It is with a very heavy heart, to announce that this year's DOTY will be our last. SimPearls will sadly be closing at the end of March next year due to hosting costs.
When SimPearls first opened, I was using Lunarpages, (who I had been with for years) a reasonably priced host who charged £127 a year and the forum never had any problems, but about 2½ years ago they were taken over by Hostpapa and about 6 months later we started having a lot of downtime, errors and getting popups that the forum was, in a word, "too busy"
Hostpapa were no help, just said we were using too many resources and basically would have to upgrade to stay online. I didn't want to close the forum, so I relented and with the financial help of myself, Betsy and the members, which I am forever grateful for, we upgraded to the business account at a reduced cost of around £350.
I recently looked at the renewal cost, which will be in May next year and the cost is a staggering £720 which I feel is way too much to pay just to keep the forum going and in no way would I expect to ask for help for such a large amount of money.
Saying that, from now until we close in March 2023, it's business as usual so please don't leave us yet!
We would like to take this opportunity, to thank each and every one of you for all your support for the last 7 incredible years, it's been a honour and a priviledge to have known and interacted with you guys
