The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[m_b_metcalf]

Is there any one of us who would be willing and able to assume responsibility for g.r.emlin? Only then would it be sensible to contact Jason/Quicksilver to negotiate a handover.

Mike

[Pat]

Jason runs g.r.emlin on which Server?

just possibly, missed something in handing over to new owner.

i'm still hoping they respond.

[JPF]

i'm still hoping they respond.

Did you send a message to Sara@FoolsDog.com to explain our concern?

JPF

[1to9only]

Jason runs g.r.emlin on which Server?

I don't really know, as I've no access to info on setup and running of server, forum and patterns game.
From reading past threads, I think gsf ran g.r.emlin on his own unix machine, before the handover a few years ago (mentioned in a earlier post).
The forum index page is still showing g.r.emlin logged in from somewhere - it could be from one of Jason's unix boxes, or one of the new owners.
Does the forum logs user IP addresses? If MCP has access to such logs, try matching g.r.emlin IP address to the forum IP address.
quicksilver and enjoysudoku are (presently) running on different IP addresses - this can be multiple boxes (servers), or a single box with multiple (virtual) servers! I don't know how many hosting companies are involved and/or how they are set up.

[Hajime]

All 31 pages of Patterns Game Results are raw copied into one .txt file here as a zip

[m_b_metcalf]

Did you send a message to Sara@FoolsDog.com to explain our concern?

I have. Now we await a reply.

Mike

[1to9only]

All 31 pages of Patterns Game Results are raw copied into one .txt file

The PG pages I retrieve are in raw html format.

If you download threads of interest (to you) using the method (or similar) I described in this post here, additional steps are:
- remove ALL the (numerous) sid (session identifiers) from the downloaded web pages
- get (do this once) a local copy of the web pages style css (cascading style sheet)
- change the line (line 87) in the web pages to use the local style css file
- change ALL external forum links to local links (to ./etc)

This allows the web pages to display offline (no internet). Navigation of multi pages can be done by the links at the top-right or bottom-right of the page.
NO images are displayed. You'll need to examine the downloaded web pages and download the images to a local folder (keep the same folder structure).

[m_b_metcalf]

Did you send a message to Sara@FoolsDog.com to explain our concern?

I have. Now we await a reply.

Which just came:

"I'm sorry you are having this problem. I, personally, do not have access to the forum, however, I have forwarded your email to our programmer. Hopefully, we can ge this resolved for you. "

Hope springs eternal.

Mike

[JPF]

Thanks Mike!

JPF

[Pat]

my message to Sara
sent Jun.5,
no response.

so i'm very glad you tried!

[Pat-Moderator]

recent login by
JasonLion-Admin (the only one shown in red):
75.172.12.244

and by
JasonLion (evidently an Admin too)
97.113.203.244

hence my guess that 2 people may be involved...

[denis_berthier]

Did you send a message to Sara@FoolsDog.com to explain our concern?

I have. Now we await a reply.

Which just came:
"I'm sorry you are having this problem. I, personally, do not have access to the forum, however, I have forwarded your email to our programmer. Hopefully, we can ge this resolved for you. "

Hi Mike
As you now have a contact, could you also recommend them to make regular backups and provide some information about their backup plans. We have no idea about how the website is managed and it'd be a pity to lose half of it, as happened years ago.

[Pat-Moderator]

backups
are a painful chore

Jason's newest backup:
2019.Nov.13

[m_b_metcalf]

As you now have a contact, could you also recommend them to make regular backups and provide some information about their backup plans. We have no idea about how the website is managed and it'd be a pity to lose half of it, as happened years ago.

Denis, I think we have to tread carefully, one step at a time. Let's see if the immediate fix is forthcoming, and take it from there. We don't know them and they don't know us. Pat got no reply to his initial message (I don't know what he asked), but I tried to give some background in mine, hidden below.

As we say in English: "You get what you pay for!" We pay nothing.

Regards,

Mike

Hidden Text: Show

Dear Sara,

Let me introduce myself as m_b_metcalf, a long-time user of the New Sudoku Players' Forum (The New Sudoku Players' Forum (enjoysudoku.com)). I understand that your company has recently acquired this site, along with the Enjoy Sudoku - Home site, from Jason Linhart. If you are unfamiliar with this Forum, you might like to know that, over many years, a huge body of knowledge has been built up concerning all aspects of sudoku puzzles, including its many variations. Many CPU-hours have been invested in various investigations, often carried out by skilled mathematicians from around the world. We are thus very concerned that this huge repository of hard-won knowledge will not suddenly disappear.

A particular concern that we have at the moment is the fate of g.r.emlin. This is an agent (script) written by Glenn Fowler that controls the Patterns Game (Interactive games (enjoysudoku.com)). This script was transferred to a server run by Jason when Glenn moved to a new employer about six years ago. It has worked very well up until now, but has been in a frozen state since 22 May. Some of us have tried to contact Jason about this. He seems to read the messages but has so far failed to reply. (Maybe he's indisposed?) So my question to you is whether you might be able to restart g.r.emlin again? In the long term, maybe someone else could be persuaded to take over the task of maintaining it, but that's not the immediate concern.

We do hope that you can be of some assistance, and I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have.

With best wishes,

[1to9only]

As a user of this forum:
It does not matter muchly (to me) how the web site is operated, or how regular the site/forum is backed up.
If the web site were to disappear today, I'd have no forum, no access to the backup, and no way to contact the admin/moderators/users of the forum.
I can only affect what I have today to be in a good place tomorrow, so I keep a copy of the threads that are of most interest to me.
I hope you are doing the same.