IMPORTANT PEASE READ: The Future of Nabble and this Forum

[Darel Leedy]

Our discussion forum host provider "Nabble" (a free site) is in the process of downsizing. At one point they were going to abandon the whole thing (which would have made this site disappear completely). In the coming few days, they will be moving our forum over to a new server. When this happens, any and all links will no longer be valid.
The C&Sn3 home http://coloradosouthern.blogspot.com/ is not on Nabble. So as soon as I have the new server address I will update the blog home page with the link to the new forum (the switchstand photo link button). When your link no longer works, please go to the blog home page to update it.
I really have no idea what will happen once the move is made. So please bear with me as we go down this road together. Hopefully this site will transition over successfully. If not, well, its been a fun ride and thank you for all your fantastic contributions that have made this forum such a great site over the years!
Thanks.

Darel  

[Jim Courtney]

I was afraid this might happen someday.

Is there a way to archive everything on the forum to date as a read only file, so all this stuff isn't lost?

Meanwhile, if there are photos here or text information (like Chris Walker's Idaho Springs posts) that anyone wants to keep, save the images and articles to your hard drive now . . .

[Darel Leedy]

Hi Jim,

I've been worried about the whole site just disappearing someday too. Nabble is a labor of love for its developer. He has considered just pulling the plug in the past but really doesn't want to abandon everyone.
I have continuously performed backups, so as long as the new server works it should come back up but with a new address. The problem I see is that all the previous messages (posts) within the forum will still have the old address and may not work anymore. We shall see. But you are right on to start saving anything you want as soon as possible just in case!

Here is a not so encouraging note from the developer a few months back leading up to todays server migration. Keep in mind he is the programmer/developer who wrote all the code for this discussion platform:

"Nabble is not profitable.  Google AdSense is paying less and isn't covering costs. I may just shut down most of Nabble.  But since I personally use Nabble, I will keep one Nabble server.  In this case, anyone who wants to stay on Nabble can have their forum migrated to this server.

Nabble has no future.  I had planned to write new forum software to replace Nabble, but I don't have the time.  If anyone is interested in working with me on new forum software, I am open to this.  I will describe what I have in mind.

Nabble's scripting system is NAML.  I wrote this and I consider it a failure.  It is too complicated.  I realized that a simple high-level scripting language is better, so I wrote one called Luan.  I have been using this language for years to develop various business websites.  This language is a success in the sense it that is very easy to program websites with it.  (It isn't popular, only I use it.  But that is no reflection on quality since humanity generally has extremely poor taste.)

Another weakness of Nabble is it is one program running for everyone.  This means that when I do an update, everyone is updated and this can break people's customizations.  But with a forum written in Luan, each forum could have its own source and control its own updates.

And finally, the future of the web is social.  Nabble isn't social.  Social forums make it much easier for people to find your forum.  So a new forum software should be social.  The obvious social forum today is Reddit.  Besides being a typical intolerant politically correct Silicon Valley tyranny, Reddit is generally a poorly designed forum.  It isn't nearly as customizable as traditional forum software.  So the best of both worlds would be a fully customizable forum that is also social like Reddit.

If anyone is interested in working with me on this, please let me know.  But I won't hold my breath and most likely no one will respond.  In this case, those looking for a forum platform with a future should look elsewhere."

[Mike Trent]

Yikes! Please keep us posted.

[Chris Walker]

Ditto, Mike.

This sucks.

The C&SN3 forum has become THE repository for every little detail on the C&S, and predecessor lines.

I recently directed a NGDF query on the Como Coaling Chutes to here(as I always do, even got chastised for doing so earlier this year on there ), and after a quick collation of threads applicable for my post there, I spent a good hour rereading the actual information presented on the subject.  I hadn't realised just how much had accrued in the 3 different Threads.

It occurred to me that if this goes down, then there will be a huge hole in the research field on the C&S.

All power to the contributors here!

And lastly, but not least: A big Shout-out to Daryl for getting this off the ground in the first place.

[Paul R.]

Same again here. This is the best site for info on our favourite railroad, so hopefully it can be sorted out. Paul R.

[Jim Courtney]

It occurred to me that if this goes down, then there will be a huge hole in the research field on the C&S.

Exactly, Chis.

What to do if worse comes to worse. We need a plan to regroup in the event that the unthinkable happens.

If the forum goes down with the migration to the new server, perhaps Daryl can create a new post on the main blog page. That will allow us to comment and discuss alternatives.

I really don't want to be a part of Zuckerberg-land to participate in a group on Facebook.

The various Yahoo groups seem to be the only alternative, but the format there is limited, hard to create free standing threads on a given topic -- imagine Jimmy's "Blue River Branch" thread in that format.

Anyone have any ideas about how to regroup if this part of the C&S world goes down??

[Darel Leedy]

Thanks everyone for your understanding. When the change happens, I will also create a new blog post on the C&Sn3 home page with the new forum address. This way if it doesn't work, we can use the comments feature of Blogger to communicate temporarily. So far, from what I have seen of other Nabble forums already converted, the transition appears to be working. Our forum has much heavier content though (photos, files etc.). So that is what has me worried.
Maybe I'm getting worked up for nothing and everything will be fine. Let's wait to see what happens before hitting the panic button. But I did want you all to know in case it goes belly up.
I am told this site will convert in the next few days.

[nickgully]

Darel,
 I'll make a copy of this forum content. I can host it, or zip it up someplace for you.  The hope is that all the great information will stay online somewhere, even if static.

Best Regards,
 Nick Gully

[Darel Leedy]

Thanks for the offer Nick. I have a fresh back up but it is for the Nabble format. I'm not sure how else you would be able to do it but then again I am not a computer programmer/coder. Save what you can and hopefully we wont need it.

[Mike Trent]

Thanks, guys. I'm  willing to kick in to help defray costs that may arise as a result of all this mess. I'm unable to help with the technical stuff, but I'll sure do what I can.

Mike

[nickgully]

https://gully.org/uxb/nab3/c-sng-discussion-forum.41377.n7.nabble.com/

Backup copy as of last night. About 2.5 Gigabytes of data.  I can provide it on a USB key if anyone wants it.

-Nick

[Chris Walker]

Sheesh Nick,  you techies sure do amaze me.  

A couple of nights ago I spent nearly 5 hours to copy/paste my Idaho Springs Mills threads via Edit and my email so at a later date I could reconstruct or rewrite them for the Blog.

[Jim Courtney]

Thanks so much for doing this, Nick.

Let's hope it turns out to be unnecessary work.

And I'd love to have a copy of the file for safe keeping.

contact me at [e-mail]

[Mike McKenzie]

Thanks Nick, I went to the link and bookmarked it. Will this suffice for an archive? If not I'd like to acquire a USB drive or even get access via Dropbox or similar.

As to survival of the forum, I'd certainly pitch in fund-wise. I'm pretty savvy when it comes to graphics software, but not sure about building a forum site.

This site has been the best, the best information, the best people, and the best overall tone. I hope those aspects can survive.

Mike

[Norm Acker]

I'd be happy to contribute financially as well if that'll help, please let me know.

[Jeff Young]

Ditto.

[Jim Courtney]

Darel,

It is obvious that you've created something very special here.

There are a great many of us that will help recreate a new forum should the new server migration not work.

[Lee Gustafson]

Darel,

I’ll contribute too, count me in.

Lee Gustafson

[Paul R.]

Count me in as well. Paul R.