ATTN: Malc

[Dr Tiger Ninestein]

Hi Malc, as you probably already know, alot of people including myself really miss the cpczone site and forum.

I remember you posting somewhere that the site was up for hosting renewal in august and that it was really expensive.

Basically, I would like to offer to pay for its renewal. Im not sure if you still want to be involved in the running of the site, but I'm sure there are people here that would jump at the chance.

Cheers Tom

[Gryzor]

Not sure Malc even visits here any more... Maybe try contacting him on fB...

[Dr Tiger Ninestein]

I havent got a facebook account.

It would be appreciated if someone that has, could point him in the direction of this thread.

[Ygdrazil]

Well, last time he logged on to this forum was 6 aug this year...

I really hope the ZONE will be resurrected some way!

/Ygdrazil

I havent got a facebook account.

It would be appreciated if someone that has, could point him in the direction of this thread.

[ukmarkh]

As skint as I am... I'd also like to help with renewel for the CPC ZONE hosting. I miss the forum and all the peeps that posted on there.

[Gryzor]

Can you get i? I've been trying since yesterday, the connection times out...

[Nreive]

I would love to see CPC Zone return, and simply can't believe that it's been allowed to slowly die off in such a manner.  However, would this be possible?  If Malc still has all the data, would he be willing to pass it on to whoever resurrects the site?  If so, wouldn't he have done so already?  Also, is there a possibility that the Zone could be run in partnership, side-by-side, with the CPC Wiki?

[Gryzor]

All this is between the Gods and Mal, I guess...

[Extreme Gamer]

Damn, Still no CPC Zone

Its a pity Malc won't just give the site away to someone that can take it forward. I dont mean just give it away to just anyone. More like people that have been around forever and have been more than active for years. Someone like Gryzor for instance. Not floating your boat or anything. But, You have a very keen interest in things CPC wise. I doubt anyone could say otherwise.

This is quite a long time now and there doesn't seem to be much happening on the front of resurrection on Malc's behalf. I will test the fates and say that this site can be considered dead and any interest of his has faded away.

The only solution I can think of is offer him cash to get hands on the data because the zone had a lot of info or just buy a domain and start a new website which will take time to become as informative. However, Not impossible. 

I doubt he will part with it for free. I'd like him to just give it back to the scene because it does affect it in quite a huge way. It was a awesome website.

[ukmarkh]

Who needs Malc?

The new look CPCWIKI and its forum are fantastic, sure we need more game coverage, but I'm sure it won't be long in coming. The sheer wealth of information and the new look and feel imho has positioned the wiki well and truly above the zone.

The thing is, Gryzor and all those involved have helped to provide a reliable new home for a community left fractured by Malc of CPC Zone. Because of Malc's actions, I along with many others have lost communication with lots of people considered friends, it might seem strange to some, but these distant friendships have been put at risk, with little or no explanation. In fact I've been unable to contact some members, as I don't have their contact details outside of the Zone. I've written to Malc on several occasions, and even offered money to help repair, or re-home CPC Zone, but the messages remain unanswered and my friends lost.

So Gryzor and all those involved, you should feel smug and rightly proud... hooray for CPC WIKI!
 

[Nreive]

I agree with ukmarkh. Malc has obviously moved on, so should we. The Wiki has the foundations to be a much better site and the recently new look wiki and new look forum are fantastic. It's a shame that online acquaintances and even friends have been lost because of a website's demise.

[Extreme Gamer]

Who needs Malc?

The new look CPCWIKI and its forum are fantastic, sure we need more game coverage, but I'm sure it won't be long in coming. The sheer wealth of information and the new look and feel imho has positioned the wiki well and truly above the zone.

The thing is, Gryzor and all those involved have helped to provide a reliable new home for a community left fractured by Malc of CPC Zone. Because of Malc's actions, I along with many others have lost communication with lots of people considered friends, it might seem strange to some, but these distant friendships have been put at risk, with little or no explanation. In fact I've been unable to contact some members, as I don't have their contact details outside of the Zone. I've written to Malc on several occasions, and even offered money to help repair, or re-home CPC Zone, but the messages remain unanswered and my friends lost.

So Gryzor and all those involved, you should feel smug and rightly proud... hooray for CPC WIKI!

They should feel proud.

It has been a while since I visited here and the difference since the wiki started is astonishing.

Shame about you losing contact with people

[Gryzor]

To begin with: thanks so much for your kind words We've been blushing...

Let me reiterate, just for the sake of history, that even if, sometime in the future, this site goes down, it won't be without notice, and the content will be made available to anyone who asks for it. Really. I don't think we'll ever encounter much greater a difficulty than we did with Kangaroo - and we survived that. So...

@Extreme Gamer: the thing is, I don't really think that it's a matter of money for Malc. He just lost interest... you might try contacting him on Facebook (he's replied the few times I did) and see what happens. It'd be a godsend if he did give us the content - though, to be honest, I don't know if it'd be possible to incorporate the content, due to technical reasons. But, at least, we could have it in a read-only mode, just to have everything online. 

As for game content... we're working on it. In the past it was a conscious decision NOT to go overboard with games content, since this would duplicate the Zone. But since it's gone for good, we're looking at things again. The most troublesome is to fine the correct model to put things in motion, so if you got any ideas do come forward!

[khisanth]

The CPC wiki has really blossomed into a great site and is doing great.

I will try and contact Malc also.

[Gryzor]

That would be good. I mean, the more people contacting him, the more possible for him to give the data...

[Dr Tiger Ninestein]

IMO he's behaving like a complete asshole. He obviously has no interest in the zone anymore, so why not let the people that do still have an interest take over?

[Gryzor]

Who knows... I wouldn't say he's an asshole, since in the past he's given so much in terms of service and his time - so I'd think there must be another reason...

[nurgle]

Let me reiterate, just for the sake of history, that even if, sometime in the future, this site goes down, it won't be without notice, and the content will be made available to anyone who asks for it.

To elaborate a bit more: I do regular offsite backups independent of Gryzor's and Devil Markus' stuff, complete with database dumps. So, even if Gryzor won't stay true to his words (and I have NO reason to believe he would'nt) , the content is safe. No single person can decide to "delete" it because of this additional safety net. And I won't mind having one more person on board doing independent backups. Octo?

[Octoate]

Octo?

Well, I try to mirror some of the most important sites, too, but currently I haven't enough time to automate that to do it every 2 or 3 months. This "mirroring" was caused by the disappearing CPC-forever and Amstrad.dk (at least Amstrad.dk is available on archive.org) which was a big disappointment for me. Unfortunately I've never mirrored the CPC Zone .

[Gryzor]

@Nurgle: thanks for pointing this out in public. The real issue, here, is that, as we said during the summer adventures, this site/system is really public, since I always felt (right from the beginning, honest!) that it belongs to the people that make it possible. I (initially) and Markus and you and whoever else are just the enablers...

Btw, I didn't miss your 'report' joke :p

[Extreme Gamer]

To begin with: thanks so much for your kind words We've been blushing...

Let me reiterate, just for the sake of history, that even if, sometime in the future, this site goes down, it won't be without notice, and the content will be made available to anyone who asks for it. Really. I don't think we'll ever encounter much greater a difficulty than we did with Kangaroo - and we survived that. So...

@Extreme Gamer: the thing is, I don't really think that it's a matter of money for Malc. He just lost interest... you might try contacting him on Facebook (he's replied the few times I did) and see what happens. It'd be a godsend if he did give us the content - though, to be honest, I don't know if it'd be possible to incorporate the content, due to technical reasons. But, at least, we could have it in a read-only mode, just to have everything online. 

As for game content... we're working on it. In the past it was a conscious decision NOT to go overboard with games content, since this would duplicate the Zone. But since it's gone for good, we're looking at things again. The most troublesome is to fine the correct model to put things in motion, so if you got any ideas do come forward!

I'd have to think about a decent model and even then it would more than likely be out of sync with this place.

I could host it and rewrite the code for it if I could get my hands on it. It wouldn't cost me anymore than a domain renewal each year which is pennies. But, I'm not willing to give him money for it.

No facebook for me. Damn, I hate places like that. I really do. If I had a giant array of nukes then you know where they would be pointed at 

[Gryzor]

I wonder if we could import the forum data to our SMF platform... now THAT would be fantastic, provided of course that Malc gave it away.

The Gamebase is a different beast altogether - and I'm not really that sure whether it would be good to resurrect it, since it would be a still(re)born project...

[Extreme Gamer]

I wonder if we could import the forum data to our SMF platform... now THAT would be fantastic, provided of course that Malc gave it away.

The Gamebase is a different beast altogether - and I'm not really that sure whether it would be good to resurrect it, since it would be a still(re)born project...

If you set up a second SMF install that was just there to be read with no login then there are Phpbb To SMF converters that would do the job nicely.

It would even mean that the lad that lost contact with other users with the shutdown would be able to get access to their email addy via yourself so they can drop them a email.

Otherwise, It would be quite the headache. Relating the user id's, post id's etc thats currently in use here and the new post id's from the old zone forum would have to be after the current id's which would populate this place with old data on top of the current posts. It doesnt sound like a wise idea that.

[Gryzor]

Do you have any pointers to Phpbb2SMF converters?

Yes, a separate forum is what I had in mind. But, of course, if we were able to merge the two DBs it's be just fantastic - though I do realize all the problems you mentioned...

[EDIT] It's not very hopeful... http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=349822.0 . Oh well, even a static Zone would be of much value...

[Extreme Gamer]

Do you have any pointers to Phpbb2SMF converters?

Yes, a separate forum is what I had in mind. But, of course, if we were able to merge the two DBs it's be just fantastic - though I do realize all the problems you mentioned...

[EDIT] It's not very hopeful... http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=349822.0 . Oh well, even a static Zone would be of much value...

The converters are @ http://download.simplemachines.org/?converters;software=phpbb. You would want the last one on the page for your current smf version.

Yeah, It would have to be static and users not able to login like I said in my previous post to make it easy.

It could be converted by hand and that seems to be what the guy is getting at in that link you provided.  But, like I said, It would populate your current forum with lots of old data on top of the current data.  And not just that, until it was finished, You would have to shut up shop unless you chose to use id's quite high up in a test database with current smf data so not to mess with newer posts or fubar anything. I'm really not that keen on the idea of trying to merge when the static idea is decent enough.

I dont think its worth the effort and aggravation when you could just install Wampserver on localhost, Import the old zone php forum data in to a mysql db then do the conversion to smf there. Transfer it to a new online mysql db and a folder of its own then change the settings for the url in the db and any other settings that need changing.

Job done and a lot less headaches.

Edit: Are you bothered about populating the current forum with old data. I guess thats the first question to ask yourself. However, Wre just assuming a lot on the assumption that Malc would part with it in the first place.