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_posts/2024-07-11-anniversary-and-future.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "The Anniversary and Future of MineSkin"
+date:   2016-07-11
+---
+
+Eight years ago, I [announced](https://www.spigotmc.org/threads/tool-api-mineskin-org-custom-skin-skull-generator.164209/) the first version of the Minecraft skin data generator, now known as MineSkin. To this day, we’ve generated data for over 35,000,000 unique skins! What started as a small project using a handful of my own accounts is now powered by nearly 230 Minecraft accounts provided by the community, generating thousands of skins every hour.
+
+**Thank you** to every one of you who has used and supported this project over the years!
+
+---
+
+Maintaining MineSkin has been an incredibly exciting passion project, and I am deeply grateful to everyone who has used it or found it helpful, as well as those who have contributed by tipping, supporting on Patreon, and providing Minecraft accounts. However, as MineSkin's popularity has grown, so have the maintenance and hosting costs. We went from needing a lot of Minecraft accounts for lower delays, to requiring more and more servers to keep up with the demand and to avoid getting rate-limited. Despite some financial support from the community and a bit of income from AdSense (thank you if you disabled your AdBlocker!), I’ve often had to cover most of the hosting costs from my own savings and manage everything mostly on my own.
+
+I’ve been brainstorming ways to monetize MineSkin to cover these expenses and continue improving it despite my limited budget and time.
+
+Rest assured, MineSkin will remain free for the majority of users, and I have no plans to require payment for MineSkin in general. However, to support and enhance the project, I do need a more reliable source of income. I'm quite hesitant to introduce payment for something that has been free for so long. If any adjustments are made, they primarily concern the most active users of MineSkin and are unlikely to affect casual users significantly.
+
+I’d love to continue maintaining and improving MineSkin, as well as adding cool new features that aren’t feasible while providing MineSkin for free.
+
+I want this to be as transparent and community-involved as possible. To start, I’d love your input. If you’re currently using the MineSkin API for your project or regularly generate skin data on the MineSkin.org website, please fill out this feedback form: [[click me](https://yeleha.co/39jxjd1c)]. This will help me understand how open the community is to supporting MineSkin financially and to figure out reasonable pricing.
+
+If the feedback is positive, I’ll share more details soon! (Even if it isn’t, I can probably find other ways to keep things running.)
+
+Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. You can join the [Discord](https://yeleha.co/discord) server or email me at [email protected].
+
+Thank you so much for reading!
+
+~ Haylee / inventivetalent