La Mesnie was hot - Thank you for your donations!

It's not because of the summer, but because of my wallet! A month of very difficult finances for me, and the impossibility of paying for the server, and here we are with a 4-day server shutdown! One more day and everything would have been erased by OVH, our host...

Many thanks to Screwball, Lochness, The Magic Dwarf (Dwarlok), and my motherfor their invaluable help! They were there when we needed them, and on behalf of the whole Mesnie I'd like to thank them warmly! Four people alone have been generous enough to fill my financial gap this month! Take them as an example! I'll go even further: anyone who can make donations from time to time, and thus contribute to the continued existence of the Mesnie, should do so! In their own way, of course, without breaking the bank. The donation button is at the top right, and accepts Paypal and credit cards! You can also buy VIP services on the servers (only DarkRP for the moment), which is an excellent way of serving the players AND the Mesnie.

For your information, the server hosts ALL the Mesnie services (Site, forum, teamspeak, GMod servers (except Brony), CSS, TF2, and this big machine costs 200€/month (soon to be reduced to 180€/month), so it's a significant cost for me.

So how can this be avoided in the future?

In concrete terms, there are three possibilities: Either I rake in the money as I've always done (sometimes with the help of CrazyKleiner, whom I'd like to thank again); or I rely on your donations (and top them up if I can); or the server finances itself by offering interesting services to players.

Obviously, I'd prefer the last option, but to do that, you're going to have to be clever... And here I'm counting on your ideas, all your ideas, and your practical help, to put in place all the means to make the Mesnie 'profitable'. In inverted commas, because it's not about making money, but at least about being self-financing.

I've already got a few ideas, so here's what I'm planning:

• All servers will have a link to make a donation
• Introduce more paid services, especially in ProBuild, with the purchase of monthly or permanent ranks that unlock the limits (after all, big builders suck up more resources, so it's only fair to charge them).
• Bring the population back to DarkRP, and finish TwerkMesnie, as these are the most "profitable" servers (your ideas on how to achieve this are welcome)
• Maybe change the VIP system we have for one that supports payment methods other than Paypal.
• Build other secondary servers and try to make them popular, with a strong incentive to donate to them.
• Host one or two servers for third parties and invoice them
• Host websites for third parties and charge for hosting
• Find a way to add more advertising without damaging the user experience

We welcome any additional ideas you may have!

All donations are welcome! It would help me every month! I'll keep you informed if it becomes 'superfluous' after the paid services, but for now it's useful if not necessary!

Thanks again to our donors, and happy holidays and games to you all!