well, chuckers passworded the archives in CS,, so anyone not goign to "his" site,,doenst have access to it any longer. Question,, is this legal?? #2,, how can we get them back for public use?

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), May 13, 2002

Answers

you can still access them through http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-new-answers.tcl?topic=Countrysi de

Probably not for long though.

I don't think any legalities come into play. It probably is up to Mr. Greenspun since it's his server.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), May 13, 2002.

hmm, guess they took care of that also. I really think those actions were unnecessary. They put it out to vote but lead people to believe that somehow the archives were threatened by "hackers" if the site wasn't locked down. That isn't true.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), May 13, 2002.

thats chuck for you,, thinking no one else should get to play with what he considers "his", though most of the rchives where they LONG before he was. ONly hacking that could be done,, was to add more info to it,, someone shoudl post on "his" site what he has done, and get them back

-- Stan (sopal@net-pert.com), May 13, 2002.

The loss of the archives from this server is a tragedy. The format is easily accessible and a breeze to navigate.

I don't know anything about the legalities of it though. Since they were public posts to begin with, I don't see how anyone can really *own* them, beyond the ability to claim that they maintain them.

If it's possible to get the archives back up and accessible here - I would certainly be willing to help as much as time allows. Unfortunately, the time I can offer at the moment may be limited, since I am probably going to be having a baby within the next 10 days. :-) It's a serious offer, but I am going to be time challenged for several weeks to come.

I don't have much to say about the demise of the forum. It's a rash and bitter end to a once very good thing. People don't seem to realize that the greatness of the internet comes from the very thing that made the greatness of the USA - we are all given the privilege of deciding for ourselves whether something is good or true, that we all the the choice to accept or deny information that is presented to us, and we all have the duty and prerogative to make our opinions know, to be accepted or rejected by our peers.

I am much more comfortable in a forum where I can decide for myself what to read and what not to read, who to believe and who to ignore. I am frankly shocked that many other homesteaders and people who cherish their independence would not feel the same way. I don't need anyone to install blinders on me, I am fully capable of choosing my own. I have a lot of reservations about vague references to hackers - number one, mischief comes and goes, it's certainly not a good reason to begin closing down forums. If that were the case, usenet would have dissolved years ago. Good usenet forums learn to deal with minor annoyances such as flooding and hacking by ignoring it - eventually it all goes away, with only minor annoyances.

But shadowy allusions to "hacking" without much explanation really disturbs me. What the hell could have happened that was so terrible and uncontrollable that several years worth of archives had to be pulled out without so much as a futile attempt to deal with the problem? It's not as though this forum has been inundated with persistent attacks. It seems for too convenient of an excuse.

-- bantling (not@this.time), May 13, 2002.

I agree, it IS too convenient of an excuse, bantling.

Chuck has pulled the wool over quite a few people's eyes in my opinion. Unfortunately I don't think there's much we can do about it.

Countryside II is available if people want to use it as an alternative to Chuck's site. But without the archives of the old Countryside, we'll have to start at square one again.

-- Caretaker (none@this.time2), May 13, 2002.

Stan you are such a loser...........................................................

-- Go away Stan (none@none.com), May 14, 2002.

The archives aren't "lost" -- they belong to Countryside, and Countryside was going to close the site completely because SOMEONE was being a complete twit and causing major disruption, and Countryside was sick of it.

Rather than lose the archives completely (which would have happened had Countryside just shut down the forum) several of the members asked to have them archived somewhere for future use. Countryside agreed to give the archives to Chuck, who had been a moderator for some time -- liked or not, he was the one who volunteered to do the job.

The archived information has to be uploaded onto the new server. When it has been moved across, the archives will be available again. The reason they were passworded was SOMEONE wouldn't stop spamming the site.

-- Tracy (trimmer31@hotmail.com), May 15, 2002.

I will mail a CD of the archives, as of the date all of the talk of a new board came up, to anyone who sends 10 bucks to my pay-pal account (my e-mail address)- to cover my costs.

Stan talks so much about Chuck being a power freak, I just don't get it. Stan you love power also, don't you? I believe Chuck is just safeguarding the archives , until they can be relocated.

While I certainly can't speak for him, I would imagine that he would make them accesible when he is done moving them, so that you can move them here.

-- Rick in SW West Virginia (Rick_122@hotmail.com), May 15, 2002.

Rick, Phil is offering it for $5.00, and that includes all the unpass- worded boards. I am sure that once everyone cools down, this will work itself out and those of us that have trouble accessing or just don't want to access the new board will stay here and learn to get along. That would be if people don't lurk around and try to undo the fence mending that is trying to take place here. Those who left need to just get over the fact that not everyone is happy and leave others alone.

I have no beef with you Rick.............but please, just move on or stay and play nice. In the greater scheme of things, it just doesn't matter what any of us think about what happened or who we point the finger at. The mag dumped us, for whatever reason. Facts are facts and what is done is what is done. I don't know about you, but I came to this board to share my homesteading experience, strengths and hopes with other like minded people. I like small towns, and CS was sure getting to be big city. This is nice, lets just sit on the porch and chat a spell and get to know each other all over again. :>)

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), May 15, 2002.

well said Diane.

You can also access the archives on google.com. Even with the forum being locked, you can still read the cached copies on google. All things considered I don't think the archives is much of any issue anyway.

In my opinion, Countryside couldn't claim ownership of those archives. If it came down to it, they'd be owned by Lusenet. I wouldn't necessarily say that Countryside magazine supported that forum. It's an open message board server, all they did was originate and moderate it. Serving up a forum/website like where Countryside moved to isn't that much of a burden either once it's set up, in fact the traffic is an asset. Page hits have value.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), May 16, 2002.

let me give some instructions in case anyone doesn't know how to find archives on google.

if you were looking for goat archives;

go to www.google.com

type in: lusenet countryside goat

search might only return 4, so then click on "you can repeat the search with the omitted results included" link at the end of those 4 listings. That will list all of them, in this case 1630 posts.

You can define your search down by using more keywords. Include lusenet countryside to bring up Countryside posts.

If you can't read the post by clicking on googles blue link for the post, click on the smaller grey "cached" link.

-- Dave (multiplierx9@hotmail.com), May 16, 2002.

Rick, Phil is offering it for $5.00, and that includes all the unpass- worded boards.....................

That's great Diane, I didn't know that.

.......fence mending that is trying to take place here. Those who left need to just get over the fact that not everyone is happy and leave others alone.......................

Fence mending is vital at the homestead!

......I have no beef with you Rick.............but please, just move on or stay and play nice.........

Let's move on to learn and grow.

.............In the greater scheme of things, it just doesn't matter what any of us think about what happened or who we point the finger at. The mag dumped us, for whatever reason. Facts are facts and what is done is what is done.................

I hadn't really felt dumped, but I also "expect" the new sight to be an alternative.

.......share my homesteading experience, strengths and hopes with other like minded people. lets just sit on the porch and chat a spell and get to know each other all over again. :>) ...........

It would be a true pleasure.

-- Rick in SW West Virginia (Rick_122@hotmail.com), May 17, 2002.