[unfolaReemoma]

Hi all,

Just wondering - are any efforts underway to preserve and archive the contents of the old ABC forums?
I think it would be a tremendous loss if these were to disappear forever.
The lack of discussion about it makes me think that perhaps there is some underground movement..

I hoped we could use this thread to come up with some ideas to save the content and preserve it in some read-only state somewhere. I know the technical skill is around here (somewhere).

* Perhaps we could scrape the forum, host it somewhere else (it's only text so bandwidth should be cheap). Maybe standard http mirroring software would do this.

* Perhaps an obliging sysadmin at the ABC will create a db backup for us.

* Perhaps that same obliging sysadmin would give us a clone of the volume (which we could do anything with, given time)

* Perhaps we could - this might be a bit silly - arrange to purchase the server, which is likely being decommissioned anyway, with data intact.

I think that we should move quickly on this, as by the sounds of it, the plug will be pulled shortly.

Does anyone have any idea what hardware/platform the forums run on? What they're written in? Anything?

Cheers
J

[deermealec]

I think that we should move quickly on this, as by the sounds of it, the plug will be pulled shortly

As far as I'm aware that the old forums will first be closed to any new posting but will remain open for a month or two afterwards so folks can archive stuff. Pretty sure there are a couple of forumites working on recording some of that stuff for posterity.

[layevymed]

As far as I'm aware that the old forums will first be closed to any new posting but will remain open for a month or two afterwards so folks can archive stuff. Pretty sure there are a couple of forumites working on recording some of that stuff for posterity.

It seems the closing of the old forums is a dynamic process, depending on a few things. This forum is getting a bit of ABC badging and there is a possibility that the old forum will change/close at the same time. We are expecting the badging to happen within the week.

[deermealec]

It seems the closing of the old forums is a dynamic process, depending on a few things. This forum is getting a bit of ABC badging and there is a possibility that the old forum will change/close at the same time. We are expecting the badging to happen within the week.

Any idea if a decision has been made yet about this forum moving from its temporary beta status to something permanent? I guess Nick Ross would be better positioned to answer that.

[layevymed]

Only that it is possibly getting an ABC skin Friday. This would be a move to more permanence?

[deermealec]

This would be a move to more permanence?

I'd like to think so. Be a shame for myself and others to have spent time posting here only to see this forum disappear as well.