The Site : To Close By November 26th ?

[Caroline Brown]

I read Howard's posts as indicating he is not going to be involved in running the site after November.

I think the question is whether anyone else - or any group of people - will volunteer to take it over as an active discussion site. Or whether it will be a question of preserving it as a research archive.

That's how I understood the situation too, Chris.

I hope there will be volunteers to take over from Howard, once he and RichardH have put their heads together to talk through the options and the best way to proceed.

Love,

Caz
X

[Howard Brown]

Just to make things clear....this was posted yesterday and remains the method interested parties will follow :

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.

[Cris Malone]

Just read through this thread. Love all of you as family. Best discussion forums I've ever been a part of. You're the best, How. And I will be forever grateful.

[Chris Phillips]

Just to make things clear....this was posted yesterday and remains the method interested parties will follow :

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.

And just to check about the timescales - the Photobucket fee would need to be paid by September 17, a couple of months before the main hosting account?

[Howard Brown]

And just to check about the timescales - the Photobucket fee would need to be paid by September 17, a couple of months before the main hosting account?

That's correct, Chris.

Same back at you, C. Malone,

[Howard Brown]

As I w as just intimating to someone, in my opinion it would be a better idea if the person who takes over the Photobucket account by mid September takes the reins of the site as well.

If someone handles one end..either the site or Photobucket....it will not only be much more of an effort to coordinate things. I had no one to confer with....I just posted the attachments...because I handled both PB and the rent payment.

I just envision trouble and grief if more than one cook is in this kitchen.

If anyone can find a way of archiving it as Chris Phillips mentioned a while back, that might be the thing to do.

I have taken down the 'Donation' button on the top of the page. IF someone is going to handle Photobucket, be advised that they only take Pay Pal..

[Dusty Miller]

I'm devastated!!!!

The thanks you owed are beyond the capacity mere words to you and Nina for all you've over the years.

I have absolutely no understanding of anything computer, but someone does do something I'm happy to donate some money towards it.

[Gary Barnett]

I have a horrible feeling that finding someone as competent and dedicated as Howard to run the site as a live Forum may prove impossible. It’s not just the technical aspect, it’s the sheer dogged determination How has displayed over the years to keep the thing running smoothly and prevent it descending into a bear pit. Just look at his post count - nearly 110k of them!

Apologies if that sounds defeatist, but it’s the way I feel at this moment. Is the alternative of creating an online archive of the posts - and the images which are often essential to the flow of the threads they appear on - at all feasible? It seems there are people who would be prepared to contribute to the costs of such a venture if they weren’t stratospheric.

[Dusty Miller]

As I said, I don't understand computery things, but if continuing Photobucket is helpful and it only costs $140, I could stretch to $50 and then it would only take a few people more to achieve our goal, or is it not that simple?

[Adam Went]

As one of the original forums stalwarts How referenced earlier, I'm very saddened to read this news. I suppose in some ways it's a sign of the times and I personally haven't contributed as much recently as in the past or as I would've liked to have done. Still, after 16 years and thousands upon thousands of posts, it's a blow for sure.

I'd like to join the chorus and thank Howard for the monumental body of work he's put into the site over the journey, and also for being a friend outside of the forums as well. I do hope we'll all still be able to keep the discussions going somehow, be that on social media or wherever.

Nothing much left to say but just to enjoy the next few months!

Cheers,
Adam.

[Phillip Walton]

There are some providers that are free to use if you are prepared to put up with the advertisers. Would members be prepared to put up with the ads if we moved to such a site?

[Michael Banks]

It will be a sad day for ripperology if this forum closes. You’ve made a massive and lasting contribution to the subject How. Whatever the future holds my best wishes and thanks to you and Nina.

[J.W. Sage]

The reality is what this site needs is probably going to cost in the region of $750-$1k per annum.

In layman's terms you can have your own server with bells and whistles (this) or you can rent space on a shared server (not as many bells and whistles) and cut costs.

The thing is you get what you pay for. A dedicated server will not likely go down and has very good security and backups. So you pay for that.

A shared server is cheaper but expect problems. Loading speeds, DNS lookups, security issues etc, etc etc

Not only is it the money it is the time and resource for maintenance, query handling, membership processing - I would guess it is almost a part-time job.

Shame to see it go and I hope someone can save the day. Not been here long but the content quality is always high. Until I post.

[Gary Barnett]

Are all the images on the site on Photobucket?

The reason I ask is that looking at an image of mine that was posted twice - I see that one version has the Photobucket logo/watermark (whatever it’s called) the other doesn’t.

[Michael Banks]

I’m the worlds worst on technology and I know nothing about the circumstances that exist but as far as archives on here go couldn’t something happen like a kind of melding with Casebook? (JTR Casebook eg?)