Its Offical
 

Today or yesterday sometime, Angel Fire officially disabled my site. Before any of you gasp and scream MoW, it was not all his fault. Oh sure he did start the ball rolling, but it was not his activities alone that resulted in Angel Fires decision to terminate my site.

According to the Angel Fire rep that I have been communicating with, it was several complaints that convinced them to disable my site, however I think the actual reason was that I would not up grade to their Pay for space system.

It deeply sickens me that this has happened, but what can one do? They are for the most part covering their asses. It angers me greatly, but I somewhat understand. I will continue to try and get my site back up, but at this point, I hold little hope. They are less than friendly at Lycos.

Now about MoW, the main reason I say that he is not to blame is because this has been happening for some time. Many sites hosted by AF, have been shut down because the owners would not “upgrade” to the pay system. It simply was my sites turn to get nailed and I am sure that MoW’s complaints did in fact expedited it, but it was going to happen regardless. So please don't get on him about it, he has sworn to me that he only sent them two letters, and I have copies of both. Neither letter was rude, or offense, they just simply asked them to take the site down because it contained “non cannon” star trek information. That was about it. Nothing about copyright issues, or other, he just felt it was a bad site and wanted it taken down.

I should point out that even though he only sent them two letters, and I believe him, the point is he did not work alone. He could not have, and even he agreed with that. Again according to the Angel Fire rep, and this was like pulling teeth, the site received "many" complaints. Not just one or two, but over twenty in the Last week.

I want to thank all of you for all the support. The site was fun to run while it was up. It was easy to run, and maintain. I have looked at other hosting sites, but they all are too difficult for me to use. I have considered going with my own .com and paying for hosting, but then again, the same thing can happen.

There are a lot of vindictful people out there, and it was their *****ing and complaining that did this. MoW just sounded the bugle. His opinions were not his alone, and they were shared by others. People I do not care to consider friends now.

What can I say, I had a great run with this game. It will continue to be a great game. Its just time for me to move on. My heart simply is just not in it any more. If you want the ship sets, they are all posted here, and at PBW. I will be posting less and less as I begin to focus on other things. I’ll keep trying to get the site back up, but in the end, it really does not matter what happens, after all, it is simply just a game. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ August 27, 2002, 12:42: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: Its Offical
 

Hell with the way the laws are we should get some one to send an official letter to that web hosting service to shut down every single site until they can proove that their is no copyrighted material posted...

...just to make a point.... about how stupid their rules are....

Re: Its Offical
 

I think you are probably right on about the real reason AF took action. While I have heard of Paramount going after sites, even those I would consider very obscure such as yours, I have never heard of them requesting a site be shut down before at least contacting the person who is behind it about removing the content they feel is in violation. The Last time I checked your site there was much on it that had nothing to do with Trek.

Geoschmo

Re: Its Offical
 

Hi Atrocities,

I’m just one of those guys who love your shipsets.
I’m not a regular visitor here, so I missed the whole history. But what I learned now after reading very few of certain postings is more than enough....
Your story seems to be one of those much too good examples for the saying “Man Is Wolf to Man”, just another poor soul full of envy and narrow-mindedness pursuing his very own happiness and nothing else. It is ironic but unfortunately not very surprising that these people who pretend to be/live/or whatever the pure Star Trek miss the whole point. I would call it tolerance and mutual respect but who am I compared to the true crusaders.
That had to be said....
Sorry to read that you don’t intend to continue your wonderful work. (Forgive me, if the following sounds patronizing, but English obviously isn’t my native language and I really got mad about the whole stuff.) You have every reason to be angry and disappointed. However - according to my experience in my life/job (and I’m really old) - retreat isn’t always an option, don’t let the bad guys win too easily. You and your work deserve a better fate than being stopped by someone who probably wouldn’t even considered to become a member of the Federation due to complete lack of some of its most important criteria.
I wish I had a server, it would be an honor to host those great sets.

Please resonsider....

Regards
R.

Re: Its Offical
 

I did some checking, contacted a few of my sources, and I found that paramount discontinued shutting down fan sites because it gave them a bad rep and drove people away from the franchise. This was back when DS9 started it's second season.

Needless to say, I'm very disturbed and upset about this turn of events.

And I can't help but wonder who's next. Maybe a disgrunted star wars fan, or babylon 5 fan, or just someone who is disgruntled.

I enjoyed the trek race styles, even though I am not much of a trekker these days. Can you at least upload them to here for safe keeping or maybe just setup a small site somewhere to host download links to them.

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities,
Let me know what sort of bandwidth you need. I might be able to find a home for your sight. Email me at "tenryu@cyberwar.com".
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

I used AT&T for internet too... until a couple years ago. I started having trouble connecting (3-4 dialing attempts to get in), and the connection would drop unexpectedly; and then they changed from "unlimited service" to "150 hours a month", and finally I started getting WAY too much spam. So I hopped over to Earthlink. They've been pretty good so far, but I'm getting tired of dialup and I can't get DSL to my house (not Earthlink's fault - Verizon, the local telco, has my phone homed to a switch that's too far away for DSL to work), so I may have to bite the bullet and go for cable modem service. Too bad I despise and loathe my local cable provider...

Re: Its Offical
 

I would give you space on my server, but unfortunately, I'll only be Online for the rest of the week.

After that, I'm moving, and my connection will involve floppies and intermittent dialup for a while.

Re: Its Offical
 

How much space do you need? I could host at least part of your site on my webspace.

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities,

I am truly saddened by this turn of events. I know that when things start hitting you all at once, it can be very frusterating. However, you know that it can only go up from here, so I hope that you continue to post here as often as you currently do, as you obviously enjoy it. That's my 2 cents, anyway! Let me know if I can help in any way.

Sachmo

Re: Its Offical
 

"What can I say, I had a great run with this game. It will continue to be a great game. Its just time for me to move on. My heart simply is just not in it any more. If you want the ship sets, they are all posted here, and at PBW. I will be posting less and less as I begin to focus on other things. I’ll keep trying to get the site back up, but in the end, it really does not matter what happens, after all, it is simply just a game."

I would just like to say that I regard you as one of the 'Founding Fathers' of the current Se4 community. You have contributed a hell of a lot since se4 was released and you are 'The Man' as far as Trek shipsets are concerned. True we all move on to something else eventually but I have a feeling you will be back (Se4: System Wars/Quadrent Wars/whatever is around the corner.). Heck, there was a time when I stopped collecting comics and playing Magic the Gathering , two of my main hobbies for years. I just recently got into both again (MTG:Online is heavily addictive! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ).

Bottom line, you will be missed. But do try to drop in from time to time http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities ,
At windingstream.com
I have about 30MB, 5000MB / month, and 5 email addresses available if you would like to build your site there. I'll give you full admin rights.

Re: Its Offical
 

It's the things that are going these days:

The internet is officially real estate these days and people who aren't paying *Taxes* are being evicted, whoever they may be, regardless how long they were in the spot.

Ahh, when this was called the greatest information source in the world...

I hope that we will see more of you, rather than less of you atrocities.

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities,

As with Gryphin, I can offer you space on my server at Hostway. I would be willing to lend you some space (30-50megs) and a few email addy's (I have 30 left I think) for your use. It would be an imperfect solution, but has the virtue of being free and without someone looking over your shoulder.

Whether or not you take me up on the web-space offer, I wish you luck and am sorry to see anyone go "offline" due to discouragment such as you have endured. Anytime an active Online community member suffers from external problems and goes offline, the whole community is diminished.

Cheers!
Trajan

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities-

I am not a big fan of mixing trek and SE but I really appreciated your efforts to satisfy those that do.

Dont let those #$&%! beat you http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif - by retreating from your passion for SE4 and STrek, you are giving them exactly what they wanted.

Who cares what those 20 people think? you shouldnt! I say in their ear. If they dont like it - they dont have to look at the shipsets...

Take up the offer from one of these generous people posting here, to rehost your site.

see you on the forums

Re: Its Offical
 

Thanks guys. I am not giving up, I am just taking some time away. Eveyone has to do it sometime. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I want to focus on getting my editing system to work right. I have been away from ENG, Video for far too long, and I want to get back into the swing of things.

What AF did they did for their own reasons. I agree that it is chicken****, but what can one do? Simply take five fall back, regroup, refocus, and attack again with a new plan. I am doing that.

I sincerely thank all of you for the offers of hosting. I will more than likely be contacting you. I would like to have a place where people can go and see the sets before they download them. Much like Universal and Kuat Drive Yards.

I will eventually get the site back up, its important to me, but not on the top of my list.

Besides, you guys have this wonderful forum and Space Empires Org to keep you informed on the latest events. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities,

I could prolly get you up and running again before the weekend, BUT, you need to move your BUTT!

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

I do not have copies of any of the main pages. They were all lost a while back when my second HD failed. I will have to rebuild them all. Besides, the time it would take to upload nearly a 1000 images bogles the mind.

I have been kinda sorta working on a back up site for a while, but never really did much with it. The site does not have the ease of use as AF did. You got a blank page, you wrote your HTML, and you linked things to files much easier than here. CLICK ME

[ August 27, 2002, 22:43: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: Its Offical
 

someone might have them Cached. i dont, but i suggest that people who frequent the site check for them.

Re: Its Offical
 

Puke's right...people checking their Caches, the easiest way is to click on the 'work offline' option, then go to his site and DON'T try to go Online to fetch it, otherwise things may be overwritten.

Atrocities, you've definitely been a cornerstone of the SEIV mod community, and I hope you'll fire up production in the future. Don't let a few weirdos with too much time on their hands discourage ya, because the work you do is noticed and appreciated.

zen

Re: Its Offical
 

It's not in my Cache. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

I'm sorry about your site but saying you'll be posting less and less is maybe a bit far fetched. You obviously mean a lot to the community and your shipsets are one of the main reasons i purchased SEIV (original Version).
I can understand the frustration about not wanting to start a new site if you're not sure people aren't going to try to shut it down again. Unfortunately, the internet attracts people who haven't anything better to do than pester other people.
I just would let it all cool down for a while, take a deep breath and then decided on what to do. Quick decisions are usually not the best decisions.
Just my 2 cents.

Re: Its Offical
 

I'm sorry to hear that Atrocities.

Maybe they did have "over 20 emails" requesting that you shut down, but I bet between us we could send them over a hundred unique emails asking for your site to be re-allowed.

Atrocities, if you post the address of the rep you've been talking to, we'll start a letter writing campaign right now.

Re: Its Offical
 

ATROCITIES: My ISP gives me 20MB of webspace / FTPspace, I don't know at what bandwidth limitations (if any) per month.

I currently have ZERO use for that space ... if you need room to store files on, pages or indices or whatever (including shipset files) let me know, I'll get down to figuring out how to upload the files there.

20MB may not be much, but it's a little bit, at the LEAST as an interim measure.

As for ISP service, consider www.ispwest.com (they're who I go through); while they are a smaller outfit, and there have been a few problems connecting, they're usually quite good about fixing the problem ASAP. Around $14US/month for up to two email addresses, unlimited use (30 minute idle-kick, though) dialup supportign up to 56.6K, and (despite the name and HQ location) nationwide numbers -- I'm in the US Northeast.

*grin* And no, I don't work for them, plug above notwithstanding. *grin*

Re: Its Offical
 

Thanks. I have other things going on, and my time may get a bit thin. I wanted to let those who care know so that I don't get a million emails. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

There are many members of this forum who are far more valuable posters than I. Besides, I am ditching my ISP, AT&T at the end of September. I am getting too sick of dealing with their BS.

My account has been paid in advance for two months since I started service. After winning a complaint against them, I was given six additional months of free service. What they did, was charge my checking account for six months of service, then shut me off.

This happened late Thursday. I just got the right person on the phone just today after wasting all day Friday trying to get the right person. She was able to get this mess squard away. It took them all day to get me up again. I had to use the neighbors PC, and its Dial up. Most of my time on line was spent trying to get AF to put my site back up. (Friday & Monday)

Needless to say, this has been a very bad week for me. My PC had a fatal system error late Thrusday, and I had to burn up my Last free MS support service call to get it up and running again. That took all night. (Thanks Fyron. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif Those new Nividia drivers currupted my system files. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif )

I get back on line just to find out I am not on line. Call AT&T and get the low down on their screw up. The lady I talked to at first was very rude to me saying that I owed AT&T for six months worth of service, even after they billed my checking account for six months. She treated me like I was trash. I had to fax her a copy of the email from the state Attorney Generals office about the resolution to my complain about AT&T. After that, the ball started rolling. It took them until just about an hour ago to get me back on line. I will get my money back tomorrow along with the credit. I still am paid up thru the end of September. After that, I am going to a $10.00 Kmart dial up service. I have no need now that I don't play Tribes any more for high speed cable. Simply a waste of money at $55.00 bucks a month.

Top this off with finding out that AF killed my site on Friday morning, and my week was complete.

I will still keep this site as my home page and post, but the way I see it, I won't be on line all the time. That is a good thing I guess. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Perhaps your right, this has been a bad week, and some time cooling down might brighten my mood. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif I will let you know.

I will post the next email I get from AF. This should be interesting. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ August 27, 2002, 12:37: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: Its Offical
 

I recall somewhere there was a site that archived sites across the whole internet.

EDIT: Atrocities, check your PM

[ August 28, 2002, 02:44: Message edited by: Hadrian Tyrael S. Aventine ]

Re: Its Offical
 

www.archive.org

The most recent archive of http://www.angelfire.com/tv2/NewAgeShipyards/ seems to be Oct 29, 2001

Re: Its Offical
 

Thank you guys. Say does any one know what SBA stands for?

Re: Its Offical
 

Well, whenever you're ready.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

Oh, yeah, and SBA= Small business Association AFAIK

Re: Its Offical
 

Hmmm.. Oddd

Re: Its Offical
 

Re: Its Offical
 

You can often pull a Cached copy of a site out of Google, as well.

Re: Its Offical
 

Instead of searching for a Cached copy...perhaps a new design might get those SE:IV juices flowing again?

Re: Its Offical
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, this would be good to see a new look to the site. I'd be more then happy to make a quick and simple index page for you Atrocities if you'd like. Just give me an idea of what you want on it. The text, images and so forth.

PM me if you're interested. If not that's totally understandable.

[ August 28, 2002, 23:20: Message edited by: Ragnarok ]

Re: Its Offical
 

I'm not a very frequent poster, or a longstanding member of the forums(although I support Malfador Machinations and Shrapnel Games in general). I just wanted to add my 2 cents that it's a cryin shame the site was taken down. I'm certainly happy I was able to get copies of the shipsets.

What ever Atrocities decides to do, I'm just glad that 99.99999999999.9% of the comunity is behind him. My hat's off to both Atrocities, all the other creative guys 'n gals on this forum, and the SE comunity in general.

&gt;Rogue

Re: Its Offical
 

I want to say thank you to all of you. Thank you for all the private Messages, and email's. It is a credit to this community to know that the fans of SEIV, and the members of Shrapnel Games Forums are such supporting and kind gamers.

Thank you to all of you, and to SEIV for all the fun, laughs, support, and more.

I hope to either convince AF that my site was a good AF site, or re-open the site at a spaceports.com. (Thank you Fyron for the help)

If god were human, he would belong to this forum, and be a big fan of SEIV. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ August 29, 2002, 09:24: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities,
Good for you!

If you have any troubles there, I can still find a good home for your site.

Now we can all go back to considering the question:

"Why the letters M, O, and W spell LOSER."

Ahahahahaha!

Re: Its Offical
 

There is a lesson to be learned from all of this. Everything you do has consequences. If there had been more listening instead of talking in this situation, the whole thing might have been avoided. Hopefully we all learned something.

Jeez, I sound like my father! I AM getting old! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

Posted by Atrocities:
"If god were human, he would belong to this forum, and be a big fan of SEIV. "

Maybe she is.

Re: Its Offical
 

who says i'm not?

Re: Its Offical
 

Atrocities don't go......

RL can really bite..... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif
I know, i tried it once... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Its Offical
 

I also want to thank you Atrocities for your hard work. I used many of your shipsets.

And even if MoW wasn't THE reason you got pulled down, he's still a loser punk who will get what he deserves for being a childish jackass. Someday he'll look back on his baby tantrums and realize what a jerk he was.

[ August 30, 2002, 00:08: Message edited by: Iron Giant ]