[Shane]

I agree with SANDOVAL on the wealth of information on .net. It is a shame, if does end up being irretrievable, that the valid and important user posts will be lost. I realize that a lot of the info has been duplicated here. I have also seen some members give up a link to .net on certain topics posted on 968forums.



I liked .net. It was simplistic and fairly user friendly. And the “attitude wars” I witnessed were a real treat to behold.



I wish there was a way to at least be able to get into the database and keep the information as a searchable entity. Not to post to, but to go back and read and learn. Otherwise, I’ll be the guy asking stupid questions every day on here when I finally get my 968.

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[6spcab]

[quote name='Shane' date='Oct 5 2005, 08:13 AM']I agree with SANDOVAL on the wealth of information on .net.  It is a shame, if does end up being irretrievable, that the valid and important user posts will be lost.  I realize that a lot of the info has been duplicated here.  I have also seen some members give up a link to .net on certain topics posted on 968forums.



I liked .net.  It was simplistic and fairly user friendly.  And the “attitude wars” I witnessed were a real treat to behold.



I wish there was a way to at least be able to get into the database and keep the information as a searchable entity.  Not to post to, but to go back and read and learn.  Otherwise, I’ll be the guy asking stupid questions every day on here when I finally get my 968.

[right][post="10725"]<{POST_SNAPBACK}>[/post][/right][/quote]



Has anyone tried to email the admin to take over the site or at least get the information to be used as a retrievable database? That would be the first approach. This way the 968 community is not at such a great loss. I would do it as I have had considerably larger car specific sites in the past but I am not sure how long I will have my 968 and would rather have my heart into it.

Lee

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[SANDOVAL]

To answer your question with one word... YES



I have tried to contact Ray before to merge the data, others have tried to contact Ray in the past to notify him of outages. He never really participated on a daily basis. The classifieds were updated every 1-3 months on average now they are no longer being updated. I have met Ray in person and he is a Super Nice guy, very personable. I would love to take the Data Base from .net and merge the content with my site. Unfortunately I think we are going to have to do it manually. Most of the topics eventually come up and great information is shared. So eventually we will duplicate the meat and potatoes of the information. What you will lose is the archived chit chat and some great flame wars between various parties. If the information is lost forever at some point we have already started to rebuild so we are ahead of the game. I feel this site may be a bit technical to navigate for some. However we have so much potential.



Another thing people are not aware of is that the software platform Ray chose is a very old BB package. It is not capable of handling the workload of 10's of thousands of topics/posts. As many of you have witnessed the search tool takes forever and often times gives up with error messages as a result. This is because the software can no handle the amount of information being stored. I imagine this is also part of the problems with the recent outages. I was very careful when picking a platform that the longevity and future support of the software would be available meeting our needs.



If the software is not migrated over to a new platform the problems are only going to get worse.

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[flash]

if anything of real value is still over there and has not yet been migrated over here, it soon will be - the originators of that material are almost all members here now - at some point i imagine they will post the information as this becomes the more frequented site - it has already been happening, and i forsee it continuing with an increased pace



since the search function on .net, as eric has stated, is more of a search disfunction, it will be much easier for users to more easily be able to get straight to the information here, and not have to sift through the back and forth that inevitably happened over there, especially since the new posting will not contain the bulk of the unrelated posts



the rest of the chit chat and such (yes, i'm guilty of it) is really more of an annoyance to most people just trying to find information, so there i don't see any real loss there

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[BruceWard]

Any database regardless of type, software or hardware requires additional time to search as it grows. The number of posts at 968.net is too great for the hardware and software to search. Archiving a portion of the posts would cause an decrease in search time. Archiving of older posts has occurred on 968.net in the past. I find that searching the subject only produces faster and more targeted results.



Ray has been responsive during past outages. I suspect he is traveling and will fix the problem when he returns. Damain and I have both emailed him to advise him of the issue. Personally I have offered to fix the problem if that is needed.

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[SANDOVAL]

There is a lot of information but not enough that it should be archived. I find it cumersome on the older sites to sift through archived data. The newer BB platforms offer such better search tools. There are sites like Offtopic.com that have millions of posts and they do not need to archive.



Limiting the subject of a search will prohibiting you from the information you are really looking for. The search function was also important to me when looking at BB packages. I find the search tool very valuable as a member of a forum. I really like the fact that the tool on this forum highlights the specific word or words within the thread.



Bruce you are right though the hardware the site is running on could be part of the problem too.



The activity has been great lately I hope those who have just joined or started to participate stick around!

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[Larry Currie]

Ray has attended several 968 celebrations. Red Baron gave me his number a couple of years ago when we gave him a Chistmas gift. Someone has to know how to contact him.

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[cosimo]

This appears to be a serious shut down. No bady has been able to contact Ray in YEARS. People have offered to take over the site with no response. As much as RAy has done for us 968ers the lack of contact is a mystery. IMHO this is the end of .net. I hope that the people who have had problems can put them aside and continue to post here. It would be a tradegy to lose their friendship and insights. AMEN.

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[Etnier]

AMEN

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[Anchorman]

At the 2004 Celebration, Ray was immediately behind me when we parked in the entryway of the auto museum. He and I chatted, and he took notes and photos for an article he said he was writing - to be posted on 968.net. That was the last contact I had with Ray, and the article never appeared.

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[flash]

there certainly is a lot of hubbub about this - i'm chalking it up to the typical "normal" protests of people when something they have been accustomed to becomes obsolete or no longer available - generally people resist change - for example, our cable provider just changed its on screen guide, and initially i protested - now i have gotten used to it, and it is better - or, remember 8 tracks?



i think it was really only due to his job, and the inherant resource availability, that the site stayed up as long as it did anyway - if he doesn't have the car anymore, what is the motivation for him?



the fact that eric has gone to as much effort as he has, and does not own a 968 is truly an amazing thing, and certainly not something many would do - i don't fault ray for ignoring the site, and commend him on his work



clearly ray has other priorities now though, and we all knew this was inevitable for many reasons, not the least of which was the limitations of the software - for the last couple of months the search function was useless - you had to pour through pages and pages of unrelated stuff, with no idea of when you would get to what you were looking for, if and when you ever got there



it was like throwing a library full of books into a closet and telling somebody to go find the quote "it's a far far better thing i do than i have ever done before" - without an effective search engine, or organizational method, you could be looking endlessly



migrating everything over would have been a huge task, with really no significant gains - it is far better to bring over the distilled things of value and post them in properly organized fashion



most of the valuable information is already here, and in a very easy to search database - the rest will come over eventually anyway - sooner or later somebody will ask a question, and somebody else will have the answer, it will be posted in the right spot, and we will have yet another piece of the puzzle - look at what is already here in just a few months



i think if everybody relaxes a bit and gives this site a real chance, they will all come to realize that, in the long run, this is for the best



again, eric, serious kudos

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[Mark]

Can't agree that it wouldn't have been worth the migration. Eventually most of the knowledge may end up here but it would be nice to have it here now.





Plus some of those threads were very entertaining even without real 968 content. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/biggrin.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



There is room for both sites on the web and if and when 968.net comes back I'll be checking both sites like have up until now.

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[flash]

i agree it would have been nice to have it immediately here - it just isn't practical - somebody would have had to sift through all the nonsense and distill the real information - migrating it unsorted would have been horrific and useless



no worries - time will bring it over item by item, and without the folly



as entertaining as some of those threads may have been, they caused a lot of unrest amongst many members, and really is better left in private and not on the board where misreading all too often occurs - friends have been lost, animosities formed, and lines drawn - none of that needed to happen if only the board were moderated and threads kept on track and in line



while there may be "room" for both boards, certainly it has created a lot of problems amongst members who are unwilling to make a change or enter a forum where they have to abide by rules of conduct - this has led to a dividing of energy that could otherwise have been applied to enriching the community - there was entirely too much duplication of threads and too much time wasted posting and responding on multiple boards to the same issue



there is room for all points of view, but it really should be on one board, a moderated one, and one with the features of this one



fortunately, eric has done an excellent job of curing the problem, and since ray is not apparantly interested in doing anything substantial about .net, the point is likely moot - getting it back online won't do it - if he doesn't update the software, and maintain the site, its ultimate fate is inevitable

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[Anchorman]

Eric - you get the "thanks".

Ray - you get the "we'll miss you".

Flash - you get the "enough, already".



Back to the cars, please.

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[flash]

lol - that's fair

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[Greimann]

Consider these sites to be a kind of aural history rather than permanent repository for information. Bulletin boards come and go at the whimsy of the owners and can't really be considered a library. Is 968 Forums going to be alive 10 years from now? hard to say, but the cars sure will be.



As the participants migrate through ownership, they come here, or there, pickup information, leave information and move on. The bulletin boards are more like a buffer for the information. It is up to the more experienced participants to pass on the aural history to the new owners, who eventually become the most knowledgable, and so on. A high tech storage and retrieval device such as this just makes the job easier.

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[flash]

yup - i'm archiving everything, as i am sure you are - it's so much easier because there are files you can store and not just "cut and paste" of posts



now lifting glass to eric again



looks like it's back up again (for now anyway)

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[Aus968]

968.net is back up again

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[Larry Currie]

I send an email to Snitz Forums yesterday and ask if they could help get it back up. I don't know if this is what got it going again or not.

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