Just now, Matchstick said:

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

*Plonk*

And that triggers you why?

14 minutes ago, Soulflight said:

The freeware market is exactly not a market and shouldnt create competition.  

Why ? Competition is good even if there is no market involved !

14 minutes ago, Soulflight said:

 

  Experience with other platforms* tells me that this is usually the result of a professional marketing concept being applied. UT 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.  

* 

Then what ? Whats is wrong about getting a few bucks extra ? Good for them, I'd say.

There was an extreme example once where someone was selling a modified FSX stuffed with freeware addons claiming its a new sim. I forgot the name of it but maybe others remember. Not everyone will agree to the idea of someone else making money with their freeware work.

"Evidence that flightsim.to is profit oriented blablabla plonk":

The "about" section of their website states:
"Who Runs It?
No company. No investor. Flightsim.to is run by a handful of enthusiasts of the flight simulation community - just like you!"

However, under "Legal Contact", you can see flightsim.to is definitely declared as a business in germany with a sales tax ID number. The owner of the website stated an adress in hamburg which you can look up in google street view and shows an office building.

Again, i am visiting flightsim.to as often as i visit avsim. But i dont get why people get massively angry as soon as i state that flightsim.to could be profit oriented? They are openly reselling payware addons and getting a share with it, which probably is why their website looks so professional.

If you are fine with it, be fine with it. As long as they are respecting freeware as freeware, i am also fine with it. But: if avsim is a 100% free time project, asking them to compete with commercially run services isnt exactly fair.

 

 

Edited March 14, 20233 yr by Soulflight

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

Why ? Competition is good even if there is no market involved !

Then what ? Whats is wrong about getting a few bucks extra ? Good for them, I'd say.

I don't think the issue is someone earning a few bucks because there is a bit leftover from donations after the bills have been paid. The website looks professionally done and if they are just enthousiasts as they say they have done a marvellous job.

They started the site suggesting it is a non-profit website run by enthousiasts and this has encouraged hundreds of freeware developers to share their work via this website. I have no issue with them paying the bills by running ads or even subscriptions for premium access as long as the freeware remains accessible without subscriptions. Hopefully they earn enough from ads and premium accounts to continue to do so because they cannot suddenly switch to a paid-access-only model without betraying the trust of freeware developers who shared their work.

4 hours 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 ? 

No one is saying it isn't a decent site for freeware.  All I'm asking is the timing of it and the release of MSFS is beyond coincidental to say the least.  I've never seen anything like that.  MSFS could have been a flop like FLIGHT so pre-supposing as special site for add-ons would be a little premature.  When MSFS was launched two sites just took over out of nowhere, NEXUSMODS and Flightsim.to.  NEXUSMODS was already established and eventually fell off as a favored MOD site.  Flightsim.to became the go to site.  If Flightsim.to was already an established site like NEXUSMODS things would make sense but Flightsim.to just appeared and took over.  Basically, overnight it cornered the market for Freeware upending all other sites that's been around for over 20 years.  That's one heck of a feat...🧐

Edited March 14, 20233 yr by Dillon

6 hours 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...

This is the question I wonder about every single time I use flightsim.to.

First I thought this was a website that hosts payware stuff illegally because of the .to TLD. It took me a while to realise this is like AVSIM library but much much better.

 As none of us wants Bob's or Ray's blood pressure to rise, I will leave it here 😄 !

If you are not using "Mod Manager" or other advanced features of flightsim.to, you may not understand why it is what it is (not just a file library). 

Nexusmods was/is a go-to for many games/titles but F.2 has become the premier in our hobby because of it's focus and features.

Negatively comparing F.2 finances as they were to what they are is a bit like condemning WorkingTitle for exiting the freeware market and getting paid by Microsoft/Asobo.

Of course, F.2 has to work with developers but the site is no-brainer go-to for users.

Edited March 14, 20233 yr by hs118

45 minutes ago, Konterhalbe said:

This is the question I wonder about every single time I use flightsim.to.

First I thought this was a website that hosts payware stuff illegally because of the .to TLD. It took me a while to realise this is like AVSIM library but much much better.

I'd say because the site here and other popular file libraries are quite antiquated in their UI.  It was nice to see a fresh site with high res preview pics etc etc.

Flightsim.to is an excellent site for developers and consumers - well structured, illustrated and easy for updating the addons  - I hope the storm in the teacup will be soon forgotten.

9 hours ago, hansb57 said:

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.

I cannot wait for the GAIST real time version to release.   Then we will see ships everywhere.

The average person has no idea how many ships their are,  using the Atlantic Ocean as an example there might be 4 or 5 vessels within the 50 mile radius of a vessel.

Take a look at Marine Traffic .com,   there are a staggering number of ships in the world.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/home/centerx:-40.1/centery:31.1/zoom:5

2 hours ago, Dillon said:

That's one heck of a feat...🧐

Ease of use. Modern looking UI. Large collection of content. 

 

It's not that hard to comprehend...

1 minute ago, Bdub22 said:

Large collection of content. 

This came much later after Flightsim.to took the top spot over Avsim, Flightsim.com, NEUSMODS.  Add to that it only specializes mostly in MSFS add-ons.  Avsim I believe is still the king for the older sims.

Now we are complaining about well organized sites that give out flight sim freeware...... What next?

Why do people always bring up avsim.com and flightsim.com file libraries? They have not been relevant since FSX. They would buckle under a fraction of the bandwidth fs.to uses. Avsim forums can't even host images and people assume they can host terabytes worth of MSFS addons. I bet some of the mods were looking in horror as people suggested hosting files here.

Why did someone create fs.to? Maybe for the same reason freeware developers create freeware? Do they have ulterior motives when they put a "buy me a coffee" button on their page? It is an ulterior motive to try and make some money when something that started as a hobby turns into a full-time job?