Other Resources

[rufusdomition (imported)]

The eunuch or castrated related novels can post on AO3 aka Archive of your Own. But the discussion on real eunuch lives and medical details like the forum here shall gone completely if there is no new management to take over. CRYYYYY

[Cseriess (imported)]

Perhaps I haven't been sufficiently clear... I am unendingly grateful to Paolo, Kristoff, and LT, and any other less visible supporting crew, for all the tremendous work they have done, and wish all of them the best of possible outcomes in their well earned rest!

I mean absolutely NO insult or disrespect of them or their work, and don't mean any sort of insult to them, or saying they didn't try hard enough. I may well get slapped down in my efforts, but no matter what, I feel like I have to at least TRY...

I also am NOT asking them to take ANY role or be active in anything I'm able to get started... (which is not to say I'd tell them to get lost if they WANTED to help in any way - but it would be purely their choice...)

I don't have a definite plan - unfortunately I don't have the technical chops to set up and run a site like this myself, but the Boston area is one of the technology hubs of the US, so possibly I'll have better luck finding a person with the right chops to help. The friend I mentioned has set up at least one Discourse site, so I'm sure she knows how, but not whether she would be willing / able to do so, or how much she might ask... But it's a start...

As LT pointed out, many have moved to commercial platforms with someone else holding the control buttons - I think this is a bad thing in general, and is part of what drives me to want to keep something that fills the role of EA (whatever it is called) and is to the maximum extent possible owned, operated and controlled by the Eunuch community for the benefit of the Eunuch community....

I'm also not asking to be the only one - if someone else here wants the job, I'll be happy to funnel the money that way instead...

WheelyFixed

I agree with all your sentiments Wheely. I understand the feelings and comments of all the wonderful folks who have kept this awesome site going. It's a thankless task. I am sure you are appreciated more than you will ever realise.

Wheely, keep us informed. I am sure you realise from the comments what a thankless task you are considering.

[dandelion]

Can the stories themselves be easily archived into a downloadable file that can be passed on to any potential member who would like to take over?

Perhaps some talented souls can move the stories some modern architecture that are more "durable?"

I am not an IT professional, but I like to hack around stuff at home.

Can any moderators share what the current challenges are? Perhaps some of us can help rebuild the archive even after its closure. At least I would be willing to try.

I'm just going to leave his here, on this hijacked thread:

I don't own EA or the FA.

I just work here.

And I'm tired.

This past week, I've spent over 20 hours here and rooting around in the "back room". It's dark and scary in there, and things are in pieces.

Basically, the EA is now a rusty old 1974 VW Beetle with three flat tires and knocking engine limping along the shoulder of the Information Superhighway.

I can't fix it. I've tried.

Money won't fix it.

I've tried.

Honestly, every one of these posts is like a punch to the gut for me.

LT might be concerned about he comes off, but I'm not. After all, BBoy hired me in 2000 to do his dirty work. It's sad that I got that reputation, but it is what it is.

Now, does everyone honestly believe that I didn't try and explore options to try and save this?

When the little Girl Scout gets enough doors slammed in her face, she throws her cookies in the trash and gives up.

So be it.

Stop asking.

Or at least, don't ask me anymore. I've gone off to my private corner of the cellar to cry.

[dandelion]

Here are a few things that I can think off that I hope mods and potential volunteers can discuss:

1. Domain name

I recommend that we keep the two domain names, eunuch.org and eunuchworld.org active. They should not cost very much, but would be an important gateway for existing crowds (like me) who only come on here occasionally and miss the closure notice.

2. Redirect page

We can set up a single webpage that gives future visitors pointers as to what other platforms the EA community has moved onto. The point here is to redirect all users (both active forum posters and people who only log in to read stories) to the same place where we can continue the community. Keeping it editable would allow us to update it if new "meeting places" come out. It being a single page should be very easy to maintain. We can probably just pay a little more every year to have the page hosted on the domain registrar company.

3. Forum Migration

We can move the forum onto existing web services. Reddit is the first one that comes to mind. There are already subreddits about castration that exists. Our conversations here appear to be sanitary enough to raise red flags. Maintenance should be easy. We won't need to make sure the site stays online (that's Reddit's job). One or two moderators should be enough given our niche interest and the activity level.

Discord is another alternative, but it feels more like a chat room than a forum and navigation can be difficult.

Existing threads may be difficult to keep. This is probably what most active users will miss out on. But I think it's more important for the people still have a place to gather.

4. Fiction Archive Migration

First we should at least find a way to archive the stories, authors, and perhaps ratings and comments to leave our door open for future discussion

Mods have already arranged for Kinsey to mirror the fiction archive. It is still a shame that new stories won't be posted anymore. Many active users of this forum may not agree, but to me, the FA is the most important thing that draws me to this community. It is particularly sad for me as I have just started posting stories to the EA. I have a couple suggestions:

A. Leave the mirror on Kinsey, and redirect new stories to Aoc3 (Archive of our own).

Pros:

- System is already up and running. We don't need to work on keeping the servers alive

- They have a warning and genre tag system

- Good search function

Cons:

- No sense of community, because it contains stories of basically anything

- All stories would be basically public. Some may receive unfriendly comments from people who abhor our interests

- Old stories must be retrieved from a different place

- Invitation is required for registration, and there is a wait list. But it seems all stories can be read without an account

B. Host our own on a modern architecture, maybe on AWS or Azure

Pros:

- More resilient

- More flexibility

- Keep old stories and new stories in the same place

- Archive would be exclusive to our community

Cons:

- Costs

- Technical knowledge required from volunteers

- Volunteers can get burned out, just like our current problem

If someone can add to this list, please do. And perhaps OP can sticky this or should I create a new forum thread for this?

[NaturalEunuch (imported)]

I log on pretty regularly so I can probably be a moderator. We need a team so people don't get burned out. (I'm old too, but willing to help.)

[WheelyFixed]

I believe someone (fhunter?) posted a script to download the story archive a while back in one of Paolo's blog posts saying that the software was in bad shape... far as I know it works, or will with a bit of tweaking. Perhaps he can repost?

No other updates at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if my friend is out of town for the holidays...

I would also add that much as I like the stories, I'm FAR more concerned and interested in restoring / preserving the forum and discussion area that has provided so much support to me and others on our respective journeys, as well as being a sanctuary and community in so many other ways...

In some of our private conversations, Paolo has suggested that the fiction archive (especially it's huge percentage of stories that involve minors) is one of the major reasons it hasn't been possible to get the sort of outside technical help that might have helped keep the software working better... Allegedly folks look at the stories and run away screaming.... (I can understand why given some of them...) So in terms of what I'm going to be focused on, it will be in restoring the Forum, whether that means starting over from scratch (most likely) or hopefully preserving at least some of the existing EA forum material.... The stories can go fuck themselves (as if some of them didn't involve just that )

WheelyFixed

[fhunter]

I believe someone (fhunter?) posted a script to download the story archive a while back in one of Paolo's blog posts saying that the software was in bad shape... far as I know it works, or will with a bit of tweaking. Perhaps he can repost?

No other updates at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if my friend is out of town for the holidays...

I would also add that much as I like the stories, I'm FAR more concerned and interested in restoring / preserving the forum and discussion area that has provided so much support to me and others on our respective journeys, as well as being a sanctuary and community in so many other ways...

In some of our private conversations, Paolo has suggested that the fiction archive (especially it's huge percentage of stories that involve minors) is one of the major reasons it hasn't been possible to get the sort of outside technical help that might have helped keep the software working better... Allegedly folks look at the stories and run away screaming.... (I can understand why given some of them...) So in terms of what I'm going to be focused on, it will be in restoring the Forum, whether that means starting over from scratch (most likely) or hopefully preserving at least some of the existing EA forum material.... The stories can go fuck themselves (as if some of them didn't involve just that )

WheelyFixed

Yes, that was me. I'll try to update it soonish. Need to add saving indexes (nothing major).

Saving the forum - still tweaking my script for it, I may be able to save read-only copy by mirroring, but currently archive resists a bit

[fhunter]

Can the stories themselves be easily archived into a downloadable file that can be passed on to any potential member who would like to take over?

Perhaps some talented souls can move the stories some modern architecture that are more "durable?"

I can try converting them to .epub/.fb2 formats and add serving script. Software is available.

.epub is readable by _all_ modern book reader software. Including online readers.

[Losethem (imported)]

Perhaps the site owners were not clear. Those of us who have been moderators and owners are tired and ready to move on. For what it's worth, I was not told this was happening ahead of the announcement, but at the same time I'm not surprised.

The Eunuch Archive is stored on a server in a private home. We know where, and there are two folks mainly in charge of it. One is incredibly ill, physically, and the other has moved on some time ago but offered some basic technical support if anyone had wanted to pick up the mantle and run with it. At least this is how I understand things and I'm happy to be corrected if I am wrong on this.

But one thing I know for certain as I know these individuals personally is...

It's over.

They're done.

That the server is housed in a private home by an individual who has been kind enough to keep it running, is the main issue. They shouldn't have to support it, and nobody else has stepped up despite repeated attempts and asks in the past (http://forums.eunuch.org/showthread.php ... -of-Google!). So while offers to help moderate are kind and generous (thank you FLeunuch), the time for these kind of offers to have an impact has unfortunately passed. The time to offer new server space has passed.

In short, the ship has sailed.

I backed off as "the voice of reason" which has caused me to be a punching bag for the past 20 years, beaten up likely for no other reason than those folks viewed me as a killjoy to mastubatory pursuits where they stroke their dick in one hand whilst huffing glue with the other. I severely backed off because we have a relatively new member who has mostly taken on that role, and as far as I'm concerned was doing a great job, despite the fact he and I have differences outside the EA subjects. Thanks to WheelyFixed for doing that. He's been a good voice of reason here for the past couple years or so.

But again, while I'm sure all of you offering help at this point are well intentioned, the decision has been made. Those of us who are moderators but not owners of the site are comfortable with it as we're all ready to move on ourselves.

The Eunuch Archive IS CLOSING on Jan 1, 2025.

If someone has ability to write a script and resurrect the site themselves in the time there is left, I say they're welcome to do so... I won't object. But as far as I'm concerned I'm finished with the moderation, and it's been a LONG time coming. I'm glad I no longer have such widespread moderation responsibilities these days other than a couple of discussion groups on another site. It's freed up a LOT of my personal time. I have more time to spend with my husband, and to do the things outside of here I want to. I want time to go out and drive my classic Mustang out in rural areas of the east coast USA. I want to travel abroad and not be concerned if a website is falling into a huge pit of dumbassery whilst I'm on holiday outside the US.

There are other places eunuchs and nullos gather, but the EA and the business model/platform it runs on have long ago run their course. People just don't consume online content today the way it was done back when the site started. So now the access to honest and reasonable information is left to chance. Again, if others wish to pick up that job I'm happy to see it, because I think it's important. However at this point in my life I'm worn out being the "someone" in the phrase "Isn't there someone to do this for us?" It's time for the younger folks to pick this up and run with it.

I wish any of you well in that endeavor.

[WheelyFixed]

Lots of good points, some I don't agree with, but reasonable suggestions...

Dandelion -

I agree w/ trying to move the stories to a newer platform, and keeping it so that new submissions can be accepted - I think we have already somewhat solved the question of saving the collection, and it seems like it would be possible to set it up, but IMHO it is a lower priority than getting some sort of forum up and running... However I think that the details can be ironed out later....

Domain name and redirect page - I think this is absolutely essential assuming that we can't use the same names for whatever we end up doing. (I have some reason to believe that we could obtain the domain names from the existing holder if we have a good replacement system.

I don't think we should use existing services for several reasons...

1. It leaves us at the mercy of those services - which are motivated by profit, and could pull the plug on us at any time, with little or no notice... Even assuming they would let us start in the first place, it seems like a bit of bad publicity like some group accusing us publicly of illegal actions - (access to minors, allowing cutters, "recruiting" etc - doesn't matter if true or not) could easily result in our being a casualty of "damage control".... This has happened to other sites, and seems like a risk we should avoid...

2. Many of the existing services are extremely bad in terms of privacy - not only are posts relatively public, many will actively mine your info to sell it to the advertising people, (Discord is quite open about doing this...) We have many members that don't want to be "out", and I know of some that would have major employment and or personal safety issues if outed.... The existing forum is very good about not publishing information about members that they don't explicitly divulge, and by being limited to registered users do a pretty decent job of keeping the data miners and other scum out....

3. It makes moderation MUCH harder - there is less opportunity to screen potential members and it is harder to boot the jerks that want to tell us about their favorite deity and how we offend same... (or otherwise be a pain)

I DO think we would need to rent some sort of server space / collocation - I think EA does this now, and I'd be willing to use the same service since it seems they are OK with it. However I believe that we should have as much independence otherwise as possible, and minimize the number of outside entities that can pull the plug on us... This is one of the reasons I like Discourse - it is Free / Open Source software, under a strong copyleft license and we can set up our own instance on a server and not have to worry about paying for the privilege of using it, or having any other 'shutdown exposure' beyond the ISP that gives us the server....

FLEunuch - certainly we would want a moderator team, and I'd consider you a definite candidate... In very many years past, I was a mod on a site related to heating, and if I was setting things up would like to do some of the things that we did on that site which seemed to work well. I don't want to compare them now as I don't want to sound critical of our overall great team here...

Fhunter - Thanks much for all that you are working on to preserve what we have now... Even if we have to restart from scratch, I'd like to have the current site at least as a static image that could be used for reference....

WheelyFixed