Baseball Mogul Online is shutting down — but CSFBL isn’t, so why not check it out?

I just stumbled upon this announcement from the Baseball Mogul Online forums:

This page is to notify all Baseball Mogul Online users that we will be discontinuing the service as of December 1, 2008.

Why?
There are three main reasons:
#1 -The system is not profitable to operate for us. Even when it was at its peak of usership, it did not bring in enough money to support further growth and improvements.
#2 – We no longer have the staff needed to operate the system.
#3 – The machines and bandwidth that the system runs on were designed for a much larger load than we currently use. To economize, we will be switching services and bandwidth, and the new equipment will not support Mogul Online.

Sincerely,
Dee and Clay Dreslough
Sports Mogul Inc.

Well how about that. I’m as sorry as anyone to see a solid game go away, but there’s good news to all Baseball Mogul Online fans — there’s an alternative that is not going away, and it’s 100% free: CSFBL!

CSFBL, the Computer Simulated Fantasy Baseball League, the grand-daddy of all multiplayer baseball management simulations, is still going strong. In fact, we’re probably stronger today than we’ve ever been.

Even better, there is no reason to fear that CSFBL will go the path of Baseball Mogul Online. Why?

  1. Profitability doesn’t matter. The game is funded out of my pocket and with the help of generous donations from our members. We don’t have to make a profit to keep running. (In fact, we’ve almost never made a profit, but the game has kept running — for over eight years — despite that fact.)
  2. Our staff is volunteer, so they’re easy to replace. Everyone who helps out with CSFBL does it of their own free will, because they love the game and the adventure in helping watch it grow. Much like open source software projects succeed despite any paid staff, CSFBL has succeeded and will continue to succeed under the same model.
  3. We’ve got horsepower to run the game. About six months ago we upgraded to a new server. With all the kinks worked out, we’re now running faster and more reliably than we have in years. Even better, we’re about to migrate our forums to vBulletin as we move to improve our community features. On top of all that, if we generate revenue above our expenses, my intent is to continue to expand our infrastructure to keep up with growth and demand.

Don’t get me wrong, CSFBL has had its share of growing pains — but what you get, for the price you pay, is simply incredible. Aside from a feature-rich game (running on a baseball simulation engine that has been battle-tested for over eight years) and a rich community, there’s also one thing that is rare in any online service, much less a free one: The guy who runs it is honest, up-front, and always involved.

Why not check us out? http://www.csfbl.com