I'm Closing THL

[gitano]

I'm going to close THL.

It costs me something north of $1000/a year to keep it running, and these days, there are only about a dozen or so 'regulars'. (And there will be fewer soon.) Barring something unforeseen at this time, this coming year will be THL's last. I will renew all the licenses in January, that will then expire in January of 2024. So...

"You" have a year to download/copy the post/threads you want. In January, I will post a "how to" on the various ways you can accomplish that and still be able to access them. I am going to try to get GoDaddy to either provide, or point me to someone that can provide, DVDs of the entire database, that can, in the future be accessed in a fashion that allows preservation of all of the information therein. That's been a tooth-pulling exercise in the past, but maybe I'll be more successful this year.

I believe that THL was, and is, THE BEST, most informative, most HONEST, most 'user friendly', hunting/outdoors FORUM on the World Wide Web. I have met the best friends of my life here at THL. I have learned more than can be quantified. THL has been a blessing in my life.

There are "things" that could be done that could keep THL alive, but those things, (at least the ones I can think of), would ALL change the nature of THL. If the nature of something changes, it is a different "thing". I don't want a different THL just for the sake of maintaining a "name". (Consider Barnes bullets, or Winchester rifles, or ...)

It is a fact of existence that things change. That change includes going out of existence (death) as well as coming into existence (birth). That's just a fact of Life. Coming to terms with that reality is part of "going gently into that good night". Peace comes, (to some extent anyway), when one realizes that nothing remains the same forever. Not even the really good things like friends, relatives, and THL.

I love you guys,
Paul