Drama re: info

Disclaimer to Corsair - I sincerely do not intend to start a war on this site, or to cause mischief - that's not my thing, but all related topics are locked up, and just wanted to put my 0.02 in on this important shake up.

My comment is -> Wow, the month of April was a rollercoaster around here! I missed the whole thing, but am very pleased to see that all the material on Westones is preserved. It would have been a shame to lose the info. There is some benefit, I believe, in stirring us (the members of the site who often use .info) to finds ways and means to "back up" the precious stuff on our Westones. Our brief misfortune then becomes an opportunity. Best luck to all involved in maintaining what was, and to those creating a new site. I think some redundancy is totally acceptable.

Anything I can do to assist eg, DreamRaven or Barry, please just ask me.

Best,
Ian

Dear Anaerobe.

Thanks for the words. I agree with you, wholeheartedly.

I have also been asked to not cause a fight, so I have stapled my gob shut

At this moment, my redundancy regime is running smoothly, but if I need any help, I will certainly PM you.

Thanks again.
DreamRaven

Thanks Ian; I'm sure the lads will let you know should they need a hand, eh!! Yeah it was a bit... trying, really!!

Now that you guys are in a calmer place are you going to share info and make one bigger better thing? With multiple owners of course.
PS I think Barry's web design looks great and I think Dreamraven has done a great job in getting Thorn's website back up and running. A combination of the 2 would make >2???

PPS if theres anything I can contribute....

+1 to grogg's thoughts

As I have always said, my original plan was just to get the westone.info site back up for those people who have enjoyed using its information, as Thorn originally created and curated it.

I have also said that I will do anything that I can to help the new site, if asked.

Thorn did supply multiple backup copies to four other parties who requested it (but I have no idea who those parties are, although Corsair did state that one of them was him on another thread). This means that the information is not JUST held in my hands. Again, this is the better for the whole Westone community, because no one has control of the ball that we are hoping to play 'jumpers for goalposts' with.

So, in summary. I am still processing the Westone.info site, and at the moment it is still displaying from Thorn's server. When it changes, I can start the next steps, if there are any.

I cannot offer anything more, until the request is made.

Had a nice few days in Cornwall, did I pick the weather didn't look for any wifi so missed all the fun, pleased to see the info site back,
thanks DR great job, we've all made good use of it in the past & will be more than pleased to be able to do so in the future.

Though the info site has been very useful & thanks Thorn for that, I guess a lot of us took the site for granted without really thinking too
much about it, the same go's for the forum for that matter

Having said all that, it would be good to have a Westone archive here on the forum, where it belongs, so hats off to Barry John
& all that help to make this happen. count me in

Personally, I'm happy to have the original site as it was and the new one, but that's up to Barry who's done all the work so far on it; I have offered help but I'm a bit of a Luddite really - fetch me a bigger bloody hammer!! - so any help from me is of questionable value!

Yep; I did offer to take up Thorns offer and was turned down, because ... "it doesn't look like you're in a position to do it. At the very least you'd need an available URL and web space (And agreement to the conditions I've specified) - I may be wrong but it doesn't look like you've got that.", so from his point of view, that was a valid argument. Of course, had he waited till I'd checked what exactly I did have "under the hood", so to speak and a chat with the site builder, then I could have argued differently.

However, all is well now and we have one reference library back and another in the works, which pleases me mightily...

Sorry John, I'm going to jump in here...

As many of you more seasoned members will know, I originally set up this forum 3 years ago when the owner of the .info site closed down his own forum. I did this after having also financially contributed, in a small way, to keeping the .info site open for another year in 2007 (as I am sure other did). David, the .info owner was supportive of this effort, and pointed forums members over here when his old forum was in the process of shutting down.

So I woke up one morning planning to post a question about my Thunder II on westone.info and ended the day as the Administrator of westoneguitars.net with a hardcore of just 8 members. Now there are over 17,000 posts and over 670 members.

I stepped back from the administrators role last year, having been fairly quiet over the previous few months due to work commitments. I'd always been pretty hands-off anyway, with the super Pollyanna taking all the flak and managing the troops. In fact, as you can see, I had to re-register here just to post this comment! None of this is a big secret, it was all posted in the forum.

I still retain ownership of westoneguitars.net as a domain name, but have no access to the forum back-end, having handed the keys to John, and I have shared access to the server with a couple of trusted long-time members/moderators to do with as they see fit.

I'm delighted to see that someone has been successful in obtaining the .info domain to keep the original site going as I am sure that there are many thousands of people, including those who are not members here, who have used it over the years. Many thanks and congratulations for your successful bid Dreamraven.

One of my personal bugbears over the years was the fact that I had intentionally put several prominent links back to the .info site on here, but never received a reciprocal link to the from the .info sites links page once his forum had shut down, and I hope that this small, but important detail is one of the things that Dreamraven adds in when he takes over the site.

That there is a flourishing community of Westone fans is nothing to do with me, and everything to do with the commitment and enthusiasm of the members of this forum.

When I heard that the .info site was shutting down, I like many others got in touch with the owner and offered to host the site here. Although he has given the domain name to Dreamraven, he has also given the full site to a couple of others to do with as they see fit. I was one of those people.

David did an amazing job over the years of putting together one of the most comprehensive sites on any guitar brand as you are likely to see on the internet, and he gave it all away for free. The site was even featured in Guitar magazines in the UK. because it is just so honestly well researched.

I have placed a permanent copy of the old site under this domain at http://archive.westoneguitars.net which will remain there as long as I stay in business!

I hope that others who have the old site from David, and the means, will put up their copies for free online too.

But most of all I am really looking forward to seeing a new site up and running, but I do not underestimate just how long or difficult that process will be. David constructed his site over many many years, and had contributions from many other sources to help. Building the physical site is often the work of one individual, but creating the content is the work of many. I hope that the membership here will all pull together to help.

Regarding the ownership of the domain westoneguitars.net, although it is in my name, I don't feel it really solely belongs to me, so I can't just stop paying for it, and I certainly would never hand it over to anyone who wasn't already a long-time forum member. Corsair and I tried to sort something out this year, but due to my work commitments I ended up renewing again this year.

Cheers,
Neil

--
http://archive.westoneguiars.net

Okay, so I just have to share this now....

Intending to keep on this thread, this really needs saying. Even though I am relatively new to the world of forum posting/contributing I have "lurked" on many sites, including here, long enough to realize a few things.

@Barry: Many, many thanks for your efforts and the spirit with which you have volunteered yourself to work towards insuring an alternative source is available to all Westone fans. Ask my wife if you ever chance to meet her and she will confirm my ability to dance on someone's last nerve unintentionally and your patience with me (especially as of late) I thank you for.

@Neil: Wonderful to hear from you and thank you from all of us who have found this forum a fun, informative, engaging and instructive release from our day to day "real" lives. Speaking personally, I have backread most of the early posts and kinda miss PA's past contributions here.

@Corsair: A true, straightforward and authentic MODERATING influence. All of us are in your debt for your continuing energy which shapes the tenor of the discourse we share here.

This really is a very special place in my opinion. Rather than allowing unforeseen events to tear us apart it is becoming quite apparent we will come out of this rough patch even better than before.

Thanks everyone for allowing a newbie to fumble about and work to find his feet. So many sources of solid information and experience with these awesome instruments to be found here.

Our dramatic period was inevitable given what was going on. It shows that we care and won't let jeopardy like this happen again.

Looks like we'll all help when, where, and how needed to the best of our ability. Good on us!

Hooray for us!

Seriously though, I also forgot to mention that Corsair is probably the single greatest moderator in all of Internet history. I wish he was on all the forums I visit!

+1 from me for the Corsair love-in!

DreamRaven wrote:+1 from me for the Corsair love-in!

Ya know, you're no slouch yerself.

I agree that Westone Guitar forums is a breath of fresh air...

Congratulations Iceman!

350 posts in 2 months time!

Here's a present

Jimboy 4 post in how many years?
You deserve a haggis cake

Thanks for that post Neil. I was getting convulsed trying to refer to you as a the mysterious benefactor without actually naming you!

So now that the cat is outa the bag, so to speak, let me say publicly what I've said to you privately: "You're a Prince!" :farao:
I can't thank you enough for your continuing support of this forum and for having enough faith in me to let me tinker with your "baby"!

Yup, this has been a bugger of a month around here, but as we've been saying all along, something fantastic will emerge from it all...you know, eventually. You actually beat me to the announcement of access to the archived "info" site. Just today I put a hyperlink to it on the new site. You'll find it in the footer "Links" listing.

So, as of today, members can access the original site via DreamRaven's site under the original URL, or via our own copy here. Really nice to have some redundancies in case something happens! Thanks again to DreamRaven, and very special thank you to Neil!

Westbone wrote:
....You deserve a haggis cake

Wait, are you tellin' me there is a recipe for cake for that?

(351, since somebody's keeping score apparently)