Sorry.. Options

[mike!]

Guys, I think The Couch's servers are pretty much dead.

Sorry about this, but I don't think I will be continuing the use of our great servers. It's nearly impossible to pay for, and, to be frank, I have lost interest in Team Fortress 2 almost entirely.

I know I haven't updated the site, or even been on the forums much recently. I have been working on my blog just about non stop.

I'm being a crappy leader, a crapper owner, and all of that. I havn't updated the "recently donated" area on the homepage in quite some time, and frankly, there hasn't been THAT many to add. Looking at The Couch's PayPal, I see a total of 6 donations this month, and it really wasn't anything very substation.

PayPal balance: $13.11 USD

That pretty much sums it up. We have $13.11 in our PayPal account right now, and on the 8th, we owe $200 to SingleHop to pay for the servers that are just about always empty. I don't think it's worth it anymore.

There was a time where I wanted to expand far and wide, but TF2 is slowly dieing out, getting just about 10,000 people a day at any given time playing the game, down from almost 20,000 at any given time about a year ago today.

It is getting boring.

I am really really pleased with everything that everybody has been doing this entire time I have been gone, the website has been basically running itself, and everyone who has pitched in and threw a ban up every now and then is amazing for doing so. You are all great people, but you deserve a leader to actually follow, not someone such as myself.

I am not looking for pity here, I am not asking for any "Thank you's" or "You are doing fine!"'s, I just want to let everyone know that I am 90% sure that I am going to be shutting down the Couch's server come February, I may purchase one server from a hosting company, just to keep the group alive. Possibly rotating between Dustbowl/Egypt, but keeping up 6 servers, 100% empty Left4Dead servers, and 4 idle servers, just doesn't seem worth the $200 anymore.

If you guys can try to change my mind, great, give it a shot, but the total server costs is $250 a month, and that is something that I can absolutely not put up on my own.

I'll definitely keep the website up, it's a great place, and it is getting around 150-200 unique visits a day, which is fantastic, but it used to push almost 300 unique hits a day. You can see my concern.

I love The Couch, I love what it became, but pardon my cliche, all good things must come to an end.

I will always love all of you, thank you, for everything. Really.

[mike!]

By the way, this isn't a plea for money or donations. I actually don't want that, at least not until I know how much a single server would cost a month, probably around $30-40.. but again, not a plea for money.

[CallyWood]

I feel like somebody just stabbed my puppy.

I really don't like HoN, not in the least. I still frequent the servers. I play every day and get dustbowl populated. With it gone, I honestly don't know what I'm going to do. I hate trolling random servers. It honestly is like a dagger in my heart.

[.::Viper Snake::...]

Well shit. You should take down the Left4dead servers. I don't see the point in having them anyway, I never remember to use them when I play and the admin doesn't even work. If you have to downsize I think it should just be three servers: a Dustbowl, Egypt and 2fort. There are plenty of idle servers out there, I don't mind if those disappear.

[Cannonball]

I'm with Cally on this one. Trolling random servers sucks. Especially when we did have a great community here. All the admins are on such a higher level than almost any other I visited.
This saddens me
Whatever shall we do?

[vlz-]

Nice work Mike, on to bigger and better things. It was great while it lasted. Rip le couch.

Attached File(s)

 couch.jpg ( 33.57K ) Number of downloads: 19

 

[mike!]

Hey! I never said I was going to completely shut it down.. sheesh I was asking for suggestions but everyone seems to be giving up so easily.

I am planning on downsizing, but see, dropping the l4d servers only would make paying $200 for a beast of a server box even more of a waste!

[miber]

$250 a month is definitely too much, and there's plenty of room for downsizing, but getting rid of ALL the servers?!

L4D2 servers? I don't even know how to use them, get rid of em.
Idle servers? Couldn't care less. Is it really difficult to find a server to idle on? Is there even a great need to idle? Ditch em.
Of the six TF2 servers, only half seem to get any decent usage (Dustbowl, 2Fort, Egypt). I'm biased towards Dustbowl, and while it hasn't been as active lately, it has the greatest Couch-legacy, which has to count for something! Egypt seems to be the most popular, by far, but tends to be less favored by tCo regulars (those who still play ). 2Fort I personally don't care about, but I know it has it's fair share of people who enjoy it.

If you could find out how much it would cost to keep 2-3 servers up, that'd be great. I, personally, would gladly donate monthly to help keep Dustbowl alive, if nothing else. Random servers suck.

[CallyWood]

what miber said. since I have a better job now, i'll definitely donate what I can to keep 3 servers up. let us know if you can find a good deal!

[meatspin]

what miber said. since I have a better job now, i'll definitely donate what I can to keep 3 servers up. let us know if you can find a good deal!

+1 to miLber.

ax l4d, ax the idle servers, and see what that leaves you with.

I'm not gonna lie, I've never donated before, but I would donate to keep a dustbowl and a 2fort server up (or at worst, just a dustbowl server). I hate trolling random servers.

TF2 traffic might be down, but once I found TCO, TF2 play went way up for me. I started playing much more often once I found a good, consistent, fair, and most of all FUN place to play.

This post has been edited by meatspin: Jan 21 2010, 12:09 AM

[rev]

Yeah that would be the shit, a good amount of us still play db / egypt.

[Lindsanity!]

Had to re-register, my other account wasn't working...

ANYWAY... yes, tCo is my home. When a friend asks if I want to play TF2, I log on and join tCo... even if it isn't the one he's playing. I'm keen on Dustbowl, but I'll donate what I can to keep it kickin'.

[Ron Paul]

I'm all for downsizing. I only play egypt and dustbowl (seldom). I'd gladly donate some of my limited funds to help keep those three servers alive.

[mike!]

It's about $1 a slot for a server that isn't hosted on our own box, meaning leasing a sever.

So it would drop to around $110/month total if I were to keep Dustbowl + 2Fort + Ventrilo + Website + HLStatsx

But then it wouldnt be our own box sadface.

[Ron Paul]

It's about $1 a slot for a server that isn't hosted on our own box, meaning leasing a sever.

So it would drop to around $110/month total if I were to keep Dustbowl + 2Fort + Ventrilo + Website + HLStatsx

But then it wouldnt be our own box sadface.

What if we dropped hlstats to the basic level. Not the premium?

[Cannonball]

Sounds like a lot of people are quite partial to Dustbowl, Egypt, and 2Fort (as am I). But I'm wondering how well a DB/Egypt server would do. I know that there's a lot of people who play one but dislike/hate the other. If we had only one server to chose from, I'd pick Dustbowl almost 100% of the time.

On a side note, I'd love to see a tCo member server party thing, just for fun. We haven't had one of those in a while.

[-mehop-]

I will keep donating if it means we can keep at least one server. HLStatsX doesn't matter, idle servers don't matter, etc.

[Ron Paul]

Sounds like a lot of people are quite partial to Dustbowl, Egypt, and 2Fort (as am I). But I'm wondering how well a DB/Egypt server would do. I know that there's a lot of people who play one but dislike/hate the other. If we had only one server to chose from, I'd pick Dustbowl almost 100% of the time.

On a side note, I'd love to see a tCo member server party thing, just for fun. We haven't had one of those in a while.

IMO if we were to get rid of either egypt, dustbowl, or 2fort, it would be 2fort it's the lowest ranked (population wise) of the three, followed by dustbowl, and then egypt.

[Cannonball]

IMO if we were to get rid of either egypt, dustbowl, or 2fort, it would be 2fort it's the lowest ranked (population wise) of the three, followed by dustbowl, and then egypt.

True. 2Fort would be one to go. But what're your opinnions and thoughts on running DB and egypt alternating on the same server?

[meatspin]

I would prefer dedicated, in an ideal world, but I wouldn't mind (and would donate to support) a rotating egypt and dustbowl server