The long-running Doctor Who fansite Outpost Gallifrey is officially without its captain.
According to SyFy Portal (which I am enjoying more and more these days) :
“Outpost Gallifrey was one of the top 32,000 sites in the world in terms of traffic. Despite “Doctor Who” being a British show, it received more traffic from the United States than it did from the United Kingdom, being one of America’s top 10,000 sites, and the United Kingdom’s top 2,000 sites. By comparison, SyFy Portal is ranked in the top 99,000 sites worldwide, and is among the top 25,000 sites in the United States, and the top 80,000 sites in the United Kingdom. More than half of SyFy Portal’s traffic is from American readers, according to Alexa.”
Below is the announcement posted today by site admin Shaun Lyon:
All Good Things…
…must come to an end, and such is the case with Outpost Gallifrey. For eleven years, I’ve run this website and turned it into the most popular and influential Doctor Who website on the Internet — all despite the fact that the site has been run since day one from the USA. And though I’ve very much enjoyed the new Doctor Who series since its return in 2005 (and loved much of the previous season’s worth of stories), I’m sure it’s become clear to all of our readers that my passion for Doctor Who fandom has waned. Simply put, there are other pressing concerns on my life — my career and my higher education, my personal life, my other hobbies and so forth — that I enjoy much more these days, as a zeal for editing this website becomes more of a burden. In fact, I nearly gave it up a year ago, but due to the overwhelming response by our readers I kept things going, half-heartedly; it was due to the fantastic efforts put forth by my volunteer editors on the News Page that allowed things to continue into 2007. But even with the best of intentions, I have come to realize that I’m at the point where I just cannot devote the time and energy to it anymore.
And so, it is with heavy heart that I must announce that Outpost Gallifrey as you know it has come to an end.
However… as bittersweet as that may sound, this isn’t quite a goodbye… because while the Outpost itself goes away, four of its features will continue indefinitely, under the auspices of people who currently manage them for me.
The post goes on to say that the Outpost Gallifrey Doctor Who forum, News, Convention Guide and Series Guide will continue.
The Outpost has been a great source of news, community and entertainment for many fans, including myself. I re-converted many a lapsed fan of the old series by showing them the site and enjoyed the long awkward silences as they read episode description after description, reliving their Doctor Who experience.
Thanks for serving Doctor Who fandom for the past 11 years.
Now take a nap!
Of course if you ask me… I’ll always take the first 