Aditnow.co.uk

[RobinGriffiths]

I think wait till end of January - that's then 3 years which is a respectfull amount of time in my opinion. Then get a group of interested parties together, both developers and mine explorers, and set up a trust or organisation, possibly affiliated to, but at a distance from a National Body. Then trust members can come and go and hopefully the resource can continue to operate long after the original designers and developers have moved on. Even if AN does come back, will it still be here in 2035? - 30 years would be a hell of a long time for such a profitless but time absorbing enterprise to be managed by a single person (or small groups of people).

The 4 modules to replicate in priority order in my opinion are Forum, Site Database, Photo repository and Document repository. Single login with configurable access levels for the modules.

I don't think writing a Forum from scratch is a desirable option, but if using an off the shelf one, you would want to be able to hook into the login mechanism for controlling access to the other modules.

If there is enough interest by end of January, I'd suggest moving discussions into a separate online collaboration tool to which interested persons can subscribe.

I hear what Roy and Edwardov are saying, but there must be a cutoff at some point where it's time to move on.

 

[royfellows]

The problem with "off the shelf" anything is that its never quite what you want, and a lot of these are USA oriented, just look at those in use, "City", "Zone" "Zipcode" for address details. Not rocket science to see where that comes from.

Robins trust suggestion is very sound, its what I did with Cwmystwyth.

Its a difficult situation as those who know the background will appreciate, problem is that such a project could be near completion and then AN rises again like a phoenix from the flames.

 

[TunnelWade]

So , may I suggest a gathering in the upcoming weeks. Let's just get this done and stop the pillow talk.
On this thread who would be interested?

 

[tomferry]

someone will need to nominate for being In-charge of the maintaining the website.

Meeting would be a very good suggestion I agree,
I am sure that’s not an issue to get a collective group of people to meet. Funding will have to be made, so namho would have to attend if they are willing to do this .

 

[Edwardov]

I’ll happily contribute and collate location data. Geospatial data is my thing.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

I'd be happy to do some work on backends/db for non forum bits - mine, photo and docs.

I think best thing would be to setup a free online collaboration space maybe Github Discussions, and publish an invitation link to it on here for anyone with an interest in contributing/influencing. And continue on there.

 

[tomferry]

Sounds good to me . I am also happy to contribute.

Get this link on here .

 

[RobinGriffiths]

f*** It!! I'll bite then. For initial discussions at least, Slack seems to be a better option than Github Discussions. The following link is active for a month. Anyone with an interest in setting up a new system, please follow the link (assuming I've created it correctly), and create an account or use your Google account etc for logging in.

Slack

join.slack.com

I am not driving btw. I've just setup the link. If you've followed the link, please introduce yourself, then we can get a feel of who wants to do what, including taking the lead.

Robin

 

[royfellows]

I dont want to rain on peoples parade but but two simple points:
1/ Not solving the issue of the existing AN database
2/ A new mining forum, err, isn't this what we have here and we are all posting to?

 

[royfellows]

Further to the above, I might as well tell you all this, but I have on disk every single document that was ever uploaded to AN - I think. I spent ages downloading stuff. Unfortunately, I cannot help with any new site with this stuff, amongst other things there is the questiion of copyright. But if anyone wants anything specific, PM me.

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Hi Roy,

It may not be a goer. We'll just see what the interest in getting something going is. In fact, I'll create a new topic in case people aren't following this one.

 

[AKuhlmann]

Having only just joined the scene when AN went down, and having done a fair bit of exploring since then from limited resources here’s my two pence.
This comes from a very objective functional point of view so I apologise as I never had the chance to get as involved with the community as I would have liked.

- If the data can’t be recovered we can definitely rebuild it, it just may take time
- Any replacement should ideally be a constituted body to help protect it over time, and the site should make public that if it were to go down its data would go to someone like NAMHO/NMRS etc. ie a charity (I only say charity as opposed to a trust because there are several types of charity, including a trust. And choosing the right type would be important.
- With the cost of database management & hosting a user fee might be the solution because finding sponsors for the site in lieu of charging a fee I imagine will be nigh on impossible. Would also help with setup costs.
- Database: to avoid overburdening the system, having a ‘mine moderator, similar to UKClimbing has for crags may be the solution. Unfortunately, such a site is not an ideal place to store personal media, so having a moderator for each venue to ensure pictures are relevant to the charitable aims of the site would be ideal. Personal pictures can of course be shared but ideally through url links to other sites the will host the image there instead and for those who want to keep it for posterity downloading it onto your pc will always be the best option.
- Sensitive Sites: provided the website states the current access situation on the database side and users upload such data anonymously then that should protect the database. On the forum end not naming sites and just revealing where it is with a picture of a famous landmark inside and the region itself in (as everyone does on Facebook already) should well solve that. And anyone who wants an in depth discussion should do it as a direct message. Therefore maps of the mines and plans ought to be made available on the database if the charitable aim is to “record and preserve the history of mines and mining” or something like that.

I hope that’s of any use to anyone. I was spurred on to write this from the call for lurkers to comment

 

[royfellows]

Robin - Someone posted on here while back a new site was ready to roll. Anyone know whats happened?

Mr AK - I think you make some very good observations. I was a mod on AN and basically on all the while so I was able to cut out the crap and started cleaning up the photos, like a series of 5 'black cats in dark cellar' and all the same shot - rubbish. I would also discreetly move sensitive stuff up the user level ladder out of public sight.
Covering the cost of running the site is indeed an issue as Simon covered AN himself

 

[RobinGriffiths]

Hi Roy. Not sure. I think that got retracted a few months ago. I can't remember by who or in what thread though!

 

[Wayland Smith]

Apart from the fact that ignoring the opportunity this forum has given to people which is rather disrespectful!
There is already an active forum that has a mining section for trip reports and photographs.
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forum/mines-and-quarries.95/ 🤑

Also, as Roy has pointed out, I well remember certain posters on the old forum who would do a trip and then post a report with 200 pictures.
Or 10 pictures of the same thing at different exposures.
If you commented it was dummy out the pram time!

 

[royfellows]

This is a statement from me personally and has not come from any third party, although based directly on information received. My purpose is to put the mining community, who contributed a lot to the site, in the knowledge of the situation. I feel that they have a right to know, and in so doing, I can dispose of any uncertainty.

‘The aditnow website and its back end database no longer exist in the hands of its founder, and will never reappear.’

However, for or the benefit of those who need its resources, for example mine documents etc, these can still be found on Way Back Machine.

Here is a link to the 2016 documents page: - http://web.archive.org/web/20160304212059/http://www.aditnow.co.uk/library/mining-library.aspx

With a bit of fishing about one could retrieve whatever one wants.

Feel free to comment but I am unable to give any more information, so please don’t ask. I would also advise that it is best that no one tries to contact Simon Lowe.

I have written this with a very heavy heart. I founded the Cambrian Mines Trust at my personal expense. Simon was able to see me reimbursed through the calendar fund, although this was in truth by voting majority. In similar fashion CMT was reimbursed for the work in Cwmystwyth Lefel Fawr, again by majority vote. As someone put it, “We have to keep Roy in RSJs”

Notwithstanding this Simon was a firm supporter of my work, something which I will not forget.

 

[aricooperdavis]

That is a terrible tragedy, and one that the community should try and learn something from: if you want your data to be safe then you need to be able to have a copy of it yourself (think Wikipedia, where you can download the entire database for offline use if you so wish).

In the spirit of trying to keep the data alive: someone got in touch with me a little while back who had managed to scrape a copy of the coordinates of the UK mines. I've parsed it and uploaded it to GitHub.

 

[royfellows]

Its all being sorted on Buddlepit. A corporate body will be created to run that site so no single person will be in charge and it will carry on indefinately.