Plague Fest Hosting?

That's a pretty big leap if you're going to do it right. We can barely manage our admin subscriptions, how would we begin to manage a hosting company? Last thing we need is something else to distract us from our work with the game servers we currently have. We do want to expand PF, just at a gradual and safe pace. Pretty pointless to put up 10 servers if they're always empty. You add a new one and work on it until it's either a success or a definite failure, then move on to the next. To me it seems PF will always stay at it's current level of popularity. This is primarily due to the servers we provide. Most people don't play ZM for longer than a few months, so it seems PF is always on this cycle, every few months we get new members and old ones seem to trickle off, often never to be seen again. So we're always at X amount of community members, never decreasing and never increasing. Which means PF is stuck at X amount of $ from admin subscriptions. Which means PF is stuck, period. Expanding might be the only way we can obtain more subscriptions to afford more dedicated servers for further expansion, albeit more servers or other games / services. Only downside to PF is it's name, it's highly geared toward zombies, hence plague. I know you'll probably respond with "Well Hello?! I have 3 dedicated servers ready to help with PF's expansion" but I guess Kyle keeps missing you on steam. There won't be any definite decisions about anything until Kyle does his thing. You also must understand that with your proposal comes many important concerns.

First, we don't know the stability or reliability of your server(s) and yourself. We can't start building a server or two on some guy's box if said box might go offline at any time. We don't know your financial situation or how you afford the servers and network so how are we to know how able you are to keep up with invoices and the like?

Second, we don't know who the box is shared with or who might have access to our files.

Third, what's to stop you from changing our login information to steal one of the servers we create on one of your boxes? Say we create one to see how it goes and it ends up being successful, full almost daily, wouldn't you want this for your Absolute Gamers community?

Fourth, why would you let us use your services, which undoubtedly you're probably paying for, not only for free, but also with the ability to sell admin subscriptions and possibly turn a profit? All the while on YOUR box / dime, yet you're totally cool with this?

Finally, you came out of no where. No posts, no nothing. First thing from you was the offer. Do you see why this is strange?

I hope you understand. I'm sure you would have similar concerns if you were in our shoes. If there truly is nothing to worry about then we need some definite convincing, but why should you have to do any work (convincing) when you're offering these great genuine services?

No that isn't how most things sometimes happen. Most of the time a member first shows interest in the community, gets to know people, plays in the servers, etc, and then they might start offering services, whatever that may be. Say a member is really good at 2D design, and after they've been in the community for a little while they decide to offer their service or skill to help out the community because they're into the community and that's simply what they want to do. So he or she creates a new awesome logo or skin or whatever and then continues to be a part of the community. Kyle didn't become our server tech by registering on our forums then immediately PM'ing us saying "hey guys, i'm a server geek, let me manage your shit" - we would have to be out of our minds to hand anything over to this guy. Instead, Kyle joined as a normal member, played as a normal member, made suggestions like a normal member, etc, etc, and only then did he start to showcase his knowledge. When someone approaches you and almost immediately offers something sketchy it merely increases the suspicion immensely. Nothing against you personally or anything, that's just the nature of the situation. The unknowns don't help either (who you are, age, financial status since 3 dedis with those specs all on 1gbit lines surely isn't cheap, etc, etc, I've outlined most of this already). The person you need to talk with is Kyle, not I. We can have a group discussion on steam later on with all of us after kyle's tests. He mentioned in a private section that he wouldn't be around until Monday, so enjoy your weekend and hopefully we'll see him then.

I swear we used to have a "Suggestions" forum way back...

I think it was renamed.