A few of you have asked me about what I thought about Maximum NIMH closing, and what my response would be. I'd like to say that I'm sad to see such an overall great NIMH site go, especially one with as much content as his had in it; the collectibles area was incredible, for instance. Although we have/had some philosophical differences in the past, I've admired the work that he put into it. Having maintained Thorn Valley for as long as I have, I can appreciate the hard work that goes into maintaining a large website. It will be missed, by myself and others.
As for its content, I have archived the parts of it that I wanted to keep available to myself--but not all of it. This archive will almost certainly remain private; there are a lot of issues with copyright and such that I don't want to deal with if I mirrored it, and in any case, I don't feel I could carry on the same feel of the site, anyway. It'd just be a mirror. An archive. Something that you could get by going to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Besides, I feel like I have my hands full already; hosting another NIMH site just isn't in the cards, and probably never will be, regardles of whose site it may be. I do hope that someone will pick up the torch, but it will have to be someone else. However, if there are fan artists that wish to host their fan art here, send me an email with samples and I'll see about putting it up if it is within the rules I have established.
The fandom has changed a lot since I started out with a "small" collection of screengrabs and miscellaneous content on Geocities, way back in '98 (at least). A lot of folks have moved on to other things. I imagine that--eventually--I may have to do the same. But not right now, of course. I still enjoy the occasional visit to other NIMH sites, though most of them are gathering dust, not having received updates in months or years now, and some are just dissapearing. The tight knit core of fans that were around back then has since moved on, with only a few stalwarts remaining. It's saddening to say the least.
On the other hand, I don't have a gloomy outlook for the fandom, either. I think that the nature of it has changed. People are no longer creating personal websites the same way they used to. Instead, they might post on one of the various NIMH-related forums, submit fan-art or fan-fiction (though I admit that there isn't nearly as much interest in fan-fics as there used to be, it seems), or (though I haven't seen much of it yet in the NIMH fandom, outside of NIMHmuck.org) start a blog. NIMHmuck still thrives, though it has its seasonal ups and downs.
I think that there's a lot that could be done for the NIMH community still. Perhaps someone would be willing to
start a Wiki[=http://www.wikia.com/]start a Wiki--a lot of Badbird's content would fit quite well in that sort of setting, I think. Perhaps someone could start another website or blog or something. Trust me, I don't mind the "competition" if you can call it that. ;) You may surprise yourself; back in '98, if you told me that Thorn Valley would grow to be as huge as it is now, I would not have believed you. Back then, I could fit it on a 100MB Zip disk with plenty of room to spare. Now, the backup for Thorn Valley would need at least 2 CD-Rs. And, as I mentioned above, I'm not going to be around forever. Eventually, Thorn Valley will either fade away, as other sites have, or (more likely) change hands. It has been a rewarding venture for me, and I do plan on sticking with it for as long as I can, but already I can see the writing on the wall. Other things are slowly but surely beginning to assert their priority in my life. I don't mean that I will abandon the fandom completely, but I imagine that my role in it will become more and more passive as time goes on.
So, what does all this mean, anyway? Opportunity. I challenge you to pick up the torch others have lit and carry on with it. It all starts with an idea, and the desire to run with it.