For some years now, I have been active as a player on the site https://www.yucata.de , who provide a free service to...
For some years now, I have been active as a player on the site https://www.yucata.de , who provide a free service to play (asynchronously), board games against other human players. They collect only the bare minimum of data needed to be able to contact you as a player, and there are no adds or add-ons.
The community there is one of the most pleasant places on the Net, with helpful folks willing to help teach at the drop of a hat, and others willing to donate time and expertise to implement new games.
Recently the founder was prompted to post the following note to the community. (reposted with permission)
Yesterday, I received a message asking why Yucata didn't charge any money or why it didn't at least introduce some limits for free-riders who don't support the site. There are several aspects to the question.
a) This is a great site, why don't you try to earn some money?
b) Why do 5% of users have to take the burden to support Yucata while the rest is enjoying the site for free?
I am taking the chance to give a public answer.
Yuata has been around for 16 years now. Internet was still younger back then and more idealistic. We wanted to contribute our small place to the Internet.
With ads, with the apps and the app store, with the invention of the freemium model, Internet became big business.
As I notice regulary, Yucata seems to be old-fashioned in many aspects. We are still trying to contribute one of the nicest places on the net, with friendly people, without trying to get people addicted with micro-rewards, without creating pressure through punishments for slow play, without pushing people to pay by introducing a freemium model. And without ads.
We don't try to get as many users as possible. Otherwise we would introduce a live-game mode as all other sites do. This would get us more users, but it would also have a negative impact on the place.
The Yucata team is creating the site for fun and, thankfully, nobody of us depends on it financially.
Yucata is free to use and will always be. Without limits. There are enough people who don't have anything to spare to donate. Others perhaps would be able to afford a silver badge but for many reasons don't. Be our guest, that's fine. Running the servers does cost money. We managed to cover that for the last 16 years and will likely for the next 16.
So, also regarding donations we are true to our core message: If you donate to say "thank you", please do. If you get a bad feeling because you support but others a free-riders, then don't. Just be our guest as so many other people.
Yucataly,
/Sparhawk
The community there is one of the most pleasant places on the Net, with helpful folks willing to help teach at the drop of a hat, and others willing to donate time and expertise to implement new games.
Recently the founder was prompted to post the following note to the community. (reposted with permission)
Yesterday, I received a message asking why Yucata didn't charge any money or why it didn't at least introduce some limits for free-riders who don't support the site. There are several aspects to the question.
a) This is a great site, why don't you try to earn some money?
b) Why do 5% of users have to take the burden to support Yucata while the rest is enjoying the site for free?
I am taking the chance to give a public answer.
Yuata has been around for 16 years now. Internet was still younger back then and more idealistic. We wanted to contribute our small place to the Internet.
With ads, with the apps and the app store, with the invention of the freemium model, Internet became big business.
As I notice regulary, Yucata seems to be old-fashioned in many aspects. We are still trying to contribute one of the nicest places on the net, with friendly people, without trying to get people addicted with micro-rewards, without creating pressure through punishments for slow play, without pushing people to pay by introducing a freemium model. And without ads.
We don't try to get as many users as possible. Otherwise we would introduce a live-game mode as all other sites do. This would get us more users, but it would also have a negative impact on the place.
The Yucata team is creating the site for fun and, thankfully, nobody of us depends on it financially.
Yucata is free to use and will always be. Without limits. There are enough people who don't have anything to spare to donate. Others perhaps would be able to afford a silver badge but for many reasons don't. Be our guest, that's fine. Running the servers does cost money. We managed to cover that for the last 16 years and will likely for the next 16.
So, also regarding donations we are true to our core message: If you donate to say "thank you", please do. If you get a bad feeling because you support but others a free-riders, then don't. Just be our guest as so many other people.
Yucataly,
/Sparhawk
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