my Dear Von Corax -
You are an Oak!
however did you get saddled with being "the person who's probably going to be doing this" ?
:-)
upgrade the new host to a current version of SMF. I think with some help that I could foot the bill for the current host for as long as it takes to complete the move.
So let's say we try to transplant Brassgoggles.co.uk to a smaller SMF based forum. Is there such a thing as a current version of SMF?
Good Question...
RE: Pheobsky
I did some looking for Herr Pheobsky last night. besides Spare Goggles i also found a presence on DeviantArt and some
public correspondence with another long-gone interesting fellow: ElShoggotho. Both have dissappeared from the Steampunk world ca ~ 2012.
I tried sending Pheobsky an email/PM via Spare goggles and Deviant Art, but have little hope since he also left DA
around 2011:
Information
Joined : 2008-09-12
Last visit : Thu Jan 06, 2011 4:57 am
He, along with a few others disappeared off the face of the Net around
the winter of 2011-2012. including his/their presence on Deviant Art, Flickr, and other venues...
This seems to happen to artistic and student types. As they graduate, change art forms, etc, they "move on" to "whatever", and sort of disappear into mundane life until free time & funds re-appear. Or choose to re-invent themselves entirely.
It does happen to a lot of us.
unfortunately for we who remain, in this age of interwebs it can mean things like SpareGoggles and/or Steampunk Mexico
(
https://steampunk.forosactivos.net/ ) are abandonned and take on a crippled life of their own, continueing on somehow, unguided....
I have had a number of historical Muzzleloader forums disappear like that. One of my favorites, wher an insane amount of mid-1800's scientific data was discussed, went into archive mode, then was slated for EOL. Fortunately, the owner/operator
still maintained a presence elsewhere, and when I contacted him, he was so kind and gracious as to archive The Whole
Damn Forum onto a thunbdrive and send it to me!
I am STILL extracting valuable technical and historical threads and archiving them onto The Wayback Machine where
those of us who wish can link to ( yes I ended that sentence in a preposition!) .
Fortunately for us, when tinkergirl wandered off, BG ended up in the hands of Proteus ( and apparently Von Corax)
who kept the faith, maintained the forum , threw massive amounts of cash at it, and bravely manned the helm!
Unless a miracle occurs, and the PM/emails get to Pheobsky... and another miracle occurs and they choose to respond...
and another miracle occurs and they remember the passwords... it looks like Sparegoggles is not a choice.
Von Corax - you wrote
> As the person who's probably going to be doing this, let me address some of the comments above:
Apparently you have far more insight into the boiler room than the rest of us!
Are you willing (and able? without undue distress?) to take on such a migration, even with help from us?
I myself would like to see
a main boss (admin),
and 2 or 3 co-bosses (co-admins), all with access to master passwords to "fix stuff"
then a number of forum mods as before.
I would also like to see a contact list shared privately with the staff, not anywhere on the forum (security 101 ) .
I don't want to see the board down for a month or 2 because "someone forgot", or got hit by a truck, and nobody could contact nobody...
Also ... what J said..
snip-------------------------------
I'd propose that we elect a Prime Minister/Governor, to serve in the role of the executive, separate from the technical director in charge of the server (the Engineer General?) . Those are two different functions anyhow. Moderators can be re-elected. I don't suggest single term limits, because we *don't have that many people in the forum* Roll Eyes
endsnip----------------------------
Also... I don't want to see any feelings hurt on this, I don't want anyone thinking this is a Coup or Revolt....
but a community effort by those of us who are left and don't want our (admittedly) little club to die.
Von Corax wrote
snip--------------------------------------------------
but there are other options. I currently master another web site for which the organization I work for pays CA$167.40/year (not counting domain registration) for a virtual web server, email service, not quite 100GB storage, unlimited bandwidth, PHP, and SSL. This should suffice for Brass Goggles given current traffic levels; that price (possibly plus some additional disk space) would put it in the ballpark of a personal/vanity site (which I suspect BG was originally for Tinkergirl), and is an amount I could probably stomach with any help at all. (I would need to see BG's current traffic and usage statistics, of course.)
The big challenge would be migrating to a new host. I would think this would involve first installing SMF 1.1.20 on the new host, dump/load the database, then (once things are running smoothly) upgrade the new host to a current version of SMF. I think with some help that I could foot the bill for the current host for as long as it takes to complete the move.
endsnip---------------------------------------------------
this sounds like a viable and affordable option! I believe we here can assist both financially and with tech assistance
thru the transition. It would help to find out who current donors are... and see about some sort of committment from the
rest of us...
If a save/restore/convert of the existing BG is viable (with little pain) that would be outstanding.
If a limited save/restore to maintain at least some of the look and feel and memberlist is easier and less painful, I think
we can have the entire BG archived on The Wayback and reference any threads with links.
also, I believe that ads "might be" necessary ( sapre goggles and the Mexican site have been running with ads, unattended for ~ 8 years! ) and "can be" made palatable.
If any members have security or personal issues based on ads and bots I will gladly write a tutorial, Windows scripts, and/or coach them as req'd.
yhs
prof marvel
