kennethfolkdharma.com/forums/forum/start-here/

Mark Peacock wrote: Hi Mark,

I saw the KFD forums at wetpaint had disapeared a few days ago and wondered if it were a temporary glitch or a disastrous uprooting...

According to the NEW forum at KF's wordpress site, he says, "Welcome to the new and improved KFD forum!"

Although it looks like the whole, massive resource that was the KFD forum has disapeared there was a backup done last November (2012) and you can download it here: http://jaytek.net/KFD/KFDBack1.rar

More recent forum posts can be found via Google Cache here:
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=...kdharma.wetpaint.com

"However, that’s going through google’s cache, and at some point soon it’s not going to be there. If there’s something you want to backup, I suggest you do it now." MuMuWu (KFD member)

Colin

Source of above info.: http://kennethfolkdharma.com/forums/topic/backup-of-site/

Interesting that there was no effort made to migrate the existing forum data. Clean slate.

I think efforts are being made, based on the discussions on new-KFD and DhO, but they seem quite challenging.

Sometimes, though, a clean slate is a great thing. Attachment and all that. Kind of like when you move houses and realize you can just chuck out loads of stuff you've had in the basement for years.

I still think the new forum is kind of a shoddy solution. A wordpress plugin? Really? Seems very limited. They should move to a platform like this or vBulletin. I hope they can bolt on enough plugins and add-ons to give real search functionality, view latest/unread posts, etc...

Russell wrote: I think you are right, Russell. Wordpress is a brilliant platform; but is not a natural one for a forum. I doubt the wordpress forum plugin will cope, and all the other plugins that will be needed to make it function anything like this one will make it cumbersome and likely to crash! IMHO
Tom Otvos wrote: I looked for the KFD forum on Monday and there was just the sign "Site Blocked! The Wetpaint site you've requested has been blocked by Wetpaint." so I tried the kennethfolkdharma.com URL and this linked to the same "Site Blocked!" message. The forum at the Worpress site had just one post: a "test" written a year ago.

Since then, the kennethfolkdharma.com URL has been re-directed and the forum on the Wordpress site started to get used. To me, this says the 'new and improved' forum was in fact a reaction to the blocked site, hence no recent backup of the old forum, etc.

A clean slate, yes, but a forced one by my reconning. It will be interesting to see what emerges when the dust settles.

Colin

Yes, but not unexpected by any means. Kenneth Folk does not plan ahead. We tried to get him to move here and he refused us twice, right? So this is the situation he opted for by default.

Sometimes that is the situation forced upon us, yes, and then accepting it and moving on is a good idea. I doubt it was the desired result in this case, though

Russell wrote:
Indeed. I think WP is fine for the teaching aspects of the site, but the discussion groups should use something like Kunena (which is what we use here). Still open source, still full control of the data.

Whatever. Nobody asked me.

But they should have, or at least have paid attention to you when you offered your expertise gratis. Now what they have is the "any port in a storm" version of a message board.

This is just FYI but I've been periodically following what's happening over at WetPaint. I log into their admin boards and see what's being said, claimed, and/or denied. Not one person who actually seems to be a WetPaint management type has ever said word one since the big forum erasure debacle. The moderators know almost nothing. Owners of message boards thus have no real way to know why their boards were removed, or not removed. The WP moderators have gone from being somewhat sympathetic to dictatorial about the WP terms of service and that all forums must tow that line -- but no one really knows where that line is because so many forums were removed that don't appear to have been in violation, like KFD.

My theory is that WP ownership/management just wanted to do some house cleaning and since their TOS allows them to delete anything at any time (they own all the content we ever posted there), they went ahead and did what they wanted. Having been involved in similar situations before (during my tenure at Time, Inc.'s message boards) my guess is the management at WP sees this all as a big win.

Lesson learned.

Lest there be any doubt, a visit to www.wetpaint.com will explain everything anyone ever wanted to know about why Kenneth Folk Dharma was removed from that site. The place is now an ode to popular entrainment with no evidence that it is a wiki, or a message board.

 And there's this on the wetpaint central message board:

"Message from the staff --
Please read this message about NEW WIKIS before posting a thread:
If you are viewing this page, you may have been redirected after trying to create a new wiki. New wikis can no longer be created due to Wetpaint trying to implement stricter ways to enforce their Terms of Service. For more information regarding this issue, please read the latest announcement from the Wetpaint Central Staff."

Effing capitalists!

WHOAAA! The PIVOT! OMG.

Over on KFD I expressed the wish that these guys be reborn in a hell realm, or maybe as a prey animal of some kind. I'll add a small insect, or maybe a worm. Yuck! I begged the powers that be on KFD to try to repost all our old stuff. I miss it terribly (craving, clinging, I know, not to mention hatred and aversion).

Chris Marti wrote:
FYI, Wetpaint has had entertainment news on their front page since September 9 of 2010. Click on one of the blue circles on this page from the Wayback Machine to see the front page of the site from that date.

The removal of wikis was likely a brilliant accounting move to remove anything that didn't closely align with their business model. (Which smiley face is the sarcastic one?)

That's probably true, Andy. I used to consult for a very large media company that did this kind of thing - blow up users' content for corporate reasons, having no concern for the users whet-so-ever. They figured if they own it they can do what they want. And guess what? They can do whatever they want with their property, i.e.; our comments.

It seems to me the continuity at KFD has been broken and will be very, very difficult to get back, if it can be gotten back. It's a real shame, because to fix it means to move it once again.

Now THIS is rather informative.

You know what? I'm going to call that company and see if I can obtain a full, real backup of KFD from them. Stay tuned.

Here's the current version of that page.

All I need is the phone number.

Surely someone knows someone who knows the CEO... hit up Linked In!

If a bunch of people start calling then my guess is we'll get shut down. I'd like to try this first. I really do think I know how to talk to these folks and thus have a shot at getting somewhere. Foolish? Wishful thinking? Probably, but it's worth a try. If I fail then you can all crowd source away.

I agree, I was just suggesting a way to try to find the phone number. It's usually very counterproductive to have an "attack" by a lot of people. You, Chris, have the position and experience to have a productive conversation about it, should you be able to reach the right person.

I have their phone number. It's on the page I posted a link to.

We await your report!