Regarding the AVSIM File Library

This is from Tom today - just a few minutes ago...

Let me deal with a couple of things that have been brought up in this thread, and put some concerns to rest...First, Dan, thank you for the kind words. We do appreciate the thoughts and your wise assessment of the user community. Sometimes, a note like yours is all we need to take a deep breath, step back, and truly understand that which we do provide and the thousands that have come to rely on it. Thank you for the note.About charging for access or bandwidth, or whatever... For 13 years we have stated unequivocally that we will not do that. We have a simple philosophy. We will provide it for free to all in equal share, or we will not provide it all. As pointed out, we have a donation system, and from that we are able to do upgrades, software purchases and more. We do not need or want a "pay for access" system. That would be antithetical to what we stand for, and for what the spirit of those that donate files stand for. We are not going to pull the plug on the library, despite my huffing and puffing. Sometimes I need to vent, and sometimes it needs to be public. Believe me, cutting off my right arm would be an easier thing to do.Finally, read the front page. We have shut the library down temporarily while we move things around, fix back end issues, clean things up, and generally do a good spring cleaning of code and processes. We do not know how long this will take, but I can assure you that we are working as hard and as fast as we can to get it back online. Keep in mind that this process requires us to rotate things among three servers! Not an easy process and certainly one that will not happen over night. Be assured that we are working to bring it back online as quickly as possible.Now, I fully expect to see dozens of emails and forum messages demanding to know when it will be back online, why can't you download files, files are missing, etc. Be prepared for silence on our part. We have made a public announcement, posted a notice here, and followed up with this message. If you are reading this, please do us a favor by spreading the word... The library will be back online when we are satisfied that it works, works reliably and is robust enough to handle the terabytes of downloads that occur every month.Thanks for your understanding and patience.