Breaking News: is this the end of fansites, goodbye Habbox?

[Bext]

Before I say why I think habbo's new move is actually a good one, I have always refused to buy habbo coins, donate to habbox, I am not habbo's greatest fan and I've been on habbo since 2001 so I've seen the way fansites have developed.

1) Donating -The main is issue with donating to websites (and buying coins on habbo) is that its true, no-one forces you to donate. However there is the question of 'peer pressure' to have nice shiny things, a nice avatar, more of this and that, big signatures so you feel more accepted on the forum/habbo. To gain instant respect and prestige you donate other things as well. From my experience of many times of forums they operate better without this system and discussion is better. having visited this forum on and off I have witnessed snobbery and distain to members that are not vip etc (Just like habbo eh?).

2) Donations and charity - If people are so bothered about habbox's charitable donations (A big applaud on that btw I didn't know it as that much) then they can simply donate to any charity they choose via websites, direct debits and so forth. Habbox isnt the only way you know.

3)Website running costs - It is very possible and very doable to run a larger forum without donations from its members. A scan of numerous forums will show you that. It is just a case of having the right advertising and a good number of traffic (Habbo fansites have suffered a decline in this). My brother's housemate is a website designer and has a successful comic fans forum that has smaller running costs than here.


4) Habbo will be ok without fansites - It seems that lots of habbos do not actually visit fansites. The MP has offered a standard for rare values and a part of me imagines that this move of habbos may be them bring back forums or setting up something else.


5) Abusing the donation system - It seems that Habbox is an honest officail website but there has been and will be websites and owners that will abuse the system. If this new move protects a group of habbos from being duped with their money then its already done some good.


6) If it bothers you so much....become unofficial.

7)Habbo and websites are not everything...much more out there.


The facts are there. Bad rep me all you like but sometimes its worth looking at the bigger picture.

[Zak]

You do realise no one is forced to donate to Habbox or other fansites? I don't see what your problem is but you have pretty much ruined all fansites now and in the future. Donations help towards the costs of the hosting of the websites and help us buy credits which go back into the community for you to win.

This..... 100%.....

[Plucked]

whats that supposed to mean? sorry if i object to fansites taking money from habbos, i can have an opinion cant i?
I do agree slightly, but on the other hand, how else are fansites supposed to stay open?
Habbo want more fansites and want them more involved but without these 'donations' there aren't going to be many fansites left.

[Okeanos]

but without these 'donations' there aren't going to be many fansites left.

thats fine with me. i liked fansites a lot better when there were only a couple of them. if a fansite owner isn't willing to pay for the site themselves then he/she cant be very committed to it. if theyre not committed to it then the site was probbaly rubbish to begin with so who cares if it closes?

[AgnesIO]

thats fine with me. i liked fansites a lot better when there were only a couple of them. if a fansite owner isn't willing to pay for the site themselves then he/she cant be very committed to it. if theyre not committed to it then the site was probbaly rubbish to begin with so who cares if it closes?

I'd love to see you fork out $300 a month on a fansite..

I mean, be reasonable, when Hx started they could NEVER have anticipated being here 10 years later, and as big as they are now.

[Grig]

thats fine with me. i liked fansites a lot better when there were only a couple of them. if a fansite owner isn't willing to pay for the site themselves then he/she cant be very committed to it. if theyre not committed to it then the site was probbaly rubbish to begin with so who cares if it closes?

So you're saying because the biggest and longest running fansite on Habbo takes donations to fund stuff, they are rubbish and should close? That seems to make a lot of sense.

[Suspective]

thats fine with me. i liked fansites a lot better when there were only a couple of them. if a fansite owner isn't willing to pay for the site themselves then he/she cant be very committed to it. if theyre not committed to it then the site was probbaly rubbish to begin with so who cares if it closes?

Being committed, and being able to cover all the running costs out of your own pocket are both different things. You obviously don't realize how high the running costs are to host a site such as Habbox along with everything else you have to pay for, not every fansite owner has the money to spend doing so unfortunately. I'm still confused as to why you have such a problem, with people donating to a site they like to use and want to remain open.

If anything donations are making Habbox even better (in terms of 'furnis') because it means they can provide better prizes, and host bigger events. Don't think there is some member of staff, who is ultra rich (on Habbo) and bagging all the furni, cause I can assure there really isn't :P

[October]

1) Donating -The main is issue with donating to websites (and buying coins on habbo) is that its true, no-one forces you to donate. However there is the question of 'peer pressure' to have nice shiny things, a nice avatar, more of this and that, big signatures so you feel more accepted on the forum/habbo.

This is a very good point, actually. I've seen many people on many forums that believe having donator privileges makes them more 'elite' or better than others.

[Zak]

Why do you keep saying taking away?

The difference between a donator and non-donator is an Avatar Size and colour of username. In terms of content or anything else it is the same there is no difference in service it is all aesthetic.

It's not like we force or manipulate for donations for instance only allowing you to post 5 times a day before demanding you upgrade...

Furthermore.

$315USD is our monthly running cost.

About £18 -25 is what we might get from donator in a month. That money is used to fund credits for competitions.

Wow I never knew the running costs were that high... Kudos to you and Sierk

[HE-Joshua]

Wow I never knew the running costs were that high... Kudos to you and Sierk
It's very nice for Him to mention the revenue from the Donations would of been lovely if they could post revenue from advertising.

[Andings]

Being someone that has been in the fansite realm for almost 8 years, probably more as I started at a very young age I wish to provide my input. I have been liked and hated by many people but I throughout this persevered and continued my mery way.

Habbo is definitely not doing themselves any good by forcing Fansites to stop donation schemes. As has been stated by Jin, and various others donations don't even scratch the surface of Website Hosting costs for large forums such as HabboX and are not forced to be done. I don't know about you, but I have never had donator here and never had the urge to get it, sure I might not be a regular poster on this forum, but I do browse around and look at stuff from time-to-time. So saying "because you get a flashing name and user rank image" is a load of bollocks.

Fansites have always received crap support from Habbo ever since Paul LaFontaine took control of Sulake™. Sure communication increased, but the overall way Habbo spoke and treated Fansite Owners was appalling. It only seems that since Beeches has stepped down and WaltzMatilda has come up to management that such ******ed actions at Sulake have been made.

I am slowly seeing big fansites crumble under the pressure of conforming to Habbo's dictatorship and one example of this is HabboHut. This site used to be big, and now look at it. I feel if every Fansite started a protest to boycott Habbo, and their fans supported them, then Habbo would see a huge reduction in visits to the website and see what impact fansites, big and small, as a whole, actually have. Sounds stupid all over a virtual game, and before someone pulls the "grow up and get over the virtual world" card on me they should be told, I work as an IT Support Technician for the Government in my country.

The only way to affect a company, and force change, is to hit them where it hurts... their pockets. Stop buying credits and furni and stop visiting their site. After a week or two of that, it will make an impact into their statistics and they will see something is up.

Habbo used to be good and now... well, now its utter crap. Habbo needs to learn to treat us all as people, not numbers.



We are waiting for a reply to the email we have sent after they sent us an email asking us to remove the payments.php page.
LOL and potentially take the risk in breaking vBulletin... lol. Are they mental?

[Plucked]

thats fine with me. i liked fansites a lot better when there were only a couple of them. if a fansite owner isn't willing to pay for the site themselves then he/she cant be very committed to it. if theyre not committed to it then the site was probbaly rubbish to begin with so who cares if it closes?
Regardless, my point still stands.

[Sticky-Note]

Donating is a choice. It's no different than donating to any other organizations. No different than buying habbo credits. You can use your money how you want to.