What happened to "psiphi.org"?

[Ethros]

http://www.psiphi.org/

I just noticed this was still in my favourites, but I haven't been to the website in a long while as it stopped getting updated.
I go on it now and I see the last update on the News section is from almost a year ago.

I used to really like this site, giving news, updates and nice piccies of the latest Trek book offerings. So I'm just wondering if anyone knows why it's gone completely dead in the last year?

 

[Ktrek]

The site owner has had some health issues and has not been able to maintain it. I don't know if he will ever start maintaining it again. I've been thinking about building a similar site to maybe replace it as I have a lot of room on my server. It would take some work though and I'm not sure I have the time to develop a really good Star Trek Books website.

Kevin

 

[Therin of Andor]

Ethros said:
So I'm just wondering if anyone knows why it's gone completely dead in the last year?

The bbs section of Psi Phi works perfectly, and is quite busy. Jon and I try to keep the booklist current with our posts on future book and comic releases. So you'll still find such "News", but it's in the threads of the bbs, not the more static pages.

davidh, the list owner, hasn't been well enough to devote time to updates on the rest of the site, but Trek author Dave Galanter is part owner of the site which hosts the bbs, and he makes sure nothing goes wrong.

 

[Ktrek]

Therin of Andor said:


davidh, the list owner, hasn't been well enough to devote time to updates on the rest of the site, but Trek author Dave Gallanter is part owner of the site which hosts the bbs, and he makes sure nothing goes wrong.

Hey Ian, if that is true then why doesn't Dave turn the archives back on? There are times that I have wanted to search for a previous post or topic and now the archive is not up and running.

Kevin

 

[Therin of Andor]

Ktrek said:
if that is true then why doesn't Dave turn the archives back on? There are times that I have wanted to search for a previous post or topic and now the archive is not up and running.

Maybe they require a lot of maintenance, and they are a pain to keep running correctly if/when davidh is not available to moderate? Try asking Cap (Dave Galanter) over at Alvaro's ComicBoards.com / TVShowboards.com .

 

[Steve Roby]

Ktrek said:
It would take some work though and I'm not sure I have the time to develop a really good Star Trek Books website.

Speaking as someone who's created a Trek books website (which is certainly comprehensive, though whether it's good depends on what you want from a Trek books site)... it takes a lot of time, especially if you're trying to cover all Star Trek books, not just novels or officially licensed Pocket Star Trek books. Keeping it going probably doesn't take more than a few hours a month (except when I add some new feature, like the still-in-progress indexes to essays and short stories), but getting to the point where all you have to do is keep it going is a hell of a lot of work. If you've got a database-based page it's probably easier in many respects, but the server I started my site on years ago doesn't support that kind of thing.

Once the site is more or less done, it's time to focus on the ongoing jobs. Check the web regularly for new books that may have escaped your notice (less of a problem if you exclude unauthorized books like Herbie Pilato's forthcoming book on the animated series). Scan covers. Type up information. Add links. Hope someone is actually using the site. Go back and check pages occasionally and hope you catch the mistakes before any users do. Try to think of new things you can do to make the site more usable and more informative. Get the occasional renewed sense of enthusiasm and put a weekend into it. Check the freefind search logs and try to figure out if people are unable to find something they should be able to find. And keep at it.

 

[RikerFan]

Steve Roby said:
Speaking as someone who's created a Trek books website (which is certainly comprehensive, though whether it's good depends on what you want from a Trek books site)... it takes a lot of time

I can imagine that it takes a lot of time, but your website is clear and complete. I like it a lot and browse it each time I look for quick information on a book

 

[T'Bonz]

Ktrek said:
The site owner has had some health issues and has not been able to maintain it.

Gee, I'm sorry to hear this. He seems to be a helluva nice guy. If he happens to be reading this, hang in there and I'm thinking of you.

 

[Ethros]

Shame to hear that, thank for answering y'all