2020-10-17 - MY PATREON MISTAKE

Earlier this month, I received the monthly bill for my server hosting www.malware-traffic-analysis.net.  I had already seen higher costs due to bandwidth, presumably caused by increased traffic to the site.  However, my October 2020 bill was significantly more than I had ever paid before.

So I manually migrated my server to a different hosting provider, where I now pay a much more reasonable rate.

Just to be clear, this site was never in danger of going off-line.  I've always been able to afford hosting costs, but I refuse to continue paying an unreasonable amount of money.

Then I created a Patreon page for this blog.

It seemed like a good ideat at the time.  Any fans of the site could contribute and help offset hosting costs.

I posted a tweet about my Patreon page and added some links to the blog.  The response was much more than I had expected.  In less than a week, 47 people signed up, and the monthly pledge amount reached $140 per month.  Subtracting overhead from Patreon and credit card processing fees, this still was well past my projected hosting costs.

But people misunderstood the situation, and many felt the blog was in danger of shutting down.

A handful of people contacted me privately about the situation, and I now have some alternatives for hosting this blog if the need arises.

So after some consideration, I've deactivated my Patreon page.  I don't want people to start chipping in, especially now when I don't need the money.

This site has always been tied to my work and career.  Although my current employer doesn't directly pay me extra for running this blog, I'm definitely well-compensated for my expertise.  And running this blog has given me that expertise.

Another factor in my decision?  Outside money means outside influence.

I want to keep running this blog exactly as I like, without feeling any obligation to post or do something I wouldn't do otherwise.  I also want the option to walk away from all this, or maybe turn the blog over to someone else.  Currently, I can post whatever I want.  Who knows?  I might publish something controversial, like how pineapple is a delicious topping for pizza (which it is).

Ultimately, I don't feel right asking people to donate, so I'll keep running the blog as I've done for the past 7 years.  If my situation changes, I'll be sure to reach out to the many people that have expressed their support for this site.

Thanks for reading!

--
Brad Duncan,
Brad [at] malware-traffic-analysis.net

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