In essence, ads serve a brand awareness purpose, but what a giant stretch to call an ad a business model. Although it would be fantastic if the core of the Monero community saw the value & helped, AriaVPN service isn't specifically aimed at the typical Monero user. Our target market is the new user or crypto-aware/curious user.
As for privacy, there are different levels, and I'm sure not one of 'you', i.e. those excessively paranoid. To be in our field of business, there is no way of avoiding revealing our identities, so I can't even begin to mind using Cloudflare as one of our service providers. On the contrary, they are a top-grade service, and using them doesn't compromise anyone's privacy except ours. Those fussy about suspected CF proxy logs can use VPN/Tor when accessing the site. Plus, we are the main third party. If someone posts a listing on Kuno asking for funding to cause harm or injury, I'll remove it before they can say Cloudflare. These folks can do that shit on the darknet where and if the admins allow for it.
Then, I find the downtime/crackpot drama pathetic. This had been covered and discussed at length and ended up in that crackpot losing his 5 XMR bet and his X account, and anyone who believes we are not a reliable host to Kuno can feel free to grab & run an instance themselves and do a better job.
Lastly, you get no argument from me GT isn't a great choice. Hence we don't use it for AriaVPN but as for Kuno, that's a very different story. Right now, we don't have the luxury of time and resources to give Kuno the full dedication it may deserve, and as for donations, appreciate the thought, but that's not my style. The chance that a community donations-based model would cover real expenses we incur beyond mere hosting is nill. So perhaps instead of giving unsolicited advice, tho not overly out of place, you might consider contributing your skills to the common goal? We sure have plans and could use the expert hand.
If you guys feel personally offended by my words, then I must have hit the spot. Let's make one thing clear. You speak for yourself and not for the community as a whole. While I acknowledge there is always room for improvement, and we're working on it 24/7, and no one is perfect, I find it difficult to care about the subjective opinions of people who make general statements on behalf of everyone else whom they think they represent (wow), and whether knowingly or not, undermining the genuine efforts of others. May I ask, how do you contribute to the community besides shitposting? Your trouble making a distinction between a referral program and a rebate is a clear indication that you don't have a clue what you are on about. We've simply dedicated 30% of our turnover to marketing, just like many other VPN providers do, and that's not a small feat. But we're the first of the kind providing a unique opportunity to earn Monero and also unprecedently offering daily payouts to prove the point, so oh boy, yes, the opportunity has landed. Whether you like it or not is irrelevant, and I appreciate it's not for everyone, but let me reiterate. It's arrogant and deluded of you to assume that you represent 'we', as the entire community. Anyway, for whatever it's worth, we've taken your feedback under advisement. Thank you very much for your contribution.