Hi all,

I have thought about dozen times to write this email. Always expect Jim/Dusty will write it instead of me, but it seems the situation may be more complicated than I know. I can only give you the info I have for open discussion.

The purpose of this thread is just for discussion and give all of the user here the current situation of the site.

Some history, the site is found in 2003 by Nick, (some 12 years ago), if you wish a glance of the very first homepage, here you are. https://web.archive.org/web/20030417005659/http://www.youplay.it/

It was originally just for a small group of internet guru to play the online version of the games they love. Sooner or later the user base explode (http://youplay.it/play/News.asp?Action=List&MaxDate=4%2F23%2F2004+10%3A18%3A51+AM , I join in the team as forum moderator in 2008. http://youplay.it/play/forum_showmessage.asp?msgid=32840 , mainly for forum moderation, as an voluntary work.

Then I realized that by the time 2008, it is actually only Nick himself run the whole site, as a total free site with the minimal setup and provide may be the best "free edition of official online Blue Max".

There are dozen of Blue Max clone online but none have the official approval from the copywrite holder of the printed version.

The site admin turns out into a nightmare for Nick as his interest is on programming rather than administration.

I persoanlly have dozen times to suggest to him to "monetize" the site but Nick just refuse it immediately. He has my highest respect on this.

Jim bought this site from Nick with a common understanding. To keep this site "free section" as free as is. I don't know if there is any black and write stuff on this but I would rather think it as an "for good faith" ( I don't know if I using the right term)

Jim and his team keep this promise. They have some plan in mind, however, they need agreement from the current copyright holder of bluemax to do so.

It seems that the current copyright holder also have something in mind. And Jim prefer at the current time, keep the site as is. In technical terms, a code-freeze.

For some advanced players they may get frustrated/ annoyed or even angry of why the site last major improvement (the league system) is almost 5+ years ago. That is the reason.

The mentioned stuff is never been discussed in the forum, but I think everyone who use this site is part of this big community. And you have the rights to know exactly what happened at the moment.

If you have any question or comments, feel free to write.

Cheers,

mdog a.k.a. Parker