Further to our recent issues with our web host and storage concerns, I can confirm that we have resolved some of the issues.
We have reduced our existing storage by over a quarter - that has meant some gaps in our collections which we will work through and fill. It also means our news is now only available fully for 1 year after which it 'archives' to text only with no photos.
We have worked around the contract issue where we were only being given the option of upgrading on a 3-year contract which was a huge lump sum in one go. We are now on a monthly contract which will be upgraded shortly for more storage. While this is costing more than an annual or 3-year deal, it allows us to be more agile going forward.
That means we are continuing pretty much as normal for now, but I would ask everyone to help us out with raising the site profile. While we have grown over the past 3-years in particular in terms of content, our traffic likes, follows, and interactions are not growing at the same level and that means while the site gets more and more expensive to run - any limited revenue through affiliate marketing is not keeping pace.
In addition, some new principles will be applied to the site:-
News (as mentioned earlier) will only be held fully for 1 year and then archived to text only. News will also be more selective around what has always been our core principle of covering "mid-range action figures from movies & TV"
Uploaded imagery will be reduced to a sensible level of quality vs file size
We will remove some of our title images for blog entries as these are duplications. That may mean the front page thumbnails look a bit out of line in some instances.
We have removed some non-used limited databases such as Mattel and we may need to remove some of the others little used collections.
We may remove our store directories - this is still up for discussion - but we get very little interaction from stores outside of our brilliant site contributors, it is essentially the same info available on Google, and it is very labour-intensive to manage compared to the visitors it drives
Reviews will be limited to a handful of good-quality shots and not extensive galleries - we will still use YouTube to house a showcase of new figures
It is unlikely that our current collections will be updated any further for info pre-2018. This leaves NECA, McFarlane, and Diamond with text-only entries for their earlier releases. All the Hasbro databases are fully comprehensive and we won't be turning that off as they represent our three highest traffic areas.
Databases content may be restricted to basic imagery only (box, contents) and not huge galleries as are circulated by NECA in particular.
If you are reading this via a 3rd party website that is importing our newsfeed, please come and visit us directly and give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube. Check out our direct news feed for more action figure news, reviews, and store reports
About Me : As a child of the '70s and '80s I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force), and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licenses - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who, and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK-focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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