The bag of Stay-Puft Marshmallows you see on Dana’s kitchen counter was hand-made by the props department; they designed the label and silk-screened it onto the blank plastic bag. Before they made the actual bag, they did (as it’s been explained to me) three test screen pulls on a sheet of mylar. Through a confluence of events, I acquired one of those three test screen pulls. It remains my favorite Ghostbusters collectible.
I mention the screen because shortly after I bought it, I got an email from a gentleman who wanted to buy it. While he was familiar with the fan community, it was pretty clear he didn’t really participate in it. In fact, as time went one I discovered that there were more than a few fans of the film that weren’t that interested in the community. The guy just wanted to collect. Cool. And that was the beginning and the end of his involvement with Ghostbusters – to the point that he, to this day, writes every couple of years to see if I’ve changed my mind and would be willing to sell my test Stay-Puft logo to him. Every time he does, I gently decline and think about all the cool stuff I’ve amassed that I really don’t get time to appreciate much any more. Most of it is in boxes from my last move.
At the same time, a lot of the fans – some newer, and some who had been involved in the community since they were younger – were now moms and dads, and they loved sharing Ghostbusters with their kids. They build foam packs and mod power-wheels. I like that, and very shortly, I’ll have that. Or, I could have that. I’ll have the kid part at least…
So, what’s your point, Chris?
Short answer? I think I’m done.
Running a Ghostbusters news site was always hard, particularly in the decade where there was actually very little news and you had to carve your website by hand, but it was never work. It was how I expressed my love of the movie, and the plan was to do it for as long as I could. Turns out, it’s however long it takes you to get to 40 or have a family/large responsibilities. Actually, given the responsibilities of starting, running, and maintaining a company, which I’ve been doing for the last 7 years, it’s actually when you get to having a family. Partly it’s a time thing – I’m maxed out right now – but mostly it’s because I’ve made it to a point where I did what I could, as best as I could, for as long as I could, to help keep the fan flame alive and keep people informed about what’s new with Ghostbusters, and as things stand, I’m not needed anymore, really.
I started PC when the news was spare, fan sites were few, and you had to use Yahoo to search for stuff, and it did it badly. Now, keeping a site up is way easier, with more cool bells and whistles, and Google emails you the easy-pickings. Add to that the fact that Ghostbusters is enjoying it’s biggest period since the last movie, and the hobby turned into a part-time job.
And I don’t need a part time job, particularly not when it makes the movie less fun to me and I’ve already got a full-time+ job. What I enjoyed most about PC was doing the features – in the years when news was light, I’d write features. And features take time and I don’t have time. So, I’ve got a site that’s work and a pile of to-dos that I can’t get to. That’s not a great combination.
A few months back, I tried conscripting editors, with some success – they’ve been awesome, but it was a plan predicated on a communal idea – a handful of people helping pick up what I couldn’t carry. They’re all busy people too, so they weren’t replacements, they were reinforcements. And it kind of helped. But I’m looking down the road and it’s not going to be enough. And I have no idea how to find me at 24, which is what the site needs really – someone with energy and spare time.
I’m not certain this will make any sense to some or all of you, but basically, PC, at least as a one-ish man show, isn’t what the fandom wants or needs. The fact that PC readership dropped 50% when I started the Proton Charging Facebook page is a clear indication. It’s only dropped since then.
So, that’s it in a nutshell – If there was a purpose to Proton Charging, it was to get to here, not for any real end game, but so that others could keep going. I put my time in to help make a space online that would one day be what the fandom is today. Now I’m off to do something else. Enjoy my collecting. Enjoy sharing it with my kids. Enjoy doing all those side-projects I’ve never gotten to finish .
I’m just going to leave PC here. I see no reason to shut it down, particularly given the size of the archives. And I’ll likely post from time to time on Facebook (it’s pretty easy), which in turn will post to twitter and tumblr. But I’m picking the end of my era and this is it.
I hope you all enjoyed getting from there to here as much as I did.
Not logged in
Thanks for being the GB rock in my life for the past 10 or so years. Your coverage and the community feel you brought to the site was like a warm blanket to my GB fandom. Thank you for creating the wonderful site and putting all of the effort into it for us. Enjoy moving on to the next phase in your life and Ghostbusters fan cycle.
Sad day man, you’re a great writer, but definitely understand. There’s only so much joy looking back on 3+ hours put to film in the 1980s can bring a person. Be free!
I stopped looking at all other GB sites long ago. Thanks for all the good times man!
Proton Charging has been, hands down, my favorite Ghostbusters site from the beginning. I’m sad to see you bow out, but I completely understand and am excited for your new life ahead. Congratulations on your pending fatherhood and enjoy your new family. Your contributions to the community over the years are unmatched and your perspective will be greatly missed.
thank you for giving me a place to go for so many years.
I’m sad to see you go! But I do understand, life gets in the way of many things, even the most amazing fandom in the world.
I look forward to reading your future Facebook posts!
Been popping into your website very regularly, so regularly that is part of my routine, beginning with a little hope that your headline would read ghostbusters 3 is a go! and i guess that faded a while ago but I still have found myself here almost everyday probably right near the beginning of it all when you really were the only gb site on the inchoate internet. in the end i’m just glad that through your work you kind of materialized the notion i got from the blue lights on the white caddie, the patches on their shoulders and elmer’s music and i knew it just wasn’t me. thanks
So. . . who gets the Stay Puft bag?
Going to miss this man…ALOT…To put it in the venacular – “What a ride” (it’s been)…
Thank you so much for your time and this awesome website you’ve made for all fans worldwide.
I gonna miss this site, and you. You’ve been a great source of GB information over the years, and the main thing keeping me in the loop. Kinda funny since I only started coming here for the videos you once had, but I stayed for the articles. Been a long ride. Good Journey, stranger.
Chris,
I found this site when I was just starting high school, netscape was the browser of choice, dial-up was the best you could ask for, and I felt alone in my love for a movie that was seemingly fading from time. Within seconds of scrolling through the pages I knew that there were others like me out there, who had a great fondness for a movie that hadn’t had any new blood or life breathed into it in almost a decade at that point. Over the next few hours of combing through the site I found that there were a LOT more Ghostbuster geeks than I ever imagined. That bit of knowledge like a seed, grew as I became more and more comfortable with embracing the movie and comicbook geek side of myself. Now over 15 years later I run my own website and work as an artist creating all kinds of sci-fi and whimsical art from home. I have a proton pack hanging in my living room that I built as a Halloween costume from plans I found through your site. Over the years it has become a great conversation piece and even broke the conversational ice with my now wife on our first date. Your site helped connect and ground me to an online community that I have used to carve out a nice career for myself. All while letting me know when and where I can get the next Ghostbuster t-shirt, coffee mug and free balloons for the kids. If I hadn’t ever found your site, I am not sure how much of that would still be true. For that, and all your years of hard work, I say thank you.
Cheers.
There is always a way to make one
http://www.ghostbustersmania.com/2012/05/fan-art-download-stay-puft-marshmallows.html
Thanks so much Chris for everything you do! You are a legend!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, I wish the best for you, your family and friends. I comend you and all you have done for the Ghostbusters community! Sad to see this post but glad I have had Protoncharging in my life all these years. Keep posting on facebook and I’ll keep reading any nuggets you put out. Oh and one more thing THANK YOU!
It’s a shame but I totally understand what you’re saying. Once things stop being fun it’s time to step back. Stuff like this shouldn’t feel like work.
For what it’s worth out of all the sites out there this has always been my favorite. I’ve been with you for as long as I can recall and this has always been a well put together site.
Having given up my GB site, but not my love of GB, three and a half years ago, I know exactly what you mean. I’ve enjoyed your site more than any other, thank you for all your effort and inspiration over the years.
You have my sympathies, castewar. I know all about getting older and not having the same level of energy; it’s life.
You have my deep respect and appreciation for all of your hard work over the years. Thanks so very much.
Hi! I think you always did a great job but family is first. It was a great time and all but I think you’re getting right this. Thank you for your time dedicated to all of us ghostheads around the world (I’m from Quito, Ecuador in South America). Blessings for your life and projects! And keep in touch with the ghostbusters fans community!
Thanks Chris. Proton Charging was one of the first GB sites I found (along with Bill’s). It’s been a heck of a great website and I’ve greatly appreciated all that you’ve put out there for the community. Best of luck with your future endeavors.
Thanks for all the memories Chris.
Thank YOU sir for all these years of updates. You’re right — for a long time the news WAS sparse, but for a rabid fan, looking for any scrap of information GB related, PC was always a place to venture to at the very least scratch the itch. Here’s hoping you move on to better avenues and let us celebrate your featured return if the ever-postponed GB3 hits screens.
See you on the other side. [ gah, couldnt resist ]
As the Pledge President of the Shady Acres Ghosthead retirement home, I’d like to welcome our newest member who would like to continue to be called by his pseudo-name, Castewar…
I believe it was a cold day in 1997 when this competing website popped up, some Canadian guy that spelled things strangely (like colour, seriously? Who puts u’s all over the place like that?) – and rubbing salt into the wound, he was going to attempt to fold in (gasp) the Filmmation Ghostbusters into his site too so that he covered “all” of Ghostbusters. The nerve of this guy.
I was angry. Okay, I was angry because I was jealous. This Canuck’s site looked ten (okay ten-thousand) times better than mine, and he was writing quality articles and features that continued to push me to try to one up the man. But in the process, Chris created what eventually became (and honestly, even with this announcement still is) a cornerstone in my daily life and fandom. Proton Charging always cut through the bullshit, always told it like it was and didn’t pander or rely on gimmicks or rumors, and was always the calming voice in a sometimes tumultuous storm.
After shutting down my site (Freudian slip had me initially write that as “shitting down my site” which is poetic, probably) because of reasons similar to all those that Chris mentioned above, it felt like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I’m sure to him it probably feels the same way. The internet just ain’t what it was in the early 90s, and that’s not a bad thing – it’s evolved, it’s become more high-tech, and as Chris mentioned – the need for sites like Proton Charging has become niche in our daily disposable intake of online “social media.” The headlines are being covered all over in aggregates all over the place, news can be dispersed in 140 characters that I can thumb through in one sitting.
But there’s one thing that experience CAN’T give you, and that’s the quality writing – the quality features and stories, the thing that was the draw to Proton Charging even back on it’s initial launch day (that I was oh-so-angry about back then but now look fondly on because Chris was kind enough to take me in when I got the itch to be involved again, to write those features that I had loved to read).
So I hope that this isn’t “goodbye” for Proton Charging, per se. I hope that this is a shift in direction for Chris’ amazing site that’s served us all so well for so many years that I can’t even begin to describe. I hope that Chris DOES get the time to write those features, to tell us more anecdotes like the one about the Stay Puft bag attached to this letter.
And selfishly, I hope that he lets me still babble on here from time to time as well to tide over my impulses that kick up occasionally.
But more the former than the latter.
Proton Charging was and is a great site run by a great dude. I’m glad to have been there to see it grow, to see it eventually become the go-to, and to see Chris hanging up the jersey today. Cheers, Chris – I still owe you (at least two) beers.
Just want to say thank you for providing a great place for GB fans, good luck in all you do.
I’m so glad to see all the outpouring of thanks to you Chris. You certainly earned it. Also Troy, your site was a major beacon for so many of us as well. I was very sorry to see that site shit down as well. ….Shut! Shut down! (dammit)
As I get older I’m backing away from all this internet chatter and I’m seeing more and more of the people I know and respect joining me in an effort to edge away without totally leaving. ( Because, let’s face it, if you leave then the grubby little rats take over and turn the place into a cesspool of memes. ) I see your recent shift not as an end to the race but as a victory lap that can take it’s time and look around to enjoy the sights.
Really, the best part of your article was simply this at the bottom:
“page 1 of 2579″
That kind of said it all.
For those of us who’ve simply had enough of FB we’ll still check in here on the hopes that your Twitter and Tumblr updates keep the place alive. I think I owe more of my GB fandom success to you than any other GB fan site.
Thank you. Troy isn’t the only one who owes you some beers.
Since 97 Protoncharing has been my favorite Ghostbusters News site. Thank you for all your time and effort, but a special thank you for plugging our GB: On Call Movies. You are a fan amongst fans. Best of luck. Also, when is Ghostbusters 3 coming out? I heard Aykroyd said they start filming later this year. Are the rumors true (Just kidding!)?
My first reaction was “BOOO!!!! NO!!” and maybe even “Lame!” but as a diehard GB fan and someone who’s been running his own website for almost 16 years… dude, it’s hard. I understand. I say “Boo!” because ProtonCharging was the best GB site out there and something I checked daily. I love it. So just know that you WILL be MISSED. But it’s 100% understandable as to why you’d want to move on.
Godspeed, Chris!
Chris,
Thank you for maintaining the site for so long. I came to PC somewhere between 1999-2000 and have stuck with ya since then. May you have Good Luck in your future.
I will miss seeing updates here. Such an important site to me after all these years. It will be missed, Chris. I wish you luck in your future endeavors.
amazing site man, i’m sorry to see you go but know your work was well appreciated!
Weird. This has been a week of bad luck for me, just event after event after event going wrong. But most of them were fairly foreseeable – this is totally out of the blue! Now anything’s on the table for bad news!
But very sorry to see you go, big fan of your work but I understand the reasons. Good luck in all future ventures.
Chris,
Thank you so much for Proton Charging! It has been my go to website for Ghostbusters related news and articles for well over a decade now. For that I truly appreciate what you have done and the time you have given to do it.
Best of luck on everything in life and enjoy the rest from running the website. You… You’ve earned it.
You’ve been part of my daily check these last five or so years I’ve had a computer to do so on. It’ll be sad to see you go, but as a recent father myself I can’t say as I don’t understand. Thanks for all the information and the entertainment I may have otherwise missed.
All the best for the future, you’ve done a grand job!
I’m going to try and automate things as much as possible, which is partly why it’s time to move one. And I’m going to put back the feature slider that’s been absent for awhile now, so I can call-out notable archived articles, but then that’s about it.
I do appreciate the kind words and I think what makes me most happy is that I have so many dedicated readers. I’m also pretty chuffed to realize that even though I am walking away from the site, I can’t kill it. And I don’t mean I’m unwilling to – I could if I wanted (though I don’t) – I mean it has it’s own momentum. I initially said the site would remain in stasis, but that’s impossible, it will continue to slowly pick up little things here and there without me. Which only means it will persist for now, idling, and that in time perhaps I will be able to find the right person(s) to pick it up and run with it. Time will tell.
Thanks again, gang.
Thank you for all your hard work and dedication, I wish you all the best. I’m very sorry to hear you go but I hope you don’t hang up your proton pack for too long, after all Bustin’ makes us feel good!
Chris,
You have done this longer then I care to fathom. Thank you for all your hard work over the years. While I took a backseat in the Ghosthead community years back after spending a few years running my site Rays Occult, I have since checked your site for news at least every few days. You are the man and no Ghosthead can argue that.
Now that being said, you know they’ll greenlight GB3 outta nowhere tomorrow just to F with you.
I mean, Bill Emkow thinks you should retire for cripes sake lol,
Really sad news, but totally understandable. Even though I’ve run my own Ghostbusters site for, what is now, a VERY long time, Proton Charging was always my #1 stop every week to find out the latest in Ghostbusters news. So many things would have gone completely beneath my radar were it not for Proton Charging. I’m gonna miss the site.
I’m really happy that you’re going to be a daddy soon. I guess it’s about time I find myself a gal and become a daddy, too. I’m sure as heck not going to knock up some willing Hell Hound. Bestiality ain’t my bag, baby!
You know, I think this now make me the only old timer left with an active site, even though it’s not as active as it was. That makes me feel like a dinosaur. As if my birthday two days ago didn’t already accomplish that.
Anyway, best of luck to you, your baby mama, and your little one.
Oh, and since everyone else is buying you beers, I’ll buy you a root beer… so you don’t get sick from alcohol poisoning.
This was easily my favorite Ghostbusters site during my more intense years of GB fandom.
I’ve had the distinct pleasure of coming to Mr. Castewar during my tenure at GB United when I needed help and assurance that the fan community was worth sticking with. I arrived to a similar situation this year where I haven’t found myself the time or drive to continue on as I had before, and I completely understand and respect where PC has arrived.
I’ll always have the fondest memories of this site and what it stood for, to me. Thanks for everything.
Castewar,
Your site has been a beacon to us all. You had me from the name alone for the last 15 years. Godspeed and good luck to you.
I’ve been a longtime reader and fan of your site Chris. Great work. As a 36 year old dad of a three year old son I totally get where you are coming from. Career and family take a huge chunk of time and sometimes you have to know when to let go. Often it’s hard. I think when it’s no longer fun and it’s a chore then you know it’s time.
I used to write opinion pieces for a video game site called Massively. It was a paid gig, but I did it out of pure love for gaming and writing and sharing my fandom of games. When my son was born, I lasted about 6 months longer and I just couldn’t muster the energy. I save it up now for playing with my son, building treehouses, and sharing crazy passions like Ghostbusters.
It’s amazing to me how this franchise seems to bridge generations and age ranges so easily. There’s something universally appealing about Ghostbusters. Is it science overcoming our fears of the unknown? Is it the ability to laugh at scary things in life? Is it the joy of shooting a barely controllable, highly destructive beam of energy? Whatever the magic formula for cult following and longevity, Ghostbusters has it and it truly is fun to share it with your kids.
I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. Thanks for keeping us all informed over the years (I’ve followed you since you started).
Your fan,
Marc
Chris,
You’ve been a great friend, Province neighbor, & all around cool guy for many years. I understand how this must feel for ya, I dropped my site a Long time ago for similar reasons. Just know that PC has been a top resource for me & local buds for a long time. Much respects to ya man.
Rock on dude.
-Brad
I’ve been a dedicated reader of yours for years, Chris. This is one of the first websites I started going to shortly after joining Bill’s Ghostbusters Homepage. I’m sad to see that the PC wont be up kept anymore, and to see you get added to the ranks of great community members who no longer participate. But know that I understand your reasons and thank you for the years of dedicated Ghostbusters news. Good luck with all of your endeavours!
-Dan
Hey Chris,
Wow…I know this is old news but I wanted to say thank you for all the years of effort put into this site and into keeping GB alive in peoples hearts and minds. I’ve seen this site off and on over the years and i’m very ashamed of myself for waiting so long to really ‘look’ at it and appreciate it for what it is and was.
I’m terribly sorry I wasn’t there from the beginning and it’s always sad to find something after it’s done but I totally understand your reasons. For whatever it’s worth, thank you.I wish you and yours (as well as anyone else reading this!) the very best.
Thenk you so much.
-Zidders Roofurry
(Christopher R. Adams)