thai
Full Member
Posts: 164
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Post by thai on Mar 15, 2013 10:08:20 GMT -5
First off.....let me add my thanks to those who have gone out of their way to give us a new board. I have used this forum for years as my go to place when something happens and I am out of my league...which is very often, I might add. So my question is.....there is a wealth of information on the old board and my understanding is that it will be lost when it shuts down on April 1st? Is there a way to keep it and if so how would one go about it? Again my thanks to all for being here for those of us like me...  |
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Post by ataplow on Mar 15, 2013 10:28:19 GMT -5
One way to get some snapshots of the previous forum is to go to: archive.org/web/web.phpThis is sometimes called the "way-back-machine", and a google search on that term will bring you to this archive page. When some old free web page providers discontinued their service, eliminating my web page, I was able to recover my files using this archive. In fact you can link current pages to an old archived page, like it was never discontinued. One advantage is that the most recent archives are about a year old, so you will miss all the recent spam postings. |
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Post by Jack Teems on Mar 15, 2013 10:34:07 GMT -5
.there is a wealth of information on the old board and my understanding is that it will be lost when it shuts down on April 1st? Is there a way to keep it and if so how would one go about it? The biggest disadvantage to going to a new board was in losing 8,000 or so humans and all the traffic in the 8 years it's been operational. Of course, we recognized that the 8,000 was, in reality, quite a smaller number because of address changes, drop in interest, etc. Still, it would have been super nice not to put others to the agony of registering to a new board. And, of course, as you pointed out, we're losing a wealth of information on the old board when it closes April 1. The reason we are leaving the old board up for yet another two weeks is to allow anyone interested to capture whatever they wish with a copy-and-paste to WordPad, Word, or some other word processor. That's not a very slick way, but the only way we've uncovered and believe me, we've researched this! Sorry! But, ever the optimist (we try), there is something to be said for starting fresh, with a new Forum, new interest, and some neat features. Thanks for coming along for the ride! |
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Post by kgpollock on Mar 15, 2013 19:59:28 GMT -5
Jack, I have been a subscriber to Neat Net Tricks for many years. Even before you moved to my state. Thanks for all the good work you do!
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Post by pgarden158 on Mar 16, 2013 7:22:44 GMT -5
Thank you for giving us a heads-up about your previous site closing, I was a member of The Smart Computing Forum and they closed it overnight and it was so disappointing to have lost all the favorites we had stored on the site. That was certainly not the way to close a site that was shared by many loyal subscribers.
So again thanks for the way you are going about this and good luck and hope you get many subscribers - I love your forum.
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Post by cyberdiva on Mar 16, 2013 10:39:17 GMT -5
And, of course, as you pointed out, we're losing a wealth of information on the old board when it closes April 1. The reason we are leaving the old board up for yet another two weeks is to allow anyone interested to capture whatever they wish with a copy-and-paste to WordPad, Word, or some other word processor. I've participated in the Forum for a number of years and have found it an invaluable source of information. I'm dismayed to learn that the old forum will disappear in two weeks. Couldn't we just leave it up but not permit any more members to join or postings to be made? There's no way that in the next two weeks (or two months, or ...) I could find the time and memory to copy and paste all the items that I've found useful over the years, or that I would find useful in the future.  And though I appreciate ataplow's suggestion about the wayback machine, that doesn't seem to me to do what I need. The wayback machine can be useful for an isolated, specific look, but not for the kind of extensive searching that I'd hope to be able to do. And, as ataplow points out, the wayback machine doesn't even include the past year. Jack, I'm most grateful to you and Mark for all your work in creating this new forum, and I look forward to using and benefitting from it. But the old forum contains a gold mine of information. I'd love to see it continue to be available as a reference. |
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Post by Jack Teems on Mar 16, 2013 11:09:52 GMT -5
No, on the old board there's really only two settings in regard to whether it stays or goes: enable or disable. Enabling allows the board to remain active and spam bots have a field day with it. Disabling (which is what we will do on April 1) totally removes user access to the forum. Sorry, but it appears the only options are what we mentioned and I'm still waiting for the Wayback folks to come up with a possibility to archive; otherwise, copy-and-paste may be the only alternative.
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Post by cyberdiva on Mar 18, 2013 13:03:59 GMT -5
Jack, does the message that is flashing across my screen today about the old forum being locked but available to be consulted "indefinitely" mean that you found a way to keep it available as an info source "indefinitely"? If so, that's great news! Many thanks!!  |
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Post by Jack Teems on Mar 18, 2013 13:23:45 GMT -5
Jack, does the message that is flashing across my screen today about the old forum being locked but available to be consulted "indefinitely" mean that you found a way to keep it available as an info source "indefinitely"? If so, that's great news! Many thanks!! Yep, that's exactly what it means! |
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Post by blueboxer on Mar 18, 2013 14:32:36 GMT -5
I was just looking at the free software source "Fresh Devices" and they seem to have added a new program "FreshWebsuction" that according to the description will download an entire website if you wish. Since old NNT was all text and scant and basic formatting, it should be a fast and managable size to download. I seem to recall an earlier program from another source too, with a name like HTTrack or something, that could accomplish the same feat. Maybe we should just all bring it down to DVDs.
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And though I appreciate ataplow's suggestion about the wayback machine, that doesn't seem to me to do what I need. The wayback machine can be useful for an isolated, specific look, but not for the kind of extensive searching that I'd hope to be able to do. And, as ataplow points out, the wayback machine doesn't even include the past year. 
