The Site : To Close By November 26th ?

[Howard Brown]

On November 26th of this year, the yearly renewal for the Forums will be due. We won't be renewing the site.

If anyone is interested in taking the reins of the site prior to that date, let me know. I will bend over backwards to assist anyone in the transfer.



I apologize to the stalwarts who have contributed to the boards going back to 2005. It's simply time for me to move on.

I will make a complete website backup ( as I have been doing every day since the Battle of Hastings) of the site and will happily make a copy of the contents ( on a flash drive/thumb drive) for the person who wishes to take control of the boards.

November 26th is three months from now.

Howard Brown

[Debra Arif]

On November 26th of this year, the yearly renewal for the Forums will be due. We won't be renewing the site.

If anyone is interested in taking the reins of the site prior to that date, let me know. I will bend over backwards to assist anyone in the transfer.



I apologize to the stalwarts who have contributed to the boards going back to 2005. It's simply time for me to move on.

I will make a complete website backup ( as I have been doing every day since the Battle of Hastings) of the site and will happily make a copy of the contents ( on a flash drive/thumb drive) for the person who wishes to take control of the boards.

November 26th is three months from now.

Howard Brown

Sad news, How but I completely understand. I wish I had the money and know how to take it over, just to save the archives.

[Paul]

Does the site backup save the archive? Very, very sad news indeed.

[Gary Barnett]

Yes, very sad, How.

I would like to personally thank you for your efforts over the years - for the time and money you’ve spent on the project and for your guidance and encouragement. You have made the Forums a very welcoming place.

Like Debs, I would hate to see the archives lost to researchers, there’s an enormous amount of material on here that can be found nowhere else. I wonder, if no-one can be found to run the site fully, whether a read only version could be maintained somehow.

I wish you and Nina well in whatever future endeavours you undertake.

Gary

[Chris Phillips]

This is certainly sad news. The site has been a tremendously useful resource over the years and all credit is due to Howard for all the time, money and effort that he has put into it.

Looking to the future, I wonder whether there is scope for a kind of committee to share the work of keeping the site going? Perhaps Howard can give us an idea of the commitment that would be involved in different areas.

[Howard Brown]

I accidentally deleted the messages people sent privately. My goof.

[Howard Brown]

To answer the questions from Chris and Gary :

1. Turning the Forums in to an archive ( such as Crime Library in the Internet Archive), would require each page being archived.
We can't let it sit 'as is' for free because it would require a host...which means money,

To illustrate what someone or some cadre of people will need to come up with, money wise, this is from a conversation I had with Bluehost 2 minutes ago :

[Howard Brown]

This is yet another over-the-top price hike by one of our resources or off-boards needs.

The third party host, Photobucket, stuck me with a 61 percent increase on our account...one I've had for 17 years. There's 90,000 attachments on there.

Bluehost just leaped in to the stratosphere with a 30 percent increase. Even after diminishing the load of the site by 25 percent or more in terms of posts ( volume), we still got rocked
with an increase.

[Howard Brown]

I'm not sad that I'm leaving the Forums at all....but I am sad for those people who've responded here on this thread as they are among a a solid core of researchers who have contributed something of value to the site over the nearly 2 decades ( Tim and I were on JTR Forums back in 2003 before the current site was established on Sept. 19, 2005) while the thousands of visitors and even many current members haven't...but still use the resource.

My decision to bolt isn't all about money. In a minor way, it is, because I cannot dictate to the host, the third party attachment company, the newspaper archives, etc. what they will charge next year.

If people DO form a group to keep it going, let me know by November...I will remove my name from the registration, address, and payment instructions to the NEW person who will, theoretically, handle it.

As you see, one fee comes in November and the other, I believe in March...totaling 758 dollars.

[Howard Brown]

To answer Paul's question:

The site backup, which I have taken every day since we were put into the VIP/Dedicated sector of Bluehost ( Excellent server, by the way) contains the entire site

[Howard Brown]

In a nutshell:

A. If people do come up with the necessary renewal fee ( 719 and change) by November 26th, designate someone to control the money ( Not me) and I'll handle the transfer ( the necessary information containing the new site manager's name and other information, such as email address and payment instructions, etc.) on my end. That person will then be responsible for the 'site guard' fee of 38 dollars in March, I will also redirect the PayPal 'Donation' button to the new manager's Pay Pal account.

2. IF people want the attachments to remain on the site through Photobucket, that would be 140 dollars. What I would do, if that amount is raised, is change my email address to whoever wants to take over the cache of attachments. I won't be able to change the Photobucket account name to a new one. I won't have access to the Photobucket account as soon as the new email address is established and a new owner takes over. The attachments will be all yours.

[Howard Brown]

[Howard Brown]

[Rob Clack]

This is sad to hear How, but I completely understand. Thank you for all the hard work you have done for the past 16 years.

Rob

[Howard Brown]

Thanks Rob...