I've been online for nearly 5 years now and have seen many of my favourite sites come and go. The Quake community (hate that phrase!) has had its share of disappearing sites. I used to be really annoyed when sites closed, "I think why the hell do want to that?" You'd read the reason, most of which were "I've just not got the spare time any more." I can now see why, to run a site and to make a good job of it alot of time and effort has to go into it. I spend nearly an entire Saturday just working on this site, I do enjoy it and I do it for the love of the game (and also it looks good on your CV if you run a website =)).

At one point Multiplayer Quake nearly became one of these closing sites. Things here have not been smooth, in 3 months this site has changed hands twice. From Warren Marshall (Taskmaster) to Jason (Smash) and Jakob (Xori) then to me. Events in recent weeks have meant I've got alot stick of some very ungrateful people (not only people who read the site but map authors too). I can take this abuse because I can understand it, I was once ungrateful. I thought things should just be done, this is not so. Time is an important factor here, if there isn't the spare time, it won't get done!

I do think that the sites we do have are extremely good considering this isn't done for money but just to entertain us and you in our spare time.

To mention some sites which have succumb to closure. Single Player Quake 2 is one such site. The reason there is a quite unique, Matt Sefton's wife was expecting a baby so he closed the site to concentrate on that. Can't disagree with that can you!

Lotus Look is another site which closed, then reappeared in the Summer with a new look, then went quiet, then an update was done in September and since then nothing has been heard. The Quake Map Hotel is another. It was and (and still is) an excellent site which reviews Quake and Quake 2 single player maps. I was sad to see it close due to lack of time on maintainers part. I was then suddenly surprised a few months later when it reopened stronger than ever!

To go onto Quake/Quake 2 mods. Quess (Quake chess) was one of my favourite mods for Quake. I even made 3 maps for it, see here. I made the first user-made maps for Quess. Anyway, this mod was originally created by Ridah (Quake Rally, Eraser bot and now working on Kingpin for Xatrix) who passed the mod to someone else (Ralgha) to run. Upon the release of Quake 2 the site promptly closed, the reason was Ralgha completely annoyed with how everyone had left Quake and gone to play Quake 2.

This is similar to what happened to Unreal.Org. I remember before Unreal was released the site was frequently updated with all things Unreal. On Unreal's release, Unreal.Org closed. Why? Well before its release Quake related sites slagged the game off, the normal thing really, when it appeared they took it in with open arms. This annoyed the Unreal.Org team and they closed.

The Great Green Heron is another site which has only just recently closed. Odd, who ran the site, was extremely annoyed with how ungrateful people were. The site actually relates to a server which Odd ran. He upgraded to latest version of QW and everyone who played on there disappeared. No reasons, these people just left. Odd, obviously fed up with the situation, stopped updating and who can blame him. The server does still run but it is not updated to run with the latest maps.

Something I nearly forgot to mention. You can disagree with what I've said and I say "Why run a damn site if you don't have the time?" Good point. Sites are started for various reasons. For example, Smash took over the site because he had the spare time during the summer, when his spare decreased and his work load went up he had to cut back on something, it was this site. Now I don't know the exact reasons for why Taskmaster started this site, but it was probably to let everyone have their chance to get their maps reviewed and showcased to everyone. This is in unique position in that we review any map. We don't go a seek out maps made by top authors, we openly allow anyone to submit a map to review. It obviously means we have to work harder.

So the reasons are basically either that of annoyance with people who the site is intended for (their ungratefulness) or lack of time, or both. I hope through reading this some people will understand how much time and effort is needed to run a site and things can't just appear! So when you give someone grief don't be surprised to get an outburst or to be flamed if you do complain! Thats not to say don't say anything. The thing I'm relating to is people complaining about reviews being late, why haven't you put all these things up, etc. I do want people to comment on problems, but not to give me grief (if theres any difference?).

Ahhhh, I feel better for that. Send your comments to me, and if theres enough feedback I'll do a follow up article.

Thanks for reading,

-Paul