[theforum] Zombie!

Mike King mike at redroom.co.uk
Tue Jun 18 02:51:06 CDT 2013


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/


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