I’m not quite sure how many of you have actually been waiting for this, but for those who really have been waiting for it… here it is!

What Is It?
A site design/theme competition. If you’re talented with Photoshop or any other design software and you think you have the time and the skills to compete, go on and make a design for our network.

Where will the design be used?
We’ll be having 3 winners. If you’re one of those 3, we’ll use your design to replace the current design @ http://premium.rpnet.biz . We figured we could use a re-design for that domain, as it is quite cluttered as of now. And we were hoping to get a better one made. Then we decided – what better way than to do a competition and reward the winners? Of course… that’s what it came to.

What sort of design are we looking for?
While I’d love to say we’ll welcome any design, I need to lay out just the bare minimum specifications. Your design should not be too cluttered. If you’re going to make a design, do remember to include a logo too, please. And we’ll prefer a light color/themed design as opposed to a darker one. Light colored designs are easier on the eyes – and that contributes to good design ethics

Where should you submit your designs?
Please remember to submit ALL your design/work to our email specified below. Make sure you include a screenshot of the design, the PSD file, and all other supporting files (font files, if they’re free, etc). Compress all the files in a zip file, and email it to us at (support@rpnet.biz). Make sure your submission email’s subject includes “[RP Design Contest]” somewhere in it.

What’s the deadline for the design submission?
1 month from the date of this blog post. That basically means, the last date to send in your submission is 30th May, 2010.

When will the results be announced?
All submissions will be evaluated and the winners will be announced and contacted by 10th June, 2010.

Right then.. folks.. this post marks the beginning of the contest. Go on and start submitting!

Cheers,
Hamza

I have to make this post a quick post, given the fact that I have to make a lot of adjustments to the network.

Soooo… unfortunate and sad as this is, it has to come to this.

PublicLeech’s History
Public Leech was initially PublicRP. Me and Dman had quite a fair few plans of expanding it and making it the revolutionary premium link generator. And we did have a unique set of objectives. One of them being the longevity of the public side of RP. We probably have failed in that regard (although temporarily).

Our another objective was to run a premium link generator that was user friendly. And to be honest, we succeeded real great in that regard. Everyone who used our service from start up until the break (I call this a break, and not a closure) is well aware of the fact that we prided ourselves in being an ad-free site (with the exception of advertisement for our own premium accounts).

Fact is… more than half the people who get in to the premium link generator scene, either put up advert upon advert and popup upon popup on their site. Or worse, they lock their entire site down with a crappy survey/CPA page. Where did the user friendliness go? Where’s the community sense? That is where we differed. While others set their site(s) up to make a quick buck, we did for the community that has made us what we are, today. And we plan to continue the legacy and pick back from where we’re temporarily leaving it.

Last month, when the hotfile scam/issues started showing up, we decided to make a couple changes. In the process, we decided to rename our generator to Public Leech. This was just my suggestion (and Dman’s too) as part of giving every site in our network (RP) a unique identity. Thus the change of the name.

Why is it closing down?

Public Leech runs on a $400/month dedicated server. Add to that the cost of the accounts (~$40) that we support at the moment. The only thing that kept Public Leech going was Dman’s part time job. But he’s moving back to India. And he won’t be having his job. That means, we won’t be having the funds to keep Public Leech up and running. I know you guys are probably thinking about Premium account sales, etc at this point. But to be honest, while we have been doing OK on the premium side, we don’t have enough funds to keep Public Leech alive for the time being. Besides, we’ve set aside a reserve for Premium, because we don’t intend to shut that down, of course.
So, the reason Public Leech is going down, is because Dman lost his job (temporarily) and it’ll be back up in due time.

When will it be back up?
I do not guarantee ANYTHING in this case. The best I would say is that in due time, we’ll bring it back. And it’ll be better than ever. Why? Because we hope to take a break from maintaining and paying for public, and improve and market Premium all the more. That way, by the time we’re ready to bring it back up, we’ll hopefully be making enough $$$ per month to put public back in action.

And of course, I hope Dman gets his job back soon. He’s in India, although temporarily. Once he gets back, he’ll have his job again. However, he does not know when. Although, hopefully soon (according to him).

Do we have any plans while Public Leech is closed?
Yes. We’ll concentrate on growing Premium. That should bring in a positive cash flow, and we’ll get Public Leech back up soon.
And yes, we’ll continue updating the blog.

Will Premium close down too?
NO! We do not have any intention to close down the premium side. It’s a service that manages to finance itself for now. So that is reason enough to keep it running, indefinitely.

Is there any way I can help?
While we appreciate everyone who wants to help us, at this point the best you could do is be patient. We promised on being the best. And we will be. Just give us the time we need.
Another way to help us, is to buy our premium account if you need it (and can afford it). It’s quite cheap, and we guarantee good speeds, premium support, no limits (except RS), and a great great experience. If you know someone who can afford our accounts and is looking to consolidate all file hosts in one small investment, minus the hassle of having to maintain 12 different accounts, refer them to us. We’ll be thankful to you. Because, that, is one of the ways you can truly help us grow and come back with a greater bang than ever before.

What was the other update you mentioned?
The update, in my opinion, is quite important. It should have it’s own blog post (and it will). We’ve officially launched the design competition. That’s the best we can do, as an apology for closing down Public Leech (temporarily). There will be 3 winners of the design competition. The winners will get 4 months of FREE access to Premium RP. Full speed downloads, no restrictions (except RS) for 4 months. I’m sure quite a few people would be interested. The details will be announced in a separate blog post in about an hour or two from now.

I don’t quite know how I feel, right now. Because, to be very honest, I am really passionate about Public Leech. Both me and Dman love it, and while we did fear it would come down to this (although temporarily) we did not quite imagine it would be this difficult.

That’s it for now, folks. I’ll keep this blog updated.

Cheers,
Hamza
RPNet (Crazy) Administrator