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Solauren
2018-02-02, 05:42 PM
Hello

I've decided to close Secrets of the Archmages.

This is not a matter of money. The cost of Hosting this website is actually very cheap. It comes out to $10 a month.

I spend more then that on coke Zero to drink at work. (I can't stand coffee)

You see, I put that website up for a purpose. That purpose was not to serve as a back up of other websites per say. Those backups were meant to attract people to the website.

The actual, and stated, purpose was to get help with combing throught those websites (starting with the WOTC Discussion boards, as they have closed had have the most threads) looking for mechanical content, with the end goal of putting that all into a more user-friendly format.

Over the last two years, I have not received any significant help.

I will admit, part of that was the original system I was using. I had about 10 people send me lists they'd worked via the Microsoft Access database application I had built.

The total number of threads they'd looked over comes out to about 2000 threads. Each put in effort, but compared to the sheer volume of threads, that's not even 1% of the total to be examined.

Most people didn't like the database, and asked for alternate methods.

So, I switched to Microsoft Word Documents, Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets, and Openoffice Spreadsheets. I then let them all know about the switch via the website I'd first revealed this project on, and then advertised it on other websites.

I've even seen the website mentioned on other places. (Blew me away to see it mentioned by people other then me on places like Giants in the Playground, the Min-Max Boards, Candlekeep, and ENWorld.).

But, despite that switch, or those mentions, I have received exactly ZERO help or results since then.

I have received a total of 6 emails since the switch. Two were requests if I had an old thread they'd authored (I did, and found them easily), and 4 were people looking to put ads on the website.
I have also received about 30 emails to my personal email from people trying to get me to pay them money to get my search results listed higher on Google, or trying to get me to sell adspace, as well as other means to 'generate website revenue'. Clearly, they did not read the website.

And I don’t need help with higher results on Google. Type in the right keyword, I’m like third.

Anyway, since I did the site reconfiguration + expansion, I have personally examined 257,285 threads to see if that had usable content.
(I also marked 112532 as 'ignore' as they were in the 4E/5E areas, and I have no interest in those).

Since all that's needed in most threads to determine it's content type is a look at the first 2 - 3 posts (roughly 1 page of screen), it doesn't take long. Maybe 10 seconds per thread, and that's if I'm being slow that day.

I've spent more time watching TVs or movies, renovating my bathrooms, walking my dogs, and playing video games or pen-and-paper RPGS then I have on skimming threads. I've also read a few novels too.

Anyway.... it's become obvious that the website is not serving it's purpose.

So, with that in mind, it becomes a question of 'is it worth keeping the website up?'

Unfortunately, my only answer to that is 'No'.

I'm still going to work towards getting all that data into one place and format. Hopefully, I'll get it all done one day, and put it online.

Segev
2018-02-06, 11:38 AM
My condolences. It's always painful to see a labor of love lose its savor.

I will say that part of your problem may be a lack of exposure; I'd never heard of it before this post. It sounds like it was a neat idea. Again, sorry that it never got where you wanted it to be.

May your future endeavors bring you more joy.

redking
2019-01-13, 08:41 AM
Apologies for the thread necromancy, but this is the only place I write about this important resource.

I was sorry to see it go. Would you mind putting up a torrent with your site? In that case you don't actually have to host it, just seed it. I cannot really contribute to it but I WAS using it.