blocker. I really dont know how you keep this website up... KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

 

I

 

Edited November 11, 20187 yr by iheartPF

This post hit me right in the feels! im speechless! its been very controversial with whining from members in the community both here and on discord servers as of late...and its caused a bit of an uproar in the community and negative talks, which now put into prospective by stating just how much the download traffic costs, it really touched me and, to be frank, makes me want to go comment some pretty negative things against those people on the forums making complaints about how much money sam is supposedly making? As if any cash value could really touch the amount of work and dedication has been put into making this amazing game work. LCPDFR is, and has always been, completely free! despite countless unpaid hours for  for the last couple years from devs and modders alike, the game continues to strive on! ive played from the shadows, trying to donate as much as possible when possible.... just recently have i felt comfy enough to come register and speak my mind on some of the injustices ive seen lately. This was well needed, well worded, and perfectly timed. Thanks sam.

Edited November 12, 20187 yr by JIves

1 hour ago, BejoIjo said:

 

I've never thought that the cost of running LSPDFR.COM is this much.

Kudos to the site owner and management to keep this wonderful site up and running!

 

Just to clarify as I don't want to mislead, that was just an example of how much it would cost if we used AWS (which we don't as Cyan is a systems administration extraordinaire).

Still, a website as big as ours doesn't come cheap.  There's a lot of other things like software licensing and costs for mitigation when people hit us with denial of service attacks. 

 

It's not really something that we want to make a big deal about as we'd rather just get on with things, though.  

i love it, i fully support this community, and im glad to be a part of it, i hope we continue strong for years to come, we have survived since 2009 right... so lets keep going and see what great things happen

I think this was a very much needed post, hence what's been happening in the community in the last few days. Thank you @Sam.

I've said it once before here, I bought a gaming computer because of this mod alone.  I'll never be able to put into words how much I appreciate this mod, the creators, and the members for what they do to help and create content.  One of the best communities I have been apart of

Great post, Sam! This community has been around for at least 11 years now and has continued to grow and grow to what it is now. I also do not expect it to go anywhere soon. 

 

I've had the pleasure to at least some part of the community for almost 6 of those years and I have seen my fair share of drama, content creators, communities, etc. Each and every time people usually move on or things will settle down for the most part. Throughout each and every incident, LCDPFR/LSDFPR has held strong and continued to be one of the largest, if not the largest, communities/websites out there. It's unfortunate to see content creators yanking their content but this has happened every so often and the unfortunate reality is it will continue to happen. We can only move on and either promote future content creators or work hard to produce our own content to keep things going in the community.

 

Also, the job that the moderation, community management, and development teams do is, I'm sure, completely volunteer. We as the community must realize this and understand that sometimes things may be delayed or take longer than we may want and be appreciative of the work that is done. 

Oh god, don't remind me of the train! 

I appreciate the amount of effort that is put into LSPDFR and I really appreciate how there is a central hub for everything about this mod. Without the knowledge you guys inject into this modification, none of this would be possible and I totally understand that. It is sad how to some would say, toxic this community has been recently. I'll be honest, there have been a few times I have been a keyboard warrior and fired back at people on this website. I am here to apologize for that and any grief I caused anyone. In this community, we are all one, just as real LEOs are. We need to support one another, help one another and instead of ripping someone a new one, help them do xyz. I am disappointed how the community has been, with myself included. I hope we can all band back together and become one family. I love this website and everyone who enjoys Law Enforcement as much as myself. I have made some amazing friends along my journey of this website and from there only more doors opened up. I appreciate everything you guys (the devs) have done and will do for this community. Lets get this family whole again. Everyone gets a fresh slate and we can all just enjoy the modification and its' community together.

 

I can't wait to see the future with 0.4 on the horizon and with all the growth that will come out of this rough patch. "It has to rain before it's sunny."

3,000 a month? Wow, thank you for keeping this website up, even that it costs that much to hold it up, That made me turn my adblocker off on this website, you really need money to keep this up, Thank you for keeping this page, and that we can add alot of things to our LSPD:FR mod.

Edited November 13, 20187 yr by dun21
Have a good day! :)

❤️

I absolutely love this... and every year I always come back around the holidays, and the new year! (I am always lurking around all year tbh tho lol) this is an amazing community, its always been in my top bookmarks as far as I can remember. But I have seen a divide... Sam your words couldn't have been better said myself. Thank you for all that you guys do for us, and anyone involved and even the community. Its just a great place to be.

Well now that I understand a bit more about what exactly happened over the last few days and how previous events have contributed to it, I can say I think this is a well timed post.  In any event a statement like this is important in a large community, regardless of that group's nature.  I have been in communities for various games over the years and understand how critical community development and the handling of crises is imperative to its survival and reputation.  I am glad and proud to see the staff and most of the community here show their commitment to the principles outlined above and to the positive future of a civil community.  That said, I think I will consider putting in an application to help with moderation, once Iv thought about whether I can put in the proper time.  If I decide that I am just currently unable to, then you certainly have my help and advise if it is needed.  I am always open to pms, as it seems others know that even better than myself, since I have had complete strangers ask for a pointer or advise on something -  I am glad to help if I can.

 

Cheers to this community!

Respect and love to you all ❤️

 

Thank you 🖖

You guys continuously provide an awesome community and awesome work! I know that this kind of quality definitely does not come cheap, and I am very appreciative that this community exists! Keep up the awesome work!