User:Vaelor/Fifth Dimension Computing

Fifth Dimension Computing is an online services company founded in August 1998, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It began trading as a sole proprietorship operated by owner and founder Karl Lofhelm out of his own residential apartment.

History

Initially operating as a small web hosting and computer hardware repairs store servicing the local community to fund a number of creative website projects, the company suffered from a lack of startup capital and for several years did not turn over enough profit to launch the sites that were intended to be its backbone. As a result, sites like Vaelor's Keep, Undiscovered Lore, and Social Deviancy never really got off the ground, and eventually became locally reknowned as some of the longest running "Under Construction" or "Coming Soon!" sites on the internet - emphasised by the fact that Lofhelm refused to give up on the projects and let them die, but kept promoting them despite the fact that they had almost become an in-joke as they were. Vaelor's Keep alone changed its name (it was originally known as "Dark Forest") and changed domain names three times before any content at all besides a brief "under construction" message was placed on the site!

In 2002, Fifth Dimension Computing dropped out of the web hosting and PC repairs markets and began to focus its attentions on online marketing, putting the bulk of its efforts into locating and publicising various online income opportunities suitable for end users with little startup capital. In fact, it wasn't until FDC's acquisition of the email broadcasting company Prospect Mail in February of 2004 that the company began to turn any noticable profits whatsoever - prior to this, the business had been funded almost entirely out of Lofhelm's own personal pocket.

While FDC has no public storefront or physical address as such, being now exclusively an online business, Syndal, Victoria, Australia is considered to be the company's "base of operations", although its servers are located in Dallas, Texas, USA.

External Links

Fifth Dimension Computing Website

Binary Literature, FDC's game design division

Vaelor's Keep, an FDC project

Social Deviancy, another FDC project