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The web is transient... (Death of Unicreatures)

Discussion in 'The Dive' started by tirial, 24 Jan 2016.

  1. tirial

    tirial Member

    Just had a really nasty reminder of just how transient. A site I spent far too many hours on with one of the nicest user communities I have ever met was taken down. It wasn't running out of money, none of the staff or users were warned, and I found out because I was paged on twitter (thank you very much to the user who told me!) It was just pulled.

    Details here


    This was right after the big winter event that many users had paid for. Understandably they are angry. I am currently shocked. Once I have had a chance to think, I may be angry.

    But all that writing, the artwork, seven years of community or more, the friendships and all the rest - just gone. Because one person pulled the plug.

    Screw it.
     
  2. jessica

    jessica Active Member

    I read the link, and that's awful. You don't just pull a site like that! You just don't. :((
     
  3. skye

    skye Member

    tirial, tell me you're joking. It can't be gone. All my creatures? Isn't there anything we can do?
     
  4. CatInASuit

    CatInASuit Administrator Staff Member

    That's hurtful.

    Some people seem to think the web is forever, things will never be lost and then something like that happens and only the fragments remain, but what kept it together is lost for good.

    I hope they manage to build something new out of it.

    No idea if there is anything we can do, but I'm always open to helping out things like this, however I can.
     
  5. tirial

    tirial Member

    I'm sorry. I lost a large collection. If you are lucky you might be able to find pages on archive.org, but in practice it seems the site is dead. There's a FB page giving updates which might also help if you had money in the account.
     
  6. skye

    skye Member

    Sorry, I'm logging off for tonight. Sorry.
     
  7. Bookangel

    Bookangel Administrator Staff Member

    I've amended your title for clarity. And no, after twenty years online, I will say outright that you don't do that with a site. A warning or apology is the least a site owner should manage, as well as refunding any funds they can before closure.

    I'll leave this here despite the reference rule on boards and if there's anything we can do to help, let me know.
     
  8. tirial

    tirial Member

    Thanks. I might point a few friends here, since they aren't on FaceBook. What an end to a weekend.
     
  9. Terry

    Terry Member

    Damn, that's nasty. There's gotta be a lot of people with time invested in it who are not going to be happy.

    Are there no backups or has the owner made sure there are none?
     
  10. tirial

    tirial Member

    Sorry. I'm quitting for tonight as well.
     
  11. Kindler

    Kindler Active Member

    So any update? How is the community doing and are they getting it back together?
     
  12. tirial

    tirial Member

    There's a new site being built, but it looks like all the collections etc from the original site are gone. A lot of users are very upset.
     
  13. Bookangel

    Bookangel Administrator Staff Member

    What strikes me about this is that this seems so senseless. Sites go down all the time, failure to pay the hosters, or real life getting in the developers' way, and users accept it, but from all accounts this is just one person deciding to turn off a site with no warning at all. It leaves me baffled.

    If you have a successful site, why on earth would you close it?
     
  14. Tregaron

    Tregaron Member

    It reminds me of a piece I was reading about fire storms. One of the differences between a natural disaster and a man-made one is how people react. Both make them angry, both hurt people, but only in the man-made one do people have someone to blame and people don't forget quickly.

    Likewise most site closures are due to circumstances. This one was a decision, taken unilaterally and with only one person responsible. If you look at the forums, the blame is being placed quite firmly, and it is likely to hit his future projects.

    And all for something unnecessary.
     
  15. atry

    atry Member

    Pissing off a community of several thousand does seem like something that could damage future prospects, if only because how many people are willing to work with someone who might delete all their work without warning?
     
  16. clair02

    clair02 Member

    How frustrating that must be! It just isn't right for one person to just up and decide that they are going to pull a site that so many others are using without a good reason or even communicating with the community.. Everything is figureoutable, and whatever problem caused them to make that decision might have been solved if people had been allowed to put their heads together.
     
  17. Kindler

    Kindler Active Member

    Along these lines, went looking for a few sites I knew years and years ago. Suddenly popped into mind and I thought I'd go see if they were still there.

    Nothing. Not a sausage. Just 404's, sedo parking and vague copies of it in the web archive. The sites had been down for a few years for some reasons or another, but it was like wandering back to where I grew up and realising it had all changed.
     
  18. clair02

    clair02 Member

    Oh my gosh @Kindler, we think the same. I went looking for a few sites too, and that's why I came back to this thread again. I found a bunch of 404 pages telling me that the content I was looking for was gone. I hate when that happens.
     

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