Possible Loss of Apolyton SMACX Archives

[Petek]

I was reading this thread on Apolyton. To summarize:

After Apolyton moved to a new server the archives, including those for SMACX, were no longer accessible. It turns out that the archives can be accessed via the following URL:

http://mail.civilization4.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=142

ETA: The above link no longer works as of Dec. 20, 2010. The server on which it resided was taken down.

However, any links to those threads are broken. The server on which those archives reside will probably become inaccessible, perhaps as early as the end of this November. Robert Plomp, one of Apolyton's current owners, does not plan to migrate all of the data in the archives and he advises those who wish to keep any data to save it somewhere else.

It sounds like the 3000+ threads in the SMACX archive will be lost. I have to agree with Plomp that most of the materials in the archives aren't worth the effort to preserve. However, the SMACX archive contains lots of discussions about strategy and technical issues that are still relevant today.

Several years ago Minute Mirage posted a detailed index of strategy threads in the archives (Note: None of the links on that page work.). I plan to download all these threads and find some way to make them available to others. I sent a PM to Plomp about this matter, but haven't heard back yet. (I will download the threads no matter what. The issue, I think, is getting permission to post them on some other public forum.)

Any comments? Feel free to link or copy this post to other SMACX forums.

Petek

 

[vyeh]

It sounds like the 3000+ threads in the SMACX archive will be lost. I have to agree with Plomp that most of the materials in the archives aren't worth the effort to preserve. However, the SMACX archive contains lots of discussions about strategy and technical issues that are still relevant today.

... I plan to download all these threads and find some way to make them available to others. I sent a PM to Plomp about this matter, but haven't heard back yet. (I will download the threads no matter what. The issue, I think, is getting permission to post them on some other public forum.)

Any comments? Feel free to link or copy this post to other SMACX forums.

Petek

Assuming Mr. Plomp gives permission, it might be best if someone with the appropriate capability simply downloads the entire SMACX archives into a big zip file, which could be posted somewhere. (If the current limit at CGN is not enough, I'm sure buster, who has been a big supporter of SMAC for years, will raise the limit.)

I have created a link to this thread from CGN.

 

[Petek]

I agree that the ideal solution would be to download the entire SMAC archive as a single file and then sort it out at leisure. Right now I'm downloading each individual thread (from the Minute Mirage links). I don't know much about the structure of forum databases, but I suspect that the SMAC archive doesn't exist as a separate file. Perhaps someone with sufficient rights could export a specific group of threads to a file. I don't know how much effort that would involve and I'd be reluctant to ask Robert or someone else to do it.

 

[Petek]

I finished downloading the 125 threads from Minute Mirage's index of the Apolyton SMAC archives. They occupy approx. 50 MB and compress to approx. 20MB. The entire SMAC archives comprise 3117 threads. That makes a total of approx. 1200 MB, compressed to 500 MB. Still waiting for a reply from Robert Plomp. Will follow-up in a couple of days if I don't hear from him. If I get permission to distribute, I'll post on CFC and anyone will then be free to use as they wish.

 

[vyeh]

If all you get are the 125 threads, that is good. Did you have to copy each post?

Edit:

However, the SMACX archive contains lots of discussions about strategy and technical issues that are still relevant today.

Probably because Firaxis stopped patching SMACX a long time ago.

 

[Petek]

If all you get are the 125 threads, that is good. Did you have to copy each post?

No, I just had to copy each thread. Total time = two or three hours.

 

[vyeh]

Good for you. It is too bad Rubin has disappeared.

 

[Darsnan]

I finished downloading the 125 threads from Minute Mirage's index of the Apolyton SMAC archives. They occupy approx. 50 MB and compress to approx. 20MB. The entire SMAC archives comprise 3117 threads. That makes a total of approx. 1200 MB, compressed to 500 MB. Still waiting for a reply from Robert Plomp. Will follow-up in a couple of days if I don't hear from him. If I get permission to distribute, I'll post on CFC and anyone will then be free to use as they wish.

First off, thanx for taking the time to do this Petek.

From my perspective all the scenarios and artwork are extremely important, especially the scenarios from Chaos Theory (his Solstice series were among the best IMO) and Googlie, as these items are probably not easily replaceable, especially the intro text which accompanied them. If you need help retrieving and catalogueing these items let me know, and we can go from there.


D

 

[Petek]

Thanks, Darsnan.

Where is (or was) the material that you're interested in? It seems that this page has no content.

 

[Darsnan]

IIRC all of CT's and Googlie's scenarios were in 'poly's Strategy section. I do have several of CT's scenarios, but not his intro text from the threads.

D

 

[Petek]

IIRC all of CT's and Googlie's scenarios were in 'poly's Strategy section. I do have several of CT's scenarios, but not his intro text from the threads.

D

I'm still not seeing what you're looking for. I've been pulling threads from this location. Are the threads in which you're interested there?

 

[Darsnan]

I'm still not seeing what you're looking for. I've been pulling threads from this location. Are the threads in which you're interested there?

I'm getting an error message when I click your link (maybe my work is blocking it?). Essentially 'poly used to have an AC General/ Help/ Strategy section, and this is where I used to post all my threads which contained scenarios. CT also used this same forum to post his threads which contained scenarios. In each case both of us used to post text in the intial thread posts which were relevent to the scenario itself (installation instructions, backgrounds on the actual scenarios, etc.): this text is what I was originally referring to. Do CT's threads still exist in 'poly's AC General/ Help Strategy section, or available thru the archives which you are digging? I guess thats what I am driving at. If they don't and you can't recover them, then I do have several of his Solstice scenarios, so can supply them if you can't recover them elseways.


D

 

[civac]

Is there an efficient way to save threads (including attacments). I wouldn' want to do everything by hand.

 

[Petek]

Is there an efficient way to save threads (including attacments). I wouldn' want to do everything by hand.

What browser do you use? I did it with Firefox, so I could explain how to do it that way, assuming that you plan to work on it. It's pretty labor-intensive. Like I said, it took 2 -3 hours to migrate 125 threads and it would have taken much longer if I didn't have Minute Mirage's list of links. I don't intend to migrate the entire archive, but if I can find what Darsnan's referring to I'll migrate that. Also, all links (which would include attached files) in the migrated threads are broken. Since the threads that I migrated were primarily discussions about strategy and technical matters, broken links probably aren't a problem. I'm not even sure if such links can be fixed. I'll have to think about it.

 

[civac]

I use firefox. But it seems your way is not more effective then what I did.

 

[Petek]

I'm getting an error message when I click your link (maybe my work is blocking it?). Essentially 'poly used to have an AC General/ Help/ Strategy section, and this is where I used to post all my threads which contained scenarios. CT also used this same forum to post his threads which contained scenarios. In each case both of us used to post text in the intial thread posts which were relevent to the scenario itself (installation instructions, backgrounds on the actual scenarios, etc.): this text is what I was originally referring to. Do CT's threads still exist in 'poly's AC General/ Help Strategy section, or available thru the archives which you are digging? I guess thats what I am driving at. If they don't and you can't recover them, then I do have several of his Solstice scenarios, so can supply them if you can't recover them elseways.


D

I think that threads that interest you are still in the (unarchived) Alpha Centauri forum on 'poly. I searched for the string "solstice" there and found several threads started by Chaos Theory. For example,

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/154037-Summer-Solstice-2006-Dream-Twister

However, the link in CT's first post is broken. It points to

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=23323_DT.zip

which doesn't work. You need to add settler4. at the beginning of the url, so it looks like http://settler4.apolyton.net and so on.

I'm unclear on whether these links will be fixed or even if they will continue to exist after the end of the month. There's no indication that the (unarchived) threads themselves will disappear, however.

Just to elaborate on the SMAC archives, it's titled AC - General/Help/Strategy and contains threads from Feb. 2000 through May 2004. These are the threads that probably will disappear shortly.

 

[Darsnan]

I think that threads that interest you are still in the (unarchived) Alpha Centauri forum on 'poly.
I'm unclear on whether these links will be fixed or even if they will continue to exist after the end of the month. There's no indication that the (unarchived) threads themselves will disappear, however.

So do you think it a good idea to save off these scenarios? If so then I can volunteer to save these scenarios (and their intro text/ authorship) and we can decide later what to do with them (posting them here would be the best idea IMO, as it would give them the most visibility). My only concern is that this will be seen by some as my looting a graveyard, as the only reason I'm going back there is to perform this task.
Anyways, let me know what you think and I can proceed accordingly.

D

 

[Petek]

After rereading Robert Plomp's posts in the 'poly link in my first post, here's a summary of my understanding of what materials are at risk and what's safe:

At risk, almost certain to be lost: All of the threads in the archive AC - General/Help/Strategy - Archive, located here. This is the source of the 125 threads that I downloaded a few days ago.

Safe, but not currently working: Files that were uploaded to 'poly before the new server was brought on-line. Plomp says that these files have been migrated to the new server, but need to be "re-aligned" before they will work properly.

Safe, for now: All threads posted since May 2004. All of these threads were properly migrated to the new server.

As far as I can tell, all of the posts of your and CT's scenarios fall under the safe, for now category, and the files attached to the posts fall under Safe, but not currently working.

Example: CT's Summer Solstice 2006 - Dream Twister scenario. The description of the scenario is here. This thread is not at risk because it was properly migrated to the new server. However, in the first post in that thread is a link, shown as Dream Twister. That link is broken. Clicking it gives you to a 404 Not Found error, with the following url displayed in the address bar:

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=23323_DT.zip

You can correct the error by editing the address bar as follows:

http://settler4.apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=23323_DT.zip

Going to that address now allows you to download the appropriate file. This file is on the new server and can be downloaded using the above instructions. It's unclear whether Plomp will ever fix the link so that it works properly.

In short, I don't think that any scenarios are immediately at risk, unless they were posted prior to May 2004. I searched the SMAC archives for threads started by you, CT and Googlie and found none. Assuming that each of you would have been the thread-starter for a scenario that you created, then there are no such scenarios in the archives.

HTH

Petek

 

[Darsnan]

In short, I don't think that any scenarios are immediately at risk,

HTH

Petek

OK, good. Let me know if this changes, and you think I should start harvesting stuff off the site.

D

 

[Jolly Rogerer]

Ah, the good old days.