@asterstar Yeah!! When it was still up a few minutes after midnight I was like "Cool! Guess it'll be around for another hour at least (considering time zones are a thing)" and then it went down around 12:30 without any warning.
@river The whole thing was without warning. One week to pack your bags and get out. I saw some people didn't know it was closing until after it closed because they were away on vacation or sick.
Okay, here's a summary of what Val just said to me in my own words:
There was still lots of interest and traffic on He-Man.org. However, ad revenue there was essentially non-existent. Back in the day it was self-sustaining, but with ad blockers and online browsing, any ad revenue can't even touch the annual hosting costs. Val tried to find a cheaper hosting option (he was looking for that months and weeks before the decision to take it down was made). He couldn't find one that was affordable, given the very large size of the site.
So basically he was looking for ways to keep it going. But the hosting period for his old server was ending, and since he couldn't find a viable solution, that marked an end date for the site to be online. It seemed abrupt from the point of view of fans, but behind the scenes there was a lot of work to try to find a way to keep it up. It just didn't work out.
@battleramblog Cool! Thank you for asking bro and thank Val for responding! Did you happen to ask him about the archive? That's how this all came about with @river asking about the archive. Just scroll up to see his op.
@battleramblog Cool! Thank you for asking bro and thank Val for responding! Did you happen to ask him about the archive? That's how this all came about with @river asking about the archive. Just scroll up to see his op.
I didn't ask him that today, but back in the last week of the Org being online he mentioned that he was retaining the archive of the entire original site. So it still exists, just not online. I think the idea is if it was ever feasible to bring it back online, it could be done easily.
@battleramblog Cool! Thank you for asking bro and thank Val for responding! Did you happen to ask him about the archive? That's how this all came about with @river asking about the archive. Just scroll up to see his op.
I didn't ask him that today, but back in the last week of the Org being online he mentioned that he was retaining the archive of the entire original site. So it still exists, just not online. I think the idea is if it was ever feasible to bring it back online, it could be done easily.
So your answer @river is no immediate plans to get the archive up publicly but maybe one day. No one can ever accuse me of not trying my hardest to help get people answers!
Oof. I and at least a few others were under the impression that it'd be public. Would have put a bit more effort into saving things if that were communicated more clearly in advance. Guess I'll have to ask around for stuff.
@durendal Ego and legacy. It's hard to hand that over to someone else. It would be harder if someone improved the site. He did hint he would sell it to Mattel. That would be a nice payday. Even legacies can have a price.
So regarding the archive, it's basically just that all of the information from the site is saved and secure in Val's files. I don't personally think that it would be offered as an archive in the Archive.org kind of sense - it's more that it could someday come back as a functioning website if the stars align.
For those thinking there's some deeper conspiracy at work, or something to do with Mattel, there isn't. It's just a huge site that is very expensive to host.
@durendal Ego and legacy. It's hard to hand that over to someone else. It would be harder if someone improved the site. He did hint he would sell it to Mattel. That would be a nice payday. Even legacies can have a price.
Well, Val wasn't the founder of the org - he took over from someone else, so for him to deny the same opportunity to another fan more than happy to buy the site to ensure continuity is frankly vile.
Also, selling it to Mattel would be awful. The heart and soul of the site was created entirely by years and years of passionate fan input - it's not some lame corporate product.
@elder but what if he says @admin is the one who's not classy?
@he-dad I think of myself less a community leader and more a community knucklehead 😉, but I try not to begrudge anyone's opinion, even of me, as long as it remains constructive and classy.
@durendal Ego and legacy. It's hard to hand that over to someone else. It would be harder if someone improved the site. He did hint he would sell it to Mattel. That would be a nice payday. Even legacies can have a price.
Well, Val wasn't the founder of the org - he took over from someone else, so for him to deny the same opportunity to another fan more than happy to buy the site to ensure continuity is frankly vile.
Also, selling it to Mattel would be awful. The heart and soul of the site was created entirely by years and years of passionate fan input - it's not some lame corporate product.
Let's be frank the site died a long time ago. People left in droves due to nonsensical censorship, inconsistent mods picking favorites + some self entitled few thinking they had rank over the rest of the fandom.
