PlanetPhilip suddenly closed Created 12 years ago2012-07-08 19:49:30 UTC by Striker

What just happened? Without prior notice the site just went down and Philip says he's too tired to manage the site anymore. But why did he had to take off the entire site?

PlanetPhilip is Closed page

PlanetPhillip.Com Has Closed
It may reopen in October

I have run the site for over 8 years and invested over 10,000 hours into it. Others have helped me, but it's mostly my work.

Recently, I have become tired. Tired of how every weekend is consumed with the list of tasks related to the site.

Tired of dealing with content thieves, idiots and the general hassle that goes with such a comprehensive site.

No doubt some will call the closure "melodramtic" but they have no idea of what's involved.

I may reopen in October and having the summer off may recharge my batteries. At this point I doubt it.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody who has helped me and to all my dedicated readers.

Pleae do not email me as I will only be checking my email once a month and will NOT be replying to ANY website or gaming related messgaes.

The people who are currently involved with me on projects will recieve an email.
Phillip Marlowe - Sunday 08 July 2012

Is this some kind of joke? I mean, not that I've visited that site a lot, but I know I did when having the mood to play some mods. It's just that... it was something quite big and all of a sudden...

I find that sort of stupid. He should bring on volunteers to help him out.

Let the guy rest, i know the feeling.

He needs to reorganize if he wants to start over again.

Hmmm, very sudden. That is a shame. Archie and I had just made a pretty sweet deal with PP as well. :c

Don't take my last comment as ungrateful, heh. I just don't think shutting down a site with such a loyal user base is an option. I'd relegate it off to someone else entirely if I couldn't do it. Hell TWHL has a lineage now. Atom -> Seventh -> Penguinboy. I know this site doesn't take as much time to run though.

So an entire community has been abandoned and none of the site's content is available anymore? That's a great big dick move. As Grim said, he could recruit volunteer contributers, or at the very least, put up a "I'm going on holiday for a while" post.

It's one thing to take down a site for real reasons (can't afford to pay for hosting anymore, for example), but to take it down simply because you don't feel like updating it anymore, removing access to all the old content and destroying the community is just disgusting.

I guess I can kind of see where he's coming from, but the way he handled it just doesn't make sense to me. Surely he could get some moderators, or disable people making new posts and comments or something.
But take down the entire site altogether? That's just not the way to handle things.

Seconded on getting community help. PP was massive, it doesn't sense at all that he wouldn't pass it down to someone else.

I spit over my toothpaste when i saw this.

Anyway, it is very sudden and unexpected. However I suspect that it had something to do with

Tired of dealing with content thieves, idiots and the general hassle that goes with such a comprehensive site.

I think somebody may have done something to make Phillip rage or something. No idea what since nothing is explaned, and the above post seems largely like a rage post. Do hope he comes around in October or so, because, as mentioned, there is indeed a large dedicated fanbase, not to mention he's one of the biggest provider of mod downloads as well.

Even if it does recover, the community would have suffered a hit as well, since nobody will know when it will come back again (hoping it does make a comeback though.) A moment of silence for the HL community.

Anyway, the good news is that, if any TWHL member is in the mood for some HL1 mods, you know who to call!

I just realized what a hit in their heart did the dedicated members on that community take. What if something similar happens to TWHL? Well, hopefully, TWHL isn't administered by a single person that can take full responsibility of the site.
It is incomprehensible that he didn't at least leave a table-like page with mod download links. And all the user-generated content like reviews... this seems like a really nasty situation.
The pain is that we can only brag about it without knowing exactly what happened.

Anyway, the good news is that, if any TWHL member is in the mood for some HL1 mods, you know who to call!

Gah, i can understand not wanting the to manage the site anymore but why take the whole thing down? All that work and he's just gonna flush it like that, something must have happened.. ='(

Hopefully PP will be back up soon after the father has had a rest

Archie and I had just made a pretty sweet deal with PP as well. :c

First thing that popped in my mind also. Just seems...odd. A decision like this must have been planned. He contacted you and everything and gave you nice advice and all of a sudden he closes the site. Weird.

What does he mean by "content thieves"?

I never asked for this.

What a shame.

@2muchvideogames, maybe you could look into setting up a new site in it's place? You seem to love you some GoldSource mods. I'll just leave this here...Smiley face. c:

I can completely understand the frustration he must go through when shit happens, but I can't condone ditching the community like that.

I have a sad, and I'm quite frustrated because I didn't think Phillip was the sort of person who would shake on a deal and then bail on it.

I actually cringed when I read the title of this post from the homepage because I knew you guys had been talking. That's really rough on you guys.

Perhaps he was already close to being overwhelmed and reached out to you guys despite that, because something about your mod sparked. He seemed confident it would do well, and if anyone knows mods...

I get the vibe that something personal and taxing in his life is going on, using up energy that he was spending on his site. Lots of things can happen that beat us down and we can't prevent them, I'm sure this is not the last we'll hear of PP, even if it takes some time for him to bounce back.

I'm sure The Core is going to have a great release, regardless.

@2muchvideogames, maybe you could look into setting up a new site in it's place? You seem to love you some GoldSource mods. I'll just leave this here...

Firstly, in its place. I usually make syntax and other speaking errors because I don't know the language very well, although I know "it's" is a very basic error everyone can avoid.

Secondly, I think the most interesting mods and especially the hall of fame ones were source mods. So make that banner "Gold&Source" :P.

Fuck grammar. I could give less than a shit about it.

It refers to planet philip, 's refers to a property of planet philip, used in this case it's the 'place'. I don't see where the confusion is.

Striker was just pointing out that "it's" is a contraction if "it is" and that "its" actually shows possession, in place of the usual "'s" added onto to the possessor.

English is dumb.

Well then fuck that. If I say "Mike's balloon is red" then I'll say "it's" too.

Mike's balloon might be red, but its string is white. It's a funny thing, English.

Secondly, I think the most interesting mods and especially the hall of fame ones were source mods. So make that banner "Gold&Source"

Or call it "2 Much Gold/Source", pronounced "Too much goldsource". Rolls off the tongue and mind better than "gold and source"
And maybe make the gold... gold. Works well with red.

The confusion is in you and cstriker having indistinguishable avatars.

...I'm not collapse.
Edit: Whoops, my bad. I get what you mean now. Could have used some quotes, though.

My bad.

Seriously though, this is really disheartening news. I don't know where I'd go anymore if I wanted to find actual reviews of HL1 mods. I mean most of them can be looked up on ModDB, but frankly they don't have any kind of dedicated HL SP community. Ten Four Maps stopped reviewing mods LONG ago, although last i checked they're still being hosted at least.

Hopefully Phillip will see the response of the community and realize what a giant mistake he made in blocking all access to the site... although I'm sure he's predicted our response.

<strong>Thanks for all the kind words or support.</strong>

FUCK YOU! to all the people complaining. I don't owe you shit.

If I spend my time collecting all the maps and mods in one place and then close it, tough.

<strong>Tuesday 10 July: Just a quick update</strong>

NOTHING has been deleted: calm down.

I just needed to close the site completely for my own personal reasons.

I wouldn't just delete the site and files. I'm stressed but not stupid.

Stay Tuned

FUCK YOU! to all the people complaining. I don't owe you shit.

You owe me shit.

You owe me shit.

Really? What did you give to him?

Looking for reviews? Go on hangar 16! A site that no longer exists, but can be found. I used to love some of their reviews back in the day.

Well, we've got a bit more information now. If it's personal stuff that's preoccupying him, that's good enough for me.

See, all ye of little faith!

Huh, it came back online again.

Those mapping comps, were a constant stress, people always complaining about the themes and time limits: it’s either too short or too long.

Huh... that sounds oddly famili-...

I'm glad he changed his mind and put it back up. Taking the whole site down like that was definitely not how any community website should be handled, regardless of personal situation. How it is now is much better.

What if something similar happens to TWHL? Well, hopefully, TWHL isn't administered by a single person that can take full responsibility of the site.

Rest assured, I would never allow that to happen. When it comes to TWHL, the community would always get priority over my own selfish desires, if I had to make a choice between the two.

"selfish desires"

You have no idea what you are talking about.

If you have a serious personal situation I hope your boss does fire you because of your "selfish desires".

Until you know the details please don't judge me.

I have little doubt that all of us would drop gaming in an instance if our family were involved.

"Quick, call an ambulance for your grandmother/father/sister etc"
PenquinBoy: "Yeah, hang on. Let me just finish this level".

Just one example of thousands.

I like your style, man.

But yet, if you had a daughter and you had personal things come up, you would totally just cease to care for her, leave her in the middle of nowhere to attend whatever personal things may arise. Instead of getting somebody to take care of her, or dropping her off at home.
We understand personal problems, everybody here has a life too, but you can deal with those personal problems without completely shutting down the website.

But, of course, you don't. You're too concerned with maintaining control over your website and refuse to give it to others, and so instead of passing the torch down to somebody who can handle it while you attend your personal business, you just shut it down entirely. To me, that just sounds selfish.

If we ran TWHL that way, it wouldn't even be here right now. It would be gone, because the torch never would've passed down however many people to Penguinboy who has volunteered [or chosen] to run the site whilst the previous owner deals with whatever personal business that had prevented him from doing so.
Because of this 'torch passing', the community is still here. And it has come a long way since it's inception.

"We understand personal problems, everybody here has a life too, but you can deal with those personal problems without completely shutting down the website. "

How do you know?

seriously collapse just leave it for chrit's sake :/

Because we have done so for however long. As I said, the original owner either had personal problems or did not wish to take care of the site anymore, and he passed control down to somebody else whom I do not know. Then the same thing happened again and we got Penguinboy.
If the original owner[s] [of twhl] acted the same way you did, you wouldn't even be discussing it right now, twhl wouldn't even exist anymore.

It has nothing to do with severity of the problem or the why you can't maintain the website... It's just the attitude of refusing to seek help that I'm trying to point out.
I know whatever happened must've been fucking serious and I'm not trying to dispute that, not trying to say it's anything other than what you're making it out to be.

And Terror, this is a discussion worth having. If you don't think it is, that's your opinion and you are entitled to it, but you could just simply not post if you do not wish to partake in it.

Also Philips, just if you're seeing this as blowing up in your face or whatnot, this is just how twhl is. We have 30-50 something active members, and seemingly everything other than problem threads and cat threads suddenly locks the interest of every member on the website. [Drama threads]

this is just how twhl is

Like hell it is! Maybe if Pengy wasn't so merciful with his banhammer we'd have to deal with less bullshit. That thing's collecting dust over in the corner, begging to be swung indiscriminately.

As I said, the original owner either had personal problems or did not wish to take care of the site anymore, and he passed control down to somebody else whom I do not know. Then the same thing happened again and we got Penguinboy.

Yay speculating! You weren't even around back then!

You make it sound as if Atom one day for no reason said "Fuck it all!" and appointed Penguinboy. Penguinboy was working his ass off for this site way before he got any "props" or whatever he gets now, I assume stock in TWHLcorp, a nice office, and a sexy secretary. It was a pretty slow, gradual transition of responsibility from the way I saw it.

collapse: don't go visiting my intentions. don't ever.

It's his site, he can do what he wants, and he certainly doesn't give a single fuck what you think. Right or wrong, who the hell are you to tell him how to run his affairs?

Maybe someday when you create and run a site as big/popular as PP you can offer him advice that carries weight, but until then...

Let it go, Collapse. I know you love stirring up trouble, but just stop. Seriously.

@Phillip: Sorry, I could have worded that better. I was talking about my own selfish desires (of which I have plenty), not making assumptions about your situation. I already stated my opinion on the matter: I applaud your change of heart to restore access to the site.

You said yourself that the straw that broke the camel's back was an internet argument, so why you are trying to start another one? Personally, I don't like participating in internet arguments, especially public ones. If you want to argue with me, can you do it via email or Steam messaging?

@Blitz: The history of TWHL is pretty interesting. To be honest, when Seventh handed me the keys to TWHL, I was even more of a douchebag than I am now. I try as hard as I can to improve myself, though. Being a leader of a community is a big responsibility.

I am not trying to stir up anything. I'm trying to [friendly, not negatively] explain to Philip why I believe his decision was wrong.
My posts might've sounded overtly negative but that was not my intention. Obviously Philip didn't take them as overtly negative based off of his response, so I really don't see what everybody's problem is. Just relax.

<snip>

He put the site back up, your argument is invalid, stfu.

This entire thread is invalid now that he's brought the site back up. You're a hypocrite.

I'm trying to [friendly, not negatively] explain

Maybe the confusion is in that so many of the things you say are negative.

My posts might've sounded overtly negative

They sounded negative because they were...

I'm not trying to sound perfect myself, and I'm not trying to get you banned or make anyone hate you or anything. I just wish you were nicer to everyone. You've been here a while now, bro. Longer than plenty of folk.

You represent us as a community when someone logs onto TWHL for the first time and one of your posts or shouts is on the front page. Step it up.

@Pengy I hear you bro. I'm along the same path. Remember back in the golden days of IRC? We were such dicks. That's teenagers for you. And for the record you don't come across as a douchbag.