(Skip to Content)

Subspace Comms Network's April Fools Day 2004 Prank

Written by Dan Carlson

IMPORTANT NOTICE

As many of you already know, for the past two years the Subspace Comms Network has been hosted at Infopop's facilities thanks to the gracious hospitality of Charles Capps, who has provided our board space free of charge. His generosity has made this community possible, and we would almost certainly not be here today without his support.

However, it is also in part because of that support that Bernd and I are writing this notice today. Although Infopop has been able to donate this space for our use, they cannot allow us free run of the servers to consume unlimited amounts of bandwidth and storage space. Currently, the Subspace Comms Network comprises over 150,000 individual posts, taking up 850 MB of storage space. We receive between 600 and 1,000 visits per day at a cost of 14 GB of bandwidth per month. These statistics greatly exceed the standard amounts permitted for employee-sponsored communities.

Yesterday, Charles was informed by Infopop that our current hosting arrangement is to be terminated at the end of the current billing period. This means we can no longer be hosted free of charge, and the most appropriate paid hosting account at Infopop will cost us $40 per month.

To put it bluntly, neither Bernd nor I have the funds to pay that sort of money, even to keep the SCN online. The costs of maintaining this message board have simply become too great for a normal fan/hobby operation. Bernd and I are currently considering alternative means of hosting and payment, including advertising and collecting donations from the membership; based on our current calculations, though, we will probably not have enough money even if we take these measures. Neither of us has sufficient personal funds to contribute to the board at this time, either. Therefore, it is highly likely that the Subspace Comms Network will be closing on April 15, 2004.

We'd sincerely hoped that we wouldn't have to face this prospect, but at the moment, the odds seem against us. If you have an idea for a hosting prospect or are able to donate money, please contact us via e-mail through the links below. If all else fails, we're grateful for the time we've had and for having your support in building this wonderful community.

Dan Carlson

Bernd Schneider

Read this thread to see the reaction!

This page was last modified on Friday, February 08, 2008.