Dear members and guests,

Regretfully we need to let you all know that in one weeks time the site may be closing indefinitely. Our web hosting bill is currently 3 months behind and without this server in operation there will also be no more blocklist updates possible.

We ask you to make a choice and decide on our future. If you want to help keep us alive then we need your support and donations.

There are literally millions of people downloading our files, however only a very small proportion of people find the time to invest anything in return to ensure that our free services can continue.

Everything we do here is offered free of charge, we make absolutely no money whatsoever. We do however spend quite a lot of time to keep everything running as best as we can for your benefit.

In the event that we cannot afford to continue offering our services for free, then we may need to consider introducing a small subscription/fee based service for downloading the blocklist updates and possibly looking towards using ads throughout the site.

We also need more server mirrors to cope with the excessive bandwidth/traffic associated with hosting the lists.

So now you can either choose to do nothing and let BISS die or help support us so that we can continue to support you. If you find any value in our free programs and services here then please consider donating.

The choice is now yours.

Our donation page is here :
http://www.bluetack.co.uk/donate/index.php

===================

Update - FEB 17 2008 - On behalf of all the staff at BISS I just want to thank everyone who has donated for their continued support and generosity, we all appreciate it very much.

Your response to our request for help with the server hosting costs has been a great surprise and thanks to your contributions we will definitely be around for awhile longer.

Lets hope we can continue to work together to help protect each other from all that which lurks on the net for a long time to follow.. Thanks again.

===================

We need that Server Life Support sidebar back on the forum pages, even if it
has to go to the top or bottom instead of the side. When it was right up front
here, everybody saw it and the budget rarely got behind at all, much less
three months.

Back it all up offline for awhile in case the solution turns out to be a new site.

Sent some monies your way.. Please please stay alive.

Hi to The BISS Staff From France! DONATION SENT for keeping the site alive, I Hope other registered members will do a donation as much as they can to let you moving on Thanks for all YOU do for US !!!

Come on all.

If you didn't use bluetack blocklists and got a visit from the kind of people these lists block , it would cost you more than a couple of £££ a year.

We all have to do our bit, these servers that allow you to get the blocklists at highspeed do not come cheap.

Just research what dedicated servers with 3TB (terabytes) of bandwidth a month cost, then times that by the amount of servers required to service the site.......

*donates*

Hope you raise enough money.

donation sent - hope you bluetack guys can make it through this hard time of yours. oh, and hi snomanuk I remember seeing your tracker being used to distribute blocklists, you are cool to have helped out the bluetack folks. thanks to all and good luck

Donated. It wasn't much, but I hope it helps.

You really need some sort of progress bar, as mentioned above. Seriously. If I had a better idea of what to donate (instead of all I can spare) it would drive me to donate more. Especially when my next paycheck hits (in 10 days)...

if you mean a progress bar of the donation.
There is sort of, look at the left side of the site.

It's an overview of how much money they need to cover the ongoing month, and the last 10 donations.

Ah, weird; I don't get that unless I go all the way back to http://www.bluetack.co.uk/ .
I don't see my donation in there; it must be non-automatic. I also donated before becoming a forum member... *shrug* ah well, I suppose I won't be credited.

*edit* I spoke too soon. Thanks, Tozzano; I'm now credited.

This site is too valuable to lose and the staff are to be admired for the work they do on our behalf. I wouldn't object to paying a charge if it allowed the services provided by this site to continue (please, no ads, though) but if every member donated a single dollar today the future of Bluetack would be secure.

These guys put in a lot of time and effort for a bunch of complete strangers and the least we can do is to try and make things a little easier for them.

If Bluetack didn't do this gratis then somebody would be making a healthy living selling it.

Thanks for all you do and good luck in your quest to raise the funds.

Anyone who has donated and does not see it credited or as anonymous, please PM me with the email address (or your real name) you used while donating. I will modify the tracker to reflect your donation ASAP.

Thanks to all who have risen to the occasion and have donated to the cause.

Tozz

EDIT: Thanks ironiridis and `jedi!
screwed, let me know via PM if you'd like your name associated with your donation.

Sorry to hear you guys are having trouble. Haven't stopped by for a while but here's some money.

I'm sorry about the trouble as well.

I have donated a small amount (before coming a member) and could perhaps become a mirror using my dynamic IP address. I do have a dyndns setup, so maybe?

Dunno, email me if you're interested.

-SuperGeek

I can not donate due to finance problems myself. I have cut back on updating my PG2. I try to only update once a month or couple weeks. But all I know is to try to help find a solution... hostmonster.com claims to have 3TB a month of bandwidth and all kinds of junk. Check them out if you want. Also you can chat them fairly quick. I did and asked them if you can really use the bandwidth. I told them the site I'm questioning about really does or is close to using that much and they said yes they will honor it. So that is all I can do. Sorry guys. I'm a college kid. So yeah funds are not around. Please don't do a subscription for everyone. I would rather Google ads or something.

i would´nt want to let bluetack die !

somehow i haven´t donate in awhile so heres something i can afford in the moment.

cheers and hopefully you stay alive . thanks for being part of the staff.




Sabu

I don't mind a subscription fee AND adds. Whatever it takes it is worth it. I have already been sending a donation every month. Without Bluetack, there is no way anyone would be able to survive file sharing etc. I know we cannot donate to EVERYTHING, but if you can do only one, Bluetack is IT!!! Also, when you donate using PayPal, there is a box with a plus sign (after you log in & get the pay page) on the left side close to the top that you click & enter your name. It will open up to a little comment window. Just type the name you want to show there.

IMHO isepiq

Hey I just sent you some money. I hope that helps! I know how it is to pay the bills. I hope you guys stay online! You guys do a great job I like it! I hope more people donate! Good LUCK with getting all the money u need!!

I Dugg this announcement, maybe the users of Digg will help keep the site alive.

Digg this!
BlueTack, provider of popular P2P Blacklists, may close due to lack of cash

Some another effort to keep alive the site, please join us all.!!!

Thanks in advance!

I donated what I could. Also, how could I got about becoming a mirror? What type of bandwidth does the site typically need?

Hey Guys, Money is extremely tight around my house where every penny counts so all I could donate atm is the minimum $2. Hopefully I can gather some more and donate more, this has been a great site and hopefully will continue to be.

Just some thoughts:

How many people actually log on and SEE that BT needs some donations to keep itself up & running? I think that a LOT of people just download the lists all the time & have NO IDEA that BT needs help???

1. How about an Azureus type pop up when someone downloads the lists that let them know you need some donation help? That way they get this important message even if they don't log in to BT & read the message. The Azureus pop up also has a link to click on as well as the donation message. A pop up when somone runs Protowall, or Blocklist Manager etc., just like AZ uses???

2. How about a Portal Page so that people cannot download the programs or get into the forums etc., without reading the donation message?

To anyone that says they cannot donate 'anything' because of a lack of funds: ANYONE can donate a dollar at the very least, the price of ONE can of soda from a vending machine!!! If 100,000 users donated 1 dollar each that woulde be, duh, $100,000 dollars!!! BT has [CORRECTION] MILLIONS of people downloading the lists???!!! Keeping BT running with donations should not even be a discussion with this many users. Everyone can donate 'something'.
IMHO
isepiq

Thanks isepig

Some good suggestions

Just a quick look at the amount of downloads for our lists was about 23 million a month on the average over the last 10 months. This only includes what has gone through 2 servers.

We here at bluetack have been very humble and happy with the donations we have recieved But at the same time have noticed that only a few people seem to be donating again and again. It is always nice to see new donators.

On a side note, it would be nice to make a little extra so that we could pay for developement on our applications as they are not the type of applications that most people normaly work on.
It would be nice to see someone take over the safepeer project and maybe expand on the app for utorrent that has been made to download our lists as well

We will take all suggestions into consideration (of course) and again thank you ( everyone ) for your donations.

firstaid

Shucks, I've probably posted in an old thread just now.
Sorry, newbie here but longtime list user.
Had no idea about your situation.

Just registered to tell you that $10 is heading your way

Sent 40$ as "anonymous"... Well, I registered AFTER donation, obiouvsly

guys I hope you can pull through, Iam on disabilty so money is very tight for me, Iwish you all the best,

guys why dont you just do bittorent sharing that way you wont need a such with such high bandwith pre requisist, you will still need a site, but you wont need anywhere near the bandwith, becasue ppl will be sharing it
the only issue is people will have to manually update their programs, since i update my safe peer manually i dont care, but i guess some ppl will find it to hard, its a tough spot you are in and I will just like to say thanks for what you have provided, and I hope you stay alive, I saw you are only 20 dollars away from being paid for november so thats pretty good
keep ya chin up fellas, just smile and wave, smile and wave

Sers leude.

fette sache. server kosten für den monat sin doch fast gedeckt so wie ich des seh
STAY ALIVE PLZ

Greetz from GERMANY

Just signed up after hearing about this, hope you sort it.

And I have donated

Sorry to hear about Your probs.! 10$ is on the way from Norway. Please, please, keep up the good work.
Im disabled and dont have much $, but this must be a good excuse for not bying a couple of beers, huh?

Hello,

Do the displayed total reflects the full debt or just this month's quota?

I have read that moderators are big donators. I wish I had enough money to donate more because I think moderators should only donate their time and effort. That should be enough.

We can make this happen very easily if we all donate.

We all know the essential service this site gives us.

If you can spare a buck, we all can make a big difference.

From the deep of my heart, please help. Don't let this excellent effort go down the drain.

Please. think about it...



Best of luck to all

I would be perfectly willing to pay a subscription fee. It wouldn't bother me to see ads on the site either.

From Rumrunner4

Just became aware of the problem and have donated.

A status bar somewhere prominent on the site is certainly a good idea, keep us posted.

If it comes to a subscription I would be supportive and also as one member suggested torrent downloads of the lists could be another solution.

I have also noticed that sites like Softpedia host virus program definition files, don't know the ins and outs but maybe someone else does.

Regards

Just send a donation of $5 plus $2 for a friend who ain't got paypal.
Just got the whip out on my forums, telling folk there's no one on the planet with web access who can't afford $2.

if this thread helps bring bluetack back in the black,fine.if not or it slips again,let the ads in

Seeing as this site runs into server costs every now and then, wouldn't it be financially easier to just post the blocklists as torrents files. I would be in favor of going to a subscription based model, but honestly what would be the point, as someone would just post the blocklists as torrent files anyways for the rest of the world? So in effect why not just post blocklists as torrents?

OK, I am disabled also, & VERY SHORT on funds$$$, BUT I manage to donate something EVERY MONTH. I really do not want to hear any more 'LAME' excuses for not donating.

About subscriptions: I would NEVER get my anti-virus updates from a third party, that goes for my firewall updates, & AntiSpyware updates, BUT most important of all, my Blocklist Updates. If they need to go with subscriptions, only a brainless fool would take the chance of getting the list from anywhere else. There are some things you just do NOT get thru 3rd parties or file sharing!!! I am quite sure no one would like to get blocklists that are being shared by ria, the mpaa, or the sony corp, etc., OR that have been 'edited' by some malicious hacker???!!!

IMHO
isepiq

Torrents have hash signatures, those are not easy to duplicate. BlueTack can post the hash sigs so as to let know ppl are downloading "their" official releases. In short if the hash sig of the file you are torrenting doesn't match up with what they post here, then its not legit.

$20 donated the other day :-)
Appreciate everything you guys do!


-EDIT-
PS: Didn't put my name down as I initially wanted to remain anonymous, but what-the-heck, created an account and will donate again sometime soon.

Well, even though I'm a pensioner on pension credit (sorta like income support) I'd try & donate something if I could only actually download an updated SafePeer list without getting errors.

Your portal states that SafePeer list for November 11 (?) is there but I just get an error. Any other place seems the same.

I only use you when the Azureus SafePeer updater doesn't work - which it hasn't for the last few days.

I thank you for your excellent work & am now once again using PG2 on top of SafePeer - at least PG2 is still updating.

I've used you as a last resort for several years but always found the number of non-working links on this site making life more difficult.

Then since you're free I should once again state my great thanks for the protection you provide.

Regards,
Nerd Geek
London

Thanks everyone for your support.. It is greatly appreciated.

From the looks of the donation meter we will be able to keep the site running for a little while longer. Thanks again.

We already have blocklists available by torrents, but thanks for the suggestions though.

No lists were updated or available at all this week due to the the problems I explained in my post at the start of this thread. So those that have tried to download lists and were unable to, well thats why.

I'll be donating as soon as I can get my paypal account unblocked ... forgot to enable paypal scripts to run in no scrip and they put my account into limited mode

how annoying :|

I wouldn't mind an automated email nag if $$$ gets behind. I've got a lot of sites I try to keep track of and there's always a few that slip through my poor memory going un-visited for months on end until it comes to me whilst I"m in the shower or something funny like that!

i dont understand - why is bandwidth an issue? i'd be happy to host and multi-post updates with bittorrent ... should have its own thread - uploaders get e-mail w/updates ?weekly?

... lets GO00ooo ! :-)

Sorry to hear about your probs. Today's the first time i visit this site and i hope the $5,- are helping a little...

Sorry to hear you guys are in a crunch. 10$ from the states, now just a little native Vista support

I wouldn't mind ADS on the site. Advertisements is more of a long term solution than donations. You also want to check out emule and bittorrent for distributing the blocklists. The blocklists would stay available for as long as people seed/share them. This would allow you to cut back on server cost and use more of the donation money to develop the apps you've been working on. You've gotta be realistic, most people here use blocklists for p2p and those people almost certainly have broadband. I'm sure they'd be happy to donate a tiny amount of bandwidth to keep the the blocklists coming.

The trick is to purge the old files and replace them three times a week. Torrents can do this quickly but
running a dedicated tracker with hundreds of thousands of transactions per day still uses a lot of bandwidth
and is an additional maintenance chore.

Using gnutella and emule would consume far less bandwidth at home base but the outdated files would
accumulate rapidly on those networks, making it difficult for people to find the most recent ones.

I just saw this. I've donated in the past and I just donated again. Y'all deserve it. Thanks for everything you do.

Hi.

If it wouldn't be for the fact that I just made a new installation of Windows on my system and didn't still
have the protowall and blocklist manager install files on my drive and therefore had to visit your site, I would never had noticed that your are almost going out of business because of some financial problems.

If I get it right you just need a meager $ 270 a month? So that shouldn't be any problem at all.
You have almost 60.000 registered members.That says everything. 50 cent from each of them and your
are settled for the next 10 years.All you have to do is to find a way get your members to visit the forum more often and make them aware. (Try free porn )

Greetings from Germany

Btw. I just donated 10 bucks and everyone who thinks or says that he is not able to donate at least 2 dollars
should sell his computer because he has clearly not enough money to pay his electricity bill.