As some of you may know this year I have been hit with a couple of personal devastations due to the weather. We were hit with a tornado back in April and just this past Saturday we got hit by hurricane Irene. Now there are reports that tropical storm Katia will be a full fledge hurricane by late this afternoon and she seems to be on a course for us here on the east coast. I have taken a deep financial blow, and although my insurance will help it seems that that will not be enough to cover all my recent expenses.

So I have come to a position where I have to cut costs. As I sat down at my desk and wrote down all my expenses. I decided that I could cut off my cable and keep my internet, since I watch all my tv shows online anyway. I have turned off my home phone, since I have a cell and never use my home phone line. I was trying my damnedest to avoid the line marks ‘website’, but I pay over $200 for the dedicated service and databases and upgrades, etc and unfortunately right now I just cannot justify paying this luxury cost. I’m so sorry but I really truly cannot.

Due to ‘two’ very generous donations from one, fan/member of the Spuffy Realm site, the site/server has been paid for the next two months (thank you so much for that!!). At this point the only way the site will continue to run is by the generosity of you guys. The donation area on the site is linked to a paypal account that is attached to our server account, so that the money is taken from that automatically every month. I will be putting up a ‘Chipin’ donation box (it will be names for the website whose members contribute the most financially to maintaining the servers), w/ a goal amount, in the event that some would like to make future donation. I have estimated that from November to March of next year that will be approx. $1125, so that will be the goal set in Chipin. I am not and I repeat I am ‘not’ asking, begging, nor demanding that anyone makes a donation. If you donate, do so because you want to, and are able to, don’t feel like you have to. So the option to donate will be there if anyone wishes to contribute. Please know that I will be posting an identical message and the same exact Chipin widget on all the websites I have.

So as it stands, if there are no funds in the account to cover the cost as of November, than sometime in November the site will be going offline. But don’t worry all files will be saved (which I do weekly anyway). I do intend to bring the site back if it does go offline, most likely (God willing) sometime in the early New Year, around late February (after tax refund) or early March. So know that this is not a forever thing. I sincerely hope you all understand why I have to do this. I have just been hit so hard by Mother Nature this year and with the economy, such as it is, it is making it difficult for me to bounce back as quickly as I have in the past.

It is my hope that no author removes any of their fics or closes their accounts because I promise that the site will be brought back if it goes offline, I swear it!

--Pari on 08/31/2011 - 09:24 am 20 Comments