Gents;

One thing is absolutely sure - Avsim needed new servers - as those they had were a complete mess ! and the site was rapidly falling down - in pieces !

the conclusion is your !

ray

He was negligent and that's all.

For sure - - !

and also they waste lots of money organising the Fancon - money that could be used to buy the required hardware - rather than continuosly ask donations from simmers.

It would all have been much plain and clear if :

avsim cecked the server first - and report on their forum the state of the boxes ! as apparently from what is reported on their forum - surprise - surprise -  this is the case now.

Yes - we can recover all data and put the site back online - that is the statement it should have been made first.

Statement 2 - - We at avsim would like also to welcome donation to purchase 2 or whatever extra servers at the cost of $$$$$$ - to expand / improve the site - and make it ready for the future - therefore we welcome your kind donation !

it is very simple courtesy and respect to their users / benefactors - that a site of such caliber own to their daily visitors.

Instead - panic - worry - that the site was lost forever was created - by the director - putting urgency to their users to open their wallets and fork out the money for it ! with the assistance of some people closely involved in avsim operations !

Do not forget that many of avsim practices defenders are commercially involved with them - and therefore have a kind and angry interest on it as their monthly income is dependent from that site - they use their forum to support avsim even when they get it all wrong.

ray

Personally, I don't think he set out to scam anyone.  I think he screwed up, yes, but not intentionally.  I think that once it happened, he might have panicked and needed someone to point to and then when the donations started pouring in and everyone started screaming for this hacker's blood and the great outpouring of affection occurred, he might have felt himself painted into a corner and forced to continue the bs.  Now he needs that money to get his site back up again, and couldn't back down now if he wanted to.  Why donn't we watch and see if any criminal charges ever really do come of this.  That'll prove me wrong and if it happens, I'll apologize in full but I don't think they will.

Get this straight, it's true that someone as established in the FS community as Tom and Avsim were would have no reason to scam people, that doesn't mean he can't make mistakes.  

Fly2e wrote on May 22^nd, 2009 at 2:05pm:

Pardon me