Atariage has been aquired by Atari.. fyi

[globeron]

3 hours ago, Schmitzi said:

 

I like it, but the same question here: Who is the owner of forumotion.eu,

and what will happen with it in future ?

If we can fetch or export all data, all is possible, but uneeded work if done twice or more times...

 

(Please also keep in mind that I own the ti994a.com (from Barry Boone), the .DE,

Geneve9640.com and .de and much more domains.

I would pass some of this domains away or relink or share the ownership with or without others or whatever, for such a (guaranteed) use.)

 

And there are whtech.com, also Rich Polivka´s 99er.net, Fabrice´s ti99.com and much more well established pages/names that are hosted by hopelessly addicted users....

 

And at such a point, if so, for me it makes very much sense about a "community of heirs" (owners & admins) for this domains, and to discuss it (wherever).

For me it must not happen that someone passes away or becomes a bitch or whatever and the community slides into a status like "Game Over".

 

 

 

 

 

Ref: "Atari has gone and purchased the website AtariAge for an undisclosed fee 

(source: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/atari-acquires-historian-website-atariage)"

 

Atariage was the most central one, but now all previous and new posts are probably the property and owned by Atari ?

 

 

@OLD CS1

Just trying how easy and fast it is to setup a similar format (look and feel) forum with a dedicated TI-99 focus  (for the community by the community and not owned by an org.)

 

 

@Schmitzi

You are right, so many forum moved and disappeared (Yahoo group, etc.) and so many websites.

 

 

This is what I could find about Forumotion:
 

https://www.forumotion.com/terms-of-service

forumotion.com is a service published by the company e-Toxic, a limited liability company based at 100 Rue Albert Caquot 06410 Sophia Antipolis, FRANCE, registered under number 490 862 059 in the Antibes Trade and Companies Register.

Datacenter : OVH : 2 rue Kellermann - 59100 Roubaix - France and SOFTLAYER : 6400 International Parkway, Suite 2000, Plano, TX 75093 USA.

 

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/forumotion

 

https://www.whois.com/whois/forumotion.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Serafini Lapo]

12 minutes ago, ti99iuc said:

Sarebbe possibile avere almeno un backup completo di questa scheda?

 

Per quanto riguarda altre buone tavole già attive, abbiamo anche:

- http://www.99er.net/phbbarchive/99er.net/99erbb/viewforumcf19.html?f=6

 

O questo:

 

-  http://planet-99.net/   (sezione forum)

 

Entrambi creati da grandi appassionati dei 99ers

Grazie Ciro per la pubblicazione!🤩

[globeron]

16 minutes ago, ti99iuc said:

Could be possibile to have a complete backup of this board at least?

 

About other already Active good boards, we also have:

-http://www.99er.net/phbbarchive/99er.net/99erbb/viewforumcf19.html?f=6

 

Or this:

 

- http://planet-99.net/  (forum section)

 

Both of them created by great 99ers enthusiasts

 

I am okay with any other option whatever works for the TI-99 community,

but I tried to create an account to both websites above and got errors and cannot register ?

 

It also would be good that files (.bin, .rpk, .docx, etc.) can be attached in post  and easy copy and paste of a word docx without losing the format.

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

31 minutes ago, globeron said:

Just trying how easy and fast it is to setup a similar format (look and feel) forum with a dedicated TI-99 focus  (for the community by the community and not owned by an org.)

Tell that to the TI sub at Atari.io.  Then start moving 13 years of knowledge.  Then convince everyone in the community to move.  Then watch the community splinter.  This is insane.  There is a better way.

 

Have you tried Archive.is?

[Gary from OPA]

4 hours ago, Schmitzi said:

(Please also keep in mind that I own the ti994a.com (from Barry Boone), the .DE,

Geneve9640.com and .de and much more domains.

I would pass some of this domains away or relink or share the ownership with or without others or whatever, for such a (guaranteed) use.)

...

And at such a point, if so, for me it makes very much sense about a "community of heirs" (owners & admins) for this domains, and to discuss it (wherever).

 

For me it must not happen that someone passes away or becomes a bitch or whatever and the community slides into a status like "Game Over".

I still have secured hosting and more then willing to setup a proper ti99 community forums, I still have licenses for XenForo and Vbulletin, that I am not using.

I agree with @Schmitzi it should be "community of heirs" so not one person is in control, as I myself am already 54, god forbid but life is short, we see too many 99'ers pass away over the last few years.

 

We already do have alot of good other resources, like WHTech, etc. all tho most of them don't have the same nice look and feel like AtariAge does, as this site been updated and moved into the modern era of internet, whereas alot of other other dedicated ti99 sites are still back on web1 days, like visiting geocities.

 

But, we should not be quick to throw the new owners under the bus here either, but I do agree there should be a proper backup plan, or a central modern site at least that secured and at least archiving everything, and like I mentioned above, I am willing to help if and when the time comes that it is needed or a plan is put together.

[+InsaneMultitasker]

Be thankful for the continued support and enthusiasm that is inherent in these developments.  The site didn't shut down, the information is all still here, and there is no indication it is going anywhere.  If anything, the site will get even better for those who visit - subscribers and free users alike.   Seems to me we should be celebrating the success, not griping about an event that hasn't happened or isn't likely to happen.  

 

( @Albert has a thread for Q&A that has a lot of interesting good info as well)

[Albert]

1 minute ago, InsaneMultitasker said:

Be thankful for the continued support and enthusiasm that is inherent these developments.  The site didn't shut down, the information is all still here, and there is no indication it is going anywhere.  If anything, the site will get even better for those who visit - subscribers and free users alike.   Seems to me we should be celebrating the success, not griping about an event that hasn't happened or isn't likely to happen. 

That's the plan, and as I am able to make the store more efficient so I am spending less time building/shipping games and more time doing fun stuff like working on the games database and getting a better version of the store online.  And making improvements to the forum as well, there are some features for the forum that are currently not enabled.  And opening up new opportunities for homebrew developers to have their games seen and enjoyed by a much larger audience.  And knowing I will be able to focus on projects that I've wanted to work on for years helps my motivation as well, versus getting close to the point of burning out because of the hours I've been putting into the site overall.

 

 ..Al

[+Schmitzi]

3 hours ago, mizapf said:

I'd suggest to defer any kind of panic until the proper time has come.

 

No one will tell such things in advance, so when time really  has come, it is too late.

 

 

 

[Retrospect]

The only concern I have, is that Atari might not be interested in the TI side of things.  

 

That said if nothing is effected to the negative then so be it, all good.  I just can't see how Atari would be interested in anything other than Atari related stuff.  

[+InsaneMultitasker]

I realized I didn't link to the post I referenced.  21 pages so far of Q&A and good info, IMHO.  This links via the topic @arcadeshopper shared in the first post.

 

[+Schmitzi]

Once again, just to really make clear what I mean:

We are TI99ers, we are NOT Atarians, so we will NEVER EVER be the first choice for whatever here. We are a totally strange thing for the Atari people. So is Atari personally for me, as I never used one. One managment change or problem with us on the Atari side and we are past, and all the knowledge too. Just over night. Peng. At the end of the day and if it comes hard on hard, it's no longer Al's decision.

 

[InfernalKeith]

I just fail to see how this is any different than the situation right now, and since day one of this forum.  You're always going to exist online at the whim of someone.  Given that reality, it seems weird to take a hostile stance to someone with a track record of being in our corner.

 

If we're just now deciding to build in backups and redundancy, after everything the TI community has seen since 1978, that's kind of on us at this point.

[Albert]

I would just like to add, that if something were to happen that put the forum in jeopardy, I would surely have plenty of advance notice and there would be ample time to back up anything that needed to be saved.  I do absolutely understand the desire to ensure that this data is maintained, and that is very important to me.  I have gone to great lengths to ensure that data has been maintained on the forum, even through difficult migrations to different software over the years, as well as when large upgrades are performed on the forum.  That's why we still have posts from 2001 when the forum initially came online.  The forum is also backed up on a constant basis to protect against hard drive crashes, disasters, etc.

 

 ..Al

[trent]

You can't really say that - you no longer own the data that backs this site, you work for the company that owns it. A company with a spotty reputation in the community, if we're all being honest here. This was a good move for Atari IMO but the future of this site is now firmly in their hands.

[Reciprocating Bill]

It's understandable to feel retraumatized. 

 

[RXB]

History shows that when Corporations take over anything where the people had control it never ends well or fairly treated.

 

Personally, I will never ever trust any corporation for what it says as they are always proven liars.

 

When money is your only goal, service dies fast.

 

My prediction is they cannot find any profit in owning AtariAge so Atari will just kill it on purpose.

[Asmusr]

It's great that Albert is still running AtariAge. Until that changes, I can find more important things to worry about... 🙂

[+arcadeshopper]

1 minute ago, Asmusr said:

It's great that Albert is still running AtariAge. Until that changes, I can find more important things to worry about... 🙂

this is my position as well

[InfernalKeith]

The community suffers more from a pervasive "you're not giving this to me for free fast enough" mentality more than it ever will at the hands of our Corporate Overlords, and that's been the case as long as I can remember.  

[+OLD CS1]

At this point, both @Albert and @TrogdarRobusto have given assurances about the future of the non-Atari forums.  Check out the Q&A thread.  @FarmerPotato has posted our concerns there, as well, as have others (ColecoVision, &c.)

[+acadiel]

3 hours ago, Albert said:

I would just like to add, that if something were to happen that put the forum in jeopardy, I would surely have plenty of advance notice and there would be ample time to back up anything that needed to be saved.  I do absolutely understand the desire to ensure that this data is maintained, and that is very important to me.  I have gone to great lengths to ensure that data has been maintained on the forum, even through difficult migrations to different software over the years, as well as when large upgrades are performed on the forum.  That's why we still have posts from 2001 when the forum initially came online.  The forum is also backed up on a constant basis to protect against hard drive crashes, disasters, etc.

 

 ..Al

That becomes a good question - does this commercial forum software have the ability to back up our specific forums if that time were ever to come so we could restore them specifically to another cloud instance of this same software - just for us?  
 

I agree with you and several previous posters, I don’t think any of us ever see, want, or ever intend for that to happen, but I think if the contingencies for the non core forums like this one are thought through for the people concerned, it will help alleviate things for the time being.

 

This hosted forum software IS solid software and good software, too.  I just don’t know all its capabilities.  

 

[+Schmitzi]

18 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said:

At this point, both @Albert and @TrogdarRobusto have given assurances about the future of the non-Atari forums.  Check out the Q&A thread.  @FarmerPotato has posted our concerns there, as well, as have others (ColecoVision, &c.)

 

In german this is called the "back light guarantee".

This guarantee is valid as long as the mechanican can see the light while you are driving away

 

 

2 hours ago, Asmusr said:

It's great that Albert is still running AtariAge. Until that changes, I can find more important things to worry about... 🙂

 

If something changes, the users will be the last to be informed. Or let´s say, confronte(n)d.

 

 

 

[+OLD CS1]

2 hours ago, Schmitzi said:

In german this is called the "back light guarantee".

This guarantee is valid as long as the mechanican can see the light while you are driving away

Fine.  Where is your guarantee that what you want to do will last?  That you will not get tired of it, or not have someone to pass it off to, or not have someone take it over and kill it, or not meet your untimely doom skydiving with super models, or not have your web provider of choice just blow a gasket, or, or, or...

 

There are no guarantees in life.  Sometimes you just have to go with the best bet.  Hope for the best, but still plan for the worst.  Start archiving, start building outside Wikis to contain the data we have here.  No one is stopping anyone from doing that.  At the very least, archive.is works great, though you have to archive every page of a thread.  Or you can just submit a single post with important details.

[Elia Spallanzani fdt]

I still believe that the real problem is that companies buy for little money the content painstakingly created by users, and users let them do it. Ten thousand users could spend a dollar a month each to keep the forum, but they don't. It has already happened many times. I believe that this is one of the greatest processes of wealth theft since enclosures, and it is still the same phenomenon.

[+bent_pin]

13 minutes ago, Elia Spallanzani fdt said:

I still believe that the real problem is that companies buy for little money the content painstakingly created by users, and users let them do it. Ten thousand users could spend a dollar a month each to keep the forum, but they don't. It has already happened many times. I believe that this is one of the greatest processes of wealth theft since enclosures, and it is still the same phenomenon.

Interesting viewpoint from a non-subscriber. Not to be a sneetch but I'm not the one giving a speech about paying to keep the site in the user's hands.

 

Edit: I'd like to add that this reads to be a lot snippier than I intended