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Message boards are back up!
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| Welcome back to Fan Forum... This last week, we experienced the biggest disaster in the history of the site. The server that hosts the message boards had a major system failure, and the backup tapes also failed. We did everything in our power to resolve the problem quickly, but ultimately, we were at the mercy of the server company. As you know, Fan Forum has experienced extreme financial hardship over the past few years, and one way we attempted to save money was to use a separate and less expensive server for the message boards. This decision was the only thing that kept us online for the last year or so, but unfortunately it all backfired this week and critically damaged the site. Since all of our recent backups have been lost, the boards have currently been restored from a very old backup. You will notice that all of the threads and many features were lost, one of the features being the entire Fan Points system. We are hopeful that most of the lost work can be recreated, but it could take some time. We realize that this happened at the worst possible time, especially with all of the fall premieres. We truly apologize for the frustration you experienced, and for our inability to prevent this from happening or keeping you better informed about developments as they occurred. For future protection, the boards will be moved to another server with a very reliable backup system. It will be more expensive to go this route, but it will also guarantee that nothing like this ever happens again. Along with being incredibly frustrating, this server crash was also devastating to Fan Forum's financial situation. We weren't sure how we were going to survive before this incident, and now, the situation is even more desperate. We recently switched to a new ad broker that we hoped would help us become more financially independent. However, this disaster has cut us deeply. Our ad revenue is dependent on page views and click throughs and it provides a large part of the income needed to pay the server bills. During the blackout, we went an entire week without any page views, which means that nearly a quarter of our monthly income is gone. When the boards are moved to a more expensive server, our bills will be even higher. Since the participation in the Fan Points system had recently plummeted, we find ourselves with almost no choice but to shut the entire network down once the bills cannot be paid. We believe the site is still worth fighting for and we plan on making every effort to get past this unfortunate event. However, we must once again rely on you to join our efforts and do what you can. One thing that would help on an ongoing basis is if members who are able to do so would commit to making a small monthly donation. Some members may prefer to make a larger one-time donation, or to donate every few months, and these contributions are just as important. Every little bit helps cushion the financial strain that this site has on those of us that run it. We love Fan Forum and would be heartbroken if it was gone, but many of us face great financial loss if things continue at this rate. We ask that you take a minute and reflect on this last week without the community and think about whether or not the site is worth saving. If Fan Forum means anything to you at all, please take advantage of this opportunity to show it. Thank you very much for everything, we would have given up long ago had you not supported us when necessary. The Fan Forum Staff If you are able to make a donation to help keep this site going you can do so at this page Snail mail donations may also be sent to this address: Make Donations Payable To: E4Fans |
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