Financial update & Server break even
Published on November 11, 2021 by Frikandel
Hi, just wanted to do a quick update on .fmbot on where we stand financially and say a quick thank you to our supporters.
First of all, thank you all for your donations. A few days ago we finally broke even on the new server I bought earlier this year! It has now been paid off fully, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.
The server was quite a big expense ($1262), which was mostly caused by high hardware prices at the time of purchase. It was also expensive because I wanted something which would last a while with the amount of growth we're experiencing, so the powerful specs made it a bit pricey as well.
Also, a bit ago we donated ($75) to the open-source library we're currently using for all our interactions with Discord. While the libraries we use are often not very visible for our users, they play a very important role in making the bot possible, hence why I decided to support that.
I've tried to communicate as well as possible, but if you're a supporter, got this email/update, and haven't redeemed your supporter status yet you can join our server and ask for it in the #support channel. I'll then apply it to your Discord account.
Regarding the experience for future supporters; I've contacted OpenCollective to ask if they would offer some kind of way for us to send post-purchase instructions. They responded and said that it's on their roadmap (tracked here).
An overview of all earnings til now are:
Total raised: $1,381.05 ($1,657 before fees) thanks to 75 contributors
Total disbursed: $1,367.03
Estimated annual budget: $1,410.49 (!)
For the future, there are currently no planned expenses. I'd like to build up a bit of a buffer in case of any unexpected expenses, and other than that some stuff that might come up in the future is:
- External VPS (for monitoring/ public API's)
- Website hosting costs
- Hiring a designer for updated visuals
- Sponsoring open source libraries that we use
- Paying me or other developers for their time
- Faster internet connection for the server
Once again, thanks for helping make fmbot sustainable! Hope to see you soon again in a future update :)
- Frikandel
First of all, thank you all for your donations. A few days ago we finally broke even on the new server I bought earlier this year! It has now been paid off fully, which is pretty awesome if you ask me.
The server was quite a big expense ($1262), which was mostly caused by high hardware prices at the time of purchase. It was also expensive because I wanted something which would last a while with the amount of growth we're experiencing, so the powerful specs made it a bit pricey as well.
Also, a bit ago we donated ($75) to the open-source library we're currently using for all our interactions with Discord. While the libraries we use are often not very visible for our users, they play a very important role in making the bot possible, hence why I decided to support that.
I've tried to communicate as well as possible, but if you're a supporter, got this email/update, and haven't redeemed your supporter status yet you can join our server and ask for it in the #support channel. I'll then apply it to your Discord account.
Regarding the experience for future supporters; I've contacted OpenCollective to ask if they would offer some kind of way for us to send post-purchase instructions. They responded and said that it's on their roadmap (tracked here).
An overview of all earnings til now are:
Total raised: $1,381.05 ($1,657 before fees) thanks to 75 contributors
Total disbursed: $1,367.03
Estimated annual budget: $1,410.49 (!)
For the future, there are currently no planned expenses. I'd like to build up a bit of a buffer in case of any unexpected expenses, and other than that some stuff that might come up in the future is:
- External VPS (for monitoring/ public API's)
- Website hosting costs
- Hiring a designer for updated visuals
- Sponsoring open source libraries that we use
- Paying me or other developers for their time
- Faster internet connection for the server
Once again, thanks for helping make fmbot sustainable! Hope to see you soon again in a future update :)
- Frikandel