You have to ignore the title - it was a joke by Didds to get people to actually get people looking at the situation of the fact we completely rely on our own money and fantastic donations from FGers to keep FG going - especially the maintenance of the website and its supporting services, the FG Feel Good Fund (FGFGF) and additional things such as creating private FG servers for all of us to play on together.
I'm always very VERY conscious on how much we ask and remind people of donations. I didn't remind people much at all over the last year (until recently lower down on an FGFGF post) on how important this is as to what stuff happens here, but clearly that was for good reason whilst we've all been likely to have been hit in lots of different ways due to this Global Pandemic no one could've ever predicted.
Always open to people seeing this more and different ways to keep it in the back of people's minds - i have been seeing if there are ways of making options open on FG somewhere to just help collect regular donations for people that have offered to donate regularly but want something just to auto do it for themselves. I think i can do that if some want it still.
The only other option that i've had on the backburner is some form of reward scheme linked to donations but its very difficult with a place like ours. People should feel like they want to donate to a family rather than 'Become a fully fledged Member only by donating'. If we keep getting donations regularly then we may never have to think of this - if not, then you could argue it has to be available in some way to keep our fun going. It can be one where some care, others don't kind of thing.
My ears are always open to you lot on your views 🤗👍
Well, its been a while for an FGFGF update, but hopefully you can let me off on that, as the first months of 2021 have certainly been busy to say the least 😄
The Big Xmas FGFGF Giveaway was a huge thing for me to try and organise and complete but I was determined to do something extraordinary because of the hard times we've all had through this global lockdown. FGers received playstation, xbox and steam vouchers, brand new games (quite a few that were AAA) to play with other FGers, quality merchandise through special edition statues and FG personalised stuff thrown in to make it all up. All FGers ( except @Dan94 because of Merch supplier issues 😤) have their gifts and I really hope they've been well received and you're getting a lot of smiles out of them already. Even though that was quite a significant mini project to do, especially alongside the FG Awards (how can we all forget!), I still managed to get a few more Feel Good Fund surprises out there in the wild over that period and into early 2021.
Clive @Teenwolf25 and Justin @FallenDark200 helped us massively get through the difficult times on Destiny in the last few years and helped many FGers get their first raids done and some seriously hard activites completed. Games like Destiny require people to keep the social side of things going whilst we wait for better days and i'm glad its still a game that is a core game here. A Feel Good surprise in the way of FG personalised Hoodies went their way as a thanks to them.
James @Lurch has been a newer FGer to the fold at the back end of last year, getting involved every week on FIFA nights and embracing what FG is about finding the time to get into the other games we all play on an FG Friday. With some harder times that he's had to overcome, a Feel Good opportunity was open for the taking which we gladly took with both hands, so he now is a lovely owner of a 2TB Hard Drive for all the extra games he has to play with FGers.
Tom @LordBaguette has made a real effort to bring a buzz around the place with his Marvel comic/movie knowledge, his support with setting up previous poker nights as well as having other challenges to deal with, so sending him a handmade version Iron Man Arc Reactor (picture below) to brighten his days with an FG smile.
We were also able to honour our promise last year of getting Cyberpunk 2077 for Sam @Capn_Underpants and we hope everything at home is getting better with her Mum and family ❤️
Finally, @JBR-Kiwi was struggling for a while in GT Sport when shifting his gears would completely take him out of the race, and whilst that wasn't much of a bad thing 🤣 , we're not that bad so he now owns a lovely PS4 controller so he can beat us again and again 😁. It should be also noted Kiwi immediately sent a donation to FG related to this, once again showing justification as to why he was much deserving of a Feel Good present.
Outside and on top of all the of FGFGF gifts, we also shouldn't forget we've created and maintained 3 PC FG Dedicated Servers; 7 Days to Die, Minecraft and Valheim. Whilst we are putting 7 Days on hold, this is something we'd love to see more of if we physically can make it happen but would require relevant support, via activity and ad-hoc donations to keep them going.
And lastly on the topic of donations, I've started to see a few coming over recent weeks without saying anything and its HUGELY appreciated. ❤️ We all hopefully know by now we can't do all of this, on top of making everything run as normal without regular donations from you all. If we can get a few more over coming weeks then my hope is to look at the FGFGF in April and get even more Feel Good surprises out where possible, so if you can donate it is a huge benefit to everyone here at FG. You can do this through the homepage link to the PayPal FG Account or let me know (i'll get the merch stuff updated so we can also get a little bit when you get stuff from that too).
Nice job Lee 🙂 You're the man. I really like how it showcases everything right up front.
My one constructive criticism is that I wish our color was a little more red and a little less pinkish.
Thanks Tommy. No refunds though, I need that money to pay for food for the wife and kids, obvs 😄
We needed to show more of everything here as its just so underutilised its a real shame. Hopefully first impressions seems to be helping it.
re: pinkish colour, I'll take a look at that at some point. Our red in the FG is actually off red already and that red is the same FG red with transparent elements added so its possibly the faded colour that is doing that. I'd like to get more done so we can switch up when we want so maybe use a few different colours from our pallette. Cheers man.
Anyone else hoping for specific Game Hub pages at all? I mean I kick things off but will clearly need quite a bit of help to keep it in tiptop condition.
On the Forum, it would be good that when you click the Gran Turismo link if, instead of taking you here .....it took you here instead. Might as well direct to the new Hub 🙂
Cheers all. I know most aren't into feedback and all that jazz but I really do appreciate it. Anything constructive too. We can't make our FG better if we don't know how everyone feels. Its a radical change but we've needed some of it for a while. It also means alot of space for scope because some things are technically 'unfinished' in my eyes so room for all your ideas and - hopefully - some type of support that you all feel like you can get involved in and do yourselves to make this place even better.
In short:
Brand New Homepage - better ways to not lose sight of the fact our place here is way more than just a forum now
New Game Hubs Page
New Patch Updates function - to be introduced for games of our choice
Opens up more multiple pages of stuff to be added - which could be literally anything
Merch updated with a few things we've previously ordered and know it works
Brand new Polls page - wrapping up every poll across the entire site in one place
Articles to be used as a place to better show off our FG game night stories - and everything else blog like
and clearly loads more potential
extra work went into to make the views work for desktop, tablet and mobile views
Just keep talking up and sound off. Its been a great start to 2021 for FG with all the things going on so far; obviously i'm a little busy atm with 5 more little crazy ones to look after for a while but i'm doing what i can to make this year a fucking great one. Heres hoping theres some inspiration in there that you too want to jump on the bandwagon 🤠 (no horse and cart emoji, so you get a cowboy smile instead)
No worries everyone. I didn't think even I would struggle for time and other things around this Christmas week but here we are! Kind of helps the fact you guys could see who won what before me as it was automatically done by the system.
Well done to @Spacedeck, @Plumbers Crack and @Misneach_ getting the remaining presents from the Big FGFGF Xmas Giveaway. Hopefully, like @phil bottle says above, it gave many of you something to look at, get behind for a bit of fun and joy as that was the only intention because it was only for existing FGers. Sorry if you didn't win, if we can push through into 2021 to make it a better year (and our lives allow us to be generous in an unstable world to donate a few quid every so often) we can try and do some more throughout the year if this helps everybody?
Also, if you have more ideas of things to link other giveaways too then you know i'm all ears to give it a bash if we can make it work. GGFG everybody ❤️
Lucky win Dan! It is the dankest prize imo. Personalised and looks comfy AF, definitely jealous. If George won the hoodie as well it's definitely a rigged system!
I wonder what kind of system Lee has in place for the winners. I would love to think it was a bit of toast strapped to a cat's back butterside up and dropped from a height.
🤣🤣 I'd have probably felt the sweat again if George took another 3! 😅
But in all seriousness, if anyone is actually curious to how these work, this is genuinely what could happen as I wanted it to feel like you could all ask for as many as you like - the alternative was put up just one raffle and you have the chance to win 1 prize out of 20 which could mean you get something you probably didn't want in the first place and you'd only have one chance to get stuff. I like the idea you all have a chance every day (although in an ideal world I would've loved it if every person won at least one thing but that's the double-edged sword of a system generated answer!)
I thought i'd just grab the answers from the Developer who created the 'Raffles' application system i've installed for this so you get the answer from the horses mouth on how it works:
I think in the future we could do some live ones through different means, but if we're lucky enough to do stuff like this continually, then this works perfectly from my POV because I can set it up, it nicely fits in with the User Interface of the whole website and it takes care of itself. I can log in whenever I want to the same page you guys see and check out the winner later.
Like always, in the future if anyone ever wants to start getting involved more on these bits specifically, just let me know. It will also always depend on Donations too which is currently made up of what I put in to this place plus current other donations minus the proportion we need to keep the lights on around here and anything else e.g. private servers. The more we have in, the more Raffles/Giveaways and Feel Good Fund presents we can do throughout the year.
This application can set up Raffles where we can technically allow purchase of tickets for stuff but that wasn't what I wanted it for in the first place.
Well done to @Dan94 who won the prestigious Personalised FG Hoodie from 17th December! On a personal note it's pretty cool to see so many people interested in this type of stuff so watch this space! Enjoy buddy! 👍😎
In 2018, I set up the FG Awards as a way to recognise a few people within the FG family to say thank you for what they have done to help others. I hope that all will enjoy the awards and maybe start to hope one day they'll get one themselves. I feel proud we can do such things in a year which i know most would want to forget. I promised to have a good send off to 2020 and that's what we're gonna do below!
Young FGer of the Year
We've played years with him but its only over the last 6-12 months where we've able to really get him part of the group where he has shined through many raid completions on Destiny 2. Not standing for just making up the numbers either, he has been able to help many inexperienced FGers to their first raid clearance ever on Destiny and other more experienced folk to get their first ever clearances for newer raids when it was virtually at its hardest point. I can't wait for him to get more involved with everyone, as he has fantastic skills and extremely mature head on his shoulders that really helps explain even the most difficult scenario to most inexperienced team player. You should be real proud of that boy, Bob @Baabcat. Well done Charlie!
Its been a joy to have this guy around after joining FG in April and has embraced everything about what we are since. Getting involved on FG Fridays games, offering to be part of teams where possible to help achieve goals, putting his views across the entire of FG, including creating his own PPR for his trials and tribulations on PS Trophy hunting! He's always up to give anything a go and his positive attitude is what we've needed over such a turbulent year. FG is a better place with the small Welshman (who'd have thought it?). Well done Paul!
The FG Awards wouldn't be awards without one being about making funny moments happen, even if they didn't intend it! When I think of every FG Friday this year, I always wanted to make sure he was there. He'll play some games even if he's propping the bottom of the leaderboard up, getting shotgunned in the face every 2 seconds, or getting smashed off the GTA track. His deadpan way of life is brilliant and we'd be lost without him to be honest. His love/hate relationship he has for games is just incredible as he will play through any type of crap to have fun with anyone here and that attitude and commitment you just can't buy. Don't ever change Gary. And thank you for all you do outside of this for FG. Always massively appreciated.
This award was most jovial and joker of the pack this year. He's been in the FG Wilderness for a while now but since coming to the BIG FG meet up last October, we have been graced with his ever present glorious self in a multitude of colourful goop. He has a funny knack of being able to bring the fun whatever the occasion, in his sexy accent and possible beer smelling mouth. And even though he usually doesn't know what the hell is going on, I don't think this man doesn't ever not care about any FGer in this place. If he could, he'd do anything for you - and guaranteed to put a smile on your face via his 1 minute game videoclips of something completely random. We're extremely lucky to have you Cal!
This could've gone to a few people this year. @Greboth still knocking it out the park in whatever he makes in Minecraft and Artwork, @Teenwolf25 and @FallenDark200 making strides in solo/2-man runthroughs on Destiny 2 activities and raids, @datfroggieguy's capacity to eat all the camos and cod challenges for breakfast, @tronic44's clever base antics in 7 Days with everyone else chipping in.....the list just goes on. But for once, I see a guy who is relentless - and i mean utterly relentless - and finding enough clips of mini plays to cause anyone to go into full panic if we had to make him another montage video of just the past week (you should check his PPR out as its pretty darn amazing). He has a great attitude towards how to tackle certain challenges and shares what could work for people. I'm sure having his newly born premature daughter home for Christmas is a way better present than this could ever show, however Kenny's skills won't go unnoticed any longer! Top stuff, squire!
When I can't do stuff around here, it gets to me. And i've learned that even myself can lean on people even when I didn't need to. Not just keeping FG going, but moving it forward to something even more can enjoy in a year that we'd all want to forget is remarkable really. He's helped out massively with under the hood stuff, like moderation, donations, game days/nights, event creation...more than you people will realise. But above all, he's a geniune man that wants us as a family to achieve all the things we want to, on a personal and family level. He'll always be interested in what you have to say and probably felt like he's sacrificed many years of his life to this place in doing so! Like FG isn't the same with most of you all being around, it certainly isn't FG if Phil isn't around. Thanks for all that you do Phil, you sir a gent and a Legend.
Each year I try to honour the achievements of people in the FG family that will show on paper, not just in real life that they will always be FG no matter what and rightly should be invited into the Hall of Fame. He is outspoken, volatile, random, hilarious, caring, hilarious, OTT, crazy and damn right impossible not to love (trust me, i've tried many times). It was never going to go much longer until this chap got into this because he built the foundations of FG. He built what why we're all here in the first place. When you realise at first hand the stuff I see in what's involved in everything that FG does, its incredible that we even started to exist in the first place. He lights up the room when he comes online, he even makes people laugh on the amount of times he then leaves the controller for his 53rd Poo of the night. But we wouldn't change him. And neither should anyone as that what we get with Diddums, right? Dave, thank you for all that you have done and also continue to do for FG. It never goes unnoticed in my book.
And with that, we're done! 2020 has been a dick of a year. But you're all here. We're all together, fighting the good fight and i'm sure 2021 will bring the best out in FG.
Posted
Happy birfayzzz Gary!! @techno ! Hope you enjoy the day shooting aliens in the face with a beer!! 😘❤👍
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