Episode downloads coming to an end at TFArchive

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StoneCold Skywarp
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Episode downloads coming to an end at TFArchive

Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

14th October 2002 - posted by TFArchive & StoneCold Skywarp

It is with deep regret that we announce something we never thought TFArchive.com would have to. For many years we have been the fore-runners for episode downloads in the transformers community, offering everything from the original series and currently Transformers Armada, sadly however, this time has come to an end. Unfortunately, such as the demand for episodes, the site uses an un-imaginable amount of bandwidth every single day costing a small fortune every month, sadly revenue for the server has seen a massive slide in the last month and as such has become un-economic to keep online. We expect all the episodes to be offline by the end of November with no forseeable plans in the future to bring them back. We would like to thank all those that contributed to the massive cost of the server via the banner ads and paypal donations. We hope that you keep coming back to The Transformers Archive despite the lack of episode downloads and view the other content.

This post was on behalf of TFArchive.com
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Bombshell
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Post by Bombshell »

*deep breath*

NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

*begins crying*
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Percepter
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Post by Percepter »

oh no, i never thought ill read this :(

i hope something will happen and the epesodes will come back
:( :(
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Plasmodium
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Post by Plasmodium »

Dont worry people, theres still Direct Connect and other means of getting episodes. I wont be leaving here any time soon and will continue to support this place.
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Padawan Michael
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Post by Padawan Michael »

Wait... what kind of revenue problems are we talking here? I'd be happy to Paypal a bit of money over to help support the server that's letting me download the files, and I'm sure others would too.
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deji
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Post by deji »

:(
oh well that sucks now everyone must use Direct Connect the only prob is it limits the number of users allowed on to it... is there anyway to allow more users to be on the hub?
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Post by ThunderCracker84 »

Though the eps are what brought me to the site and message board, I'll be damned if it is going to be what makes me leave.

It will be sad to see the ep's go, but it is for the greater good of Brendan, cause the last thing anyone wants is for him to go into debt. If the eps come back that will be amazing, if they don't, I for one won't be mad.
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nmathew
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Post by nmathew »

I agree with TC84 here.

Of course, now I have to figure out how to get those Armada rips.. Ugg, I might have to actually do them myself :-) Low quaility crap in comparison.

Thank you for having the episodes available for as long as you did. I greatly enjoyed them.

I'm guessing quite a few people will be browsing this thread who don't view the normal message board much. I would just like to make an open invitation for people to e-mail me, and ask nicely to download episodes from me. I have complete series of:

G1
Beast Wars
Beast Machines
Head Masters
Masterforce
Victory
RiD
(working on Armada)
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DrEvil
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Post by DrEvil »

It's a shame that the eps have got to go... but if they continue it could mean the end of TFARchive, and that aint gonna happen as long as we are all here.
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Roy Fokker
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Post by Roy Fokker »

So does this mean the popups are going to stop? AFter all they were the main source of funding for the downloads weren't they?
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BigMaki
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Post by BigMaki »

Originally posted by Roy Fokker
So does this mean the popups are going to stop? AFter all they were the main source of funding for the downloads weren't they?

I would think that they're still the main source of funding for this site, episodes or not. You still have to pay for hosting and bandwidth, even if it is significantly less than usual...
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LigerZero
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Post by LigerZero »

Dang it.

Maybe if we all click the banners more offten and maybe turn off Pop-up stopper while we're here then maybe the site will get the revinue it needs to keep the episodes up.
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Inferno
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...

Post by Inferno »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :(
****, ****, ****!!!!@^%*&#$%@^%#@$&%#$&@!!!!!!!!!
Can't you do anything? :confused:
Leave only one server with only one of the series?? Something?? Anything!!... Can't you? :eyebrow:
If only I had a credit card... How much is the cost? Can it be covered by clicking on the ads or with the pop-ups? I can make all computers in my univercity's lab to be on the server 24-7! :eek:
Anything but shuting them down... :( again... :glance:
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Jim
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Re: ...

Post by Jim »

Originally posted by Inferno
How much is the cost?


I can't recall off-hand, but I think it was quoted at about 500$ USD per month.
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Post by RID Scourge »

Will tfarchivedc.dyn.dhs.org still be up on Direct Connect? I have everything that's aired so far, and I have all of G1 and Beast Wars shared on the hub, along with what Armada eps I can scrounge up. I will be getting the Beast Machines and RID on the hub when I have the time to transfer them from their CDs to my computer. As I said before, it's the responsibility of those that downloaded eps from this site to share them. I will be on 24/7 with everything I have for you guys to download. If I'm not, then my computer froze, and I haven't restarted it yet (this is rare, as I have Windows 2000, a very stable OS).

In addition to the TFs, I plan to share my Dragonball Episodes, the few GI Joes that I have, and other vidfiles that I acquire. Now, if only I had time to load these onto my computer. Lord knows I have 100 gigs to work with, so space isn't too much of a problem, and when it is, I'll get a bigger one. :D
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TFArchive
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Post by TFArchive »

Hi everyone, sorry about the bad news but I can't continue to pay what I'm paying for hosting episodes.

Here is exactly how much it costs to host this site every month:

2 Main dedicated servers for html pages, comics, movie clips, forums and anything non-episode based. (except mirroring the odd episode every now and then). One is not enough as I would go over my 400GB bandwidth allocation, by a fair margin. (I did one month and it cost me $250 in overages charges, so I bought a second server for $105/month)

Monthly cost : $211.06 US approx. $337.70 CDN (after my visa converts it)

Episodes server

Monthly cost: $425.33 US, approx. $680.53 CDN

So when it gets billed to my card it adds upto over $1000 CDN every month.

Here is what I made the last two months from both my main banner sites:

Burstmedia (main advertiser)
August 2002: $293.58 US
September 2002: $ 435.08 US

Focusin (secondary)
August 2002: $86.59 US
September 2002: $76.14 US

Other Income: Maybe $20 per month or so, if that.

So for totals we are ending up with this:

August: $400.17 US, loss of $236.22 US
September: $531.22 US, loss of $105.17 US

So far October is probably going to land around $450 or so. Another $200 loss.

I have not been able to cover my costs with banners, etc. since the stock crash of June 2000. So I've been losing $100-$300 US per month for over 2 years now. This has added up on my Visa's and I just can't take it anymore. I'm tired of paying $1500 CDN every month just to stay current. I can't make a significant dent in my large debt on all 3 cards.

Fortunetly, I do have a great job that allows me to carry this kind of debt, but I don't have much room for anything else, savings, etc. I need to start getting rid of these debts, they cost me $150 CDN every month in interest alone (and all my cards are under 12% interest rates).

I have tried to find other more cost effective hosting solutions, but unfortunetly, none of them would meet our needs. Find me a 10Mbps+, unlimited transfers server for less than $400 and I would have been interested.

So that is the story, I can't see any other solution, I knew it would have to end eventually.

Sorry guys (and girls). :( :( :( :(
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Post by TFArchive »

The DC hub will remain online until sometime this winter. It will go down when my cable company implements download/upload transfer caps. No one know when this will happen yet.
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Plasmodium
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Post by Plasmodium »

Damn....

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LigerZero
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Post by LigerZero »

I was going to suggest cycling the series one at a time. But after reading the boss-mans posts I can understand that it might not work.

But just for the hell of it I'll give you my idea. I was thinking that you could put up just one searies on the server at a time. Like start with G1, and have like 3 or more episodes every 2 weeks along with whatever current Armada episoded have aired. Then when you've gone through G1 you put up Beast Wars and work through those episodes and so on.

This way people who already have G1 will not download those episodes, but may still get the Armada episodes only. This would hopefully take some load off the server.
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Megatron2
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Post by Megatron2 »

I also want to say thanks for having the episodes available. That's not what brought me here and I certainly am not leaving because of it. I just think it's great to have a TF site/board where I can interface with other TF junkies.:)
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Thanks Skywarp!!
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