Editor's note: This has not been updated in a long time, and actually was camping out hidden in the main website of www.darkscape.net. I'm putting it here, hopefully to serve the purpose of being easier for us to update. While some of the links are "dead", they are kept here for archival purposes. Enjoy!
Darkscape
The History Behind The Name
This goes back to 1998. [[http://kitten.ufuria.org |Richard]] "hysteria" Kitten-Grey was a good friend of mine, musician, and talented web designer. He was the founder of a group known as Radiance, which had formed itself rather nicely. He and I talked mostly on [[http://www.channeltrax.net/ | EFnet #trax]], which is where he and I traded music that we had written back and forth. His most recent song which I was listening to, [[http://darkscape.net/ra(hyst)-skies_of_light_(Xt).mp3 | Skies of Light]] [ vocal ] was absolutely brilliant. In my efforts to join the Radiance Musicgroup, I went off to write a song for application into the group. I decided to use a play on the words Skies of Light, and proceeded to write [[http://darkscape.net/ho-grounds_of_darkness-(final).mp3 | Grounds of Darkness]]. In retrospect, a name like that could be a title for a really black coffee ;-) However that is the source of the name, Grounds .. Scape, and Darkness, or the DarkScape.
The Original Intent
A short time passes, and Richard has engaged in more social activities which leave the group to fend for itself, with no form of written continuity present to transition a new ownership. Ultimately the group disbands and we go on our separate ways- [[http://www.mit.edu/ | college]], other activities, what have you. At that point I decide to begin a new group of talented individuals for the purpose of serving the [[http://www.scene.org/ | European Demoscene]], using my song Grounds of Darkness as a basis for the name. Hence, [[http://www.darkscape.org/ | darkscape.org]] was born on May 14, 1999.
Battle of the Top Level Domain
Possibly the easiest domain name to control at the time was the [[http://www.nic.cx/ | Christmas Island registry]], as they had a simple process of modifying name servers. Network Solutions, registrar for darkscape.org was not as forgiving. As a result, Darkscape had a brief life as Darkscape.cx. The actual birth date of .cx is unknown due to a lapse in registration for the domain. Many user accounts were created on the server for fellow musicians, and at that point email and webhosting became the primary function for the domain. Many of the users desired sub domains and other items here and there which required myself to manually update the configurations, and at my availability. It was then that I had begun to write the control panel which is still in existance today, in it's evolved form.
Darkscape.cx lasted long enough to participate on sQuisk and Hybnet IRC networks, as well as see the expiration of the Darkscape.org domain name. Interestingly [[http://www.nsi.com/ | Network Solutions, Inc.]] was young to the point where Darkscape.org still worked, even though the rental was past due. Eventually, I decided to register the Darkscape.net name which was cheaper than renewing Darkscape.org. Why? Well Darkscape.org was registered during the span of $70 for 2 years, and required the $70 renewal fee, whereas new registrations were met with a $35 for 1 year offering. Naturally, I had little money and on September 1, 1999 (8 days before I got married!) opted for Darkscape.net.
The Man Who Believed In Total Success
Enter Russ Whalen, best older gentlemen I've ever met. Harassed me to enter college, complete college, make money, and do great things with my life for others, for society, and to be happy. Well I have yet to complete college, and that is mostly due to my horrendous time management skills and ability to let my military employment decide how much time I have available to work on my formal education. I have full intent to switch from Hawaii Pacific University, and pursue continuing education with Phoenix University using their online classes. I feel that I would do best using that method, and we will definitely see. However I digress. Mr. Whalen kicked me in the seat of my pants every day I mentioned administrating Darkscape. Always asking me if I am making any money off of it or if I'm wasting my time. I had no desire to profit from my friends, but eventually what he was saying made a tiny bit of sense to me and began giving Darkscape purpose, motivation, and direction. It was he who ultimately led to the Incorporation of Darkscape September 2002 and forming the inital business plan.
Where Are We Now?
That is where we are today. Incorporated, and operating solely out of Darkscape.net. Why not .com? Well about a week after I registered the .net a gentleman by the name of Thomas Lorocco registered the .com for his design company. I'm not sure his intentions for his business, but I plan on being around to obtain it from him when he is finished. The other day I ventured a guess at 4 years or so, although I could be way short!
Where Are We Going?
What's in the near future? Well as many know I am full time U.S. Army, and will be departing soon. I will be moving to Maryland where I intend to obtain some rackspace from a local company that I have been corresponding with for just under a year. This will bring back the ownership of systems that was present up until about a year ago when Darkscape decided to lease servers from the mainland, to improve speeds and connectivity for it's clientele. Naturally our asset column will get much larger :-)