Year of Silence
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 4:00 am
So... It's been a while. This is by no means an "I'm back" post. Truth be told I wouldn't make such a post even if I was back, I've always preferred to let the actions do the talking rather than making some announcement which may or may not be followed through on. But I don't want to give false hope so let me just state that explicitly. Consider this more of a clarification post.
2024 was a shit year for me, pretty much in line with the downwards trajectory of the preceding years. After Lieven passed things got particularly dark. Some other stuff happened to me that I prefer not to talk about. Things between Mike and I haven't been great either, although they are currently in a stable and tenable state. Him being patient and supportive in my difficult times did a lot to help with that.
We both remain committed that the continued existence of PkHonor takes priority over any interpersonal issues between the owners. That may be a small consolation to some, given the absence of activity, but I for one am very grateful that the server has kept going through it all. We may have done our small part to keep everything online but most of the credit goes to all of you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has stepped in to fill the void we left behind.
As some of you have noticed I've continued to stick around and keep an eye on things, albeit silently. I intend to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Currently I don't have any plans to return to active development, my focus is on salvaging the mess of my own life right now, but I will continue making sure that everything keeps running.
One thing I do want to comment on (because I've seen people talking about it) is the financial side of things. I'm not sure why Mike felt the need to reiterate that we no longer make any money from PkHonor, leaving the impression that this was a recent development, because that has been the case for years now. Broadly speaking I would describe the financial history of PkHonor like this:
2014-2016: it earned enough to pay us both the equivalent of an entry-level IT job, which is why we decided to work on it full-time fresh out of college.
2017-2018: flipping burgers equivalent, pretty stupid for 2 IT graduates to keep doing it but we did it anyway.
2019: little to no excess funds for us, at this point we were forced to get other jobs and do some drastic cost-cutting measures (e.g. with the big server move in June 2019, reduced DDoS protection etc).
2020-present: slight covid boost for a few months but not much better than 2019, then quickly down further which forced a major reduction in advertisement (which is where everything over operating expenses went). The sharp decline was hardly surprising since we now had much less time to spend on development.
Needless to say the inflation / cost of living increases in recent years didn't help with that either. Even if the revenue had remained the same we would've been going backwards. However, after a lot of cost optimizing, we did get to a point where the current level of donations should be enough to keep things running indefinitely. Not much excess for advertisement, but enough to cover the technical operating costs with a decent safety margin. I hope that clears up some of the confusion surrounding the finances.
What about the future? Well... I don't know. Along with the upcoming Project Zanaris / OSRS community servers, Jagex has been employing legal firms to crack down hard on RSPS. They are essentially trying to force RSPS to hand over control of their communities/websites/... to Jagex, and coax RSPS devs into becoming Project Zanaris contributors. So far we have been able to evade their legal pursuits and keep our servers out of their reach, and we will keep up that fight, but the future is never certain. Don't be too alarmed though. Even if Mike and I were forced by legal action to permanently cease all involvement in RSPS, I'm sure the PkHonor source code and account DB would somehow find its way into the hands of someone who can carry on the torch. But as it stands there is no indication that this is going to happen.
Lastly, I have heard it said that we have people who could carry the server forward but they haven't been given the ability to do so. This is undoubtedly true, and I believe this is where we should focus our attention. So although I'm not currently looking to get "active" again myself, I do still want to look into what steps we can take to set PkHonor free. Seeing this server and its community stay alive for a long time to come is the best legacy I could hope for.
Thank you for putting up with all our struggles, and I wish all of you a bright new year.
Yours truly,
Rapsey
2024 was a shit year for me, pretty much in line with the downwards trajectory of the preceding years. After Lieven passed things got particularly dark. Some other stuff happened to me that I prefer not to talk about. Things between Mike and I haven't been great either, although they are currently in a stable and tenable state. Him being patient and supportive in my difficult times did a lot to help with that.
We both remain committed that the continued existence of PkHonor takes priority over any interpersonal issues between the owners. That may be a small consolation to some, given the absence of activity, but I for one am very grateful that the server has kept going through it all. We may have done our small part to keep everything online but most of the credit goes to all of you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to everyone who has stepped in to fill the void we left behind.
As some of you have noticed I've continued to stick around and keep an eye on things, albeit silently. I intend to continue doing so for the foreseeable future. Currently I don't have any plans to return to active development, my focus is on salvaging the mess of my own life right now, but I will continue making sure that everything keeps running.
One thing I do want to comment on (because I've seen people talking about it) is the financial side of things. I'm not sure why Mike felt the need to reiterate that we no longer make any money from PkHonor, leaving the impression that this was a recent development, because that has been the case for years now. Broadly speaking I would describe the financial history of PkHonor like this:
2014-2016: it earned enough to pay us both the equivalent of an entry-level IT job, which is why we decided to work on it full-time fresh out of college.
2017-2018: flipping burgers equivalent, pretty stupid for 2 IT graduates to keep doing it but we did it anyway.
2019: little to no excess funds for us, at this point we were forced to get other jobs and do some drastic cost-cutting measures (e.g. with the big server move in June 2019, reduced DDoS protection etc).
2020-present: slight covid boost for a few months but not much better than 2019, then quickly down further which forced a major reduction in advertisement (which is where everything over operating expenses went). The sharp decline was hardly surprising since we now had much less time to spend on development.
Needless to say the inflation / cost of living increases in recent years didn't help with that either. Even if the revenue had remained the same we would've been going backwards. However, after a lot of cost optimizing, we did get to a point where the current level of donations should be enough to keep things running indefinitely. Not much excess for advertisement, but enough to cover the technical operating costs with a decent safety margin. I hope that clears up some of the confusion surrounding the finances.
What about the future? Well... I don't know. Along with the upcoming Project Zanaris / OSRS community servers, Jagex has been employing legal firms to crack down hard on RSPS. They are essentially trying to force RSPS to hand over control of their communities/websites/... to Jagex, and coax RSPS devs into becoming Project Zanaris contributors. So far we have been able to evade their legal pursuits and keep our servers out of their reach, and we will keep up that fight, but the future is never certain. Don't be too alarmed though. Even if Mike and I were forced by legal action to permanently cease all involvement in RSPS, I'm sure the PkHonor source code and account DB would somehow find its way into the hands of someone who can carry on the torch. But as it stands there is no indication that this is going to happen.
Lastly, I have heard it said that we have people who could carry the server forward but they haven't been given the ability to do so. This is undoubtedly true, and I believe this is where we should focus our attention. So although I'm not currently looking to get "active" again myself, I do still want to look into what steps we can take to set PkHonor free. Seeing this server and its community stay alive for a long time to come is the best legacy I could hope for.
Thank you for putting up with all our struggles, and I wish all of you a bright new year.
Yours truly,
Rapsey