VL Needs to be Archived

VacuumLand – Vintage & Modern Vacuum Enthusiasts

Help Support VacuumLand:

Why would it just disappear? It's backed up normally daily. I've been running these sites for over 20 years now and before I retire (which is a long way out) I plan to pass it on to someone who is willing and clearly able to take the reins. I would plan that out at least a year in advance and everyone will know long before that happens.
 
Outdated?

I would question the assertion that this site is "outdated". True, many forum/discussion board sites have given way to the likes of Facebook, Reddit and Twitter, which is not always a positive development, IMO. But that doesn't mean what's here is no longer viable; in fact, the level of activity on this site would indicate the exact opposite. New posts appear daily and the only 'stale' information is that which comes when someone revives an old thread, usually to contribute new information. There are other sites I used to frequent where the discussion boards, while left up and running, have essentially been abandoned, with the only signs of life coming from 'bots that now infest them. That's definitely not Vacuumland.
 
Yes. Outdated.

From what i can see there are about 3000 registered users however there are only maybe 30-40 that are active. The rest are dead accounts.

This is pretty inactive compared to modern social platforms like discord. Not to mention how early 2000's technology this website is.

I'm not saying that VL is bad. But definitely outdated.
 
No doubt a lot of people sign up, find the information they are after and go away, leaving an inactive account in their wake. Is this a problem? Not really. Some folks may come back over time. I was initially one of those. I think any group, even on a larger social media site would likely be much the same. Most groups have a small active core who actually contribute the bulk of the content. Because VL allows one almost unfettered access to the main forums without signing in—or even creating an account—lurker traffic is likely much higher than the available mechanisms can record. I have no doubt the true number we serve is far greater than 30-40. Yeah, VL is somewhat old school in its approach but again, that isn't a bad thing.

I personally dislike the new breed of intrusive social media sites that constantly track my clicks and try to push unwanted content down my throat. I recently signed up for Reddit for one specific sub-group and Reddit took it upon itself to sign me up for a dozen others its flawed algorithms thought I might like, some of which I actually find offensive, and I have to unsubscribe from them individually. I'm very close to unsubscribing from Reddit completely.
 
k b

My point is this site's active user count is lower than for example @vacuumdevil's discord server.
https://www.vacuumland.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?41292_5

Facebook, Twitter & Reddit have problems IMO.

Another point of mine is this site or forum sites in general are outdated.
Sure they're are still usable and there's plenty of people who prefer that and that's fine. But it may be time to move on sooner or later to something better. (discord)

And yes i know that says 20 online users but trust me there's more active users in there than it looks.

compuvac-2021030413492400852_1.jpg

compuvac-2021030413492400852_2.png
 
I would like to add...

Robert, (the website administrator), developed this site for literally next to nothing in terms of cost as a gift to the VCCC as they were affiliated at the time. It was a huge upgrade from what we had.

There have been many updated features over years with NO charge. After the site separated from the club, Robert allowed people on the site for free or one had the choice to upgrade which provided a better user experience. The fee for a year is minimal.

If there is any margin of profit for Robert, it must be razor-thin at best. I've never seen anyone, no matter how many may be active, complain about the site being outdated or problematic.

This is a small group and the needs are simple. If anyone knows a philanthropist that would like to donate to upgrade this site, (let's say $20,000 to $50,000 or more), I'm sure Robert would be open to exploring new platforms. Until then I guess this will just have to do.

I am a longtime member of the club and user of the site. Personally, I think we owe Robert a debt of gratitude.
 
@air-waycharlie

I don't think that this site is problematic nor was i complaining.
I was just pointing out how it's relatively outdated compared to other sites.

Also my original question was about archiving and that already has been answered.

That's really cool to know how Vacuumland became a thing. And i certainly wish the best to it's future and the site's creator.
 
@unimatic1140
How large is vacuumland exactly is it even a whole terabyte? My guess is it's probably 30 gigs or so. I'd be more than willing to provide an archive if you're willing to send the files.

It really would be nice to archive it since so many forms have disappeared overnight.

I don't see vacuum land substaining itself in the foreseeable future.

Especially with its active user base down to double digits.
It would be a real shame if somebody were to buy your url out from under you or something like that. Or for some reason you or it gets "canceled"
 
I agree with Edgar, I just don't like the social media hosted groups and I have found far too many I was active on die out for that reason.

I do wish some of the older members would become active here again, particularly the many we had in other countries that used to post.

I've been here about 8 years now myself.
 
Vacuumland is already archived, on multiple drives. One thing I can say in defense of Vacuumland, yes it is old school but people using this site are also using Lewyt Vacuum Cleaners and love them because they are old school. Ask one of the owners or programmers at Discord what name brand is a Model XXX or a Model 63 much less what they look like. We all know what their answer would be. The site was built by people who know and love these vintage machines, not some corporate entity.
 
Nothing wrong with liking old things.

I think you missed @vacuumdevil's point. What if there's a raid on vacuumland? And i don't just mean DDOS attacks i mean thousands of people signing up to spam posts.
Or if someone try's buying out the domain.
Anything can happen in the future.

What @vacuumdevil ment by archive isn't making backups incase some hardware failure. He was saying to make a archive of all the threads, replies, images ever posted for preservation and make that archive available to the public just in case.
Again anything can happen in the future.
 
And what @vacuumdevil said about the active user count down to double digits is also true.

I would love to see more activity but that simply isn't happening right now.

I know there's people who ocasionally sign up to ask a question or two and then leave.

As far as i know me and Mike from Finland might be the only 2 left from mainland Europe and there's not many UK members left either.
 
I think you missed @vacuumdevil's point.

No I got the point, I think you're missing my point which is that if something ever happened to the site I could easily rebuild it or create a public archive myself, I appreciate the offer but I don't need help in doing that.

i mean thousands of people signing up to spam posts.
Extremely unlikely since spammers look for common off the shelf forum software to hack, this site 100% custom written from scratch and they would have to target it directly which wouldn't be cost effective for them. Besides I could easily protect the site from such nonsense, there are plenty of web tools at my disposal.

Or if someone try's buying out the domain.
You cannot buy out a domain with explicit permission from the domain owner so that's not going to happen. We're double protected with "domain lock", in order to transfer the domain they would have to come to my house directly to get the mailed confirmation paper form that must be signed and returned, along with my phone for the text confirmation. Good luck with all that. Besides hackers are looking for financially valuable URLs, in which VL is not.

As far as I'm concerned VL is well protected. I also question the motivation behind this whole posting, the motives seem a bit on the suspicious side. Vacuumland isn't going anywhere, it's been here for 14 years and will continue on.[this post was last edited: 3/5/2021-11:30]
 
@unimatic1140
So first off nobody's trying to replace vacuum land. Let's make that perfectly clear.

But what I'm saying is the information is valuable and worth archiving. Maybe you could even make a buck or two of it and sell the information on a DVD set or something?

But my point still stands there are things that could happen out of your control. Like a car accident God forbid.
Or you or the site could get canceled for some unforeseeable reason.
 
@unimatic1140

"Extremely unlikely since spammers look for common off the shelf forum software to hack"

When there's enough people you don't need special software to raid a forum.
I think your underestimating the internet.


 
Robert's Livingroom

Thank-you to Robert.

I've been a member of Robert's groups on and off over the years since late 2002. Back then it was only AW.org and later he created Vacland.

It's Robert's playroom and we are lucky to be able to be here due to his creation.

I've seen people come in, spend some time, have fun, and move on.
Others stop in to ask a question or two, get their problems fixed and move on with their lives.
There is a small group of dedicated members who keep coming back.

I've had my suspicions about some of the members of both sites in the past from time to time.
So has the FBI at times apparently. lol. Ahh, the early days of trolls.
There does seem to be a subtext of 'hitler's youth' recently on vacland. lol
That's not something Robert had anything to do with and a good website is bound to have it's dramas and mini controversies at times. It's a compliment.

I've also seen long time members, people who were here from the beginning pass on. It happens. We do still have their entries to remind us of them.

Out of all the internet changes and hic-cups over the last two decades, I've never known either site to go down. I don't know how Robert does it. He's a miracle worker.

If Robert should want people's input on ideas to improve his site I have no doubt we'll see a post similar to "Looking for ideas to improve the site".

There have even been a few people over the years who were motivated to TRY and create knock-off appliance websites but none succeeded that I know of. It's a compliment again to Robert.

As for the design of either site, IMO it's well within keeping of the theme of the subject matter herein. It would be destressing to see some black screened, ugly, with gray "modern" stock photo blahhh when logging in.
Retrorenovation is another retro-themed site that has similar subject matter but without the chat feature. The decor of that site is also quite appropriate.

The only real change I wish Robert would consider is to lessen the work he has to do to manage the sites. That would be to merge the two sites. Maybe a crafty new name like retroappliance.org or something.


But here's a creepy, perhaps sad, perhaps conspiratorial, perhaps disturbing fact:
One day Robert could decide he's done and pull the plugs on both sites and all we've known would disappear in an intentional instant.

yikes! right?

We could go to log in one day and just get an error message with no further explanation.

It could happen. It's his baby.

There are lots of other defunct websites out there. I don't think that's Robert's plans though.


https://retrorenovation.com/2020/12/26/when-was-avocado-introduced-as-a-color-on-kitchen-appliances/
gregvacs28-2021030522162500120_1.png
 
"Only 30-40 active" one thing you have to remember is there are plenty of members (myself included) who frequently check the forum but do not always post. I love my sweeper collection, and enjoy my time on here, but I work 70+ hours a week at times. Its much easier for me to check the forum on my break than it is to take photos and write out a post
 
#18

"sell the information on a DVD set or something?"

DVD set? What is this 2006?

As long as we do the DVD, lets not forget VHS. We want to saturate the market but good. Maybe we should consider 16 milometer too?


I'm sure your intentions are good but Robert has probably already thought of these things.

"But my point still stands there are things that could happen out of your control. Like a car accident God forbid."

Then again, maybe not. And some day we'll try and log in and get an error message.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/08/the...-dropped-more-than-86percent-in-13-years.html
gregvacs28-2021030602290305442_1.png
 
What do you mean you feel you don't belong?

Aren't you a vacuum collector?
Is it the hitler-youth thing?
Is it a gay thing?
A hetero thing?

Vacland certainly doesn't have the same feel as AW.

It's practically dead here. Very little discussion about anything other than some types of vacuums, usually ones someone is trying to unload.

If one combined the Vintage and Contemporary vacuum groups and put it and the Junior group on AW it would probably be better for everyone, imo. The other categories are already covered over there.
 

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