Geocities closing / Weyrs at risk?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 6:00 pm

Inspired by erinnyes' hunt for dragon images, which led me to looking at the Quinalt Weyr site. I was wondering what peoples thoughts were on "saving" a copy of those geocities accounts who's owners have potentially long gone. I have -loads- of space on my domain (I mean loads, we're talking 4500+ MB), and would be happy to set up an archive of sites of sorts...

I'm not sure if someone is sort of already doing this, or, if people think this would be inappropriate as these sites are obviously not my own, or anything like that - so, feedback would be good. It is my intention that I wouldn't touch the content of the sites at all, literally, just save everything and upload it exactly as is.

If I did this, would people like to be able to access sets of images where possible? (I'd leave the record links intact, so those candidates still on their pages would still be linked... but, I was thinking incase their pages / dragon images got lost later - it would let us keep the images for later?)

If people like the idea, I'll get to work on collecting and downloading sites. I know of Quinalt, obviously, but I'm sure there are loads I would miss... Weyr Eriol is another I can think of (And I'm 99% sure Ally wouldn't mind me rescuing that one).

(Edit: I would also be up for "rescuing" a copy of any other Weyr/Caer/etc that people think might be worth saving... I know we lost one of the other free sites (home-something?) a while back without warning... so perhaps as a preventative measure for in the future... ?)

(EDIT2: And on an unrelated note, if anyone wants hosting, feel free to drop me an email... as you can see... loads of space. ^.^)

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:02 pm

I've already rescued most if not all of Gallimim, Aden, Jerden and what I could find of Sparkul from waaaaay back before it went to girlwhatever.

But I think it's a very good idea, particularly knowing that a lot of folks won't either know and likely not care to relocate.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:45 pm

Tiynarea Weyr for one comes to mind...

But one I'd particularly like to see saved is Caer Brynmor. I'm pretty sure Kesava's not around anymore right?

/edit - ARE YOU STILL ON AIM/MSN, TIIYN? ;o;

Post by **Dray** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 10:12 am

I don't think that anybody would be against it. It was brought up a few months or weeks ago (time flies, I can't remember the specific posts. XD) but some other people were asking about whether or not it was okay.

I don't know much about that era of dragoning, but I think that the main issue is somebody actually going and doing it all! Better to save and hold onto them, then take them down if the owners appear out of the aether and dispute you having them, I'd imagine...

XD If I had disappeared from the Nexus and came back half a decade later to find out that my site had been carefully saved by someone who was concerned for it, I'd be touched! (And probably happy, since I have a tendency to misplace my files all to easily. >.<) so I think it's a good idea!

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 1:22 pm

Yeah I'd definitely go for it if you find one you want to save. Like I said I have Aden/Jerdan, Gallimim and whatever I could find of Seasparkul, I know that's not much but by the time I wanted to rescue Dawn Sisters and some others they were already gone years ago.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:50 pm

I think it's a good idea all around.

People put care into their sites and then the majority of them were abandoned. I hardly think people would mind knowing there are others out there who care about what happens to their pages that much. They certainly didn't.

I think Quinalt has the one dragon image set I'll never be able to find.

Unless I find some ancient pickup page where my dragon was located, that is. If anyone finds anything like that, lemme know!! ;D

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 2:55 pm

Which color was it?

Here, I inked the Quinalt dragon images anyway, that's why i had them originally

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v309/ ... s/quinalt/

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 3:20 pm

What I don't have:

Dawn Sisters Gold (any stages, any set)
Everest (the ORIGINAL original Talor Cliff dragon set, the fluffy-no-lines version) anything other than blue and brown
Firestone gold (any stages)
Harana green, blue, bronze (white?) (any stages)
Kanarsh blue, gold (any stages)
Mooncrest (original set, hand colored) blue weyrling, bronze - brown - white hatchling and weyrling, gold hatchling
Moonshadow green adult, all others full stages
Tiamat blue, bronze, green, (white?)
Tynarea (new set) brown all stages, gold hatch/weyr
Turquoise green, brown, gold (white?) any stages
Xaveia bronze, gold any stages

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 5:10 pm

Sadly, it was the green-blue, Shard. Which actually shouldn't be too difficult to create now that I think about it, using the original green as the base. The wings were a bit more sky blue than the blue's wingsails, but it shouldn't be too difficult to emulate...

I might see what I can do later in the week. =D

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 6:26 pm

I actually saw those but they weren't different that I could see. I kind of wondered what was up with it, because all I found was blue OR green, not both. I guess I just saw what got put up then?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 8:35 pm

Yep, pretty much as you all said.

The wings of the green/blue were more of a turquoise sort of thing than the original blue's (here's the link to the page, next to the hatchling image is the blue's so you can easily see the difference).

http://www.geocities.com/cmk_roadkill/jaekri.html

Terrible old Candidates.

But I digress...

Last night I about drove myself crazy trying to find a pickup page somewhere that had the old image, but to no avail! If someone decides they're going to make a new one I'll owe them a bunch, but for now and if not I have to figure out what I'm going to do with her.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:58 pm

I see it now, yeah. Well I could always try matching the colors and just colorizing a weyrling and adult for you if you want, I mean you did earn them right?

It's like my one queen, I never got the adult or weyrling, I think there were like 3 or 4 phases of the one that I never got from one place, but the weyr was still up for a time, so I just grabbed the image and put a disclaimer on my page about it.

Yakima · Post by **Yakima** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 1:31 pm

Yeah, I did that for three of my gryphons from Furtim Aeire...I had one adult then played with coloration and stuff till the colors matched the kitten image. XD

There are some places I would love to find more records for...but...eventually, perhaps.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 2:32 pm

Well, remember if it's Geocities, the pages will be *deleted* forever, on the 26th of this month. Not just "not updated", removed. They're making room for their paid customer space.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:16 pm

Despite the fact that Geocities is giving us ample warning, I do find all this rather sudden and annoying.

At least for me. After we've had free webspace from them for like, a decade, one day they just plain close it. That's corporations for you...

Oh, and yeah, I earned the green/blue dragon years ago.

It was the first clutch from Quinalt (I think?) and it's still up on the records. That was around when I poofed though, so either it wasn't updated, which would be my bad, or geocities ate the image, which would suck but not be impossible. I'm unfortunately missing a few images for just that reason right now (PS! If anyone has a brown adult dragon from Dragon soul's last clutch, Geocities ate that one, too. That one at least I KNOW I updated on time).

I, like a lot of you, sounds like, are rushing to move my characters to a new server before Geocities is gone.

And I'm a little behind, so I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend...!

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:53 pm

Yeah remember that you dont' have to get them UP any time frantically, just... make sure they're saved. Mainly it's the pagebuilder pages that they're removing entirely, as whatever it is with that program apparently isn't something they use any more at all, maybe they had licenced it and didn't want to renew it.

At least we GOT 6 months of warning, though, AOL shut down so far as I know without any. lol and then there's places like Crosswinds and such that just *vanished* without a trace, that was lame...

Myself I've had no problems with my paid geocities site. The only thing I don't like about it is that you can't seem to put a forum or use a cgi bin in it anywhere, and they haven't gotten back to me yet about either of those things (and I asked a LONG time ago).

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:56 pm

Was that the one you needed? I have all those too.

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:56 pm

You're in luck! I went scouring the 'nets, and I found the adult brown you needed. =D

(EDIT: Unless Shard gets to it first. Same timestamp too. XD)

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 3:57 pm

Hm, mine's one of the minis lol. Ah right, I got little-green, little-blue and little-brown ones for my pair that impressed 6 among them... o.o

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:03 pm

Whoa, that's the actual size of your dragon? I thought PB was just resizing things strangely on your end. Very nifty though, either way.

This is really making me wish I had that final hatching story now, since I had two characters Impress from that clutch. My parents' computer ate pretty much all of my post-hatching info when it died though... should have been more proactive in saving my high school writings. =\

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:34 pm

Yeah mine came out smaller (they're labeled 1a, 2a instead of 1 and 2) because they were given as a group.

Leeettle dragons! I don't think they're meant to be as small as the Lians, but they're of a compatable smallness for most sports.

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:38 pm

Mmm, must breed more little dragons! Mainly because tiny, agile little speed demons are awesome. That, and my rampaging hordes of white dragons could use other mates besides... my other whites. *chuckles sheepishly*

*makes a point of hosting a tiny frenzy at some point, when I actually possess drawing skills* XD

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 4:54 pm

Hehehe

Sixth pokes his nose in **can I come?**
Anyone within range smacks him on the neck. "you've already bred enough you pervert!!"

Post by **Dray** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 5:06 pm

*Sixth and Cemitae sitting out on an old porch, rocking in their rockin' chairs, chewing lengths of wheat*

Sixth: "Frenzy'sa 'comin,"
Cemitae: "How do you know?"
Sixth: "Bone's'achin!"

Badum TSH!

A mini frenzy would be fun! XD Or at least a sport-frenzy, or a small-as-sport frenzy.

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 5:11 pm

LOL I could think of a few other choice statements after "how do you know"...

Keilin Alyr · Post by **Keilin Alyr** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:29 pm

Heh, ol' draconic perverts. *chuckles*

It would be awesome, Dray, and I'd offer to host... though I can imagine something in the back of Cy and JKat's unconscious minds would have cringed at the very mention of it. They're the only ones with a dragon from me.

And silly Sixth, I imagine he'd try to weasel his way into every Pernese bloodline given half the chance. Though now that I think about it... one of my whites has Sixth as a father. Go figure. XD

Post by **Dray** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 6:41 pm

:) You could always commission (I use that term loosely -- 'trade', or 'ask' is probably a better word!) a template from another artist, or ask several different people to do one stage... or if you're having more than one species, ask some folks to drawn different images? XD

I seem to love to launch threads off on a tangent! Sorry Tiiyn!

Post by **Dray** » Fri Oct 02, 2009 11:45 pm

Also on the topic of saving geocities sites, I randomly came across the Minuit de la lupe frenzy participants page, so I save the source code of it in case Sanrix Azon ever comes back. >_> I was really looking forward to that one!

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 11:50 am

D: One that needs to be saved is the Vella Crean site! It's only records at this point, but it would be tragic if it disappeared. :( http://www.geocities.com/vellacrean/

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Sun Oct 04, 2009 12:25 pm

Well I grabbed those pages as I could. Most of the candidates sunny had are still around, so maybe it's time to head back though records rooms for links, and get whatever is still up.