I'm not sure if this goes here but it seems like the only place it really fits. What happened to all the Pokemon fansites? There used to be so many of them now I can only find about 5 or 6 of them.

probably nintendo..got them shut down
for legal problems
mot reallly sure

I think there are just as many, but internet habits seem to change so you seem to find less. I personally find myself bumble****ing around the internet a lot less, which was how I found all of the fansites in the first place.

Look here. Look at the links on the sidebar. There are just as many as I remember there being a few years ago, if not more.

I looked at TCoD's affiliates before but there used to be so many more Pokemon fansites. I'm on the lookout for a decent Pokemon fansite.

Yeah, many sites do not have proper copyright these days. Lately it has been taken into effect to hunt those sites down. Well that was exaggerated, but they do look for them more often. So like they said there are probably legal problems involved in this.

some i seen still up but they havnt been updated since 2003

I believe that most fansites were closed to either of these main possible reasons:

• The owner gets bored of owning the site
• The owner decides to close it due to the severely low visiting traffic to the site
• The owner cannot pay for their domain name and/or server fees any more
• The site host closes down due to a handful of possible reasons
• Copyright strikes the site dead

I think it is due to competition, actually. Let us face it, the Pokémon world on the internet is monopolised by a number of gigantic sites, in which most fan traffic are directed to. Only few websites can survive among such sites, while the rest are rendered with less to no visitors. This would lead to their closure.

I definitely have a bit to say about this in addition to what LD and Spirit already emphasized. I've seen so many fansites rise and fall that I once wrote a very long now-outdated guide on how to make your site unique from the other thousand fish in the sea of Pokémon sites. There are a great many of Pokémon fansites still hiding around the World Wide Web, but most have a common theme: obviously no desire to learn proper coding and webmastery (free templates, site builders, and stolen images), a lack of passion for Pokémon and running a Pokémon fansite, and becoming bored quickly.

If you look at my complete historical list of affiliates (which is no longer up), I have been affiliated with nearly 100 fansites, many of them calling themselves the next best thing. A few dozen more didn't even get to become affiliates due to their obsession with that false claim. Of them, only about two dozen are still up and actually of quality. Most of the others no longer exist, having let their domains and accounts expire.

Yes, it is definitely a difficult battle, too. There are so many sites out there that getting your new site noticed requires a lot of effort. You have to go out and ask people to check it out. It takes a lot before word of mouth begins to actually pick up.

Overall, I'm quite amazed at how far my own sites have come, notably the one you're on now. Before I unintentionally turn this into a "best moments on VR" thread, I will simply state that it has taken a lot of work not only from me but from many of you guys as well.

My wrap-up is four words, said best by Herbert Spencer and conceptually popularized by Charles Darwin: "survival of the fittest."

Not necessarily just Pokemon, but I have been noticing fan sites for a lot of other subjects dying down as well.

I think it all comes from the wider usage of wikis. Back in the "old days" you were pretty much on your own with maybe a few others on running and maintaining a site. It's a lot of work to gather up lots of information, present it in a nice manor, and then try to convince people to visit it. Now with wikis, everyone around the world is essentially working together on the same website with tons of information that fan sites back then could only dream of having access too. From the highly popular to the off the radar, practically everything has it's own form of wiki now.

In addition to that, blogs have also taken over territory. Back then you basically had to go to these fan sites to get the news on what they catered to. Now we just pop over to blogs like GoNintendo or GamesRadar and we have access of all the latest leaks, previews, reviews, release dates, etc.

I have many memories of visiting fansites in my younger days on a daily basis looking for anything new on my favorite games, but now 90% of those websites haven't been updated in many years or have gone completely.

I never see former fansite owners saying [ their sites got removed due to copyright ] on this forum, maybe a survey is needed.
My site survived because it's hosted on freehostia instead of a ad-driven host that disappear in a few years.
I know fansites are disappearing for various reasons, but there should be a number of fansites being created to offset the loss. Unless, trends like "Web 2.0", large websites and blogs reduce the motivation to create new fansites. Remember Invisionfree, which no one use them anymore? Speaking of forums, my forum degenerated into a mess of profanity after being left unattended for over 4 years.

I no longer maintain my fansite, but I enjoy reading a guide I have written 7 years ago with beginner grammar,