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FileFront Networks closing shop?

DougK94

By DougK94
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DougK94 Super Member

DougK94

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Ziff Davis pulls the plug on Filefront, True. (From a Star Wars forum run by a FileFront moderator)

Yes.. you read that correctly. The huge worldwide game network FileFront, will be shut down. This comes after a rough year, last year the company Ziff Davis (who own FileFront and several other sites and magazines) filed for bankruptcy protection.

 

Earlier this year they sold one of their other major sites in an effort to gain revenue, and at the same time fired around 30 of their high positioned employees. It seems this hasn't help in the long run, especially with the current economic downfall around the globe, and as of today, information has leaked that the company has actually gone bankrupt.. however no official announcement has been made.

 

Being a member of the FileFront Network Staff myself, I was able to speak to several site admins, and forum administrators who confirmed the rumours to be true, and as you will see for yourself, the forum has been completely deleted:

 

http://forums.filefront.com

 

What you cant see, is the fact that not only the forum is removed, but access to the staff control panel for every game site on the network has been blocked also. It is a sad day for the network consisting of thousands of members. Some people remain hopeful that this is some 'april fools' prank, however the evidence speaks to the contrary, as much as I wish that were true. My sources have revealed that all the game sites are expected to permanently go offline at the end of this month, which as you know.. is not far away at all.

 

In light of these events, I put together a small team consisting of several other filefront staff who are downloading and archiving all files we can from the Jedi Knight Network Site (JK2 and JK3). Our plan is to have a replacement site online not long after the current ones go offline. Authors for files will of course be asked for permission before uploading to the new site, which means that no doubt, many files will be lost forever.

 

Some of the other game communities are also working on similiar projects to avoid severe losses, and to stop this from ending the game communities. With Jedi Academy already slowing dying, losing such a large community site will no doubt be the final blow to this game community.. unless we can do something about it.

 

This is where the new site comes into play, we are hoping to get the word spread amongst the JK community as fast as possible, to enable a smooth transition to the new site, and you can all help with this, the new site will be known as Jedi Knight Source... advertise the site everywhere, tell everyone you know, tell everyone you dont know.. its up to us to keep this game.. this communitiy.. alive.

 

http://www.jksource.com

 

Source here.

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studeggle Super Member

studeggle

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Tod read it all ;)

In light of these events, I put together a small team consisting of several other filefront staff who are downloading and archiving all files we can from the Jedi Knight Network Site (JK2 and JK3). Our plan is to have a replacement site online not long after the current ones go offline. Authors for files will of course be asked for permission before uploading to the new site, which means that no doubt, many files will be lost forever.
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Todd Holley Super Member

Todd Holley

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Many mod / map creators are no longer even around, so giving them credit will be enough in my opinion. If there are any problems the files can easily be removed. And I did read that post twice, couldn't believe it. I have started the download of the most useful files from callofduty.filefront.com. And will gladly try to launch a replacement as the need is apparent. I am not doing this for profit, just don't want all these great files to go missing. FileFront is kind of in a field of its own..... if this thing starts eating up more than 1 machine can handle I will end it. That is of course even if me and Justin pursue the idea.

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VicToMeyeZR Super Member

VicToMeyeZR

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Wonder if FileFront would be interested in a sell? It would be a shame for all those countless files to just go down the drain. Would it be illegal to archive as many files from the site as possible and redistribute them if we have the permissions to do so?

 

 

Hi Thomas,

 

 

I’d be happy to discuss this further. What does your availability look like Thursday?

 

Best,

 

 

Steve Sutton

 

 

Looks like it.

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Johnny5_Hull Super Member

Johnny5_Hull

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Indeed, selling should have been the first option..... however.

 

There is no mention of them being deleted, only that the site will be deleted. As part of any (well most) bankruptcy cases, the parties owed money are going to want to get some back, and a business' or persons assets are normally sold off to recoup some of those losses.

 

And although it doesn't mention the site/servers/files being up for sale, it doesn't say they aren't either ;)

 

Lets hope it goes that way, as it would be a huge hit to the modding/gaming lose all those legacy files.

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Todd Holley Super Member

Todd Holley

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Hi Thomas,

 

 

I’d be happy to discuss this further. What does your availability look like Thursday?

 

Best,

 

 

Steve Sutton

 

 

Looks like it.

 

I do not understand at all.

 

Also, is is sad to see this go. I am doing my best to archive all the important things. And I also have partial interests in negotiating a deal with them if they would be willing to negotiate on pricing.

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Dan M Super Member

Dan M

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I do not understand at all.

 

Also, is is sad to see this go. I am doing my best to archive all the important things. And I also have partial interests in negotiating a deal with them if they would be willing to negotiate on pricing.

I'm guessing an email was sent to them and he responded back to arrange a time with "Thomas" to discuss it further.

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swish Super Member

swish

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I seriously doubt anyone here can come close to be able to raise enough cash to purchase it, let alone to pay for the bandwidth and servers.... :(

 

I agree....monthly bandwidth alone would probably be in the six figures range. Probably close to that for a buyout I would assume as well.

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Todd Holley Super Member

Todd Holley

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They are using Cogent, which is pretty much free these days. The bandwidth costs aren't as high you as might assume.

 

Saw somewhere where you could get it for 3.99/mbit. So it's cheap undoubtedly. Money can be found, but there would be no sense in replacing filefront if it can't even pay for itself.

 

Is there a way I can get into contact with the person over filefront? Specifically callofduty.filefront.com.... I would like to speak with someone about it.

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