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  1. Past hour
  2. Last week
  3. Blast From the past, miss all the pics from fragfest

  4. Earlier
  5. My ebay account is older than many of you... That is all.

  6. 1) Server Reserves has been completely updated. That means some of you might be caught out, either not paid, or a gifted membership I spaced and removed. The former you can deal with yourself. For the latter, if you were GIFTED a membership sometime in the last year, hit up the gifter or someone and we can sort that out. 2) Subscriptions to get GC membership and the server reserve. It seems Stripe is spacing on this for some reason and transactions are choking. It could be a bunch of fraud stuff going down or whatever but it feels more like a bug. So for the time being only PayPal for subscriptions. It'll get sorted eventually. 3) When you do get a subscription, be sure to PM Flitterkill (that's me!) your Steam ID so we can set your reserve.
  7. cert renewed (finally...), maps directory sane with http un-secure stuff, motd should be fine, carry on...

    FYI you might need to close browser and restart to remove the unsecure warning.

  8. I know we're still at early stages 'revamping' the server so to speak, but one thing that would be useful to have back in the short-term for admins is to 'speak' to server via chat when we can't be in game and deal with naughty people without having to be there, if that's possible? Cheers and thanks for your help keeping GC alive, much appreciated.
  9. Yes, I know, the web cert is expired, working on it.

  10. I would like to throw my hat into the ring. Today, I think we're in a better position versus where we were before. We have complete control over our server versus having NFO managing our server which I volunteered to do to lessen the server's cost. Subsequently, managing the server allows us to get a real-time perspective on resource utilization we didn't have before when NFO managed the server. Consequently, the consistent lag/pauses we were experiencing have disappeared. Additionally, I volunteered to work on the points plugin which I believe is in a good state today. I believe the points plugin functionally works the same prior to the lag issue with some new features added to it. This work included recreating the missing sections of the source code we were running for the points plugin which I did when I started looking at the points plugin source code. I was able to recreate a complete version of the points plugin source code utilizing the running plugin we had and now there is a workable plugin we are able to modify and improve upon. Subsequently, new functionality and fixes were implemented in the points plugin and new plugins have been added to the server to complement game play. The effort to work on the points plugin we are using today is not just from the work I did but with assistance from Archer and Soda. Also, I worked on upgrading the server to the latest stable branch of SourceMod version 1.11. This effort included transitioning the points plugin source code to the SourceMod’s new syntax utilized in version 1.11. Subsequently, transitioning to version 1.11 of SourceMod revealed issues with other third-party plugins we are utilizing, hence I worked on addressing those issues as the arose and converting those third-party plugins to SourceMod 1.11. This was a necessary step for our server because development of SourceMod plugins are being developed for version 1.11 versus older versions of SourceMod. Therefore, I felt it was worth the effort to transition to SourceMod 1.11 thereby ensuring we are compatible with current and future plugins we may want to utilize. This process was enjoyable to work on and I want to continue being involved with that work. As it pertains to funding the servers, I can provide funds to supplement a shortage if necessary but I’m hoping there is an increase in membership to cover the cost. Also, Soda I did add the 'world model turn rate fix’ plugin you recommended to the server. I'm not sure if the plugin really addressed the issue Mercman mentioned but we are running it today.
  11. Complication, gtg for MRI scan, damage due to re-infection, another bloody 3months to wait no doubt.
  12. Another $10 donated

  13. Going to hospital today 3.30pm - hopefully they will operate, if so, don't expect me to be around much in the next coming week
  14. I know I have not been active in game due to personal life, but I hope to stick around and help as needed either with some funds and occassional admining. Honestly for my mental health I probably need to get back into it. Soda has done some great things on his server and knows a good deal about the mods by now and would be a valid choice so long as we don't turn into a dictatorship (thinking old sky servers in particular) and continue to have a board of members who can help make decisions best for the community. I feel like that happens to a lot of communities and is why GC has lasted so long, we had a team of admins and people who genuinly care instead of leaving it up to one person. So yeah honestly I'd love to get more active in things again. As summer approaches I'll have more people working at my business and can take more time away for sure.
  15. My main focus isn't so much on balance changes, more so performance and stability improvements first. That said, assuming the server performance is in a good and stable state, I'd probably look at adding quality of life to either the points plugin (like allowing a buyable ammo refill for the whole team, or a set of boomer goggles for the whole team), or other aspects of the game, like the 'worldmodel turn rate fix' plugin I posted about in the L4D2 section. If those two areas of focus are in a good state, then I'd look at balance and actual gameplay changes. Of course, I'd want to hear community opinions regarding balance changes - so I'd probably propose my ideas and gather feedback prior to changing things. My general philosophy for L4D2 versus is that the game should be fun from all perspectives, regardless of winning, losing, survivor, or infected. There's a couple tweaks I made to infected messing with my local server, such as making smokers more of a threat by increasing their survivor pull speed and reducing the latency of the tongue, or increasing the damage a boomer does when it scratches a survivor (they should be kept at distance 🤓). Stuff like that is what I'd be looking for community opinions on. Another thing that I think would be interesting would be setting up a fast download file server and have it linked to the game server, which essentially enables custom content to be used on the server and all players would automatically download it when joining (FYI - I have proven it works as a concept already). E.g. custom sounds (like a radio playing to all players), weapons, maps, etc. - lots of possibilities there, but more of a back-pocket idea for now. One more I almost forgot about - stats and stat tracking. I know source stats was used previously for GC, and I've experimented with reading and writing stats to a database in my local server. I did actually get it working, and I could track as many stats as I wanted, enabling things such as 'personal bests' for round performance, or time to earn a certain achievement, for example, and could even track stats by map, if desired. Players would be able to check their stats in game in real time, and track their development over time. That's all I can think of right now. Let me know anything else you may be wondering, or what your thoughts are!
  16. Soda I'm curious if you're planning on implementing changes to the gameplay? I get the impression you want to make the game more challenging based on our discussions. However, I may be wrong. Can you elaborate on if you're planning on making changes and what those changes are?
  17. Kill me 3 times in one game and you win membership: Prize is for GC members only, sry but Admins are not allowed. RULES: KILLING BY TANK/WITCH DOES NOT COUNT. NO KILL STEALING or you will be disqualified. If you are an already paying member and you win, remind me before your membership expires; that's if GC is still here? To give everyone a fair shot at winning, I will play survivor only.
  18. Thank you Soda for stepping up to help. If there are no objections to handing the reigns over to you, then it is up to FlitterKill and other BMs to discuss the next stages.
  19. Throwing my hat in the ring, as I'd be happy to maintain the web and/or game server(s) into the future. I'll list a few things about me that I believe would be relevant for people to gauge whether I am suitable. For the forums and web server, I have experience building and maintaining websites either from scratch in with HTML/CSS/JS, from templates like Bootstrap, or on Wordpress or similar web-building services. When I graduated from college, I made my personal and portfolio website that I still maintain to this day, and it is built on a Bootstrap template. For game server(s), I have experience working on Source servers (L4D2 mostly) and developing plugins of my own, or working on other people's plugins built in SourcePawn. For accountability and leadership, I have a full time job working as a software analyst specifically working in corporate compensation systems. I also am the Chairman and leader of a professional growth network for the IT sector of my company, through which I've initiated and hosted virtual events to over 900 people at its peak, and many smaller events with around 40-120 attendees. I also am a co-leader of a Manhua Scans (Chinese comics translated to English) group for over two years, which has around 30-50 volunteer staff at a given time. In that group I have been responsible for assigning work, delegating tasks, maintaining our website and discord server (~4k members), all of which I enjoy very much. For finances, I don't mind having to provide funds when required and reasonable for site and server upkeep. That said, it would be my preference to have the community fund itself through valuable products or services, similar to the membership system. I like engaging with individuals or communities and working on cool and interesting projects, and creating spaces that I can enjoy with others. I've been in and around GC for many years, playing on the L4D2 servers for the first time back around 2014. I was quite a moody teenager for a while, going through some bans and fights, all while playing games a bit too much back then. My personal philosophies and priorities have evolved quite a lot since then, and since returning to the community in the last few years, I've been supporting cici and Archer where possible in maintaining the L4D2 server and its plugins, and I'm happy to help foster a good community here in GC. I'm happy to chat when time allows, and I am quite fast in responding most of the time, so please feel free to reach out! Discord (best way to reach me): xxnoobslayer Steam: Link
  20. Maestro  I can do the 10 bucks a month for the server costs

     

  21. Why yes, I did post all these threads at the start of the Super Bowl. lol.

  22. Open thread for those wanting to put various hats (theirs, others) into the ring for Board Membership (or sole dictatorial) control of GC. No private comms unless you are looking for details of something not covered elsewhere. Do not come to me for blessings, anointments, coronations, ascensions, or any other form of elevation, praise, encouragement you may seek. You want in, speak up, here! You think someone should be in? Throw the name in and state a case. This thread runs concurrently to the open poll. If y'all decide to just slide on out to the Land of Discord and Donations nothing in this thread will mean anything.
  23. Stuff that needs to happen, will happen, after this is all resolved, for those considering taking over or board membership: 1) Whoever is moneybags will need a PayPal account. It will probably have to be a "business" account (note PayPal does not care if you are not a business, doing business as is fine) 1.5) Along with that account get a PayPal Mastercard debit card to easily extract PayPal funds and make payments for GC things (and %1 back unless that has changed with new cards...) 2) Whoever is moneybags will *probably* need a Stripe account. Highly recommended just as a hedge against PayPal. Funds immediately transfer to a bank account after 24 hours (or less?) 3) Whoever is moneybags should have some measure of money and not be broke. Do not assume you will have steady GC income to cover your GC costs. 3.5) If we end up with a new GC board, the all the above can be hashed out by them, but it will need to happen, all of it, so stuff can be transferred over correctly. 4) Do not expect initial funding for the new GC to be forthcoming. Did I mention my PayPal account is tapped? See point #3 above... 5) Account transfers galore. Domains are under a generic GC account so nothing needs to be "transferred" in so much as maybe a few details changed at Namecheap. But forum software, NFOservers, SSDNodes, etc. will need dealing with. 6) Google stuff will be...difficult. Myself and Fatty(Yes!) are still quite, QUITE, intertwined with the domains with our emails and such. Cross that road, etc. when it is time. I think we can save more money by hosting the game server on the web server, the web server stats are fantastic! Ehhh.... NFOServers remain THE name for game hosting. Sure, lots of other players, but NFO has been at this for over two decades and they have heavy-duty DDOS protection. And the L4D2 server does get attacked every now and then. I'd leave it as is. Also running stats and Sourcebans on the same server as the game is hosted on... Not the best idea. But! Once I'm out, I'm out. O. U. T. Whoever/s in charge can do whatever they want...
  24. 1) Turn out the lights... Someone can take over server payments of $30/every three months and you can do comms on Discord and SKIP ALL OF THIS. And yes. This is very much an option you should consider. One person could comp $10/month to keep you all happy, Discord is free, and there is *nothing* else to ever worry about again. No management, no structure. You want stats and Sourcebans too? Keep the webserver at $70/year, skip the forums completely and rely on Discord for everything, and then pay $30/year for one of the two GC domains to still have stats and Sourcebans accessible, and that's that. 2) Ideally (!) a group of sane people take over and become the new GC board with a single person nominated as "moneybags" to handle the financial stuff. The old-GC way of things was if you are on the board and things are bad, board members kick in $$$ to keep the lights on. We haven't had an active board in forevers so multiple hands on the wheel would be nice to see. Hell. Specific accounting with all board members kicking in $100/yearly dues to be on the board and you probably have this all covered again and can starting building up once more. For a long time Board members were comped on dues-paying given the amount of time dedicated to overseeing everything, but in return for that comp you were expected to do stuff and also that aforementioned cover-the-bills-if-necessary promise (and funny enough that kind of looks like me the last few years...) 3) Someone takes over for "me", singular. Hope they have money. Hope they are trustworthy.
  25. This is not expensive at all, why are you leaving? The costs in the pinned post are what they are NOW. Fall 2023 they were a few hundred more per year. The Fall 2022 and prior to that they were a couple hundred more on top of that. The drain was heavier by far. And I took it. That does not answer the question... It does partially. I may have mentioned in the past that this is not the only org where I've been carrying financial weight. I've looked back over the last decade or so and I've done myself no favors at all. Specific to this org, even while I've been cutting to the bone, I have to throw out flares to get any income coming in. If the org cannot sustain itself even at this low of a burn rate it deserves to end; or in this case, let someone else/others deal with the mess. Whether that is through rallying troops or personal deeper pockets is no matter to me. This removal of myself has been gestating since at least the pandemic but a specific situation has forced this to being a now-thing. That thing being my PayPal account is wiped. Oh I'm not broke, but when the primary utility for GC payments is tapped that's a message (see below for why it's tapped) I'll point out income into GC comes via PayPal transfers or credit card payments via Stripe. The Stripe stuff has been primary dormant, just like PayPal, and in the distant past when I'd make a big payment out of PayPal for GC stuff I'd just move the Stripe stuff which is in its own bank account over to my other usual account to cover. No big deal. But as I said, Stripe is mostly dead (thank you $30 dollar donator from a few days ago via Stripe ) So setting aside Stripe, there's PayPal. And when no one is renewing memberships and admins and the like, there is little revenue there. No big deal, I've got other direct-revenue streams into PayPal. Or at least I did... And that's the way its gone the last five years. As long as PayPal has been "up" I've used it for occasional personal bullpoop and the rest goes to my orgs and I've never had to pay attention to it, whether people were giving me money for these orgs or not. Then eBay stopped pushing to PayPal in favor of direct bank deposits. And then another larger, steadier, $$$ stream from a different work pile of mine also stopped with PayPal. And now, with GC payments all coming from this PayPal card, its so very expletively noticeable that there is nothing here any more. Because the card is drained. Cost are so low now, can't you just keep running things... Sure, I would not be surprised if I kept the truest of accounting that over the course of the year we have enough from the few who do kick in to cover the $200-ish amount needed on the low end, needed NOW, Spring 2024, that is. Sure, I could also switch to my other bank cards for server payments and carry on. But that's not what this is all about. As I said, this is not the only org I'm carrying and it needs to change. Specifically, the other org also pulls from PayPal so, with expletive-all for income into PayPal, everything is so very crystal clear on all fronts. I gotta get out and take care of me and not others for awhile. They say you know when you know. I know. I knew during the pandemic that it was coming, and now the sign has appeared. I have not played a GC online game since the late 2000s but I was happy to keep things organized and going in the 2010's at least through the mids when this was all a very nice distraction while other (repeated) cancer things were going on with multiple close people in my life. Late 2010s well, the cancer life stuff resolved..., then all the pandemic stuff and honestly I have no idea what time is any more, but I'm feeling it now, and now's the time. The fundamental nature of GC has always been self-hosted online game servers, competitive play, leave all the witching, moaning, cussing, somewhere else. That was 2002. Online servers except for CSGO and L4D2 are gone (Minecraft and a few newer unicorns excepted). And now it's 2024. Closing Thoughts: <broken record> For years I asked people to just start new servers. We had so much unused funds in the early 2010's. Not a peep. No one wanted to or maybe already most new games never came with self-hosted online servers, and Minecraft never took off here though people did enjoy the servers for a time. After that it was a decade+ of just static payments, dwindling income, and indifference </broken record> All organizations come to an end. And GC, for what it was, and is now, is long past that point. You let organizations just carry on past their primary mission and you can end up with some unfortunate things. I'm old enough to remember when PETA was primarily about not testing on animals and the NRA was for responsible firearm ownership AND sensible, restrictive gun laws. And then the primary mission gets accomplished (or not...) and people age out from the initial organizational population, and whats left behind takes over and.... well... GC needs to either end or a new board takes over to do "something" that at least adheres to some of the principles of what GC stood for. I'd rather close shop than let others take over the GC name and decide that none of those standards matter any more. No Pottervilles here thank you! Before I shuffle off I'll probably harvest a bunch of UT2K4 things in the forums, copy out the maps redirect FTP for same though there is a UT2K4 online archive now so that helps... not that I've actually played that game in a decade but still. When I depart, whether that is through turning out the lights or handing over to a newly populated board, I'll have some more words but for now, it's just good memories. That's the measure of it, for my part.
  26. What it is NOW (as opposed to what it was a few months ago or a few years ago...) Game Server (singular): $120/year - Next renewal April 23rd-ish Hosts L4D2. Renews quarterly @$30 (so $120 a year...) Web Server: $75/year - Next renewal November 24th, 2024 Hosts the web site, Source Bans, L4D2 Stats, and the map redirect (if that is even used any more) Domains: $30-45/year gamerscoalition.com - renews December 18th, 2024 gcftw.com - renews March 24th, 2024 frgafestohio.com (optional, renews January 17, 2025) gamrs.co is NOT included (even though it is in use here now) Forum Software: $200/year Due whenever, optional if you want to renew - you can just use the current version for as long as you like So approximately $250 to $450 a year plus whatever miscellaneous bullpoop appears from time to time.
  27. And yes, I'm serious. Time for me to move on. If you are mulling it, yell at me in a few weeks. I'll make a formal call out then. 

  28. lol that's $30 in total, I just wanted to pay the game server bill, not wanting everyone to give me $30 bucks

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