Skoolie.net - Your thoughts

[travelinwithus]

The Facts:

1. It has been more than 6 months since we have saw Steve on Skoolie.net
2. We are getting upwards of 10,000 spam posts a day on Skoolie.net
3. The domain name Skoolie.net is registered through 2014
4. Many moderators have attempted to contact Steve through various means
5. I have attempted to call Steve on phone numbers I could find that were related to him

My concerns:

Skoolie.net is in my opinion the best site for Skoolie conversions on the web. There is a ton of valuable information on this site and a lot of history of all of our builds. If something has happened to Steve (hopefully not) it is only going to be a matter of time before the site goes down. From the research I have done Skoolie.net is not on a free hosting server and while the domain is registered through 2014. I imagine the hosting is either billed annually or monthly and if the billing isn't renewed the site could go down. If the spam continues to grow as it has been it is only a matter of time before the hosting resources are exhausted which could also cause the hosting to be suspended.

Steve is the only administrator of the site and the moderators have no control to fight the spam registrations. We also have no way of backing up anything on the site. It would be a shame for the site to go down and all of us loose the information available on this site. From what I can tell in the past the longest Steve has went without checking into this site has been a couple months.

I am NOT proposing we create a competing site to Skoolie.net. My hope is that Steve is just busy or has been unable to respond to our requests and that he will return and clean up some of this spam mess and prevent further spam registrations. What I am suggesting however is creating a contingency plan. If the members of Skoolie.net would like me to I will set up a new domain name and server and install the same forum software that is used here. Once the site is set up you can copy and paste your threads to the new site as a backup. If Steve resurfaces and cleans up the site, Skoolie.net will continue as if nothing happened but if the worst case scenario occurs and the site goes down for any reason we will still have a place that our information is available and we can continue updating our threads and helping other skoolie builders.

I am looking for your thoughts on this matter. I do not want to spend the time setting up another site and not have anyone utilize it as suggested. If there are even a few of you concerned about this and you would want to do what I am suggesting let me know. If not, then the issue will be dropped and we will wait and see.

I look forward to your feedback and it is my hope that Steve returns.

Sincerely,

Brandon

[somewhereinusa]

I for one would hate to see the info lost. If you do what you have suggested, once we have duplicated things, would we then have to duplicate everything that we post from then on?

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

I for one would hate to see the info lost. If you do what you have suggested, once we have duplicated things, would we then have to duplicate everything that we post from then on?

Unfortunately yes. Without database access to this site there is no easy way to duplicate what is here. I have been racking my brain trying to think of another solution but there really isn't one.

[freakn]

I think it is a great idea. Its unfortunate it has to be this way, but there are great people here with a ton of knowledge. Would be a shame to lose it all. Does any one here actually know Steve or lives close enough to go see him. If another site has to be started, we should look at having more than one person in control. Cheers

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by freakn

I think it is a great idea. Its unfortunate it has to be this way, but there are great people here with a ton of knowledge. Would be a shame to lose it all. Does any one here actually know Steve or lives close enough to go see him. If another site has to be started, we should look at having more than one person in control. Cheers

I agree. If another site does end up being started there will be more than one admin.

[bansil]

keep us informed, ready to grab a bottle of cab franc and copy and paste away, actually already have pages 1-17 saved (just my responces tho' not sure how to save it all...but photobucket links saved)

[GreyEagle]

Originally Posted by travelinwithus

I agree.......... It could be the three amigos, or the three musketeers..........

The spam does not show up for everyone, just the mods and admin can see it because it's pending approval.......
Way.......... too many spam messages.

[jazty]

If anyone else would like to make an attempt at contacting Steve you can find some of his contact info by running a whois of this domain: http://whois.net/whois/skoolie.net (I'm assuming it's the same Steve)
I didn't want to actually post any of his info directly on the thread. Based on the number of spam bots lurking in our midst I can only expect that his phone would be ringing off the hook with telemarketers in a matter of minutes!

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by travelinwithus

Unfortunately yes. Without database access to this site there is no easy way to duplicate what is here. I have been racking my brain trying to think of another solution but there really isn't one.

Isn't there some way to "mirror" a site? I seem to remember reading someplace where it can be done and it even stays current because it's constantly being mirrored. But that would not solve your spam problem. It would simply copy it.

[GreyEagle]

Thanks for the info but I have already went that route and the phone number listed on the whois is not in service any more.

Originally Posted by lornaschinske

Isn't there some way to "mirror" a site? I seem to remember reading someplace where it can be done and it even stays current because it's constantly being mirrored. But that would not solve your spam problem. It would simply copy it.

There isn't any way to mirror a site without access to the database and database access is only available to the site owner.

Some good news, with the help of freakn we may have found him on Facebook. I sent a message to him tonight, hopefully he will respond. His last activity on Facebook appears to be on Saturday. Fingers crossed.[/quote]
Great news!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let us know if you get a response........

[GreyEagle]

Some good news, with the help of freakn we may have found him on Facebook. I sent a message to him tonight, hopefully he will respond. His last activity on Facebook appears to be on Saturday. Fingers crossed.[/quote]

Great news!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let us know if you get a response.......

[travelinwithus]

I haven't heard anything yet. I will let you know if I do. It appears we have more issues than just spam as well. The site is not sending out account confirmation emails either. Well, at least not to humans, the spam bots seem to get registered . It looks like there is about 3-6 people that have been trying to register on the site and can't, not good.

I have a site all set up but I am waiting to see if we here from Steve before I publicize the link. I don't want to step on any toes if he will fix the issues we are experiencing here.

[SeanF]

Hoping for a positive resolution to the problem, and soon. I agree, there is too much great info here to be lost to spammers overrunning the database. It would be a shame.

[travelinwithus]

I just got off the phone with Steve. With any luck we should have the problems resolved soon! I will keep you updated.

[bansil]

[SeanF]

Originally Posted by travelinwithus

I just got off the phone with Steve. With any luck we should have the problems resolved soon! I will keep you updated.

Thank you!

[syke]

Excellent news!