lotus-europa.com

[jbcollier]

Jerry is wanting to pass his vast Europa site onto someone else.  I don't have the expertise.

Anyone interested and talented enough?

Could we merge his site into this one?

[EuropaTC]

I also saw the headline this morning and had that touch of sadness at the thought of the website disappearing. I can understand it though, there's a lot of work in maintaining a site and from reading the message it's a few years since he sold his cars.

It will be a great loss if things like the knowledgebase goes, I've used it quite a bit over the last two years for research. I have the time, enthusiasm but not the ability to program modern website design so I think that rules me out as a volunteer.  I can do the Visual Basic stuff as I still use that myself but my web skills have deteriorated to using Serif Webplus which probably isn't good enough for such an undertaking.

It's one of those "end of an era" things, isn't it ?   
Brian

[3929R]

The KnowledgeBase saved me from my own ignorance and I owe much of my cars drive-ability to it. Unfortunately I have almost no time and less experience for managing a website.

[BDA]

I wondered how long he could keep it up. I din't know that he sold his last Europa in 2010 so we in the Europa community owe a lot to Jerry for continuing his support so long past the time it he had any reason to.

It is surely a lot of work and it would be a great loss if it should go away. If one person can't step up and take the whole thing, I wonder if a few people could take chunks of it to spread the load. Certainly some parts would require less day to day maintenance than others and they might fit in some people's schedule.

Of course one problem with an owner running the site is that at some point he may no longer be an owner and then we're back where we are now. It would be nice for somebody who is in the business to take it over as he might be a more stable owner, but they have their hands full already and there probably isn't any added commercial value to them.

I wish I could do something with it, but I have more time than skills. I hope somebody picks it up.

[Grumblebuns]

It would be a tragedy for all of us if Jerry's knowledgebase disappears. Can't tell you the number of times that I've searched the past postings to find the answer to most of my questions.

Like some of you, I have the time but lack the skills to run a website. I've always thought that merging of this and Lotus Europa Central would be a perfect pairing. I doubt that Joe, running an outside business, would have spare time to take over LEC.

Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca

[LotusJoe]

I would be willing to take a look at taking over the site. However, as I recall he runs the site off of his own server. Also I would have to be brought up to speed on how he maintains the knowledge base. I thought he quit updating it sometime ago, when Yahoo made changes to the Yahoo Groups. 

[blasterdad]

A forum I belong to, blasterforum.com, (about Yamaha Blaster quads,hence blasterdad) has the option of being a SUPPORTING member to help pay for their server. A yearly subscription is $10 bucks, & you can donate as well. I have no idea what a server costs & with only 300 plus change members it might not even come close, given the fact not all would want to be a supporting member. Just an Idea, by no means an informed one. Just saying I would throw some money in the hat if it were passed around. As stated, it would be a shame to lose such a great resource.
 

[BDA]

You could accumulate a Europa Empire, Joe!!   

Blaster has a good idea with the supporting member thing. The website could have a membership fee (and thus a login) also.

[EuropaTC]

I would be willing to take a look at taking over the site. However, as I recall he runs the site off of his own server. Also I would have to be brought up to speed on how he maintains the knowledge base. I thought he quit updating it sometime ago, when Yahoo made changes to the Yahoo Groups. 

In the notice he said it was a mixture of "GoDaddy" and his own server hosting because GoDaddy wasn't fast enough for message searches. I assume this means the knowledgebase ?

I do know he uses Visual Basic 6 for the knowledgebase because I sent him a copy over to replace the one he lost earlier in the year. If you host the basic info stuff I think I could help out on the VB6 side.  I'm no whizz kiddy at programming but I do have the advantage of using VB since it first came out and use VB6 for my own database stuff.

Is Jerry on this forum ? It would be good to hear his views rather than us talking in isolation and the Yahoo group isn't so easy to follow a thread as we all know.

Brian

[3929R]

Brian and Joe, Have you tried to email Jerry?

[Grumblebuns]

Checked into LEC this morning and there is an update from Jerry. Dan Morrison has offered to take over running Lotus Europa Central and Jerry has accepted. Dan, the founder of the Yahoo Europa mail list, should be more than capable of continuing Jerry's work.

Joji Tokumoto

[BDA]

That's GREAT news!!! If you're out there Dan, THANK YOU!
 

[EuropaTC]

Yep, Dan sounds like he has the right credentials for sure, so it sounds in safe hands. There was a fair amount of discussion and offers of help from the Yahoo membership digest tonight so it sounds to me like the future is secured.

Brian

[LotusJoe]

I did send a email to Jerry and he responded that Dan was going to take custody of the site.

[3929R]

Good news!