A way to contact TSGK admin(s)?

[HylianDev]

Moving the old topic over:

http://tsgk.captainn.net/

The ShyGuy Kingdom has been inactive for pretty much over 10 years now, since Webster passed away.

It's a pretty old site, but it has a pretty decent catalog of content and also it's just a piece of fangaming history. I'd love to have the opportunity to contact whoever might still be running the site to get a backup of it or something. I'd hate to see it go the way of other fansites which have unfortunately gone down, Metroid: Fan Mission included.

https://phpbb.mfgg.net/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=20797

[Yoshin]

theres an IRC link on the site but clicking it does nothing sadly
I searched around but cant find any admins that arent the late webmaster

Lando Never Dies
pfp by Plasmi

[HylianDev]

Maybe we can like... scrape the site of its content lol

[Xander]

As a former staff member of TSGK, I tried to reach out and get a backup of the site, but was unsuccessful. I should really try again.

No one seemed to have the access that I needed to get to take the backups. Ugh, I have the same fear as you guys, and I really want to get a backup.

Me.

[HylianDev]

We can scrape all of the sprites, but not so much the news updates and etc. I don't know if there's a way to see the news archive.

The best way to do it would be a database backup for sure.

[Xander]

Yeah, I want a complete DB backup and file system backup. I would even want to see if I could mirror the site on my own server.

Me.

[HylianDev]

Do you know who's keeping the site up?

There's a paypal link going to keeping it up but is somebody paying the bill every month?

[Xander]

The short answer is no. The longer answer is maybe.

I'm reaching out to a few people, hopefully I'll make some headway. I'll let you know.

Me.

[VinnyVideo]

@Xander Good luck! I hope someone can find a way to preserve the site and the many resources it hosts.

Course clear! You got a card.

[HylianDev]

I know this is super old and a super bump but I think it's appropriate to be reminded of this now and again.

tsgk deserves to be safely preserved imo

Hylian's day job, little did we know, was saying controversial things on the internet.

you fool!!!! you fixed it wrong!!!!

Bibby Team

[Mario]

Are there any concerns with scraping it? Feels like a pretty simple site overall- probably wouldn't be too hard to build a backend on top of the scraping if you want to get really fancy (but that's definitely outside the scope of doing this for historical purposes lol). I guess it's a shame we'll never see Web's "freaking genius" "coding skills"

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[GeneralGuy]

I actually remember when Webster passed away. A thread was made about it here: http://archive.mfgg.net/index.php?showtopic=143236

Was he seriously the only one with administrative access to the website? Can't someone just hijack his account?

[HylianDev]

Are there any concerns with scraping it? Feels like a pretty simple site overall- probably wouldn't be too hard to build a backend on top of the scraping if you want to get really fancy (but that's definitely outside the scope of doing this for historical purposes lol). I guess it's a shame we'll never see Web's "freaking genius" "coding skills"

imo the ideal order would be:
- getting the code & db backup
- if that fails, scrape it
- if that somehow fails, recreate it
obviously the amount of work increases down the list, but also the solutions get less ideal from a preservation perspective too. I'll probably break down and write a scraper soon. I was curious about those "freaking genius" skills though haha. apparently (via the thread general posted) he inspired & critiqued Retriever II for TCSMS, I didn't know that. awesome!

I actually remember when Webster passed away. A thread was made about it here: http://archive.mfgg.net/index.php?showtopic=143236

Was he seriously the only one with administrative access to the website? Can't someone just hijack his account?

wow, I remember reading that topic back when it was posted. crazy to relive it right now.

there's an illusion of immortality on the internet, and it's tragic when that illusion is suddenly shattered.

damn I vividly remember this quote, it stuck with me.

Hylian's day job, little did we know, was saying controversial things on the internet.

you fool!!!! you fixed it wrong!!!!

Bibby Team

[SonicKade2048]

Even if I never interacted with The Shy Guy Kingdom at all during my time with MFGG (although I found some good sprites by Xander a while back, still holding onto those), I really like what it has to offer. The customs, the rips, so many sprites from different games and companies all packaged together into one site. It has so much variety I enjoy, and I don't want to see it go to waste from being left in the dust, per se. It'd be a shame to see it go through the process of attempted revival, but gigantic failure. I say we try any means necessary to keep it up and going.

As for how this can be accomplished, though, I've got no "real" choice. The best thing I can think of is going section by section and saving the files, web pages, whatever you can as downloaded files. A backup will be neat, though reading above I can imagine it's easier said than done. I ultimately have no knowledge on what a database backup can even do, but I suppose members like me can do nothing but hope for the best.

I can try saving some of the "more important" sheets, but doing it one at a time will take immense dedication, meaning not being lazy about it and quitting early on, as I'm prone to do... that aside, however, what would be the steps coming after doing the backup? If someone manages to get a backup, what would happen then? As I mentioned earlier I'm not too sure what we would do instead of a backup if Webster's account can't be accessed, other than just going manually through the site and saving the news updates, sheets, etc. as files, but I honestly don't know any other ways to help out.

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