Ever since the beginning of the Archive, some 5½ years ago, Drunk Duck (and especially a handful of named individuals from there) has heavily contributed to its continuing expansion, and its my estimation that there may be more than 2000 DD-links in the Archive, not to mention the Hubs for the Crossover Wars, Cameo Caper etc. … or should I say “there was”, they are all dead now…
With as perhaps as much as a third of the content of the Archive suddenly having gone 404, I really had to ponder what to do about it… and the Archive as a whole.
While I’ve always considered the Archive a fun hobby, one I enjoyed doing mostly because it brought me into contact with a lot of great webcomics and especially the artists of the same, I also know that its more or less unknown by most. Heck, just last month I got a note from Project Wonderful about the possible delistning of my front page banner (placed more as an experiment than an actual source of revenue) since the site has dropped to under 10 unique visitors a day for an extended period of time! Besides that, a check of the Refereers to the site (including forum and Hubs for various crossover-related projects), shows a top 10 consisting more or less of polish spammer-sites and a half-NSFW gaia-online profile leeching on an image from the Archive…
I know I’ve not done much for advertising the site, partly because I don’t like “whoring” out my own project, and I know few people find it more than just yet another curious site, and again, it’s a hobby allright… but the hobby requires time, and I got less free time these days than I had years ago when I started the project. These days I hardly have the time needed to go through the Archive to find n’ replace 2000+ links to individual comics, and I do NOT have the time to hunt down each and every link in the first place…
So, when facing the possibility of continuing with a half-defunct and literally unknown- and visited site, I was more or less ready to make the decision of shutting down the Archive project for good…
However… that cannot die which is still kicking!
Since the initial bomb was dropped about the new DD-linking, I’ve gotten positive feedback from several sources which have convinced me that the Archive might deserve another chance!
Among others KAM, author of The KAMics and considered Cameowhore #1 (not to mention Top List Axe Bait), has submitted a list updating the list to each every of his in the Archive listed cameos AND the various Hubs, and the same has Amelius of Charby the Vampirate gifted me with!
Furthermore, associates and friends, especially Xade of Insanity of Xade, has also promised help with hunting down the missing links, and all this made me make the decision…
The Archive shall live!
… but it requires help.
If I shall be able to reinstate all the links in the Archive, I need help from people from near and afar. I can and will force myself to get the free time on fix all the DD-related links in the individual entries in the Archive, but if this process shall succeed, I need the links to begin with, the new ones in conjunction with the old ones.
And this is where I have to ask for help… help to finding these links and either mailing them to me or posting them in this thread in the Archive’s forum, as well as help to spreading the words about the Archive and its current perils so that we, hopefully, get people from near and afar to contribute with the rooting out of the links and eventually a reinstating of the Archive.
If we can do this I promise to do whatever I can to update as fast as possible (after my away-from-home vacation next week), along the way going the extra length, even if it slowly kills me, to bring it up to date with the current state of affairs in the worlds of webcomics as well as the newest direct-link option!
But now… the Archive needs your help.
- Hogan
