FreedomForceForever shutting down

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

It's been a good run and I'm glad to have served this community, but between the host sneaking extra charged in their without telling me and the visitors finally dropping into the single digits, I can no longer justify continuing.  I haven't even been around in years now.

It will all go down on the 20th, so you all have time to download whatever you need or want to.  It's been a pleasure to have been part of this community in all the many ways that I have.  If there's a cooler bunch of people on the internet, I've never met them.

Perhaps I'll still be around from time to time, but it still feels like the end of an era.

[Panther_Gunn]

cat, your generosity in providing this invaluable resource to our community for so long is incalculable, thank you.  (all these big words makes me feel like a third-rate TPB)  It's been awhile, I hope you've been well.

The last time I was on the site a couple months ago, I noticed that SHJ's site was reduced to just a box of text, and the DOD site was completely gone, looking like the domain name had expired.  I don't know how much you'd been checking on it in recent years, just wondering if that was intentional on their part, or if the content was still available somewhere.

Were there any other sites that you were hosting in addition to the 11 that are on the main page?  I'm sure there will be plenty of people that would like to get as much of the files as possible.

Again, thank you for all that you've done for the community.  You're always welcome back whenever you feel the urge.   

[Tomato]

So just to be public about it, i will be downloading whatever i dont have from heroforce and plan to move it *somewhere*, tho i am seeing whether i can take over everything, tho i may ask for help short term thanks to my own situation (in the process of buying house rn).

[eluvium]

would it be conducive if someone took over its upkeep, depending on the cost I wouldn't mind hosting a site just cuz

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Those hosting company has been scummy ever since they were bought out, so I wouldn't recommend anyone take it over as is.

I have offered Tomato access to download everything directly from the servers.

Not sure why some of the subsites are broken.  I haven't really looked into them.  Some have been hacked a few times.  Some may have been using obsolete features.

[abenavides]

sad news. Let me add my thanks for all you've done for the community, cat

[tommyboy]

I'd like to add my thanks to Catwho, who has very generously hosted my poor efforts for such a long time.
Thanks you, personally and on behalf of the community.

[Tomato]

I'm looking into long term costs of transferring to a new host and taking over for cat. Thankfully FF isn't exactly space intensive (Heroforce is less than 2gb in total and there's like 5-6 of us there) and I've found a handful of plans to cover everything pretty cheap, even if it means we lose the shiny .com stuff.

Only thing with my situation is that I'm currently in beginning stages of having bought a house, getting out of a lease, and I have to be responsible for that above everything else. So if I take it up FFF might be down for a month or two while things stabilize on my end. I'm perfectly willing to take up Cat's burden (he's given so much and it's my stuff on there too), it's just probably the worst timing.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

There's an up side to that.  The domain name might be free at that time.  I've never owned it (or I'd hand it over) but got it through that provider, it will likely either be loose or available for sale after a couple of months.

[Deaths Jester]

Well, you had a great run saving every site possible...just sucks that the providers are scummy arses and adding cost where it isn't needed.

[SickAlice]

Bummer. You've been a godsend and more and have nothing to justify in my eyes. And thanks for the heads up. Also noting you outlined the situation with the host which is good. I'd toyed with getting a hold of you to see if we need to organize a donor drive. We all should start a discussion then I think about that, coming together and paying for webspace I mean or where the alternative is going to be (waiting for Alex to weigh in here). Else thank you again for the years of service and kindness to us and this community.

[eluvium]

I'm looking into long term costs of transferring to a new host and taking over for cat. Thankfully FF isn't exactly space intensive (Heroforce is less than 2gb in total and there's like 5-6 of us there) and I've found a handful of plans to cover everything pretty cheap, even if it means we lose the shiny .com stuff.

Only thing with my situation is that I'm currently in beginning stages of having bought a house, getting out of a lease, and I have to be responsible for that above everything else. So if I take it up FFF might be down for a month or two while things stabilize on my end. I'm perfectly willing to take up Cat's burden (he's given so much and it's my stuff on there too), it's just probably the worst timing.

well again if I know the sepces I am also interested in upkeeping freedom force legacies, and I have hosted a site in my day so let me know

[Podmark]

I really want to thank you Cat for hosting everything for so long. I personally always found found it neat seeing all those sites linked together under FreedomForceForever domain. Hats off to you, you really came through for this community.
It's really still amazing that FR is still around after all this time.

[mac402]

Thank you Catwhowalksbyhimself for hosting all those sites for so long. Good luck in any future endeavors! With this down and yahoo groups down too dark times are comming for FF modding... I feel for any newcommers looking for resources for this game. Already a lot of stuff is missing that I would've once taken for granted. Eh, feeling old now. And also thanks for informing ahead of time before the site shutdown (Gonna check if I dl everything, lol).

[WyldFyre]

Thanks Cat for the original Museum site. It does feel like the end of an era but you had a great run.

[SuperPoweredYank]

Remember to archive everything via archive.org!

[Fronkenhonk]

Hi.

Im willing to help out abit financally if needed if you guys come up with a good solution. I dont have paypal.

Regards Fronkenhonk

[Epimethee]

Thanks for all those years of hosting, Cat!

[BentonGrey]

Just dropping in, taking a break from my insane semester and such for a moment to say: Cat, thank you so much for everything you've given this community, and especially for being such a stalwart and steady force for so long.  Thank you for what you have given us, in time, in treasure, in talent, and in your presence itself.  I hope that, though you won't be hosting the content, you won't disappear on us.  The people are still cool, and we would still be blessed by your company, however infrequently.

I've already told 'Mato, but I'm at the community's service for whatever is needed to keep FFF going.  This is not the end.

And I'll be back and active when I have free time again, by the end of the semester, if not sooner.  Now, back into the ether I go! 

[spydermann93]

Holy crap, I have no idea how I missed this for so long!

Thank you for everything, Cat! These sites have been around forever and I really, really, really appreciate you keeping them online as long as you have been. Sucks that the hosting sites are being real jerks.

Seriously, thank you so much!

[Tomato]

So just as a general fyi, cat was supposed to give me full ftp access, and he has yet to do so,  and we're getting doen to the wire rn.

I did go through and site rip the public facing stuff from fff, and i know between sickalice, tpg and i, we have most of the public facing content (plus sa and i have litterbox and heroforce access respectively). I'm somewhat nervous about tommyboys stuff, I can only access public files. If theres server side stuff i cant get it.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

My fault.  Sorry guys.

I've passed on the necessary access to Tomato and am currently copying everything myself as an additional backup.

[Tomato]

Download started. I'm getting the occasional failure (ironically it's all html files which... ok), but it's like 1/1000 so I'm gonna let it go while I slep and requeue failures when I wake up.

[Tomato]

So i got 99% of it dumped (theres like, one file i cant get that may or may not be needed, but i can replace it if it is) and am sorting through it all. Theres a bunch of bts stuff I may need to contact creators for, and if anyone knows older php coding one of the websites is php based and i might need help making it html

[eluvium]

Holy crap, I have no idea how I missed this for so long!

Thank you for everything, Cat! These sites have been around forever and I really, really, really appreciate you keeping them online as long as you have been. Sucks that the hosting sites are being real jerks.

Seriously, thank you so much!

Hey I know this aint related, but your inbox is full

[SickAlice]

Ty again Tomato. If you need me to pitch in on any grunt work to ease the burden let me know.

[abenavides]

So i got 99% of it dumped (theres like, one file i cant get that may or may not be needed, but i can replace it if it is) and am sorting through it all. Theres a bunch of bts stuff I may need to contact creators for, and if anyone knows older php coding one of the websites is php based and i might need help making it html

I'm swamped at work but can take a look at the php if no else is available. Just might take me a while to get back to you

[cmdrkoenig67]

Oh no...I just saw this! Thank you, Cat for hosting the site for as long as you did.

Dana

[SickAlice]

For in the future at least Tomato if you need me to rework the Index page unless you want to take it over let me know. I know that thing was really outdated. I might work on some FF stuff today, I figure it's my birthday so I'm entitled to do what I please. After I fix a broken water pipe in my ceiling I guess (facepalm). Since tutorials keeps coming I'm also considering during my page overhaul doing a page of indexed PDF's and such. We'll need to chat about permissions (CB had gotten permissions when he packed most of them but I want to update that before hosting) when the time comes. I think having in them all in an accessible and linkable place online that isn't file host subject to vanishing (Yahoo, Photobucket, so on) would probably be a useful thing.

[deanjo2000]

Happy birthday