The Sinclair QL Forum

Dave wrote:I have just recently added and updated information on the QL wiki in the last few weeks. I am willing to host it, if that is what is needed to keep it up and running. I am able to maintain an installed and working copy of it, but I do not have the skills to install the code. I tried before and failed.

Migration of the WIki will take a lot of work - as urls need to be re-written (possibly could be done in the SQL database using a bit of PHP), and images need to be moved from my rwapadventures.com website. It is a similar issue with Dilwyn's site in that all of the URLs would need to be re-written if the Sinclair QL Homepage is no longer hosted at dilwyn.me.uk

I would actually decline the offer of it being hosted by you Dave, as you have taken too much on in the past - and let's face it, the community seem to assume that whomever hosts it, is responsible for updating and maintaining it - and certainly the person who gets all the flak if anything is missing from it....

I dunno. I think it is pretty much transitioning to being a "static content" site... I don't think it'll take much active maintenance going forward.

Mostly, it just needs those frustrating gaps and holes filling in where we know bits are missing.

I'm sorry it's causing you stress and frustration. Compared to the Spectrum and C64 scenes, the QL scene isn't very vibrant.

RWAP wrote: It is a similar issue with Dilwyn's site in that all of the URLs would need to be re-written if the Sinclair QL Homepage is no longer hosted at dilwyn.me.uk

Actually, when I hastily moved dilwyn.me.uk to greybeardz.com I was pleasantly surprised how few absolute urls there turned out to be, as I had always taken care to use relative urls for internal links wherever I could, it's mainly where I have used other people's code for forms, searching etc that any minor issues have arisen. I was dreading once upload was complete that I would find half of the site didn't work, but it turned out infinitely better than I'd expected (mind you, I was feeling pessimistic about everything at that point!)

When the site was migrated to greybeardz.com only one or two very minor changes were needed that I know of, which is a good thing for when I eventually migrate it to a different long term host. Although the long term hosting will have dilwyn.me.uk redirected to it so there should be no issues anyway, pleasantly surprised by how well things have worked without redirecting at the moment.

dilwyn wrote:

RWAP wrote: It is a similar issue with Dilwyn's site in that all of the URLs would need to be re-written if the Sinclair QL Homepage is no longer hosted at dilwyn.me.uk

Actually, when I hastily moved dilwyn.me.uk to greybeardz.com I was pleasantly surprised how few absolute urls there turned out to be, as I had always taken care to use relative urls for internal links wherever I could, it's mainly where I have used other people's code for forms, searching etc that any minor issues have arisen. I was dreading once upload was complete that I would find half of the site didn't work, but it turned out infinitely better than I'd expected (mind you, I was feeling pessimistic about everything at that point!)

It was not the internal links I meant so much (as they are generally relative) - it was all the links on the QL Wiki to where you can download the software / obtain manuals etc...

We should probably stop worrying about what is in effect a 10 minute automation task and actually concentrate on the actual issue and that is keeping the info online.

The accepted internet way to do this is mirrors so the more mirrors dilwyn gets the better.

Another way these days is to make sure archive.org has a full archive of dilwyns page (note I do not know the process for this).

XorA wrote:We should probably stop worrying about what is in effect a 10 minute automation task and actually concentrate on the actual issue and that is keeping the info online.

Some of it can be automated - images etc can't

Remember I started this discussion in February - yet where are the mirrors of the ZX81 forums, the Z88 forums, and the QL Wiki?

The accepted internet way to do this is mirrors so the more mirrors dilwyn gets the better.
Another way these days is to make sure archive.org has a full archive of dilwyns page (note I do not know the process for this).

Mirrors are ok if people are going to search again in Google when they find a page is no longer available on the original site. Redirections to a mirrored site will work, but only if the original domain is still valid and you need a htaccess file which allows the url to be correctly mirrored in full (rather than just a simple wiki.sinclairql.net for example).

I don't think you can ensure that archive.org archive a full website - they add it to their engine, but do not seem to add every page and downloadable file etc (probably more to do with the speed and number of sites they need to archive)...

A mirror won't work on the QL Wiki itself - as that needs a new base URL and moving off my server in its entirity.

Whilst it remains there, the site, updates and missing information continue to be viewed by certain sectors of the QL community as intrinsically linked to my commercial activities and the majority of feedback / comments I receive about it are "there is nothing about X, Y or Z on the Wiki" - expecting me to write the content instead of anyone else coming forward to do so.

Similarly with the ZX81 and Z88 forums (although thankfully I set these up with their own domain names) - these need to be moved onto a more secure footing as my current hosting company, iPower are not too keen on the amount of bandwidth and database thrashing that can happen on this and seem to often reach a point where they refuse any more database connections for an hour. Again I don't have the time or energy to keep fighting the spammers which are attracted to popular forums and although there are a few moderators on the sites, it is normally left up to me to deal with the spammers.

RWAP wrote:

XorA wrote:We should probably stop worrying about what is in effect a 10 minute automation task and actually concentrate on the actual issue and that is keeping the info online.

Some of it can be automated - images etc can't

Remember I started this discussion in February - yet where are the mirrors of the ZX81 forums, the Z88 forums, and the QL Wiki?

yes I am fully aware of the discussion, but I have no time to spend on QL (I used to host various websites but the workload just got over what I could volunteer), hosting for dilwyn was easy because I just gave him an FTP drop and he sorted it himself.

Considering how long you have been trying to find a volunteer for QL wiki it might actually be time to activate bastard mode, upload current zip of photos+database then remove it and see who moans loudest and volunteer them to bring it back

Dave wrote:I have just recently added and updated information on the QL wiki in the last few weeks. I am willing to host it, if that is what is needed to keep it up and running. I am able to maintain an installed and working copy of it, but I do not have the skills to install the code. I tried before and failed.

Hi Dave,

If it were a Linux (preferably Debian) machine with ssh access, I may have a try installing `MediWiki' on it, and figure out how to import SQL dump.

Tomas

This is a Mac and QL shop

Hi Dave,

Is there a port of `MediaWiki' for Mac?

Tomas