[theforum] Zombie!

Ron Dorman rwd at csi1st.net
Mon Aug 12 15:15:23 CDT 2013


Hello Evolters,

Seeing this thread makes me happy and proud. I am one of the founding
members. I have not posted much, but I have stayed subscribed and read
everything that comes through the mailing lists.

I still build sites, mostly with Drupal, and I still host SMB's that I
build for. I will gladly help in any way I can.

I applaud the people that are working to keep evolt vibrant.

Ron D,


On 6/18/2013 1:51 AM, Mike King wrote:
> I've taken the site, upgraded/patched/fixed things a little and have
> been able to draw the data out of the pages.
>
> I will work on getting the content into a newer version of Drupal
> (it's not that Drupal sucks, it's that version 4.5 is many, many moons
> old and we did some terrible hacking to make it do exactly what we
> wanted)
>
> Will report back soon
> mk
>> William Anderson <mailto:neuro at well.com>
>> 18 June 2013 08:31
>> I guess from the stunning lack of reaction (other than that already
>> given), there's not much interest in doing much with evolt anymore.
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 3:54 PM, David<david at gigawatt.com>  wrote:
>>> Hi Neuro!
>>
>> Hi Dave!
>>
>>> On 6/2/13 10:42 AM, William Anderson wrote:
>>>> I have a suggestion just as I've both reactivated my evolt.org
>>>> donation subscription (Dave K, for your books, $20/month sir!) and
>>>> have been working on reconstructing the Browser Archive to include
>>>> funky stuff like external mirrors to nominally save us space and
>>>> increase our coverage (I'm hoping to get some stuff into github soon).
>>> Thanks for both kinds of contributions.  This makes you evolt's largest
>>> financial benefactor *and* most productive worker :-)
>>
>> *gulp* :)
>>
>>> Expenses:
>>>
>>>    SoftLayer (Hosting): $45 /month
>>>    GoDaddy ~ $20 / year (two domains: evolt.org and evolters.org)
>>
>> Do we still need evolters.org?  I notice it still points to the
>> now-switched-off tempest.
>>
>> FWIW, I've registered browserarchive.org to potentially play host beo
>> as either an alternate venue or as an escape route should consensus be
>> that evolt in entirety should be no more (although I don't think
>> that's the case at the moment).
>>
>>>> Folks, why are core evolt.org pages not being rendered without
>>>> authenticating first? (I had to sign in to reach the donate page!)
>>> The Drupal user table keeps getting corrupted, causing uid 0 to become
>>> associated with a (newly registered, semi-random) authenticated user
>>> account
>>> that has a password.  I have fixed this several times in the past. 
>>> Drupal
>>> so sucks.
>>
>> Aha, OK.  Didn't know that.
>>
>>>> Are we considering doing the upgrade to the latest version of Drupal,
>>>> whatever that may be?
>>> See above :-)
>>
>> :)
>>
>>>> Are we going to reconsider our hosting platform to save some money?  I
>>>> think the hosting bill is still around the ~ $45 a month mark, a cost
>>>> which could get us a virtual machine with similar if not increased
>>>> storage on Amazon Web Services[...]
>>>>
>>>> I think AWS makes more sense, especially
>>>> considering the price.
>>> +1 for moving to Amazon EC2
>>>
>>> FYI: IBM Just bought our (most recent) web hosting provider, SoftLayer
>>> (which bought ou account from the ThePlanet, which bought us from
>>> ServerMatrix)
>>
>> Yeah, I saw that.
>>
>>> I can't stomach the idea of hosting evolt with the Men in Black at
>>> IBM...
>>
>> IBM aren't the Watson men they used to be, but yeah, I get your point ;)
>>
>>> +1 for converting weo content into a static "snapshot" of all the great
>>> articles of the past.  The word "mothballing", to me, has
>>> connotations of
>>> hiding it in a closet under old boxes of magazines, never to be
>>> found again
>>> :-)  but i get your point of extracting the content from the
>>> (shudders) cms
>>> software in which it is currently imprisoned.
>>
>> I've been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks while
>> travelling for work and recovering from The Man Flu.  I admit that a
>> glorious retool of the community is perhaps an unattainable goal, and
>> the esteemed Mr. Roselli's archive idea for weo might just be the way
>> to go, unless someone can come out with a knock-it-outta-the-park idea
>> on how to revitalise evolt.org that none of us has considered yet.
>>
>> weo's root page could perhaps be made up like http://info.cern.ch/
>> (which celebrates the first web page in a very modern looking fashion)
>> so that the front page is all about the archive, has links to the kind
>> of "retrospective commentary" we've mentioned already, links to our
>> own historical lookback, links to a page pointing to the all-important
>> lists, and links into the "static" articles of evolt's past.  I'm
>> still thinking that running the articles themselves out of a CMS is
>> the way to go, as it means the content remains easily searchable
>> without us having to graft a search engine on top of static content.
>> With logins, comments, submissions etc all turned off, it should be a
>> relatively straightforward platform to maintain.  But I appreciate
>> that a completely static scraped archive could be hosted on almost
>> anything, anywhere, with minimal upkeep required.
>>
>> Let's pick one.
>>
>>>> I know some/most of us have moved on from web design, but that surely
>>>> doesn't mean this community needs to slowly fizzle out.
>>> +1 to no fizzle
>>
>> There doesn't seem to be a lot of support for fizzle.
>>
>>>> Perhaps we
>>>> can laser focus back on creating a great web design community?
>>>> Perhaps not solely relying on just mailing lists and submitted
>>>> articles?
>>> +1 to laser focusing on lists
>>>
>>> What happened to the google ads on leo?
>>
>> they're on the list archive pages, but aren't on the root leo page
>> (which I note amusingly still has the old design on it)
>>
>>> I'm all for just making weo an alias for leo and then making leo more
>>> searchable and browseable and perusable...
>>
>> There is still merit in weo's existence, even if in a static form.
>> Also I'd wager that leo has more googlejuice sitting where it is.
>>
>>>> We have done great things together.  Let's do some more.
>>> +1 to more goof! (I mean good)
>>
>> Well at the very least, we can tie things up with a neat bow.
>>
>>> PS: Why does the subject of this thread reference the undead?  Oh,
>>> never
>>> mind.  Now that I ask the question I get it.
>>
>> Braaaaaaaains.
>>
>> -n
>> -- 
>> TheForum Archives: http://lists.evolt.org/theforumarchive/
>>
>> evolt.org wiki: http://wiki.evolt.org/
>> teamwork site: http://evolt.teamworkpm.net/
>> David <mailto:david at gigawatt.com>
>> 7 June 2013 15:54
>> Hi Neuro!
>>
>> On 6/2/13 10:42 AM, William Anderson wrote:
>>> Hello fellow evolt-type peoples!
>>>
>>> To paraphrase that learned scholar, the renowned Professor Elmer J.
>>> Fudd PhD, things are vewy vewy quiet! :)
>>
>> I'll say!
>>
>>> I have a suggestion just as I've both reactivated my evolt.org
>>> donation subscription (Dave K, for your books, $20/month sir!) and
>>> have been working on reconstructing the Browser Archive to include
>>> funky stuff like external mirrors to nominally save us space and
>>> increase our coverage (I'm hoping to get some stuff into github soon).
>>
>> Thanks for both kinds of contributions.  This makes you evolt's
>> largest financial benefactor *and* most productive worker :-)
>>
>>> But the suggestion comes loaded with some sticky questions, and a
>>> gentle reminder.
>>
>> [snipping sticky bits]
>>
>>> Dave, how are the finances doing?
>>
>> Muddling along, all on donations these days.  We have:
>>
>> Assets:
>>
>>   $320 USD in the bank
>>     50 USD in the PayPal Account
>>
>> Income:
>>
>>   Donations: Between 3 and 5 monthly subscriptions most for $10
>>   (they fluctuate a bit)
>>
>>   Google Adsense revenue: Average $175 per year (2009 - 2012)
>>
>> Expenses:
>>
>>   SoftLayer (Hosting): $45 /month
>>   GoDaddy ~ $20 / year (two domains: evolt.org and evolters.org)
>>
>>
>>> Folks, why are core evolt.org pages not being rendered without
>>> authenticating first? (I had to sign in to reach the donate page!)
>>
>> The Drupal user table keeps getting corrupted, causing uid 0 to
>> become associated with a (newly registered, semi-random)
>> authenticated user account that has a password.  I have fixed this
>> several times in the past.  Drupal so sucks.
>>
>>> Are we considering doing the upgrade to the latest version of Drupal,
>>> whatever that may be?
>>
>> See above :-)
>>
>>> Are we going to reconsider our hosting platform to save some money?  I
>>> think the hosting bill is still around the ~ $45 a month mark, a cost
>>> which could get us a virtual machine with similar if not increased
>>> storage on Amazon Web Services[...]
>>> I think AWS makes more sense, especially
>>> considering the price.
>>
>> +1 for moving to Amazon EC2
>>
>> FYI: IBM Just bought our (most recent) web hosting provider,
>> SoftLayer (which bought ou account from the ThePlanet, which bought
>> us from ServerMatrix)
>>
>> I can't stomach the idea of hosting evolt with the Men in Black at
>> IBM...
>>
>>> Are we considering mothballing the evolt.org project due to lack of
>>> activity on several fronts?  The website is still there, albeit
>>> fixably broken.  The browser archive is still there, and I think with
>>> a bit of help I can make it really great, partly because it's a vital
>>> resource, and also because I don't want to let Adrian's legacy of
>>> creating it in the first place go to waste.  The lists are still
>>> there, with thelist and thechat still getting some conversations
>>> going.  The last post in here was over a year ago.
>>
>> +1 for converting weo content into a static "snapshot" of all the
>> great articles of the past.  The word "mothballing", to me, has
>> connotations of hiding it in a closet under old boxes of magazines,
>> never to be found again :-)  but i get your point of extracting the
>> content from the (shudders) cms software in which it is currently
>> imprisoned.
>>
>>> I know some/most of us have moved on from web design, but that surely
>>> doesn't mean this community needs to slowly fizzle out.
>>
>> +1 to no fizzle
>>
>>> Perhaps we
>>> can laser focus back on creating a great web design community?
>>> Perhaps not solely relying on just mailing lists and submitted
>>> articles?
>>
>> +1 to laser focusing on lists
>>
>> What happened to the google ads on leo?
>>
>> I'm all for just making weo an alias for leo and then making leo more
>> searchable and browseable and perusable...
>>
>>> We have done great things together.  Let's do some more.
>>
>> +1 to more goof! (I mean good)
>>
>> -dave
>>
>> PS: Why does the subject of this thread reference the undead?  Oh,
>> never mind.  Now that I ask the question I get it.
>>
>> -- 
>> TheForum Archives: http://lists.evolt.org/theforumarchive/
>>
>> evolt.org wiki: http://wiki.evolt.org/
>> teamwork site: http://evolt.teamworkpm.net/
>> William Anderson <mailto:neuro at well.com>
>> 2 June 2013 15:42
>> Hello fellow evolt-type peoples!
>>
>> To paraphrase that learned scholar, the renowned Professor Elmer J.
>> Fudd PhD, things are vewy vewy quiet! :)
>>
>> I have a suggestion just as I've both reactivated my evolt.org
>> donation subscription (Dave K, for your books, $20/month sir!) and
>> have been working on reconstructing the Browser Archive to include
>> funky stuff like external mirrors to nominally save us space and
>> increase our coverage (I'm hoping to get some stuff into github soon).
>>
>> But the suggestion comes loaded with some sticky questions, and a
>> gentle reminder.
>>
>> First, the gentle reminder. Evolt.org is 15 years old on Saturday
>> 15th December 2013. We should try and do stuff for and on that date
>> if we can.
>>
>> Now, the sticky questions. The tl;dr, in case you're in a hurry:
>> EVOLT IS BROKEN, WE CAN AND SHOULD FIX IT.
>>
>> Dave, how are the finances doing?
>>
>> Folks, why are core evolt.org pages not being rendered without
>> authenticating first? (I had to sign in to reach the donate page!)
>>
>> Are we considering doing the upgrade to the latest version of Drupal,
>> whatever that may be?
>>
>> Are we going to reconsider our hosting platform to save some money? I
>> think the hosting bill is still around the ~ $45 a month mark, a cost
>> which could get us a virtual machine with similar if not increased
>> storage on Amazon Web Services (a service which could not only host us
>> one or two virtual machines (one for web, one for lists?) but also
>> handle our DNS which would stop us having to futz around with bind on
>> tron, and could allow us to allow multiple finance/sysadmin team
>> members access to pay for and manage stuff using AWS IAM). I know I
>> had been talking about trying to migrate tron to a more reliable
>> server in France, but I think AWS makes more sense, especially
>> considering the price.
>>
>> Are we considering mothballing the evolt.org project due to lack of
>> activity on several fronts? The website is still there, albeit
>> fixably broken. The browser archive is still there, and I think with
>> a bit of help I can make it really great, partly because it's a vital
>> resource, and also because I don't want to let Adrian's legacy of
>> creating it in the first place go to waste. The lists are still
>> there, with thelist and thechat still getting some conversations
>> going. The last post in here was over a year ago. The @evolt_org
>> twitter account is still active, I think it is Martin keeping that
>> alive.
>>
>> I know some/most of us have moved on from web design, but that surely
>> doesn't mean this community needs to slowly fizzle out. Perhaps we
>> can laser focus back on creating a great web design community?
>> Perhaps not solely relying on just mailing lists and submitted
>> articles? Perhaps we can refocus on an overall technological
>> perspective? Perhaps we can refocus on being just a social place for
>> tech types to hang out, chat, shoot the shit, brainstorm, collaborate,
>> enjoy each other's company, maybe like a hackernews that predates
>> hackernews but with more ... I don't know? Joie de vivre?
>>
>> It's coming up on six months to the FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY of this
>> website. I put that in caps because the FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY of
>> ANYTHING on the web is surely something to be celebrated. More time
>> has passed between evolt being created and now, than had passed
>> between THE ACTUAL WEB being created and evolt being created. We have
>> done awesome stuff, and I think we keep doing awesome stuff. I'm sure
>> le sysadmin team (including my ownsome self) would enjoy migrating
>> stuff to AWS and taking advantage of their highly available services.
>> I'm sure John, Martin, Mike and co would love taking on the challenge
>> of migrating to a new version of Drupal. I'm sure we'd all love to
>> attempt a redesign (a PROPER one, not a half arsed one where we start
>> thinking about it and then nothing happens) of evolt.org using awesome
>> new web tech. We could try the competition idea again to try and
>> attract attention and hopefully reinvigorate the community. We would
>> all love to push for more outreach to remind people what evolt.org
>> was, is and can/will be. I know we'd all love to think of more things
>> we can do to celebrate FIFTEEN FRICKIN' YEARS OF THIS AWESOME EPIC
>> BEAUTIFUL RESOURCEFUL FANTASTIC SEXEH SMART FUNNY BALLS-OUT-AMAZING
>> COMMUNITY. Yeah, all caps for >50% of the sentence. I went there.
>>
>> So this is my rough sketch of a plan. I call it "Le Plan", but I can
>> handle a rebrand if necessary.
>>
>> 1) Now: Ensure our finances are on a stable footing for now.
>> 2) June: Hack out ideas for EVOLT15, including a redesign competition.
>> 3) July: Migrate existing theplanet infra to AWS for cost effectiveness
>> 4) August-November: Implement ideas hacked out in June/July, including
>> redesign implementation
>> 5) ???
>> 6) December: Profit. With Content, Resources and Lurve!
>>
>> We have done great things together. Let's do some more.
>>
>> EVOLT!
>>
>> -n
>> -- 
>> TheForum Archives: http://lists.evolt.org/theforumarchive/
>>
>> evolt.org wiki: http://wiki.evolt.org/
>> teamwork site: http://evolt.teamworkpm.net/
> -- 
> TheForum Archives: http://lists.evolt.org/theforumarchive/
>
> evolt.org wiki: http://wiki.evolt.org/
> teamwork site: http://evolt.teamworkpm.net/
>



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