I'm ready to hang it up - does someone want to take over?

[dfunk]

Subject pretty much sums it up. I have no desire to spend time or money on maintenance of this board any longer. I intend to run some backups of the data and hand it over to whoever wishes to handle it from here on. You will need a hosting account somewhere that runs php + mysql. I've never made money from this and would ask that whoever takes over not try to, as well.

Please post here if interested!

[soram]

Hi dfunk,

I’d be interested in helping preserve the site and keep the Radom P-64 information alive rather than seeing it disappear.

I already have hosting through HostGator that should support PHP/MySQL, so in theory I may be able to host the forum without much added hosting cost on my end. My main goal would be preservation, not monetization. I would want to keep the existing posts, knowledge base, and community history available and searchable.

That said, I would probably not want to run it as a wide-open public forum, because spam moderation can become a full-time unpaid job. My preferred approach would be more of a semi-locked “museum + controlled discussion” setup, something along these lines:

Existing content preserved and searchable
Guest posting disabled
New registrations manually approved or heavily filtered
First posts held for moderation
Trusted/established members allowed to participate normally
No marketplace/free-for-all sales activity
No monetization unless needed later purely to cover unavoidable site costs

Before I could say yes for sure, I’d want to understand what would actually be involved.

Who currently controls the domain name, and would the domain be transferred to me, or would you prefer to keep the domain and simply point DNS to my hosting?

Are there any current domain registration fees, hosting fees, software fees, backup fees, email fees, SSL fees, or other costs attached to the site?

What phpBB version is the forum currently running?

Are there any custom themes, plugins, extensions, anti-spam tools, or modifications that would need to be preserved?

How large is the full site backup, including the database, forum files, attachments, avatars, uploaded images, and any other related files?

Would you be able to provide both a full database backup and a full file backup?

Are there any known technical problems with the forum right now?

Are there any known security issues, outdated software problems, spam-user problems, banned-user issues, database corruption issues, email-delivery issues, or other hidden pitfalls I should know about before taking this on?

Are there any active admin or moderator accounts besides yours, and would anyone want to stay involved?

Are there any expectations from you or the community about how open the forum should remain going forward?

Would you be looking for a full ownership transfer, or more of a caretaker/hosting arrangement?

Is there anything else I should know before I seriously consider taking this over?

My intention would be to keep the site alive as a respectful P-64 resource, preserve the old knowledge, and keep the maintenance realistic. I don’t want to promise to turn it into a busy modern platform, but I would hate to see this kind of niche P-64 knowledge disappear if it can be saved cleanly.

If you’re open to it, I’d be glad to discuss the handoff details and see whether this can be done in a practical way.

[Rasmus]

I personally have found this forum to be absolutely invaluable as an owner from way back in the early days when I bought my first pair of P64s in 2005 from AIM for $129.95 and found this forum. I joined here right away in those first days, and made a couple of posts back then. Unfortunately I went through some life changes at that time and fell off here, losing all my login credentials and even the all email accounts and passwords that I initially used to make that first account here.

By the time I returned this forum was going through technical troubles and I was never able to make a new account until this past year when I finally was able to get back in and actually participate (post) again. So I missed most all of the social heyday of this forum but I still have kept up and read many threads (most of the technical ones) and what I have learned has been invaluable in my journey to becoming somewhat of a P64 self-sufficient expert now. I don't think I could ever have made this journey by myself without the recourses available here. In fact, I am sure I could not have.

I'd be willing to help fund hosting if that is necessary and also participate in the weeding process of approving new members if it comes to that. With AI bots it is getting pretty difficult to tell the difference until it is too late.

I think it is important that this website continues on and the invaluable resources and discussions be preserved for both new folks and old. I still comb old threads for knowledge to supplement what I already have learned and would greatly miss having access to all of that if it went away. The ability for newbies to participate and ask questions is important. I know from experience that it is hard just combing old threads for specific issues is very time consuming and some people find it much harder than others to even do this.