1. The Problem
2. Who We Are
3. What we are about (goals statement)
4. How to view contributions
5. How to contribute
6. What will happen to my contribution if ASSTR doesn't return?
7. Current Issues and Progress Reports

The Problem

As you can tell from the look of this web page, something at ASSTR and MCStories.com isn't quite right. Well, unfortunately you are correct.

On Friday (June 18th, 1999) a complaint was filed with ASSTR's Internet provider (a college). The school, without investigating or first asking the ASSTR administration as to the validity of the complaint, shut off the site's Internet access. The complaint alleged the following issues:

1. ASSTR's existence on the school's network "shows poorly" on the school.
2. ASSTR could potentially involve the school in a copyright suit due to the copyrighted work it may contain.
3. Because ASSTR was recently added to Yahoo's sex listings, the site will experience numerous hits which will slow the school's Internet connection and cost it money.

While the ASSTR Administration does not believe these allegations are true, the issue is irrelevant. Methods of reestablishing the site elsewhere are well under way. This provisional information site is being hosted temporarily by a kind soul. The purposes of this page are to inform the public as to the status of the affected sites and to ask for your help to get them up and running again. Costs for running ASSTR at an ISP will run at a rate of up to $600/month (US dollars) or higher. At this time we do not know the exact price as we have not made a final decision on an ISP. It goes without saying that the least expensive option is not always the most desirable (or even acceptable). Regardless of which ISP we choose, we need your help to get ASSTR back online.

Who We Are

For those just stumbling upon the site or those who didn't already know, ASSTR's official staff consists of myself ("Rey del Sexo") and and a technical coordinator who does all of ASSTR's programming work and maintenance. We also have numerous parties assisting us with various aspects of the site, from public relations to legal advice. MCStories.com is run by Simon bar Sinister. The three of us are dedicated to bringing the public the best sites on the Internet for the advancement of literature, all completely free of advertisements and any kind of membership fees.

What we are about (goals statement)

As proof of our dedication to bringing you the world's best free Internet literature source in the world, and to further provide stability in the future of all the sites depending on us, ASSTR's administration is currently in the process of founding a corporation. The corporation's purpose will be to 1) oversee, fund, and maintain both the ASSTR web site and another site dedicated to all kinds of literature (non-erotic), and 2) ensure a reliable host and/or mirror for many other literature sites. If all goes well, this corporation will be a non-profit organization in the spirit of free and uncensored literature.

The following are the preliminary guiding principles of the corporation, whose name shall be "Internet Free Literature Corporation" at the address http://www.iflc.org

1. IFLC believes that the Internet is a perfect forum for the free exchange of ideas, and the medium it chooses to highlight and support is that of literary works.
2. IFLC exists to further literary achievements in electronic form through the free exchange of such works.
3. IFLC believes that advertisements, particularly intrusive banner or pop-up advertisements, may tend to distract readers. Because of this, IFLC's goal is to be completely advertisement-free. If this becomes impossible, IFLC will limit the scope and obtrusiveness of advertisements as much as possible.
4. IFLC believes that a service that charges for membership is inconsistent with its ideals of the free exchange of the works in the collection.
5. IFLC believes that the author of a work should have full and complete control over how, where, and for what purposes his/her work is used. In recognition of this, IFLC does not attempt to gain any rights to the literature it publishes online, except for the privilege to distribute it on the IFLC web sites to the public at no cost.
6. IFLC recognizes that authors are its driving source - without them it would have nothing to offer.
7. IFLC understands that the readership is its source of support - without readers there is no point in IFLC's offering.
8. IFLC believes that authors and readers are symmetrical and that both are necessary to a literary undertaking of this kind. IFLC exists to bring authors and readers together.
9. IFLC believes that donations are freely given to support the causes outlined in these, the guiding principles of IFLC, and as such IFLC can not and will not offer preferred benefits to its donors. All that IFLC can offer is its continued existence as a freely available resource.
10. IFLC will make every reasonable effort to categorize the collection of works on the sites it owns to make its content as user-friendly as possible.

How to view contributions

A list of contributions received to date is available at this link. Donors can check this page to anonymously verify receipt of their donation, while potential donors can use it to get an idea of the number and diversity of donors.

How to contribute

We are asking for your help to make this corporation work. If we can raise $600/month - that's only 600 people committing to only $1/month every year .... ASSTR can return online. However, our goal is to raise $120,000 and invest it in a CD earning 5% annual interest. This will provide this new corporation with $500/month from the earned interest, assuring that the funds to run and maintain ASSTR will forever be available. While $120,000 may be a very high goal indeed, if 12,000 people make a one-time donation of just $10, our goal would be realized. Our logs from days past indicate this many people and more visited ASSTR on a regular basis.

Donations by cash or money order can be made 100% anonymously. If you're extremely paranoid about your anonymity, you can use the following procedure sent to us by another donor. Simply do the following:

1. Obtain a money order, make it out to the name and address below, and initial it (not sign it, thus revealing your name)
2. Use gloves to put the money order in an envelope and address the envelope to the name and address below
3. Use a sponge to moisten the envelope and seal it
4. Use the sponge to moisten the stamp, applying it to the envelope while wearing the gloves
5. Drop it in any mail box.
   
   The only information we'll know is the city from which you mailed the envelope.

All donations can be made out to:

ASSTR
6425 South IH-35, Suite 105 PMB #288
Austin, TX 78744-4230


Please note that at this time we can only accept checks, cash, or money orders. We are in the process of setting up a way to take credit card donations. When the credit card acceptance system is working, it will be made available at this web site. We prefer cash, check, or money order, as the credit card processing company will take a cut off of every donation made via credit card. Additionally, donations made via credit-card will not be available to the ASSTR administration until up to 60 days after they are made.

If you wish to make a donation, please make sure you copy this address exactly, as any mistake made could result in the donation not being delivered to us. We are now able to accept donations made out to "ASSTR".

Please note that whatever your method of donating, we will keep all your personal information strictly confidential unless you specifically request recognition on the ASSTR web page once the site comes back online. Please be aware that for your convenience, your donation will be noted on the donations page.

We will keep you posted as to the progress being made in the incorporation status and all other ASSTR related affairs at this web site. Thank you for your support and please, consider giving a little to get ASSTR back online.

Thank you very much in advance for your support.

What will happen to my contribution if ASSTR doesn't return?

For those wondering what will happen to your donations if this whole plan doesn't work out, you should be happy to know that we will donate all funds collected to the Electronic Frontier Foundation at http://www.eff.org. The EFF exists for the purpose of "Protecting Rights and Promoting Freedom in the Electronic Frontier".

Current Issues and Progress Reports

• 7/16/99
  We are still waiting to hear from a couple ISPs before we make a decision. It seems every week we are referred to a few more that seem to offer better service at a lower cost. We've investigating. In other news, we've chosen a credit card processor and have submitted the application today. As for the server itself, fans and memory have been ordered. We expect them to arrive this coming week. The site should be back online by August, but we can not promise anything at this time.
  
  
• 7/10/99
  Credit card processing is still a work in progress. To those waiting patiently, we thank you. Hang in there.
  
  There is light at the end of the tunnel. It looks like we will be back online shortly. No time line yet, but we will keep you posted.
  
  We now have a donations page (last updated 8/2/99) set up. Donors can use this page to anonymously confirm receipt of their donations. Potential donors can view this page to get an idea of the number and diversity of donors.
  
  
• 6/29/99
  We are still working on getting credit card authorization up and running. The reason for the delay is that we're still deciding on what company to use for the cc processing.
  
  Second, to those wondering why the high cost of $600/month for ASSTR's Internet access: ASSTR, at the time it went down, was using an average of 250 kilobytes/sec. This comes out to almost 75 33.6Kb/sec modems (a typical speed for home users) running simultaneously. Most small businesses in the United States use either a full T1 or "fractional" T1. A T1 line is capable of 1.54Megabits/sec or approximately 150 kilobytes/sec - significantly less than what ASSTR currently needs, and we estimate up to 4 times less than what ASSTR will need in the near future (once it is hosting ASSM/qz.to). Now, a T1 line with unlimited bandwidth (ie there is no additional charge for the amount of data transferred) costs about $2850/month for the Internet service + $300/month (minimum) from the line for the phone company. Startup costs would run $2000-$3000. Thus, you can see a T1 (or greater) is out of the question. What _is_ affordable is a service called "co-location," whereby a site such as ASSTR takes their servers to a company that charges a monthly fee for allowing connection to Internet. A typical customer would use the equivalent of a T1's amount of bandwidth. Hence ASSTR, requiring four times that amount, is going to cost a tad more than the average customer. What ASSTR needs is unlimited bandwidth on a 10Megabit (approx 1024KB/sec) connection. These types of co-location services are expensive, and run approximately $400 at the bare minimum up to over $1000/month. ASSTR's first choice provider wanted $600/month and has turned down our request for service, so now we are looking at some other ISPs.
  
  Third, the host of this web page has told us he is getting a large number of connection attempts to his FTP server. Please note that ASSTR is not online yet, and never will be at its current host. Therefore, please do not attempt to login via FTP to this machine.
  
  Finally, those of you who were waiting until you could make your checks out to ASSTR may now do so. A "DBA" (Doing Business As) account is being opened to allow the cashing of checks made out to either "Alt.Sex.Stories Text Repository" or "ASSTR".

Rey del Sexo
Administrator of ASSTR
ckought69@hotmail.com