The Fate of Apolyton's Archived Threads

[CurtSibling]

Many thanks, Codehappy!

[jicépé]

Thanks, Codehappy for such a precaution.
I had diverse documents about Civ II from the GL, but they went away after a disk crash...

[Petek]

Just wanted to pop in here and point out that Apolyton restored their archives, after everyone thought they were lost. See today's (April 3) announcement here. You might want to check the forums of interest to you. I checked the Alpha Centauri archives and found that attachments and links worked fine.

[Catfish]

I had to double check the date - that it wasn't April 1.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Wow, looks like that actually got them coverted into VBB 4 format, rather than just text which for a while look like the only way they would survive.

[darkborg]

Apolyton's archived threads will probably be gone by next month.

I have just looked at some of the Apolyton threads, and it does not seem gone. I have not yet read it it detail, and would probably not even know about it except for this thread that mentions it. That looks like it has a lot of good information about civ2 in it.

[starlifter]

In April, Apolyton found and restored most of their forum archives since at least about 2001, as well as... attachments! Hurray. Many of their old links still work, and even when many here at CivFanatics are broken from back in the same time frames.

MarkG is not an owner anymore, but they have a new owner and staff lineup, and it appears they are focusing mainly on Civ 5 and are doing well. Today I even managed to log in for the first time in many years, and got this message:

Hello Starlifter it appears that you have not posted on Apolyton in several weeks, why not take a few moments to ask a question, help provide a solution or just engage in a conversation with another member in any one on Apolyton?

When I tried to view my own information, this popped up:

vBulletin Message

Starlifter, you do not have permission to access this page.
...

Their archives are online, but there seem to be some quirks with the new system, at least for "old" account holders, since a similar message occurs when I try to make a post there. But its good to see that the site and its information have not bit the digital bullet.

[starlifter]

With the passage of time, the Civ 2 community has become smaller, so I looked at a few things and post them here, mostly as a reference.

The current owners of Apolyton are:
Martin Gühmann
Robert Plomp

And it seems they are committed to not only keeping Apolyton alive, but growing, which is of course good news both for Civ 2 and the whole Civ franchise.

Civ II Link: http://apolyton.net/content.php/187-civilization-ii

Apolyton has an active site (though the Civ II portion is basically inactive), which means it looks good that the archives will remain online for some years to come:

What's Going On?
There are currently 148 users online. 12 members and 112 guests and 24 spiders
Most users ever online was 842, June 14, 2011 at 20:47.
Apolyton Civilization Site Statistics
Threads: 158,948 Posts: 5,238,498 Members: 111,723 Active Members: 1,097

Some relevant Civ II names at Apolyton:

DaveV - ICS, Knowledge
*La Fayette - Knowledge, Three Arrows & Super Iconclads Strategy ([Michel Baise], deceased)
Marquis de Sodaq - Combat, Knowledge, Civ II Website (also *Sodak)
*+Mercator - Scenarios, Modded EXEs/packs, Programming tools
Oedo - Research, Oedo Years
*+Peaster - ECG (Early Conquest Guide), Knowledge
Paul van den Belt - OCC, Paulicy
Samson - Research, Testing, Science, Keyciv, Knowledge
Scouse Gits [SG(2)]- Knowledge, Early Landings, Starting Tech, Co-creator of Great Library (3 players in 1; SG(2) [Ivor], is deceased)
*Sethos - Knowledge
*+SlowThinker - Knowledge, Research, Testing, Spies, Co-Founder of Great Library
*Smash - OCC, Knowledge
Solo - OCC, ELG (Early Landing Guide), Small Maps, Research
Sten Sture - OCC


* - also a poster at CivFanatics
+ - Still active


NOTE 1: Of course, this list is not inclusive, and certainly not complete; it relies mainly on my recollections.
NOTE 2: I was not an active Apolyton member, and did not even join Apolyton until 2002 when Nethog needed assistance with his Civ 2 Reference Pack.
NOTE 3: Much of CivFanatics Civ II work is directly or indirectly based upon, or at least affected by, the work started or done by members such as these.