Sciforums down again - longer this time

**Kornee** · Oct 13, 2022 05:31 AM

Been 3 days so far. James R did take a hiding from fellow posters a short while previously. Just wondering what the latest down crisis is all about.
Won't be at all surprised if various threads have been creatively edited during the Blade Runner 2049 style 'great reset', when SF does resurface.
Sorry - just my conspiracy theorist dark side taking over. Big Grin

**Leigha** · Oct 13, 2022 06:37 PM

Did you cast a spell over SF? lol

Maybe they’re upgrading the site …not sure. It has been down a while.

**confused2** · Oct 13, 2022 09:06 PM

Kornee Wrote:James R did take a hiding from fellow posters a short while previously.

I happen to be a fan of James R - I'd guess any attack on him reflects badly on the people doing the attacking. Maybe whoever runs and pays for the site decided the people it attracted just weren't worth the effort.

**RainbowUnicorn** · Oct 13, 2022 09:46 PM

still down
im surprised its not sponsored by a church group considering how much religion discussion is on it

**C C** · (This post was last modified: Oct 14, 2022 02:57 AM by C C.)

I guess this is the only place on the web where even a minor discussion is transpiring about it. They never did use the Twitter account Stryder set up for SF back in 2014, and the Facebook page was likewise diligently ignored and abandoned two years before that.

Apparently no topic devoted to it at the The Science Forum, either, that some members visit.

**Seattle** · Oct 14, 2022 08:13 AM

(Oct 14, 2022 02:56 AM)C C Wrote: I guess this is the only place on the web where even a minor discussion is transpiring about it. They never did use the Twitter account Stryder set up for SF back in 2014, and the Facebook page was likewise diligently ignored and abandoned two years before that.

Apparently no topic devoted to it at the The Science Forum, either, that some members visit.

I heard that the aliens abducted James and forced him to shut down the site.. I haven't been able to confirm this yet however.

**confused2** · Oct 14, 2022 10:38 PM

From my occasional visits to SF I'd suggest abducting adopting Seattle would be their loss and SV's gain. Likewise James R if he was happy to be a 'mere' member of SV.

**RainbowUnicorn** · (This post was last modified: Oct 15, 2022 12:19 AM by RainbowUnicorn.)

maybe russian hackers have targeted the server or some russian puppet has influenced the owner of the server to somehow deny service

alien abduction is up there as equally likely
does james have a locator chip implanted lol
aliens might be training a new alien in probe techniques

**stryder** · Oct 15, 2022 01:24 AM

Originally James R was just a Super-Moderator to Sciforums (I don't know if that has changed any). The actual owner to my knowledge was a brass-plate company located in London (Although the owners themselves I think were South-Central/Eastern European with the actual servers themselves located on a Canadian backbone)

The actual technical running of the forum (Hosting/webmastering etc) therefore wasn't down to James. He only had access to the software backend. So when the site goes down, it's down to that brass plate company or individuals that use to be that company to pick up the pieces and get it back up.

The software the site runs on is extremely out of date and has a lot of flaws in regards to security (Not using SSL for encryption, and not changing software to something that is more current is a risk)

The main problem with running a forum is there is only a number of options... you can use open source "free" forum software, however sometimes it can't pull of all the flashy stuff that people think they need nowadays due to licensing, or you can go for a proprietary commercial licence for software that a company creates. That can generate a more professional look (with the flashy things) however it is as only as good as long as that company that writes the software maintains it. As soon as they decided to create a new version with a separate licence, the cost for operating a forum increase.

Lastly there is the home grown bespoken forum, where the code is written purely for that forum alone. Ideally it's the best way, however it's also the most expensive as it requires everything to be customised, requiring developers to constantly be updating and evolving it's code and not having the same support network as "out of the box" software where bugs and exploits can be identified and patched quickly.

I would query if Sciforums is up for sale again considering the outtages (I had an interest in making an offer back when Dave W aka Porfiry was the owner, not sure what price they would ask now). Forum software in general is in it's sunset period while being eclipsed by various social networks.

**Seattle** · (This post was last modified: Oct 15, 2022 01:45 AM by Seattle.)

(Oct 15, 2022 01:24 AM)stryder Wrote: Originally James R was just a Super-Moderator to Sciforums (I don't know if that has changed any). The actual owner to my knowledge was a brass-plate company located in London (Although the owners themselves I think were South-Central/Eastern European with the actual servers themselves located on a Canadian backbone)

The actual technical running of the forum (Hosting/webmastering etc) therefore wasn't down to James. He only had access to the software backend. So when the site goes down, it's down to that brass plate company or individuals that use to be that company to pick up the pieces and get it back up.

The software the site runs on is extremely out of date and has a lot of flaws in regards to security (Not using SSL for encryption, and not changing software to something that is more current is a risk)

The main problem with running a forum is there is only a number of options... you can use open source "free" forum software, however sometimes it can't pull of all the flashy stuff that people think they need nowadays due to licensing, or you can go for a proprietary commercial licence for software that a company creates. That can generate a more professional look (with the flashy things) however it is as only as good as long as that company that writes the software maintains it. As soon as they decided to create a new version with a separate licence, the cost for operating a forum increase.

Lastly there is the home grown bespoken forum, where the code is written purely for that forum alone. Ideally it's the best way, however it's also the most expensive as it requires everything to be customised, requiring developers to constantly be updating and evolving it's code and not having the same support network as "out of the box" software where bugs and exploits can be identified and patched quickly.

I would query if Sciforums is up for sale again considering the outtages (I had an interest in making an offer back when Dave W aka Porfiry was the owner, not sure what price they would ask now). Forum software in general is in it's sunset period while being eclipsed by various social networks.

This was a couple of years ago but I tracked down one of the owners (I think) to a company and my impression was that they were in Israel. I was trying to see if they were interested in selling the forum since they weren't doing much with it (other than running it into the ground).

The guy I was talking to seemed to be delusional about how "intellectual" the site was and how well it was being run. His ears did perk up when I bought up buying it but I was just trying to see how interested they were in the site (since they weren't doing much with it).

I think I tracked this guy down on Linkedin along with his company. I really just wanted to turn it into more of this kind of a forum (little moderation, more two way discussion). In my opinion the fatal flaw with that forum is James, R, Tiassa and to a lesser extend Bells. In other words the moderators.

I don't see any great financial value in that forum other than the Google clicks and the generated ads. I think you could get more traffic starting over and within a year you would be much better off that way.