Why
"...my heart tells me that an age has passed and we shall never see its like again. I hope I am
wrong." - Michael Martinez -
http://sf-fandom.blogspot.com/2012/11/so-long-merp-dot-com-and-thanks-for-all.html
http://www.sf-fandom.com/2012/11/19/today-we-say-farewell-to-middle-earth-talk-radio/
http://www.communizine.com/2012/11/19/internets-oldest-tolkien-radio-site-shuts-down/
This page, and the subsequent pages, are here because people kept asking why these sites
were offline for a long time beginning in 2012...
SHORT SIMPLE VERSION
Founder/donor of the (60+) international community websites and services, due to the ongoing economic malaise, and punitive tax policies of the Obama adminstration's actions, and the ironically named "'Affordable' Care Act" (ACA) aka Obamacare causing overwhelming financial burdens, has been forced into a situation having to choose between family or shutting down the sites.
So of course chose family.
Or read the longer version by following this link
NOTE: To be clear, despite the misreporting of some sties, this has NOTHING to do with the Skyrim video game mods recently called MERP (Middle-earth Role-playing) that were shutdown by Warner Brothers. If you arrived at this site because of MERP, it would be the tabletop paper and dice role-playing game system Middle-earth Role-playing originally by Iron Crown Enterprises beginning in 1981 onward.
If you had content on the sites you needed to get access to, you can still do so for a little while longer, until the servers die completely, by following the links listed below that correspond to the site you wanted to access. Basically until the server collapses from lack of administration. People do not realize the many hours per week put into fighting off hackers, spammers, government bureaucrats and paperwork, lawyers, script-kiddies, taxes, hardware upgrades and replacement, providing user support, etc. to
keep servers, that have been offering so many services for so many communities, up and running.
If the national and global situation ever improves so that it becomes possible in the future for the founder of all these sites to reestablish some level of protection for his family's future, he may find the means and time to re-enable these sites. Alternatively, you may contact him if you would like to take over the burden of continuing to run these complex websites, content management systems, IRC, audio/video streaming, email lists, and the many other demands each community needs in order to thrive. It will be years before these (60+) domains expire, so he can help with that process.
* spokaneasl.com (Spokane American Sign Language study group) (rescued 2015)
* earpg.com, ea-rpg.com (limbo)
* syntheticzen.com, synthzen.com (rescued 2015)
* techtalk.hawkenterprising.com (limbo)
* merpcon.com, Tolkien gaming convention 2005 through 2009)
* middle-earthradio.com, middleearthradio.com (still no rescue)
* middle-earthtalk.com, middleearthtalk.com (still no rescue)
* suitegm.com (still no rescue)
Rescued Sites
Rescued Sites list last updated: November 26th, 2012
The following sites have been recently rescued by people that stepped up to save them from
shut down (at least for now)
Thanks Acetolyne - spokane2600.org
Thanks Tolwen - othermindsmagazine.com, omzine.org,
other-minds.com, otherminds.net
Other comments:
http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/obama-killed-merp-com.79672/
http://lotrplaza.com/archive/index.php?t-24238.html
