The Current State of TGCT - Please Read.

[Tim]

To the community:

First let me say - Thank you.

Thanks to all of you that make this place what it is - The very best video game community I have ever seen. I don't get a chance to say it often, but it blows me away to see what all of you have helped us create. The vision I had for this would never have been complete without the dedication of all of you - the players.

I also want to personally thank Scott and Jeff. I think we all take for granted what those two guys do every day (for free) to keep this thing going. We all three have day jobs, but the extra time and energy they pour into all of this - ensuring fair play and handling the hundreds of support tickets we get each month is mind-blowing. Yes - I wrote a lot of the code that makes everything work - but without them, this community would not exist. Period. And keep is mind - they are not compensated at all.

Now that's out of the way, I come to all of you to ask a simple favor.

As most of you are probably aware - maintaining a site with this growth costs money, and now that we continue to grow (almost 100 new members signup on a weekly basis), our little server is starting to take a beating. As you have noticed, scores are being delayed (and sometimes not being posted before the deadlines), the site is getting slower and slower and we have frankly outgrown our current infrastructure. Keep in mind, this doesn't take into account the forum fee that we pay to keep the forums ad-free - which I always promised to do. In order to keep this site (and more importantly the community going) - I need each of you that love this experience to really think about a small recurring donation each month. For those you that already do this, THANK YOU. However, < 1% of the active member base is currently donating. While we all appreciate the dedication of those members that do it regularly, it's not fair to them, nor near enough to handle the cost of the infrastructure we need to handle the current load on the site. Plus with the extra donations, we could hire a part-time developer to starting adding those features everyone keeps asking for!

To put it in perspective, if every active member would just donate somewhere between $1-$5 a month, we would be more than covered. So ask yourself, is a couple dollars a month worth this experience? Could you imagine purchasing anything else less than $5 a month and getting more out of it than this experience? This is not to guilt-trip anyone in anyway, it's just what we are up against at the moment. Please don't read into this as "Crap, they are shutting it down".. because that is not even on the table right now. I've already started the process of moving the entire infrastructure to a dedicated server - but I also wanted to be transparent with the community on how we need your help to sustain TGCT.

I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Also, Jeff and Scott will be reading this for this first time along with all of you. I'll probably catch heat for not running it by them first, but I needed to get this off my chest :-)

So after reading and you choose to help - simply click any of the DONATE buttons on the site or click HERE and setup the recurring donation. Again, I'm looking for a GROUP effort here. Not 50 guys giving $50 a month. Just everyone pitching in with a voluntary recurring donation of $1 to $5 max per month. 

Thanks again for all that you do to make this place what it is.

Sincerely,
Tim O
TGCT Founder

[IGolfBad]

Apr 7, 2018 21:27:38 GMT -5 Tim said:

To the community:

First let me say - Thank you.

Thanks to all of you that make this place what it is - The very best video game community I have ever seen. I don't get a chance to say it often, but it blows me away to see what all of you have helped us create. The vision I had for this would never have been complete without the dedication of all of you - the players.

I also want to personally thank Scott and Jeff. I think we all take for granted what those two guys do every day (for free) to keep this thing going. We all three have day jobs, but the extra time and energy they pour into all of this - ensuring fair play and handling the hundreds of support tickets we get each month is mind-blowing. Yes - I wrote a lot of the code that makes everything work - but without them, this community would not exist. Period. And keep is mind - they are not compensated at all.

Now that's out of the way, I come to all of you to ask a simple favor.

As most of you are probably aware - maintaining a site with this growth costs money, and now that we continue to grow (almost 100 new members signup on a weekly basis), our little server is starting to take a beating. As you have noticed, scores are being delayed (and sometimes not being posted before the deadlines), the site is getting slower and slower and we have frankly outgrown our current infrastructure. Keep in mind, this doesn't take into account the forum fee that we pay to keep the forums ad-free - which I always promised to do. In order to keep this site (and more importantly the community going) - I need each of you that love this experience to really think about a small recurring donation each month. For those you that already do this, THANK YOU. However, < 1% of the active member base is currently donating. While we all appreciate the dedication of those members that do it regularly, it's not fair to them, nor near enough to handle the cost of the infrastructure we need to handle the current load on the site. Plus with the extra donations, we could hire a part-time developer to starting adding those features everyone keeps asking for!

To put it in perspective, if every active member would just donate somewhere between $1-$5 a month, we would be more than covered. So ask yourself, is a couple dollars a month worth this experience? Could you imagine purchasing anything else less than $5 a month and getting more out of it than this experience? This is not to guilt-trip anyone in anyway, it's just what we are up against at the moment. Please don't read into this as "Crap, they are shutting it down".. because that is not even on the table right now. I've already started the process of moving the entire infrastructure to a dedicated server - but I also wanted to be transparent with the community on how we need your help to sustain TGCT.

I hope you understand where I'm coming from. Also, Jeff and Scott will be reading this for this first time along with all of you. I'll probably catch heat for not running it by them first, but I needed to get this off my chest :-)

So after reading and you choose to help - simply click any of the DONATE buttons on the site or click HERE and setup the recurring donation. Again, I'm looking for a GROUP effort here. Not 50 guys giving $50 a month. Just everyone pitching in with a voluntary recurring donation of $1 to $5 max per month. 

Thanks again for all that you do to make this place what it is.

Sincerely,
Tim O
TGCT Founder

Done - beyond happy to help the cause 🍻

[Tim]

Thank you sir - and thanks to all that have already setup recurring donations! We have already had like 10 guys set them up. You guys are awesome.

[DarkRaven]

Hi Tim, long time member from the UK here literally returning yesterday after a few years away!!

I have just setup a regular $5 monthly donation to you guys.

The work you have put into this site is remarkable.

Come on everyone else, it literally took me 15-20 seconds to setup a recurring donation via PayPal.

Much love

[ddunn21]

Thanks for the heart-felt message.  We appreciate your honesty and passion for this community that you created.  I left my friends tonight because I needed to finish my 4th round lol.  Thanks for all you do and if $20 bucks a month helps the cause I'm super glad to pitch-in and ease the load. Keep up all the hardwork, we love ya!  

[nunzio0108]

Dear Tim:

  I am submitting my monthly donation of $5 to help you all at TGC Tours and for all the hard work (free) that you all provide so that we can play golf and be both happy & frustrated all at the same time.


  Hopefully the community will heed your call and help financially. Keep up the good work that you all do at TGC Tours.


  Sincerely,
  Nunzio Camerlengo

[mick0210]

I would donate, but not with paypal. Like many people in my country i don't have a debit or credit card. So i don't even think it's possible.

My advise is to add easier payment methods

[Giraffe72]

The only thing I would say with this (and this is coming from someone who is very happy to have been a 'sustaining member' for quite a while now) is that you might want to think about being more transparent about your accounts. Maybe publish a quarterly or an annual statement? It would help people to see what you still need, and see where their money is going.

But, seriously come on people, how much enjoyment does this site give you? It's surely worth a few quid / bucks / euros a month to help keep it going? I donate an amount I barely notice (and I am not wealthy by any means) every month by direct debit and that's got me Silver! Works out as roughly £1 a week, absolute bargain. And just think what they could do if every one of the 1000+ players who play every week did that? Imagine what you would do if TGCT didn't exist? I'd have to talk to the wife!

[gavch81]

Hi guys,

Just set up my 5 USD recurring donation. I joined TGCT about 2 weeks ago and I'm just sorry I never found it sooner. Love the work you guys do and hope others follow suit by donating and to this fantastic site.

[smurfblade88]

Apr 8, 2018 2:50:25 GMT -5 Giraffe72 said:

The only thing I would say with this (and this is coming from someone who is very happy to have been a 'sustaining member' for quite a while now) is that you might want to think about being more transparent about your accounts. Maybe publish a quarterly or an annual statement? It would help people to see what you still need, and see where their money is going.

Couldn't agree more.

[statelyowl]

Apr 8, 2018 2:50:25 GMT -5 Giraffe72 said:

The only thing I would say with this (and this is coming from someone who is very happy to have been a 'sustaining member' for quite a while now) is that you might want to think about being more transparent about your accounts. Maybe publish a quarterly or an annual statement? It would help people to see what you still need, and see where their money is going.

But, seriously come on people, how much enjoyment does this site give you? It's surely worth a few quid / bucks / euros a month to help keep it going? I donate an amount I barely notice (and I am not wealthy by any means) every month by direct debit and that's got me Silver! Works out as roughly £1 a week, absolute bargain. And just think what they could do if every one of the 1000+ players who play every week did that? Imagine what you would do if TGCT didn't exist? I'd have to talk to the wife!

I'd already set up my recurring donation, but doubly glad now.... I didn't want to have to talk to Jamie's wife either.

[greyosprey]

I would be more than happy to donate, but recently closed my paypal acct. Are there any other payment options available?

[mde8965]

Done. Other than the cost of the game (x2) and the many many controllers (anger issues), this place has provided me with the most free entertainment of anything I can think of (obligatory comment to follow) short of the wife and kids... You all do a great job with the site...despite the fact that we can be a seriously entitled bunch from time to time...

[paulus]

Been a sustaining member since donations were introduced - only a small amount - figured if most of us did the same then TGCT would be in good shape - bit disappointed to find out that it's only 1% atm  I think Jamie's idea of transparency could help increase this uptake.

Just as an aside - dedicated servers tend to be a more expensive route Tim - a small cluster of lower power cloud instances can often work out cheaper, an auto-scaling solution means you're not ever paying for compute you're not using. Maybe too late if you've already started making the move...

[gavlaar124]

Done 😁