(NOT A STORY)Chars31 Info
My initial plan was to see if, much like other domains, Charmander31.com could be obtained. The idea was to preserve it so that an internal chat system is available for visitors like myself who were interested to see if there was any life there still, but also to adapt it into what it actually is now a days; A relic. Display the pictures, and peoples stories like in a digital museum, complete with it's own on site forum, and maintain it myself, so that it doesn't one day succumb to it's hosts protocols and simply die out completely.
Now I don't know exactly what the actual Charmander31's intentions are, so I can't definitively say what his plans(if any) are, for the future of his page, but here is what I do know so far:
The domain registry "Charmander31.com" expires/renews as of March 27th, 2020. It has, to date been maintained. Now whether that means that the domain host is just Geocities(Now Yahoo) auto-blandly maintaining the site for the sole purpose that it may contain ads, or that they simply don't require the fee's to renew it so it sort of gets refreshed automatically, or perhaps Charmander31 actually does care about this domain, and it's his baby, and he is so passionate about it, that he pays out of his own pocket to maintain the ownership and accessibility of the site, and is still proud and involved in it, to this day? I prefer the latter, but if the former, and it is just some past project to him that nobody goes to anymore, and he has given up on it, and the ACTUAL expiry for the domain and page itself is REALLY March 27th of this year, I will try to make an attempt to purchase it, to keep it going. With that in mind, there are a few things I want to mention.
Charmander31's real name appears to be "Justin" based on comments and his guestbook says "Sign Justin's Guestbook" through bravenet when checking through the Wayback Machine. The IP status of "Dreamhost" which is the domain provider that maintains the site is Ohio. So he may or may not be from Ohio.
I don't believe he has any active involvement in the site, based on the sites generic greeting and that his contact email is still "@AltaVista.com" which is not a thing anymore.
This being said, I'm not "Claiming the site for myself" or declaring myself the "New owner" or anything like that. Not that I wouldn't accept that honour if it were bestowed upon me ;). But from what the deviantart posts and historyofRP posts indicate, there is still a small "Discord" of individuals who have banded together over the years to remain in contact(either just socially or still to RP occasionally) which is dope as hell. As far as I'm concerned, these people are heroes, and any decisions I make, I will attempt to contact them for support, advice and idea's as to how to proceed with my plan, if I can't get in contact with Justin himself(That would also be awesome!). Maybe he is part of their group, I don't know yet. They are simply known as Charmander's Underground. I'll be reaching out to them after I post this, along with methods to contact them, if they allow for further branching out in this project.
I'll be opening a YouTube Channel, Twitter, and possibly a Facebook group as a means of bringing together more people on this topic. The YouTube channel will consist of updates to Chars31 as the years go on, and something that is really fun, will be an online walkthrough post of the Wayback Machine, to show what the site was like back in the day, for anyone who doesn't want to be involved but is just feeling nostalgic! I'll be doing commentary. Look for these things in the "Contact?" Section, as I'll be updating this info index as well, as things progress(or decline, but hopefully not).
Now I don't know exactly what the actual Charmander31's intentions are, so I can't definitively say what his plans(if any) are, for the future of his page, but here is what I do know so far:
The domain registry "Charmander31.com" expires/renews as of March 27th, 2020. It has, to date been maintained. Now whether that means that the domain host is just Geocities(Now Yahoo) auto-blandly maintaining the site for the sole purpose that it may contain ads, or that they simply don't require the fee's to renew it so it sort of gets refreshed automatically, or perhaps Charmander31 actually does care about this domain, and it's his baby, and he is so passionate about it, that he pays out of his own pocket to maintain the ownership and accessibility of the site, and is still proud and involved in it, to this day? I prefer the latter, but if the former, and it is just some past project to him that nobody goes to anymore, and he has given up on it, and the ACTUAL expiry for the domain and page itself is REALLY March 27th of this year, I will try to make an attempt to purchase it, to keep it going. With that in mind, there are a few things I want to mention.
Charmander31's real name appears to be "Justin" based on comments and his guestbook says "Sign Justin's Guestbook" through bravenet when checking through the Wayback Machine. The IP status of "Dreamhost" which is the domain provider that maintains the site is Ohio. So he may or may not be from Ohio.
I don't believe he has any active involvement in the site, based on the sites generic greeting and that his contact email is still "@AltaVista.com" which is not a thing anymore.
This being said, I'm not "Claiming the site for myself" or declaring myself the "New owner" or anything like that. Not that I wouldn't accept that honour if it were bestowed upon me ;). But from what the deviantart posts and historyofRP posts indicate, there is still a small "Discord" of individuals who have banded together over the years to remain in contact(either just socially or still to RP occasionally) which is dope as hell. As far as I'm concerned, these people are heroes, and any decisions I make, I will attempt to contact them for support, advice and idea's as to how to proceed with my plan, if I can't get in contact with Justin himself(That would also be awesome!). Maybe he is part of their group, I don't know yet. They are simply known as Charmander's Underground. I'll be reaching out to them after I post this, along with methods to contact them, if they allow for further branching out in this project.
I'll be opening a YouTube Channel, Twitter, and possibly a Facebook group as a means of bringing together more people on this topic. The YouTube channel will consist of updates to Chars31 as the years go on, and something that is really fun, will be an online walkthrough post of the Wayback Machine, to show what the site was like back in the day, for anyone who doesn't want to be involved but is just feeling nostalgic! I'll be doing commentary. Look for these things in the "Contact?" Section, as I'll be updating this info index as well, as things progress(or decline, but hopefully not).