I started Tempest in September 1992 when the online communications world was very differerent. Then there were hundreds of active BBSes in Hong Kong, but almost all were text based BBSes, and few used graphical software or had content suitable for Mac users. With one exception (MacAegis, which closed a short time later) the few Mac based BBSes were expensive and/or badly run, and were not linked to other local BBSes.
At first Tempest did well, providing a cheap (i.e. mostly free) and reliable BBS system for Mac users in Hong Kong. But in 1993 it was overtaken by two new BBSes, Chain (since closed) and one run by the Hong Kong Mac Users Group. Each was backed by more resources and a larger group of people, and quickly overtook Tempest in size and popularity. Also in 1993 I tried to set up connections to the international BBS networks Fidonet and OneNet, but had limited success with these.
By 1994 without good external links, and without the number of active users of other Mac BBSes, there was little on Tempest to attract users to it, and so not much activity. By putting a number of software CD-ROMs online I was able to maintain a lead in resources over other BBSes (while still being cheaper and more reliable). I also upgraded Tempest to support Windows, as well as Mac, users. But this still wasn't enough to attract people to the system.
At the end of 1993 something happened to change Tempest, and all other local inline services, forever: inexpensive public Internet services arrived in Hong Kong. About the same time software was released to connect FirstClass to the Internet, and soon I had Tempest set up for Internet e-mail and newsgroups. This provided a big boost to Tempest, as it made it possible to communicate quickly and easily with tens of millions of people worldwide.
This quickly boosted usage, especially as Tempest continued to offer this access at an unbeatable price (free to most users). But it didn't increase the level of activity on Tempest: by this time hardly anyone was posting to conferences on Tempest, except for occasional posts to newsgroups. Tempest was mostly being used for e-mail, which kept it going for a while, but by 1995 even this was declining.
The reason was that the Internet, after boosting Tempest's popularity, was now drawing users away from Tempest. Although Tempest offered cheaper and easier e-mail access the Internet now offered much more than just e-mail and newgroups. In particular services like gopher, IRC and especially the World Wide Web were unavailble on Tempest. These Internet technologies helped popularise the Internet in Hong Kong, and soon there were dozens of companies offering inexpensive, easy access to the Internet, at the same time as new software made it easy to use that access.
Tempest has always had a high 'churn factor', with many users only staying for a few months or a year before moving on to other services. In the past this was to Chain or the HKMUG BBS, now it's usually to the Internet. But now few new users are replacing those leaving, and none of those new users have been interested in registering as Members, so contributing towards Tempest's upkeep. With this looking likely to continue there is little reason to keep Tempest running.
It's a long time since Tempest was an active community in it's own right - now the vast majority of users just use it for Internet e-mail, i.e. as a cheap alternative to an ISP. With very few people active on Tempest today the effort and expense of keeping Tempest going is not justified by the benefits to users, most of whom have alternative access to the Internet. And although contributions have never paid for Tempest's upkeep, so money is not a deciding issue, the complete lack of new paid registrations in the last two years perhaps shows that the value of Tempest to its users is minimal.
I have therfore decided to close down Tempest as a public service, on the 30th of April 1997, approximately five - six weeks from now. Some facilities, i.e. newsgroups and some gateways, may be disabled before this date, but you will be able ot dial into the server and send and receive e-mail up to this date. After this date the server will be kept running to handle mail forwarding, but it will not be open to dial up access.
© John Blackburne, johnb@hk.super.net, 20th April 1997
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