Holy Smokes! Rogueskies is back? Truly, this must be a lie!

I’m afraid that it is true.

After hours of counseling, love, sweat, and tears, I learned one all important thing. I just couldn’t move on! I was CLEAN for almost two whole years. But in the end, I just ended up back where I began.

If you don’t know what Rogueskies is, then read down a little bit, I’ll tell you some of the story of the site. If you do know what this site is all about, I am sorry, but things are about to get ugly.

Yes, thats right. I SAID THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET REALLY UGLY!!!

Why is that? Because you are about to discover that after being free from the subtle addiction that this site provided for almost five years back from 2002 to 2007, you never really rid yourself of the draw…

So for the first time in history, I finally put into words what made Rogueskies so lifechanging.

But first, I promised a moment ago that I’d give a little history. This is good because if you don’t know what this site was all about then you’ll learn (but be aware, you may never leave again, mauahahahaha!!!) if you already know, you probably need a refresher anyway!

So, here are the cliff notes:

• In summer of 2002 I started a website called Rogueskies.net to feature my artwork and writing. Rogueskies was a name based loosely on the phrase “Liquid Skies” which I heard in a song and really loved. The concept from the site was born out a project called the Sine Die Forgotten Society — it was a group, hidden away from the world.
• In the fall of 2002 I added a forum to the site and started inviting/guilting/persuading/strong-arming my online friends to start participating in.
• By the end of 2002, the site had a very active forum and we were having a good time. It was around this time when the site really began to gain traction.
• During 2003 and 2004 the site climbed in popularity and grew from about 10 active forum members to over 30 daily participants with over 140 subscribed forum members. The site was averaging over 400 unique visitors per month which was pretty impressive when compared to the average 200,000 hits per month from some 30 odd countries. Not bad for 2003 and 2004 :).
• In 2005 I added in several community features so others could feature their artwork on the site. The result? A HUGE art gallery developed (which I’m working to resurrect). We also collected many powerful short stories and other misc writing which represented the collective emotions and dreams of a hyperactive base of users. 2005 also featured the birth of a newsletter which had a short, but lifechanging, run. This newsletter, Higher Ground, featured dozens of articles which shared the Love of God with our user base. It was focused on young adults.
• In the end of 2005 something magic saw its beginning. On the Rogueskies forum, something called Team Epics began. In about a year’s time, the members of Rogueskies wrote a full blown three novel series called The Fall of Itranix. An epic tale of several dozen characters who lived in a future world that collapsed. This was one of the pinnical achievements of Rogueskies.
• Unfortunately, in 2006 – 2007 the college monster came and gobbled up many of Rogueskies’ most active members and so the project was eventually shelved to reappear at a later time. Now… three years later almost overnight, Rogueskies has reappeared. Like a legend from ages past, its back with a vengeance and a whole new generation of young adults are going to have the opportunity to be completely changed by this revolutionary website.

So whats the big deal? Why should I care about all of this?

I truly did not understand just how much of an impact that Rogueskies had on the people who spent those incredible five years here on the site. Fully two years after the site closed down I started to hear whispers of the impact that Rogueskies had had on people’s lives.

It had given people hope. It was so encouraging to some that they turned their entire life around and have since grown into strong believers. In fact, one person who I won’t mention by name related to me that when she first joined Rogueskies she had such a poor self-concept of herself that she was considering suicide as an option. Her time here at Rogueskies turned that in a complete 180. She fed off of the positive energy that this site created and it helped to revitalize her.

It brought a tear to my eye that this project, my baby, had helped someone so profoundly.

Since we first had that discussion I’ve heard from others that they have had similar experiences.

What was the reason for the change?

It has taken me eight years to figure out what it was about Rogueskies which made it so endearing to people. Aside from good company and fun things to do. Rogueskies was always about passion and the release of that passion.

I’ve spent the last three years of my life burning through the passion that I had gathered together from this site. When it finally ran out earlier this year I realized that I had something missing in my own life.

It is a passion driving MACHINE! It gives you the opportunity to express yourself. It is the chance for you to be who you want to be. There is a chance for you to express your deepest desires and dreams.

Unfortunately, in the world that we live in, freedom of expression is slowly disappearing for believers. We don’t have opportunity to cut loose and just enjoy each other’s company in a wholesome and positive manner. It almost seems that we are a dying breed. But Rogueskies is a haven to those who are lost. It is a trumpet to those who are unknown, and it is a temple to those who have been forgotten.

So join us for the latest iteration of Rogueskies: Project Crimson Storm.

God Bless,
-Dan (Fabier) Kolansky