This is probably the last post for Sci Phi Journal. It has been a pleasure to run SPJ, and I have been amazed by the goodwill it generates, which was easiest to measure when observing the growing number of visitors to the website. However, goodwill does not pay the bills, for either the writers or the rest of the team who worked hard to deliver SPJ on a regular basis. So it is with regret that I must advise SPJ will cease because of its continuing losses.
Thank you for visiting the site. I wish I could offer you more stories and articles in future. Maybe some of Team SPJ will eventually find a better way to resurrect the combination of philosophy, science and fiction that seemingly appeals to many, but which is difficult to promote in a fractured market that allows no room for dialogue between proponents of opposing views. In the meantime, please continue to enjoy the SPJ archive of stories, which will remain on the web for the immediate future.
Many people deserve thanks, so please indulge me as I mention just a few of the contributors who helped to run SPJ. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to have Jim Fitzsimmons on the editorial team, and I hope and expect he will go on to bigger publications. The first readers of SPJ have always chosen to remain anonymous, but that will not prevent me from singing their praises, as their diligence ensured submitting authors received timely responses without fail. Finally I wish we could have paid better rates to the authors. Their many and varied contributions always merited a much more elevated platform for their work. I eagerly look forward to seeing more of their writing elsewhere.
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Dear Ray (don’t tell Eric),
for what must seem like the shortest of aeons, you navigated this ‘fractured market’ with perseverance and had to make tough choices, all the while continuing to offer our ungrateful ecosystem of anonymous readers one of the finest fragments in the mosaic of online SF publishing. Hopefully the void left by SPJ will be filled eventually, but this journal shall be sorely missed.
Thank you for the time and effort that went into unearthing the treasures in these archives – may they stay unburied for as long as possible.
All the best to captain and crew on your future voyages!
A reader from Hungary (where’s that?)
Dear Ádám,
Thanks for your generous and beautifully crafted words. We should have hired you to write for the journal!
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the voyage, although I chose to return to the harbour for fear our ship and crew would be lost at sea. We plotted a course, but safe landing eluded us. I would certainly have been glad to continue to visit exotic shores; far too much SF is written only with an American market in mind, whilst still claiming to be ‘diverse’. It’s as if Columbus chanced upon a new world and then forgot how much ‘old’ world there really is, which is not a mistake I imagine they make in Hungary.
Sometimes exploration does not lead to discovery; this vessel could not carry us where we hoped to go. However, we learn just by venturing forward. For the moment I am glad to have my feet on dry land. So long as there are stars above, we may navigate anew.
Dear Ray,
that’s kind of you, but also cruel 🙂 Your announcement on 6 January came just as I was finally about to muster the courage to make a submission to SPJ. Alas..
I hope you embark on new creative quests once you’ve gathered your strength. And who knows, there is certainly mileage yet in philosophical SF. All the best!
I hope that you’ll leave the site up, at least. Or if you’re going to take it down, give ample warning for those who may wish to archive it.
Such a shame! I’m proud to have been a small part of SPJ while it lasted. Thanks for all the good work!
Dear fellow travellers (past and future),
since we seem to have lost a handful of recent comments from this section when moving to the new layout, let me once again confirm that SPJ will be reanimated next year, supported by a new team with the kind blessing of Ray. Philosophical and hard SF need some TLC, so we will continue to offer a safe harbour in the vast expanse of the web. If all goes well, we’ll be back in Q1 2019.
Take care,
Á.