With the exodus of freeware developers from FlightSim.To

[styckx 1,871]

Anyone up for a rolling database where some of the most popular former addons from that site can be found now?

I've honestly lost track of where to get some of my favorite addons, or check for updates that were once there that I know are still in development and jumped shipped. .... Somewhere..

[109Sqn 1,564]

List of deleted flightsim.to Mods? - Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) - The AVSIM Community

[hansb57 493]

17 hours ago, styckx said:

Anyone up for a rolling database where some of the most popular former addons from that site can be found now?

I've honestly lost track of where to get some of my favorite addons, or check for updates that were once there that I know are still in development and jumped shipped. .... Somewhere..

I'm not going to search the web to keep up on add ons. Most of them are nice to have, maybe one or two are missed. If an add on is no longer updated on FS.to and it doesnt work after a sim update I remove it and live on. I appreciate what developers do but it goes to far to say im "grateful" 

[St Mawgan 1,372]

The vast majority of the addons I got from flightsim.to are still there. One aircraft and GAIST are no longer there but that seems to be it. 

[hansb57 493]

GAIST is a nice example. Nice and must be a lot of work. But 99% of the ships I only see when I open Little Nav Map and flying over water is not my favorite simming experience. What I want to do to obtain an add on is up to me, just as it is the developers choice and right to publish where and what they want.  I´m pretty sure I will not be missed by those developers and I can live without the hassle.

[Dillon 2,197]

My question is how did Flightsim.to even come into existence and is now the go to place for FS Freeware?  Prior to the release of MSFS no one ever heard of the site.  Freeware for FS was released primarily here at Avsim and Flightsim.com.  This site came out of nowhere...

Edited March 14, 2023 by Dillon

[Paladin2005 440]

What EXODUS?

I think, flightsim.to is pretty full of first class addons...what are you talking about? The 5 guys that took their stuff back?

[ryanbatc 12,857]

37 minutes ago, Paladin2005 said:

What EXODUS?

I think, flightsim.to is pretty full of first class addons...what are you talking about? The 5 guys that took their stuff back?

Agree.

[cianpars 1,165]

I guess if it's not on flightsim.to, I won't be searching for it anywhere else for the time being unless there is a greater exodus 

That is with the exception of GAIST and I know where they hang out anyway.  Also Henrik always lets us know on this forum when he is working on or releasing updates.

[orchestra_nl 931]

5 minutes ago, Dillon said:

My question is how did Flightsim.to even come into existence and is now the go to place for FS Freeware?  Prior to the release of MSFS no one ever heard of the site.  Freeware for FS was released primarily here at Avsim and Flightsim.com.  This site came out of nowhere...

Out of nowhere indeed. As long as I remember (freeware) addon libraries always developed from forums as a way for the community to share mods. Flightsim.to is different in that it stands on its own.
Although I could find an earlier registration of the flightsim.to domain on 2021-02-15, according to Whois it sprung to life on 2020-08-27 just when MSFS was launched.

Perhaps those who started the website saw an opportunity to improve on the situation to create a better environment for freeware developers to share their products and for consumers to find them. Since no addons for MSFS existed yet it was the perfect moment to do this. The same applies if someone wanted to "corner the market" for malicious (or business) reasons. Flightsim.to seems to have succeeded in both.

[Dominique_K 10,149]

Shouldn’t we be happy that some new guys out there had an idea for a decently modern user-friendly UI to pool freeware  when the old guys were still on a 20-year old UI ? Isn’t it what is called innovation ? Have they to show any credentials ? Did they corner anything by no legit means or would it be, by any chance, that they were better and thats why simmers and devs flocked to them ? 

[Soulflight 97]

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

Shouldn’t we be happy that some new guys out there had an idea for a decently modern user-friendly UI to pool freeware  when the old guys were still on a 20-year old UI ? Isn’t it what is called innovation ? Have they to show any credentials ? Did they corner anything by no legit means or would it be, by any chance, that they were better and thats why simmers and devs flocked to them ? 

The freeware market is exactly not a market and shouldnt create competition. I also dont mind avsims layout since we are used to it. That being said, i do like flightsim.to for being fast and having nice functions like the scenery map, which, previously only existed on a seperate website for FSX/P3D stuff.

But flightsim.to's rapid ascent raises suspicions for me too. Experience with other platforms* tells me that this is usually the result of a professional marketing concept being applied. Flightsim.to prompts you on ever download to please donate to get premium access. We all know avsim also relies on donations and giving the operating costs of servers this is perfectly understandable BUT all the nice functions of flightsim.to can be part of the strategy to get more donations from people than whats actually needed to cover their expenses. This is, of course, purely conspiracy theory, nothing can be proven here.

*Off topic example: in central europe there were plenty of websites offering the possibility to rideshare. When going somewhere in a car, you could post an announcement and collect people with the same destination to ease up the gas expenses. This was all 100% non-profit and decentralized once, until one particular platform kicked everyone out of the game by massive publicity and convenient functionality until everyone was exclusively using this one. A few years later they turned their service from 100% free to a paid subcription based model.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Soulflight

[Matchstick 1,886]

I'm going to be honest - that post reads like an attempt to smear .to without actually posting any evidence at all.

If that wasn't the intent (and I'm presuming it wasn't) then maybe dialing back on insinuations that aren't actually supported by facts and posting the evidence you have would be a good idea.

For example the allegation of "a professional marketing concept being applied" - where's a pointer to any kind of marketing material that backs this up ?

Edited March 14, 2023 by Matchstick

[Soulflight 97]

8 minutes ago, Matchstick said:

I'm going to be honest - that post reads like an attempt to smear .to without actually posting any evidence at all.

If that wasn't the intent (and I'm presuming it wasn't) then maybe dialing back on insinuations that aren't actually supported by facts and posting the evidence you have would be a good idea.

For example the allegation of "a professional marketing concept being applied" - where's a pointer to any kind of marketing material that backs this up ?

First of all, its not a smear to state that. Its what happend before and its being done all the time. No need to neglect reality.

Second, the reason for my assumption is written in my post.

Edited March 14, 2023 by Soulflight

[Matchstick 1,886]

Right, so you have no evidence and you admit at least one of your points is a pure "conspiracy theory".

*Plonk*