December 14, 2007 by sharky
From Sharky: Filesharefreak.com siteop
Not only do sites like TPB, Mininova, Isohunt et al. have the MPAA, RIAA and government agencies breathing down their necks, they’re trying to stay afloat as well. Imagine these ironic headlines:
“Mininova shuts (itself) down: Operating costs too high. MPAA rejoices!”
“ThePirateBay closes: can’t afford the burden of tracking servers any longer.”
OK, maybe this is a little extreme, but it could happen, and does. This is exactly what happened to IRCKlipper.
I really enjoyed the service offered by IRC Klipper. It was a great place to find the latest stuff doled out by those great XDCC-Bots, without any pop-ups or other revenue-generating schemes that keep a free service like that going. And I’m quite sad to see this service come to an end. Nearing the last days for Klipper, there was even a widget that counted down the time remaining until it would be gone forever.
I think the thing that moved me the most is that the closure was purely a financial reason - obviously ‘Saragani’ (IRCKlipper site admin) liked doing it. Here’s a portion of what was posted on the site, word-for-word:
5) Something like 0.01% to 0.015% of the people click the banners… it really shows how much you care!! (1 of every 10,000 people click the text banners… How nice of you)
6) I have removed the popups on June 1st 2007. Since then the website popularity didn’t increase as much as I wanted, leaving me with people who don’t click much as resulting me a negative balance each month.
7) The server costs 120$ per month. I have reached a situation where I have 1000$ missing and I can’t continue running the website. The only way I could consider having this website working is if I would make like 50$ per day from text banners (which should cover the over-draft and give me reason to continue)… but this is not going to happen since you don’t click.
Now sure, after Saragani posted this, everyone started clicking the ads (myself included - I’m not a regular ad-clicker by nature) - but this was moot: the decision was a done-deal. The IRC Klipper forum was full of people saying they click every day - now. Even I visited and clicked almost every day, just to try to help him recuperate some of his incurred losses.
I was so moved by what he wrote that not only did I only click his ads, but I started clicking ads on all of the sites that I enjoyed and frequented often: ThePirateBay.org, Torrentfreak.com, Isohunt.com, Mininova.org, Slyck.com etc… (but to my deathbed I’ll always avoid those ads on corporate websites.)
People, the message is loud and clear: Click the ads on the sites you like to visit, even if it is a bit inconvenient for you. Go out of your way to do it, it’s just 15 seconds of your time and costs you nothing. Many of us aren’t just trying to make a fast buck - we’re just trying to make ends meet doing something we love to do. I never want to see those headlines - it means they win.
In closing, IrcKlipper could’ve been saved if people did what they should’ve been doing in the first place, instead of avoiding the ads like they were the devil’s spawn. So if you like Filesharefreak, visit the ads once in a while - and if you hate us, then don’t!
IRCKlipper.info - a Giant among Giants. RIP - December 5, 2007.
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