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[Eagle of Fire]

Today I see this when I log on:

Dear Abandonia visitors: We are the small non-profit that runs the one of the world’s largest DOS Games websites in the world. We have only 3 members of staff but serve 450 000 users and have outgoing costs like any other top site for example: our servers, power, rent, programs, and staff. Abandonia is something special. It is a library of old games for you to download. It is like an old gaming arcade with all the old games in their original format. Abandonia is a place where you can find great old games and have fun four hours and years. To protect our independence, we are dependent of our friends using the site. We take no government funds. We run on donations averaging around 6 USD (5 Euro). If everyone reading this gave the price of a cup of coffee, our fundraiser would be done within a few days. If Abandonia is useful to you, take one minute to keep it online for another year. Please help us forget fundraising and get back to Abandonia.

Strangely, the "Read More" option don't open when I click on it. I checked, I am allowing Abandonia.com in my NoScript.

Any news about this? I assume this is independently done by our host but it is still quite strange. Is Abandonia in trouble and in danger of shutting down?

I'm half guessing that Fifth will get back almost immediately on the subject by stating he have no idea until he contact them. But I guess there is no harm in asking.

[Japo]

I didn't know Abovo was a non-profit, in case it's not a poetic license--as much as the concept of non-profit can be abused and is ultimately a scam in my opinion.

... And actually it's not true, as I suspected Abovo is an AB which is Swedish for limited liability company.

[Panthro]

So when they say "3 members of staff" they mean three people paid by Abovo? Or do they mean Abovo itself?

[Japo]

They mean the 1 guy who does work on site, an hour every month, when he has free time from their other websites; plus the two suits who are just sitting and trying to make a profit out of this.

[Smiling Spectre]

I can press "More", and it works. But not from first time, I suspect. I pressed about 5 times, impatiently.

And their PayPal on Swedish for some reason. %)

[Japo]

Originally Posted by Smiling Spectre

I can press "More", and it works. But not from first time, I suspect. I pressed about 5 times, impatiently.

And their PayPal on Swedish for some reason. %)

It works beautifully, you should all stop using Firefox :-P

[TheChosen]

Well, I guess its official now: The actual staff members are not considered as staff members at all. I'd like to see the Abovo team try to run this site by themself's.

[Professor Oak]

Originally Posted by TheChosen

Well, I guess its official now: The actual staff members are not considered as staff members at all. I'd like to see the Abovo team try to run this site by themself's.

That would definitely be worth watching.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Not really. I mean, there wouldn't exactly be anything to watch...

[Tracker]

Well, the most amusing fact is that Abandonia never looked any shadier than this, we'r beginning to be worse than those oldwarez sites since those barely ask for cash to work.
Still I'm sure the way they put a donation query in front of the download buttons is more offensive.
A lot of people fell for it and donated cash since they were mislead into believing they would need to pay to download games.

P.S.: If you wouldn't like to see ads while using the forums, use http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/ instead of the one ending in /en/forum. Not that those ads are any subtle or have to do with the content of this board...

Sic transit gloria mundi.