Previous | Memories | Tell Someone | Next
 
meus_venator
meus_venator
[spnstoryfinders]
20 February 2015 @ 08:35 pm
Sinful-desire.org/ Site Update  
Hi guys, this is a further update to the status of http://www.sinful-desire.org/  [You can reference to our last post here.]

So when we last updated you, we were able to reach the owner of the site in time and get permission for[livejournal.com profile] morgandawn to pay the $120 hosting fee in time. So the sinful-desire's hosting fees have been paid through December 2016. We were waiting to hear back from the archivist if she has plans to allow the archive to be managed by someone else (hopefully with a knowledge of e-Fiction, the software the site uses) or have it hosted at A03 but hadn't heard back yet.

We now face a new issue that we knew was approaching, the domain name is up for renewal. Only the registered owner is allowed to pay the fee. We're trying to work with the the archive owner and the webhost/domain registrar to renew the domain name, but if that is unsuccessful, then the site could go down on March 17, 2015.

The only action item at this point is if you are an author or a reader, please take steps to ensure your work or your favorite stories are backed up. A SIGNAL BOOST of this message would be appreciated to spread the word so folks can grab what they need.
More news when/if we have it.


* Thanks to [livejournal.com profile] spnstoryfinders for letting us post these updates!
Tags: ,
 
21 comments | Leave a comment
 
( Post a new comment )
[identity profile] skeletncloset.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 06:00 am (UTC)
Damn. Well, I have Ao3. I hope it doesn't shut down though. You ready for the masquerade?
meus_venator: Charlie fights like a girl[personal profile] meus_venator on February 21st, 2015 02:18 pm (UTC)
AO3 has something like a ten year plan at this point, and that was what the fundraising for new servers and ongoing fundraising is about, if you don't keep your software current you almost get shoved out of the game. That's why all these small fic archives are closing down or moving to AO3, the eFiction software that runs them isn't being updated anymore (other than a small spam fix) so one more browser update or software update on your computer and the sites may not work anymore.

You mean the SPN masquerade. Not me ma'am, I've got BB to work on. But I'll read along : )
ext_243305[identity profile] geri.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 06:17 am (UTC)
I thought it was paid off for a while or is it just the name that would have to change?
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 07:37 am (UTC)
The hosting space has been paid. the domain name needs to be renewed. Without the domain name, the site will go away. And since sinful desire offers space for more than just the archive, those other website sub-domain names and the websites will also go away.

The way to look at it: we have a car (the hosting space), but without the domain name we cannot drive it anywhere. what typically happens when a domain name lapses is that it is automatically bought up by a bulk reseller and then you have to pay a lot of money (if at all) to get your website address back again. You can always register a new domain name and move to the new one, but all the links to the old website are broken.

Edited 2015-02-21 07:45 am (UTC)
ext_243305[identity profile] geri.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 08:34 am (UTC)
Is there anyway other than the authors backing up the stories to save them I'm cutting and pasting as i write to you or do you still need permission to post the stories to ao3?
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 04:22 pm (UTC)
If you are the author, you can try using ao3's import tool to move your stories.:http://archiveofourown.org/faq/importing-and-mass-editing?language_id=en

otherwise, cut and paste is the way to go.
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 07:41 am (UTC)
the site has been paid through dec 2016.
(Reply) (Link)
[identity profile] sandycub.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 08:45 am (UTC)

Trying to flow along - so now the domain name has been paid througj Dec 2016 and the hosting space through 2017. Is that right? The next step is to get the current owner to agree to someone else running the site or giving permission to flip everything over to AO3, right?

meus_venator: Charlie fights like a girl[personal profile] meus_venator on February 21st, 2015 02:14 pm (UTC)
No, it's the HOSTING PLAN that's been paid for for two years, but the name registration is a separate thing. Right now only the site owner can extend the registration on the url/name of the site. Without a site name we don't have a location to broadcast from, if you know what I mean. We have a radio station, just no place on the dial.
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 04:24 pm (UTC)
Hosting plan (space for the website) - paid through Dec 2016.

ownership of the website name/URL address (without which there is no website) - ends on March 17, 2015.

We tried to pay both at the same time back in Dec 2014, but that did not work out.
[identity profile] citrusjava.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 12:13 pm (UTC)
Oh no!!!! Thank you so much for doing this!!!!
meus_venator: Charlie fights like a girl[personal profile] meus_venator on February 21st, 2015 02:21 pm (UTC)
It's 99.9% [livejournal.com profile] morgandawn spearheading this. Fingers crossed the name gets renewed. It's kind of unfortunate, most ISPs roll the fee for the name renewal in with the site hosting. We wouldn't even be in this pickle if these guys operated like that it would have been part of the fee [livejournal.com profile] morgandawn already paid…sigh!
[identity profile] ayane42.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 04:04 pm (UTC)
ok, so i had something like this happen. we had a website and the guy who paid for the domain name disappeared (college finals, etc). so i bought a similar domain name, a dot net and when the original url expired i bought that.

so sinful-desire.com is available. we could buy that, point the site to that url and i believe it's 30 days after the .org expires it can be purchased. that's what i did with my website. i had two url's, dot com and dot net, both pointed at my website.

i purchase my url's through gkg.net. it's 11.43 for one year. this would be a solution. the only thing would be promoting broadly that the url is going to change temporarily. unless there's a way to redirect. i'm not too clear on how that is done if the dot org is expired.
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 04:45 pm (UTC)
Once the current address expires, it will be auctioned off on the open market and we have no control of who buys it (we can try to ask the webhost to allow us to buy it, but they will not talk to me unless I have the owner's approval so even finding out when they release the domain name is tricky. Other hosts like Go Daddy have helpful FAQs that explain their 3-5 day grace period and then the release date. Not this host. We ran into the same problems back in Dec 2014 (the webhost not wanting to talk to us without owner approval) so we knew this was going to be a problem in March.

even if we did buy the domain name, we do not have control of the files, the sql databases and everything that makes an eFiction archive run. We could put up a notice that the website is gone and that some of the fic is at A03.
[identity profile] ayane42.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 06:43 pm (UTC)
argh!! ok well that was my suggestion :(
[identity profile] stephenashton.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 06:21 pm (UTC)
Is there any way the entire site could get archived to AO3 through the Open Doors project (http://opendoors.transformativeworks.org/)? Looking at this news article (http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/2546) regarding another archive moving to AO3 it looks like a fair way of preserving the content.

I'm not sure how they'd go about it or the amount of access/cooperation they'd need, but if it is doable might be a permanent solution to the issue.
meus_venator: Charlie fights like a girl[personal profile] meus_venator on February 21st, 2015 06:49 pm (UTC)
Yes, migration of all the content to AO3 through the Open Door project was one of the things [livejournal.com profile] morgandawn proposed to the site owner, we just hadn't heard back. It does seem like one of the best ways to save all the fic because they have a longer term plan. A lot of the authors are already on AO3 as well. It's the ones that aren't that we're concerned with and AO3 has permissions all figured out.

It's a matter of having access to the site and permission to go ahead.
[identity profile] stephenashton.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 07:18 pm (UTC)
Ah, fair enough - I guess I'll continue with my current plan for savings fics I want off the site - print to PDF and backup to Dropbox!
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on February 21st, 2015 07:54 pm (UTC)
they require the site owner to give permission and then need to give access to the files and/or give them the sql databases
[identity profile] angelzfurys.livejournal.com on March 12th, 2015 06:07 am (UTC)
any news on if the site can be saved or is it kaput as of the upcoming week?
[identity profile] morgandawn.livejournal.com on March 12th, 2015 06:09 am (UTC)
The site owner has not responded. The site has been set to auto renew, but it is unclear if the credit card is still valid. we still have a few days left. So please spread the word.