Gather.com, during its heyday, was a site that writers could go to publish their works, have their works critiqued, and earn pocket change for every article published. It had a very strong and active community. There were groups for almost every topic you can imagine, frequent writing challenges to hone one's skills, and some people were even able to go on writing professionally if they were lucky enough to be discovered there. It was an all-around great experience, even if one was only there to read the articles.
I was an active Gather member quite a few years ago until life caught up to me and I eventually started spending less and less time there. But I took comfort in knowing that if I ever needed to access my published articles or just wanted to browse through others' works, Gather would still be there. About a year ago--maybe less--I decided to pop in to see how everyone was doing, check in with my groups, and had fully intended on publishing a few more articles. I noticed a lack of activity compared to previous years, which I should have taken as a sign, but I paid it no heed. I updated my personal information so that I would receive important notifications, which I did. And then the notifications stopped. I didn't think anything of it. Until now.
I navigated to Gather today to access the photos that I'd uploaded there only to discover that the site I once loved had become less of a community-driven forum of aspiring writers to more of a...modern news blog. Gone was the busy yet streamlined interface, replaced with a simple yet restrictive menu of categorized articles. I frantically searched for my own articles and uploads only to be taken to an error 404 page. The words "Not Found" glared at me through my computer screen and I imagined the programmer laughing maniacally with an evil grin on his face as he punched the delete key on my entire profile. My disbelief turned into anger as I realized that I had not even been notified that my account was in danger of deactivation. I looked for a support page or even a FAQ that would help me answer the million questions roaming inside my brain. Not a link in sight. I googled Gather in the hopes that I would find a news article that would explain what had happened. Again, nada.
So my disappointment and questions linger. I fear that Gather.com's fate will forever remain a mystery. May all my beloved photos and poems that I had left in Gather's safekeeping find rest in the vast ether of cyberspace. I hope to be able to see them again one day. And if anyone knows what in the world became of the Gather I knew, please feel free to share in the comments.
