This announcement has totally ruined my morning:
An End to Eight years of The Oil Drum
Posted by Rembrandt on July 3, 2013 - 5:47am
Dear Readers of The Oil Drum,
A few weeks ago the ISEOF board (The Institute for Energy and Our Future that facilitates The Oil Drum), Euan, Super G, JoulesBurn, and Myself, met to discuss the future of The Oil Drum. A discussion we have had several times in the last year, due to scarcity of new content caused by a dwindling number of contributors. Despite our best efforts to fill this gap we have not been able to significantly improve the flow of high quality articles.
Because of this and the high expense of running the site, the board has unanimously decided that the best course of action is to convert the site to a static archive of previously published material as of 31st July 2013. We will continue to post articles up to this date. Afterwards any articles will be held as a public archive into the foreseeable future, so that others can continue to learn from the breadth and depth of knowledge published by our many authors, over the 8+ history of this remarkable volunteer effort.
We sincerely thank everyone who has been part of the TOD community - authors, staff and especially commenter's and readers - for contributing to the success of the site. It is unusual for a site which is based primarily on volunteer effort to continue this long.
For those of you who have made it a point to say abreast of current events related to Peak Oil, Energy Economics, and Climate Change, I'm sure this news will strike you with as much sadness as it does me. Over the last eight years, TOD has been
the place to go to on these issues, not only for the high-quality articles and news items, but especially for the extraordinary comments. Regular commentors included a number of industry insiders with many years of first-hand experience in the oil fields. The extensive comments they posted as they were on their way back from the latest shale play in Texas or depleting oil well in Saudi Arabia provided technical information and perspectives that one could get nowhere else. A whole other group of commentors would regularly discuss practical implementation of all manner of alternative energy technologies, from residential geothermal heat pumps to centralized thermal solar energy installations to space solar power satellites to personal stories and anecdotes about powering down. The discussions of the dynamics of societal collapse were always interesting and lively, too.
Quite frankly, I don't know where I'm going to go now to find the news that TOD aggregated. Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. The Drumbeat would post a roundup of articles gleaned from sites and sources around the world. It was an unmatched information resource that I came to rely upon for all the latest breaking news from places and people I never even knew existed.
What really saddens me personally is that, much like my life here at DK, I have been an avid reader of TOD since the beginning, and only recently came to the decision that after all these years of absorbing and processing the vast amount of information they provided, I just recently decided that I had accumulated sufficient knowledge to enable me to finally make useful contributions as a commenting member and start adding my own voice to the mix.
I still have that chance in the next few weeks before they close up shop, but sadly it now will be only to say hello and thank you and goodbye.
Farewell and adieu, Oil Drum. You will be sorely missed.