If Abaissé suddenly turned into a 404 Not Found...

[MmeJavert]

...would you miss it, or do you all get your fandom kicks elsewhere?

I see that there's been little fandom activity here in 2017. And, um, I'm 102% certain I can't afford to pay the bill in April. So.... I gotta know if people are going to care if it goes. Cause if y'all do maybe we can find a way to keep it going.

[deHavilland]

Absolutely, yes. But it seems unfair to have you keep paying the monthly fees for something you're not using that frequently -- I've been there before. I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and talk taking over the rent if you want to PM me about it.

[MmeJavert]

Just to expand slightly ... at the end of March I'll get the bill and I believe it is due 25 days after that. And 60 days after that my host will suspend the site if hosting bill remains unpaid. So Abaissé still has a few months.

I have been considering a career change which may necessitate me creating a separate website from Abaissé for those purposes, and thus if that works out Abaissé can continue to benefit off my needs. However I don't foresee it happening overnight that I can suddenly create a website that generates me enough money to pay the home bills and then the hosting bills. (I would like it to. I just don't have very much faith in the world that it will happen, ha)

In order, I hate the idea of putting ads or a subscription on Abaissé and I also hate the idea of taking the place away from people who love it and visit it often, as I once used to do with café frenchboys until it died many years ago. If it didn't cost me money to pay for the hosting plan I would never take Abaissé down, as long as someone loved it enough to keep coming.

[deHavilland]

Haha, I should have read this post before I replied to the PM. If you're thinking you may need to cash in on your hosting deal further down the road anyway, then it makes sense to keep the account active. You've been hosting this place for years though, so it's probably about time someone else stepped up and helped out with the costs, at least until the Abaisse hosting fees become redundant because of other activity on your account (if that ever happens. I'm not offering because I think that a year or two from now you're going to say "alright, so now that I have my new website up and running, I'm basically paying for that and Abaisse can piggyback from now on." I would hate to see the site go.)

[23623]

Please please don't let this happen. I've only been here for one year (or three years if lurking counts) but I love this forum so much.

Would it be possible to preserve its legacy in any form if the forum were to be closed? Like maybe posting and registration would be disabled but we could still read old threads here?

Sorry for meddling with mod business. Didn't mean to interfere, just asking...

[MmeJavert]

I think it is theoretically possible for someone to mirror this site, since it is entirely public and searchable. However it's an ungodly amount of work. Unfortunately if the site dies due to non payment it won't stay, it will just be a 404. Its history would live on via the Wayback Machine though. (Unless that too has gone the way of the dodo)

If people do wish to donate I will let you know when the bill comes due so that I can switch it to monthly and pay that way.

Also, never apologise for responding to a thread! I posted it on the public forum, everyone's welcome to tender an opinion.

[Ursula_F]

I only discovered this site about 6 or 8 months ago, but I really love it!

Are you definitely against ads? I'm involved with a "Beauty and the Beast" fan forum that's hosted on Invisionfree; it doesn't cost anything, and there's just one spot on the page where the ads show up, always in that same place. So I don't even notice them - my eye is used to ignoring that spot.

[CC21106]

I could donate a small amount. A small ad wouldn't bother me either only no popups obscuring the screen.

[23623]

I'm fine with ads too. Just please don't let this forum die.

I'm actually considering saving some useful stuff here for future reference. It might be impossible to save the entire site but at least I could still have part of it after it died. For Chrome users: click "print", change the destination to "save to pdf", and you can save a page for offline reading. I've experimented with some threads and I promise it's readable. Also please tell me if you know better ways to do this (saving one page every time is really inefficient...) and I'd be very grateful!

[Auf die Barrikaden]

I'd miss it oh so freakin much. The Les Mis board at musicals.net is dead already, I have no idea where else all those mizzies went to after the movie hype. This is my only place to find out and share Miz stuff-and the remaining users are so damn nice! There must be a way to find a free hosting site or put some ads on it that keeps it going. Maybe even write to cammack to get an official board upgrade, aka Le Cafe 2.0? The knowledge hidden in all those threads is too much to lose. Sorry I can't contribute more but I check abaisse almost daily. I would be sad to see it die. And it would probably end a part of my fandom, just like the end of Le Cafe did.

[deHavilland]

I think the general thought here -- and MmeJ can correct me if I'm wrong -- is that Abaisse is going to stay, but with a little more help from the active members in terms of the financial responsibility for hosting. Probably the best thing that everyone can do now is to make keeping the site open worth everyone's while -- keep posting, keep responding, keep inviting other fans to the community and make Abaisse not only a worthwhile archive, but a continued and active place for fandom discussion.

[Acaila]

Had a busy last few days, so only getting a chance to reply now, but I think Abaisse has sole claim to a particular niche in fandom and would be very much missed if it were to go extinct, and losing the archives would be a really big loss to Mizdom. Likewise, I would not have a problem with ads, or with contributing something to keep it going.

[Olivia_y]

It would be such a pity to lose this forum. Every now and again I'd go through old threads and the archives and find some real gems, or just reminisce. I joined in 2013 (part of the movie hype crowd) but it appears a lot of that wave of the fandom have moved on to other things, such is the way of fandoms I suppose.

Are you able to disclose what the hosting fees are? I'd be up for contributing too.

[Prisoner 24653]

I'd definitely miss this site if it were to close, so I hope you'll be able to keep it going! I may be able to contribute at least some money, and can definitely help with trying to publicize and attract more members, as well. <3

[between4walls]

Would be willing to chip in, I value the archives and research here even though I'm not around as much anymore! (Also I spent a lot of time writing up the Dreyfus affair and would hate to lose that thread!)