This page is an archive of a community-wide discussion. This page is no longer live. Further comments or questions on this topic should be made in a new Senate Hall page rather than here so that this page is preserved as a historic record. 1358 (Talk) 11:43, January 22, 2012 (UTC)
A few hours ago, it was announced that the StarWars.com Message Boards will be shutting down soon. The shutdown will take place in two stages, with the boards being locked into read-only mode on April 29 May 3 (edited by MJ at 22:06, April 25, 2011 (UTC)) and then being shut down completely on June 3. Unlike the articles lost in the 2008 SW.com revamp or with the removal of all SW information from the WOTC website last year, the forums do not appear to be available on archive.org, which presents us with a major problem; as any long-time editor here knows, we rely quite a bit on many statements made by Sue Rostoni, Leland Chee, and other VIPs on these boards as sources for statements in our articles. We need to come up with some way to archive important statements, such as Chee's statement on the canonocity (sp?) of Tales 1–20, for permanent reference. Any suggestions? Master Jonathan — Jedi Council Chambers Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 01:47 UTC
- Mad scramble to find as many of the referenced posts on the forum as possible and grab screenshots before the boards shut down. - JMAS
Hey, it's me! 01:49, April 5, 2011 (UTC) - great, way to support your fans....<-Omicron(Leave a message at the BEEP!) 01:53, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- According to Special:LinkSearch, there are 1,003 links to the SW.com forums. There's also a list of sourced threads at User:The Broox/sourced threads. Master Jonathan — Jedi Council Chambers Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 01:57 UTC
- Welllllll crap. We have a lot of screenshotting to do. Seriously, just... crap crap crap. This is really not cool. Menkooroo 06:37, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- In theory, a script could be made that would retrieve all the linked pages. There's just one problem: that doesn't make sure it will get the exact post the reference is meant to point at (as in, the linking might be outdated/erroneous). So, I'm afraid this will require more or less manual work. –Tm_T (Talk) 06:53, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- We should implement a checklist of what needs grabbed, so users don't end up grabbing the same thing twice. I have free time, I can help out with the screen-capping. Trak Nar Ramble on 06:58, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Yeah, this sounds like a good project for April and May. I'll volunteer to take on a few hundred or so. We can set up a forum where you log the ones you've got. I guess we'll have to upload all the images here and stick not-orphan tags on 'em? Menkooroo 07:02, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- What if html copies of the pages/posts are taken instead of screenshots and saved to some server? Also, I have plenty of server storage to keep pics too if uploading them to here is found to be too much. –Tm_T (Talk) 07:14, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Having seen this idea in action, I'm inclined to side with it. It should save us a lot of time. Trak Nar Ramble on 07:34, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Indeed, retrieving the html from every post is rather simple thing with a script, leaving us mostly just making sure all those links are proper before fed as one long list for the script. –Tm_T (Talk) 07:49, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- I could take screenshots. As for the html,umm...yeah. I have no idea how to do that. MasterFred
(Whatever) 16:22, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- I could take screenshots. As for the html,umm...yeah. I have no idea how to do that. MasterFred
- Indeed, retrieving the html from every post is rather simple thing with a script, leaving us mostly just making sure all those links are proper before fed as one long list for the script. –Tm_T (Talk) 07:49, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Having seen this idea in action, I'm inclined to side with it. It should save us a lot of time. Trak Nar Ramble on 07:34, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- What if html copies of the pages/posts are taken instead of screenshots and saved to some server? Also, I have plenty of server storage to keep pics too if uploading them to here is found to be too much. –Tm_T (Talk) 07:14, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Yeah, this sounds like a good project for April and May. I'll volunteer to take on a few hundred or so. We can set up a forum where you log the ones you've got. I guess we'll have to upload all the images here and stick not-orphan tags on 'em? Menkooroo 07:02, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- We should implement a checklist of what needs grabbed, so users don't end up grabbing the same thing twice. I have free time, I can help out with the screen-capping. Trak Nar Ramble on 06:58, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- In theory, a script could be made that would retrieve all the linked pages. There's just one problem: that doesn't make sure it will get the exact post the reference is meant to point at (as in, the linking might be outdated/erroneous). So, I'm afraid this will require more or less manual work. –Tm_T (Talk) 06:53, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Welllllll crap. We have a lot of screenshotting to do. Seriously, just... crap crap crap. This is really not cool. Menkooroo 06:37, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- According to Special:LinkSearch, there are 1,003 links to the SW.com forums. There's also a list of sourced threads at User:The Broox/sourced threads. Master Jonathan — Jedi Council Chambers Tuesday, April 5, 2011, 01:57 UTC
(unindent) If we go with html instead of images, all you need to take care is that forum references in this list are correct, all the rest can be done with a script I'll run. –Tm_T (Talk) 17:07, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Forgot to add, that ofcourse some bot could then add "archive" links to those references. But that's then. –Tm_T (Talk) 18:47, April 5, 2011 (UTC)
- Nice idea, Starwars.com. You win 1358 (Talk) 10:46, April 6, 2011 (UTC)
- Well, the Holocron questions thread has found a new home on Facebook. Leland Chee has created a Facebook page and has restarted the thread in the "Discussions" tab on that page. He has also begun archiving some Qs and As in notes on the page. While that won't solve our problem entirely, it will help somewhat. Master Jonathan — Jedi Council Chambers Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 15:38 UTC
- Just added that page on there. The question is, is it possible to cite something on Facebook? -- Riffsyphon1024 03:33, April 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Technically yes, but you'd want to keep a link to a static, separately hosted version (like Tm's server suggestion, the downside being that it isn't as "official") in case Facebook change their layout again and break links. I have a forum that moved from Facebook and when the discussion boards were changed on Facebook a few years ago it screwed up all the links we had going back to it so it can happen. NAYAYEN—it appears to be a frammistat 10:10, April 7, 2011 (UTC)
- Just added that page on there. The question is, is it possible to cite something on Facebook? -- Riffsyphon1024 03:33, April 7, 2011 (UTC)
- This just keeps things interesting and gives us fans purpose. But yeah, no archive.org links suckkkkkkks. -- Riffsyphon1024 03:29, April 7, 2011 (UTC)
- It appears they have shut the forums down much earlier than announced; all links to the forums now redirect to the starwars.com home page. Now what? Master Jonathan — Jedi Council Chambers Monday, April 25, 2011, 18:23 UTC
- Err, that sounds bad... I was planning to make the first archive run tomorrow(ish) after settling down from the weekend, so I have none yet. –Tm_T (Talk) 18:30, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
- Plan B, will try archiving google cache of those pages asap... this is not fun. –Tm_T (Talk) 18:40, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
- Forums are back up, so I'm doing the archiving currently. Will do a compressed file from them when ready so others can keep a backup too. –Tm_T (Talk) 21:21, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
- The good news is that because of the forum outage, they have moved the date for locking the forum into read-only mode back from April 29 to May 3, so that gives us four extra days to archive all this stuff. Master Jonathan — Jedi Council Chambers Monday, April 25, 2011, 22:06 UTC
- Forums are back up, so I'm doing the archiving currently. Will do a compressed file from them when ready so others can keep a backup too. –Tm_T (Talk) 21:21, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
- Plan B, will try archiving google cache of those pages asap... this is not fun. –Tm_T (Talk) 18:40, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
- Err, that sounds bad... I was planning to make the first archive run tomorrow(ish) after settling down from the weekend, so I have none yet. –Tm_T (Talk) 18:30, April 25, 2011 (UTC)
Archives[]
I have done first archiving run, and the results are located in here. It does need manual checking that the posts that were needed are actually there, so please try and see if you find anything missing. Also it would be good if some of you would take and keep the compressed file I did in safe, just in case. –Tm_T (Talk) 06:23, April 26, 2011 (UTC)
- Good job. I'll keep a copy on my external hard-drive, per your request. Holocron
(Complain) 05:30, April 27, 2011 (UTC)
