Blacklisted domain - ugh

[xtian]

Just a public service announcement:

I set up a group on Facebook for members of this forum, just as a point of contact for if/when ampgarage.com has a service outage:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ampgarage

[Phil_S]

I guess we can create an alternate reality in an alternate universe, but as long as the original is here, it won't get the kind of traction it needs. Is anyone going to the amp hanger when the amp garage is still up and running? It's like when Jefferson Airplane morphed into Jefferson Starship. It wasn't the same -- not even close. So, I believe the only real strategy is to allow control to change hands. I believe that means we need to find someone who has a personal relationship with Allyn.

Remember, no one is more than 6 degrees of separation away and quite likely much closer than you might think. It might take a bit of sleuthing, but it can be done. BTW, I see the HeeBGG is will listed as an admin. I suggest finding someone with a personal relationship with him may be key to reaching Allyn.

[Colossal]

No worries, Phil S, it is being managed.

[pottedplant]

Either way, I have no ill will towards him, but have often wished I could do more to take things in hand fully. He seems to want to keep the domain his own as a kind of badge of honor or something similar. I know he pays some level of money to host the site on the hosting companies services. Just not sure what else he gains from it?

Here's another option you can maybe ponder that hasn't been mentioned. Considering the presumption that he wants to keep the site as a badge of honor, let's respect that. (don't get pissed it isn't what it sounds like) Obviously there is no other real choice there as well it shouldn't be anyone's goal to manipulate the owner into giving up control over something they want to keep, their reasons unimportant. However, one can do this, and still protect the vast wealth of information on this site by basically setting everything up prior to contacting Allyn and telling him all he needs to do is sign on the dotted line. It's still his site, he still has to approve the update etc but the site is saved and everyone remains happy. The key to successfully executing this is to have it already all done up or as close to done up as possible. It can't be presented to him as a nebulous possibility. It has to be hard and "physical" (as physical as the virutal world can be). That means you're sitting on the screen that asks you to hit submit waiting for his approval. It may sound like that's a manipulation tactic but it's not if you don't use it as such. Basically the idea here isn't to force his hand, it's to make it as painless as possible for someone who clearly doesn't have the time or energy to think about fixing things here. If you can carry that load for him and he can just "sign" on the dotted line I believe it will make everyone happy in the situation. He doesn't have to flesh out the solution himself expending energy he clearly doesn't have and he keeps the site and he sees that his needs are respected and we get to keep the site safe and running with all the incredible information here preserved!

With regards to migration, if there is a way to migrate the forum data without destroying the post structure, i.e. who posted it and when it was posted and the order of the posts inside the threads that would be an ideal solution. A carbon copy of the existing forum but in a modern and stable system. If that's not possible I think the best thing to do is preserve the site as it is. A hodegepodge mashup of old posts that can't be replied to or edited sounds like a disaster and we'll all be wanting to go back to this site when viewing the archived threads (on the new forum) because of visual familiarity.

Could we download the internet archive chrome/firefox extension and archive everything we see in our daily viewings of the site as a last chance safety net solution? It can be hard to remember to do it but once you do it a few times it becomes pretty easy to use the extension to archive the site.

[pompeiisneaks]

Either way, I have no ill will towards him, but have often wished I could do more to take things in hand fully. He seems to want to keep the domain his own as a kind of badge of honor or something similar. I know he pays some level of money to host the site on the hosting companies services. Just not sure what else he gains from it?

Here's another option you can maybe ponder that hasn't been mentioned. Considering the presumption that he wants to keep the site as a badge of honor, let's respect that. (don't get pissed it isn't what it sounds like) Obviously there is no other real choice there as well it shouldn't be anyone's goal to manipulate the owner into giving up control over something they want to keep, their reasons unimportant. However, one can do this, and still protect the vast wealth of information on this site by basically setting everything up prior to contacting Allyn and telling him all he needs to do is sign on the dotted line. It's still his site, he still has to approve the update etc but the site is saved and everyone remains happy. The key to successfully executing this is to have it already all done up or as close to done up as possible. It can't be presented to him as a nebulous possibility. It has to be hard and "physical" (as physical as the virutal world can be). That means you're sitting on the screen that asks you to hit submit waiting for his approval. It may sound like that's a manipulation tactic but it's not if you don't use it as such. Basically the idea here isn't to force his hand, it's to make it as painless as possible for someone who clearly doesn't have the time or energy to think about fixing things here. If you can carry that load for him and he can just "sign" on the dotted line I believe it will make everyone happy in the situation. He doesn't have to flesh out the solution himself expending energy he clearly doesn't have and he keeps the site and he sees that his needs are respected and we get to keep the site safe and running with all the incredible information here preserved!

With regards to migration, if there is a way to migrate the forum data without destroying the post structure, i.e. who posted it and when it was posted and the order of the posts inside the threads that would be an ideal solution. A carbon copy of the existing forum but in a modern and stable system. If that's not possible I think the best thing to do is preserve the site as it is. A hodegepodge mashup of old posts that can't be replied to or edited sounds like a disaster and we'll all be wanting to go back to this site when viewing the archived threads (on the new forum) because of visual familiarity.

Could we download the internet archive chrome/firefox extension and archive everything we see in our daily viewings of the site as a last chance safety net solution? It can be hard to remember to do it but once you do it a few times it becomes pretty easy to use the extension to archive the site.

I can do a full backup and restore as is anywhere, I've tested it several times, once very recently. It's more of a matter of time and will honestly. (oh and the money to host it somewhere).

~Phil

[jelle]

With respect to a hostile takeover; Allyn pays for the hosting of this site *every year*, which given the size of the site this cost is significant, and he does it without asking for anything back, nor asks for contributions.

Who here puts his money down like that?

[pompeiisneaks]

With respect to a hostile takeover; Allyn pays for the hosting of this site *every year*, which given the size of the site this cost is significant, and he does it without asking for anything back, nor asks for contributions.

Who here puts his money down like that?

I've had many., many offers to give money for it. I've asked repeatedly to Allyn to let me have the ability to just fix the issues so the forums are more functional and also offered several times to take over and pay for it myself, whether anyone else would and he ignored the offer, so if someone pays a lot of money for a beat up old car that barely works and won't let the people they let use it repair it, what's the point?

~Phil

[dorrisant]

I've had many., many offers to give money for it. I've asked repeatedly to Allyn to let me have the ability to just fix the issues so the forums are more functional and also offered several times to take over and pay for it myself, whether anyone else would and he ignored the offer, so if someone pays a lot of money for a beat up old car that barely works and won't let the people they let use it repair it, what's the point?

~Phil

I agree with what you'd like to change, totally. The car does run rough, but it is a Rolls Royce, so the parts are worth a fortune! Just sayin".

[ampmike]

Ive been checking my mail here even sent people a "hey are you getting this" and nothing.
This sucks,Mikey

[ChopSauce]

With respect to a hostile takeover; Allyn pays for the hosting of this site *every year*, which given the size of the site this cost is significant, and he does it without asking for anything back, nor asks for contributions.

Who here puts his money down like that?

I've had many., many offers to give money for it. I've asked repeatedly to Allyn to let me have the ability to just fix the issues so the forums are more functional and also offered several times to take over and pay for it myself, whether anyone else would and he ignored the offer, so if someone pays a lot of money for a beat up old car that barely works and won't let the people they let use it repair it, what's the point?

~Phil

Hostile takeover? I guess that's what the software development world gently calls "forking" ...

There seems to be several past examples of creators not wanting their babies to leave him.

The (french) Moto Guzzi forum had a very similar issue. It took some time to a whole team of members to convince his creator to let the forum survive ...