I am trying to get information for my next build and when I search / google for previous builds or reviews the information it refers me to an old scale auto forum thread. Course we all know that the Scale Auto Magazine on-line forum no longer exists.
So my question is… will any of the previous Scale Auto build threads be transferred over to the FSM web site?
After all, they were from the same company, using similar software and formatting. Can this or will this eventually be done or is everything related to SAM’s forum totally lost forever?
v/r,
Ben
It’s a good question and should be posed to Kalmbach.
Bill
I agree with GM and ModelMaker both. You can certainly ask, but I doubt that it will happen.
It’s a big undertaking to take all the data from one website and merge it into another. Despite any similarities that we see when we use the user interface, there are likely differences behind the scenes, in how the databases were put together, for example, that would make some kind of conversion necessary. That means developer resources, it means some data still might be lost, and the costs might be more than Kalmbach is willing to bear. They may have considered it, too, before closing down the Scale Auto forum, and made that calculation.
Has the site disappeared? Still able to cut stuff out?
When photobucket when rogue, I went and immediately downloaded all of my photos because I usually don’t back them up anywhere else. Ironically they hassled me for a while to delete them from their site. Their problem, not mine.
There was a wonderful forum dedicated to the Airfix 1/100 HMS Victory that had a loyal following of great modelers and grew to include all kinds of satellites. Then it got hacked. Then it came back, then went away again. It may be up still. I went and grabbed stuff I liked for as long as I was able to.
I’ve been saving parts of threads from FSM that have posts I liked, in particular those of Dr. Tilley.
Always better than when it’s too late.
Bill
I think it’s been taken down, Bill. Or made unaccessible. The landing page just has the announcement that the site has been closed, with a link to connect back here to FineScale.com.
And links to buy magazines.
I have been involved in a number of forums over the years and whenever the webmaster pulled the plug, that was it. That Is what soured me to online forums for a number of years after one guy kept starting a forum, let it grow for a year or two, decide to shut it down as he renamed/refocused his business ventures, and then restart a new forum while expecting everyone to move over to the new one.
After the 3rd episode of losing all my WIPs/reviews/groupbuilds, I had enough.
Try the Wayback Machine at archives.org
Put the URL for Scale Auto forum (don’t know what it is) into the search bar and see if & what they may have saved