Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Five Years & Goodbye

[Master of AFTER]

Today, Project AFTER turns five years old. It was on August 30th, 2003 that PA first appeared on the internet, and now, half a decade later, it continues to exist in all its cynical splendor. Obviously, there's no way I could have made it this far without the support of my readers—especially those of you on the forums—and I feel as though I owe all of you a huge thanks in helping me reach this milestone. I know of a lot of great sites that never made it to their fifth anniversary, so thank you all for helping to make PA one of the lucky few privately-owned non-commercial websites to survive this long. It really has been a lot of fun running the site these past five years, and I feel very privileged to have had such an exceptional community of people supporting what I did.

Unfortunately, this is a bit of a bittersweet celebration. As happy as I am to see PA still on the web after all this time, I received some bad news regarding the site's future this morning. Those of you who have kept up with the unfolding saga of my defunct hard drive know that I was forced to pursue the last-resort option of sending my drive to a clean room facility in an effort to have the data recovered. Yesterday morning, I received a call from the sales rep at the recovery company who was handling my case. He regretfully informed me that, after a very through evaluation process, they concluded that my hard drive was physically damaged to a point where the data could no longer be recovered. Whatever tiny fragments of information they could pull off the drive would be largely incomplete and basically useless on their own.

Long story short: My old hard drive is officially dead and I lost everything on it.

This really sucks because I effectively lost every digital project I've worked on over the span of more than six years. School projects, multimedia collections, personal writing projects, old programs, game saves, photos, music... All of it completely gone, and almost all of it irreplaceable. It goes without saying that I also lost everything related to Project AFTER. There were so many things I'd written that hadn't been uploaded yet, I admit it depresses me to know that none of you will ever get to see that stuff. Being an archivist by nature, it's also depressing to know that I'll never be able to look back on what I made.

So what happens now? Honestly, I'm not sure at the moment. I'm torn between wanting to preserve what's currently online and not wanting to leave something so unfinished up where everyone can see it, so I haven't decided whether or not I want to leave PA online the way it is now. Concerning future updates... I'm afraid I can't offer any definite answers there either. Again, I have mixed emotions. Part of me wants to continue working on the thing that's dominated most of my spare time for the better part of the last five years, and part of me is fucking exhausted. Right now, the thought of putting the time and effort it would require to salvage everything necessary to continue expanding on the site seems colossal. I guess a big part of it is that I hate having to retrace my steps and work on stuff I've already completed, instead of actually moving forward.

In any case, one thing I have decided for sure is that I'm taking a break from thinking about the site. I definitely don't have the drive to work on the site right now, so I'm going to put it out of my mind for awhile and see how I feel in a few weeks/months from now. Until then, thanks again to everyone for everything.

[Gamer-e]

Well, it was great while it lasted. I'm sorry that you lost everything on your hard drive. To tell the truth, I actually got depressed when I saw the topic was made by you because I knew what to expect. It sucks even more knowing that all of these websites that are no where near as good as Project AFTER still get to exist/be updated.

While I would really would like for Project AFTER to not just die, I can understand why you wouldn't try to save it. Putting that much effort into something you care about, only to have it wiped out all at once, would make anyone give up on it. I know I would and I have before.

[T_K_17]

I just wish that there was some way we could help...

[TigerEyes]

Man, that's awful.  I'm really sorry things turned out the way they did, Alex.  You really tried your best to save the site.  No matter what you decide to do from here, we'll be behind you every step of the way.  This site has given me more than my fair share of laughs and good memories, so please let me know if there's anything I can do.

[Joker]

Thank you for making such a badass site. Seriously, you put a lot of work to make the place memorable, and it really was. Though nowhere near on the same scale, I too have spent lots of time on a project only to have it get erased, so I certainly understand the feeling of not wanting to redo everything you've already done. So yeah, definitely take a break, because after all that run-around BS that you had to go through concerning your hard drive, you deserve it. And in the meantime, let's not mourn the loss, but instead celebrate the epic victory that was Project AFTER. Your site made fanfic authors cry, bad cosplayers rethink their lives, and Dakari King Mykan have the biggest flipout since the legendary Digimon shipping war that... no one can seem to quite remember. The lulz that we shared will stay with us forever.

Seriously dude, you're the best.

[The Hutch]

Knowing you, saying this is redundant, but don't do anything for us. If the site is to be continued, I would suggest trying to go from scratch: Take a fresh fan fiction, and just see how it flows. This doesn't have to be done right away, of course, I think you could live on resubmitted fan submissions for a while, at least. I'm sure you have some particular fans (ShmeckieShmeckieShmeckie) who, beneath their masks of sympathy are burning with a sense of disappointment that their works will never see the light of day.

On a completely unrelated note, I think this may be a good time to reveal a secret we've had between the two of us.

In any case, I'm sure any support you're receiving probably feels like patting a recent widower on the back, letting him know that "He'll find another girl", so I'll cut it short and let you read between the lines.

[Shmeckie]

I'm not gonna say anything, except repeat what I told you over Skype; take some time off, and go ahead and rebuild the site when you're ready. I say "when", because I doubt you'll be able to let the site die off.

[Viashino_wizard]

I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to find the right words to express my gratitude for everything you've done for and with this site. We're always here for you, man.

Don't go, or you'll make Shmeckels cry

This post has been edited by Viashino_wizard: Aug 30 2008, 10:47 AM

[Minkeyboodle]

Shmeckels?! No matter, I'm very sorry to hear about the site, however I am comforted by the fact that you tried to get every thing back and am willing to wait for when/if you decide to do a Project A.F.T.E.R. Part Deux.

[Desdemona]

First of all, Alex--if I may, in fact, call you that--I would like to express my gratitude to you for this website and also my condolences for your deceased hard drive.

It's been fun while it lasted, and while reading this I thought of a quote that might help you in days to come.

"Keep moving forward."

The past is the past so don't live in it, you have to keep moving forward or you'll never get any farther.

[Homer DJW]

Hey Alex,

Like Gamer, I saw the topic name and almost guessed what had happened.

Firstly I'd like to offer my condolences, as I know second hand (being the one normally informing people) of things like this and, to use a well-used-phrase, it sucks balls.

Secondly, whatever I feel, you should feel free to do as you want because (not wanting to sound rude) this place is yours, its your project and so you have every right to do what you want.

And lastly, I would just like to say thanks for the last 5 or so years. Thanks for the laughs and vomit inducing pieces of work that have been brought to my attention.

[NiGHTS Noob]

Can't say I wasn't ready this, but I certainly didn't want it to happen. Being an archivist and a procrastinator myself I can say I have some of an idea of what you're feeling with that. But, of course, I don't have something quite like Project AFTER on my computer, so I can't quite grasp the scale of it.

Hope you'll find the drive to get back to it someday though.

[Yaoi Huntress Earth]

Everyone else pretty much took the words out of my mouth, but I wish you and this place better luck in the future.

[Spring-Heeled Jack]

this is a pretty crappy day. your brand of humor is very rare around the internet these days. it takes a great deal of time and effort to weed through all the unfunny pieces of crap and all the porn to find an gem like Project AFTER. its just too bad it had to end like this.

[Kvitne]

Well it's a shame that things turned out like this. I've loved the site for the past year and some months. I'm sad that I didn't check it out sooner. Hopefully the community will stick around. I'm willing to wait as long as it takes for another update topic to show up in this sub-forum. It'll be a happy day when I click "View New Posts" and see that waiting there for me.

[Razordogz]

It's been good, mang. Hopefully you'll come back refreshed and ready to slave over a computer some more for us.

[gfw spacezilla]

Wrll, Im sad that this happpned. you did a good run and made me and many others Indeed, LOL. I only hope that you wil oneday get the drive to work again. until that day, thanks for all the laughs.