Hello this is your Dusty Old Bookkeeper again!
I sincerely apologize to all players for not posting a financial report sooner!
I Will be doing this annually from now on !
[i]Here we go .. [/i]
First, let's say that this financial report is overdue. There have been several changes and problems that had to be dealt with on the hardware level before we could make a comprehensive accounting to you all, and explain what has been going on, and what is ahead.
As most players know we have switched servers as our contract(s) ran out on the other ones and costs were going through the roof, so we upgraded to newer servers to try to control costs. We also added a web server to the package for redundancy and to prevent services from becoming unavailable if we have technical problems with one of the other machines and it also increases overall reliability and performance with the newer technology.
[b]Basic cost breakdowns are as follows :[/b]
Server OS Software cost: $115.80 USD /mth
Web Server cost: $191.08 USD /mth
Play & Development server machine cost: $767.90 USD /mth
Microsoft Sharepoint Development Collaboration system: $ 30.00 USD /mth
DevExpress Development Package cost: $ 67.00 USD /mth
So monthly project costs without any NEW Software cost : $1171.78 USD per month
We only have the Donations goal currently set at $750.00 per month. While we had a reserve coming into the year, attempting to maintain the monthly costs on the current servers and required expenses, this has caused us to evacuate a large portion of the balance.
Given the above information to prevent the project's failure or to avoid any cutting back in the development progress being made, we need to raise the donations immediately to a functional level to account for price hikes and changes in the respective economies of both the US and the UK. We're thinking that a new goal of $1225.00 USD per month allows us to maintain current services and reserve a little for any newer development issues that may arise.
In a perfect world, with 11,656 registered accounts (while we are pretty sure that many aren't active) at this time, or assuming multiple accounts from the same individual or family (no more than 3 in general) so we'll divide that number to get: 3885.33 estimated unique players accounts. If everyone were to donate, costs would be covered by an amount of 0.32 cents per person. Not everyone can afford to donate and we understand that, we just wanted to break it down for all to see.
With all that said, thank you to those who do donate to these goals. We are very appreciative of your contributions and want to give E&B back to you in all of its former glory (and then some!).
Your Dusty old Bookkeeper,
Satanicexhile / Rich J
THANK YOU TO THE DONATORS! AS YOU MAKE THIS PROJECT POSSIBLE FOR ALL!!!