If you look into the last events here in earlier posts, it was Bo Bruce who had contact, a big loss to the comunity...
Although I am not a member of SRMZ anymore, I decided to be nosy and contacted the site host's support team. It seems this is not a billing issue this time but a technical issue. They wouldn't elaborate any further or take any action since I am obviously not the registered domain owner.
I understand that last year's outage was caused by Bill running out of funds and once Stefan was able to contact him, Bill paid up and all was well again. However, I do not believe Bill contacted anyone from SRMZ before or after the due date for financial help, the account was just allowed to expire. Those who are able to reach him seem to find he stops responding before anything is sorted.
For long term sustainability, the hosting/technical side at least needs to be managed by someone who is active within the community. (Preferably more than one person to avoid a single point of failure). With hosting fees of over $320 a month donations are needed to maintain the site in its current form, but if Bill is too busy or has lost interest then in my opinion no amount of money will help...
I also was thinking if we unable to reach Bill then we may try to contact host team. I think they should have domain owner contact info and can reach Bill.
Thanks Pete for your work to contact the host team.
320 USD a month .Then ,the amount we could reasonably collect ( see my post #183) are covering the costs .
Perhaps Bill has lost interest, but then why he didn't warn us at SRMZ to transfert his websites management and owner rights to others SRMZ members who wld have the will to continue ?
Hoping Bill is in good health and that a problem ain't the most likely reason of what happened.
(30.01.2023, 04:00)Cookie Wrote: [ -> ]If you look into the last events here in earlier posts, it was Bo Bruce who had contact, a big loss to the comunity...
Yes, i'm aware. My thought was when we lost Bo someone should have stepped into his place in case this happened. No matter now. We just need to find Bill. I'd hate to see SRMZ go away.
(30.01.2023, 16:59)Pete Gaimari Wrote: [ -> ] (30.01.2023, 04:00)Cookie Wrote: [ -> ]If you look into the last events here in earlier posts, it was Bo Bruce who had contact, a big loss to the comunity...
Yes, i'm aware. My thought was when we lost Bo someone should have stepped into his place in case this happened. No matter now. We just need to find Bill. I'd hate to see SRMZ go away.
Pete, we tried that with no luck.
(31.01.2023, 00:25)Lee Wrote: [ -> ] (30.01.2023, 16:59)Pete Gaimari Wrote: [ -> ] (30.01.2023, 04:00)Cookie Wrote: [ -> ]If you look into the last events here in earlier posts, it was Bo Bruce who had contact, a big loss to the comunity...
Yes, i'm aware. My thought was when we lost Bo someone should have stepped into his place in case this happened. No matter now. We just need to find Bill. I'd hate to see SRMZ go away.
Pete, we tried that with no luck.
Indeed
Well, it's been a good run ... though it appears our gang has come to an end. It is a real shame to not get some really great projects out to the GPL community. The 71SC cars, the 70Mod cars, the Brno 37 track, the '67 Update Track Pack and probably many others will wither on our own HDs. A loss of so very many hours, days, years.
I wish the utmost best for all of you in the future. I know many will keep up the enjoyment in online racing. That's a good thing.
It's been a pleasure working with you all. Such a diverse group of great and caring guys. You've gotten me through a few bumps in life. May you all have good health and the wind at your backs.
I was (slightly) heartened by Paul's post above saying it had been identified as a technical issue, naively thinking something was being be done to resolve it. But as time marches on I am becoming more pessimistic.
I do hope Greg's summary isn't an indication of the end. Remember SRMZ only came into existence because of losing the main GPL forum many years ago and look what it became. There is far too much work on contributors hard drives which can't be allowed to simply disappear.
oAo has already moved to a new forum and despite the wealth of knowledge lost to speedgeezers the new forum will grow.
How stable is this platform? Should we develop our new home here? I think most who frequented SRMZ are probably aware of Jake's fantastic youtube channel. If we can all agree on a new home perhaps he would be willing to promote it on a short video announcement (Plus of course others such as Yannick, Erikgpl etc).
I don't think we should just roll over and die. (But please don't move to facebook).
JMO
TTFN
John.
(31.01.2023, 07:40)gliebzeit Wrote: [ -> ]Well, it's been a good run ... though it appears our gang has come to an end. It is a real shame to not get some really great projects out to the GPL community. The 71SC cars, the 70Mod cars, the Brno 37 track, the '67 Update Track Pack and probably many others will wither on our own HDs. A loss of so very many hours, days, years.
I wish the utmost best for all of you in the future. I know many will keep up the enjoyment in online racing. That's a good thing.
It's been a pleasure working with you all. Such a diverse group of great and caring guys. You've gotten me through a few bumps in life. May you all have good health and the wind at your backs.
Now you don't think this is how it ends do you ?
Our dozens of new models were not made in vain. You have a P/M Bob