I think it was a little under a month ago and I've tried it several times since then, hoping it was just down temporary or something wrong with my computer but I guess not...
That site died years ago. The guy who ran it just seemed to stop caring. When the people who helped him sort the posts stopped doing it as much, from what I remember, he refused to give anyone else the ability to do it.
Please, sit down before you fall down.
Belloq, "Raiders of the Lost Ark"
"Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish,
A vapour sometimes like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory,
With trees upon't that nod unto the world,And mock our eyes with air.."
Gone forever? Ya, it has been gone about a month now, I think. That's so upsetting. I joined after it died...I'd write on storybook corpses...there were still a couple going...upset that I didn't have time to salvage the details so they could be continued.
Last edited by Jasmine Hart on Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I'll rise." -Maya Angelou
Well, it's all blocked now. I just tried getting onto the Chat Wall and where ever else, but no luck. I'm guessing the data isn't gone, but for some reason David decided to change the permissions on everything.
Anyhow, I'm still able to access the submissions processing system, so maybe there's a way I can still get to the recent additions page and try to save everything. Probably not though. As a side note, the problem with TYWC's submissions processing system is that it's all handled by IP address. I can still log in, but haven't been able to post any of the stuff there since 2002. Of course, it's all empty now.
As there appears to be some confusion over this, the guy who ran it, David, didn't stop caring. There were a lot of factors that lead to TYWC's downfall. So, a brief history is in order...
David created TYWC back either in 1995 or 1996 for his daughter, Derya, who was then 10. However, she stopped being active on the site in 1998, and pretty much stopped visiting it altogether in 2000. Despite this, David continued to run and maintain the site. He even put a lot of time into designing a new TYWC, which unfortunately never went live. (but maybe it's going live right now...?)
As time went on, his duties as a Professor took over more and more, and so he had to pay less and less attention to TYWC; not by choice, but instead by circumstance. At the same time, Derya was telling him that he didn't need to keep running it. She saw that it was taking up a lot of his time.
What David did try to do is hand off as many functions as possible to dedicated members. However, people have a habit of promising a lot, but delivering little. After getting several offers for help, but almost no one following through, I imagine he got a bit jaded. TYWC functioned great when you had Aaron le Compte handling all the submissions, but he had to leave. Laeorn then took over a lot, but he too eventually had to leave. I tried a few times to organize the remaining posters together, but only Gayle Goh ever responded.
And going on at the same time was that the Internet was moving forward. When TYWC was created, it was revolutionary. It utilized a database system, and very few sites could match that. By 2000, it was already looking dated. By 2002, it was really out of date. People moved on to other sites, such as writing.com or (for a time) Darkangel's PoetsQuill.com since those other sites could immediately post what they wrote. Hit submit, and you could expect reviews within the hour.
TYWC, though, continued to develop a community in the storybooks area (just ask Snoink or Griffinkeeper... they were both highly involved in that). There was also a thriving small community over on the chat wall. In 2004, that meant Incandescence, Matt Bellamy, Snoink, Midnight, Yea-Joon (to a degree), The Black Rose (Elizabeth here), Death Rose, and some others.
But without the main site functioning to back it up, it was doomed to fail. By 2004, David's duties as a Professor were demanding a lot more from him, the user base had become effectively apathetic, and even though people did offer to help, past events showed that very few (if any) would follow through.
And the reason for the eventual demise of TYWC? You're on it. So in a sense, TYWC never did die out. It just moved to YWS.
I think I'm going to start a Wikipedia article on TYWC. Almost all young writers sites can trace their routes back to TYWC in some manner, and the site was revolutionary in the 90s. In fact, it was probably one of the most sophisticated sites out there on the world wide web from 1996 to 1998.
EDIT
Apparently, David never cleared out all the storybooks that never got posted. I'm looking through them now, lol.
Thank you, TYWC, for everything you gave, everything you taught, and all the wonderful members you contributed to us. Rest in peace.
"In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function...We laugh at honour and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful." ~C.S. Lewis
Man, this thread is making me feel all nostalgic. I LOVED the storybooks, they were amazing. It was the first time i realised that other people my age were into writing. Good thing YWS came along when it did. x
"Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish,
A vapour sometimes like a bear or lion,
A towered citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory,
With trees upon't that nod unto the world,And mock our eyes with air.."
Chatwall is still up, ( http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~david/tywc/chat.htm ) and all the old ones, I've saved them all so I can look through them in case they disappear too. Muse, remember when I married Hysteria? Good times, good times. *sigh* Seven years...
