RTS-Sanctuary closing down
Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:03 pm
Robo:
Might this be the official killer for aoe3 ?Unfortunately I am not able to continue funding/supporting the operation of RTS-Sanctuary.
It's not feasible to transfer the site to someone else to operate - there is nobody who knows anything about all the custom coding for the site and I don't have any free time to do anything to help with transferring things over. The site databases are also so large that any transfer task would be enormous. Releasing the replay systems to others to use is also not practical as they each involve thousands of lines of code that are tightly integrated with the forum software. Finally, even if we kept the current site running with some financial support, I don't see myself having any time to undertake any further development of the site as new games are released.
I have therefore decided that a clean shutdown of things is the best way to go rather than a long slow decline as things change/break and don't get modified/fixed.
I realise a lot of people will be disappointed to hear this news, and it is not a decision I have come to lightly. I'd like to thank all of the admins and staff who have volunteered their time to help keep this place running for the last 7+ years. There are too many of them to list but without their efforts the site would have shut long ago - I don't think any of us involved with AOTSanctuary in the first few months ever expected it to continue for this long.
I'd also like to thank all of the people who have used and contributed to the sites over those 7+ years as well. I stopped playing any of the games we support over 5 years ago but I have always tried to keep the site going for people who still played the games I used to enjoy. Hopefully having RTS-Sanctuary (and before that AgeSanctuary and DoWSanctuary) around has helped these communities to survive for a bit longer than they otherwise might have.
At this stage I plan to shut the site on Wednesday 20 April but I will confirm that closer to the date.
Note: This is not an April Fool joke - it is not something I would ever joke about.