Many of you will have seen the notice published by Multiply management yesterday announcing the 1st December closure of the facilities that host the Thorne Grammar School web site. If you missed it, a copy is available below.
The site was started by Mark Hepworth as an MSN Group in 2001, and transferred to Multiply in Dec 2008 when MSN Groups closed. It has been used to organise 3 major reunions each attracting hundreds of former pupils, and dozens of smaller reunions of friends and single year groups. It has provided a forum for an exchange of views on a surprising number of topics over a period of nearly twelve years. It has reunited many old friends and created many new ones. And it has provided an archive of photographs and documents consisting of nearly 3,000 images and text files. These archives are by far the most popular feature of the site, attracting many more visitors than any other feature.
The present administrators have run the site for the last 10 years, and organised the transfer of the site in 2008. Being conscious of the difficulty of finding a new host who will provide equivalent facilities at no cost to the members, they have decided that they will take no action to keep the TGS site in operation after December 1st.
But they will offer every assistance possible to anyone who wishes to take on the challenge of finding and managing a new TGS site, including any help required to transfer documents, photos and other records pertinent to TGS. We have yet to see precisely what migration or download software Multiply will provide to facilitate the transfer of the site (see the notice below).
In the absence of a volunteer to take on the task, the site will no longer exist after 1st December.
Keith Williams
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As most of you are probably aware, Multiply's mission has evolved over the past year and a half to become the biggest and most beloved ecommerce marketplace in two very exciting markets, Indonesia and the Philippines. As our focus has shifted, we have reviewed all of our operations, and made some decisions that will affect everyone here.
- From December 1st, we will unfortunately no longer be able to support Multiply in its current form - notably we will be removing the social networking and content sharing part of Multiply (photos, videos, blogs, social messaging, etc.). We have decided to discontinue providing and hosting these services, as we have concluded that other Internet sites who are committed to social networking services will do a better job serving you than we can.
- For our existing users of social networking features, we will be providing easy ways for you to either download your stuff (photos, blogs, content, etc), or migrate it to other online services. We'll announce the precise details shortly. It will be your choice whether to download, migrate or just let your content lapse (and get deleted).
- For our existing ecommerce users (both buyers and sellers) in Indonesia and the Philippines, there will be no action required.
- Regarding any existing Multiply Premium subscriptions we will refund any unused balance, and apologize for any inconvenience this will cause. Please contact customer service to request a refund. Note that this is for Multiply Premium, not the ecommerce related Multiply Trust product.
I am aware of how disruptive this news may be, and understand the disappointment that it may cause. Ultimately this was a business decision, critical to our to success moving forward. Instead, we are excited to pursue our own mission to give the 350 million consumers in Indonesia and the Philippines a great way to buy and sell items online. Our singular focus now is for Multiply to retain its status as a vibrant e-commerce destination in Southeast Asia in the years ahead.
I suspect that many of you will not like this news, and am sorry to have to deliver it now. I hope that you will be able to understand the reasons for our decision and thank you for being a part of the Multiply community over the past eight years.
Although contributions to the site have fallen off over the last couple of years my first reaction is that this will leave a big hole in our lives. Where do we go from here?
ReplyDeleteMick..
It's our misfortune that Multiply should terminate our occupancy, there's a vacancy created by our trusty management and a home to find before all is said and done.
ReplyDelete.
I am sad that the site is closing ,it never had the vigour of the previous host.. but I liked to read comments and know that I was part of the TGS alumni.
ReplyDeleteThank you Keith and the others who did the hard bits of transfer and maintenance.
I agree with Mick..where do we go now?
June
I am also sad and shocked by the news. The old MSN site opened up a new world for me after I lost my husband. I enjoyed the friendliness of the members and I soon felt at home and had a sense of belonging to something which helped to fill a void.
ReplyDeleteLooking at all the photos and documents we have, loaned by members to scan, shows the esteem with which TGS is held. The thought that we may lose all the history they portray is very sad indeed.
Many of us have renewed friendships either by attending the reunions or by contact on the site. I will always be grateful for that, as I'm sure many of you are. So I'll echo Mick and June and say the same. Where do we go from here?
Will we lose all the archives? or is there someway each of us can down load them for ourselves ? I am computer illiterate so these are probably stupid questions.
ReplyDeleteI have never quite trusted this new fangled technology and still feel that books etc are more reliable,hoped I was wrong and blamed my increasing age for my scepticism.There must be some way of saving it all??????
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ReplyDeletePat,
Most of the material is already backed up, some by me, some by Eileen and some by Rod . We are waiting for Multiply to tell us what software they will supply for the purpose of bulk migration, including downloading to your own machine. When they do, it may be available to everybody, but more probably it will be available only to the administrators (from memory, that was the case when we migrated from MS Groups to Multiply).
But if you are interested in preserving just a few photos, everybody can do that.
1. Surf to the picture that interests you. Make sure it is the full picture and not just a thumbnail version by left clicking on it.
2. Right click on the picture to bring up a small menu.
3. In that menu choose "Save Picture as..." (if you use MS Explorer as your browser), or "Save image as..." (if you use Google Chrome as your browser).
4. Choose the location in which to save the file - I always choose the Desktop.
5. Click on the Save button.
You will then have that picture in your machine as a .jpg file. I always then open the photo again in MS Office Picture Manager and click on "Auto Correct" to improve the lighting/contrast/colour, or to crop it to the size I want.
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Pat,
ReplyDeleteKeith is right, he trained me well. He backed up all the documentation under the NOTES section and the REVIEWS section as well as some of the more important BLOGS, and also the Welcome page. I backed up all the photos, memorabilia and Actas as I transferred them and Rod did the same with his. There have been more donations in the last three years most of which is backed up but we will ensure that it is all safe in our computers.
I have also done as Keith says and the one or two photos I would like to keep for me are in a separate folder after saving them to desktop.
Thankyou........will have a go....but don't hold your breath!!!
ReplyDeleteKeith, with regards to your comments of Aug. 10th I have very little expertise but I could afford an annual fee towards the expense of maintaining a site. A 'tyke' and his money are not easily parted but I would imagine if enough of us contribute the fee would not be too onerous. Would a pound a week be excessive? Would it be adequate?
ReplyDelete.
ReplyDeleteMick,
There are 282 registered members of this site. That number exaggerates. Some of those registrations are duplicates which happened when people forgot their log-in details and re-registered under another name, some are registrations for people who we know have since died, and some are for people who never attended the school, looked in once out of curiosity and never came back. It would probably be safe to assume that there are at least 200 pukka registrations, i.e. people who receive copies of blog postings (if they have not opted out of receiving e-mails).
But not all of those come to the site regularly. This blog should be of interest to anyone concerned about the future of the site. It has been accessed 494 times by 91 people (i.e. an average of 5.4 accesses per visitor) over the last month. That number is fairly typical for accesses to blogs.
'Memories of TGS' had 114 visitors in 3 years 7months,
'News of TGS People' had 94 visitors in 3y 7m,
'Thorne & District News' had 78 visitors in 3y 7m.
The 'Broadway' blog had 79 visitors in 1y 9m,
The 'Red Dragon' blog had 87 visitors in 2y 3m.
'Read Any Good Books' had 39 visitors in 3y 8m.
etc.
These visitors made multiple visits to those blogs, and they are generally drawn from the same limited set of names.
From that I estimate that we could expect a maximum of about 100 people to pay a fee to join a new site.
The commercial enterprise that I referred to on 10 August would charge about £65 per month (depending on the exchange rate) = £780 per year for a site that comes closest to what we have now. They, and any alumni fee-paying members, would probably want a minimum term of at least a year for an initial contract. So someone would have to put up £780 immediately, and hope to recover it by charging say £10 per year for membership, hoping at least 78 people join the new site.
But that is the optimistic estimate. It is a calculation based on the behaviour of members before they are asked to pay. And we are an ageing population. We have very few active members from the Comprehensive era, and our numbers will drop rapidly in years to come. So if, say, only 50 people register on the new site our benefactor might want to change that fee to £25 in the second year, to cover the cost of providing a site for those 50 people, and to recoup the losses on the first year. And collecting those fees will involve extra costs - if he uses something like Paypal they will take a percentage.
Even at that price (£25 = 50p per week) it would be half the fee that Mick and Ron have suggested.
But perhaps I'm wrong, and someone like Mothdiver or LesVG or Brian Grainger or John Stamp or Ray Pemberton is already beavering away out there preparing a new, cheaper, more dynamic site ready to take over on 1st December.
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In the meantime....well done Mick for posing the question admiration Keith for a comprehensive reply.
ReplyDelete.
To bring the total views for different threads, the one I posted on 12th August, "Was It Like This For You?" has had 79 visitors in four days.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Shirl, Mick and Keith have made thoughtful posts. Thank you.
I have had the feeling that the site has been losing vigour in the last few years,not surprising since most of the active members are or are about to become octogenarians,but considering the enjoyment we have had all these years free of any charge and the friendships we have made or renewed I cannot imagine anyone being unwilling to invest one or two quid a week so we can keep going.So let`s hope
ReplyDeletethat some of those with the necessary competence will be able to save the site and keep us all together.
I hope we will soon have a flood of Count Me In messages.
Count me in
ReplyDeleteCount me in
ReplyDeleteVive audacter after all....
Now everyone make a firm commitment to write and post something at least three times a year...(Wake up mat the back there!)..
Sorry about the typo - I was drinking wine at the time
ReplyDeleteI think everyone must be on holiday.......
ReplyDeleteEvery day is a holiday. Double holiday starts for me on Tuesday when my flight goes overnight to Manchester. I will be in the Lakes by Friday. It used to be Gable, Striding Edge and Haystacks and now it's Catbells and round Buttermere. And just as much fun and challenge but with better meals at the end of it!
ReplyDeleteWe are going up to Keswick in October to do some walking too .......hope the sun shines for you Mick.
ReplyDeleteThe silence of the majority speaks volumes; question morphs into rhetorical, conversation into soliloquy, comment into an unresponsive void. How can the dying m/embers of a once vibrant body survive a transplant without an injection of enthusiasm
ReplyDeleteShirl,
ReplyDeleteA beautiful, fitting epitaph. There's nothing more to say.
K
Hear hear!
ReplyDeleteKind words Keith; it's a lament posing as an elegy there's a while to go before the eulogy.
ReplyDelete.
Sorry to hear about the closure of the Multiply site. Nothing in hyperspace seems to last for longer than the memory of a Goldfish, so I suppose this was inevitable at some point. I am extremely thankful to all contributors to the archive (especially the late RJ), and would not like it to be lost. I don't think it will be lost as there are several options available for retaining it, and the blog, without payment, and without invoking the dreaded Facebook.
ReplyDeleteBefore putting in my suggestion, it's probably better to wait until Multiply offer their own options. At the very least, they will offer a "one click" download for the site administrator to save the entire site locally, perhaps as one file, so be ready for this if you want to save the archive. They will tell you the size of the TGS site (in Mbytes) but it might be useful to ask now if this might cause a problem, since it has expanded considerably since the MSN days, and will be massive. Alternatively, you may already have a local "mirror" of the site, so will not need the download.
Either way, the site can be re-uploaded to another host and carry on as before.
I do not worry about the age of the contributors, since few people look back until their kids have grown up, and I expect more people will join from the 1970s/80s/90s when their joints start to ache.
I await developments with interest.
Regards to all.
Ray
Ray shines with a glimmer of hope
ReplyDelete.
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ReplyDeleteRay,
Further developments. I tried the download again using Firefox. It succeeded with a total download of 2825 files, of which 11 were gif files, 5 were wma files, 6 were flv files and and 2803 were jpeg or jpg. The total download size was 204 MB. I think that this was the information you wanted before disclosing your ideas for perpetuating the site.
You will note that the download does not include any of the text files in the NOTES, BLOGS or REVIEWS sections, and it does not include the descriptive captions that Eileen and many others have painstakingly added to the photographs as they were uploaded. Without those captions many of the photos are meaningless, and it would be a pity if they were simply to disappear into an unorganised morass on Facebook or Friends Reunited.
I believe the archives can only be reproduced through the same painstaking file by file posting and editing which produced them. We are looking forward to your ideas for the migration, and will do all we can to help you achieve them.
Keith
That's a good days work Keith!
ReplyDeleteI'll also download to Firefox, then we'll have complete backups in two locations as well as the ones we backed up before.
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ReplyDeleteRay,
Thanks for this response. I believe that Blogger, one of the three download options offered by Multiply, is part of Google Plus. And the latest information I have from Multiply management is that they are still negotiating arrangements with Tumblr. So Google Plus is probably the best free option at the present time. If you are prepared to continue your good work Eileen and I will hand over control of the Multiply site to you so that you can complete the transfer.
We would like to do that immediately because you will need as much time as possible to transfer all the captions to the photographs on the new site. I think you have demonstrated clearly that you have the necessary technical skills. I will leave for France next weekend and I believe Eileen plans to go to Italy very soon, but we will both be contactable through Multiply if you need to consult us. Thanks again for taking up the challenge, and good luck with the project.
Keith
Many thanks for your positive comments.
ReplyDeleteWe have a couple of weeks yet before work needs to start, giving me time to create the necessary directories, and for yourself and Eileen to take your holidays.
After that period, if Google allows me to create the necessary directories, and there are no new developments from Multiply, and no better suggestions come in, then you can put me on the management team and I will download the entire site, then re-upload it to Google Plus.
If the photo titles have been stripped off, then I might need some help from site members to put them all (over 2000+) back on, so volunteers welcome.
Have a good holiday.
Ray
Ray, you are a great bloke.
ReplyDelete.
As an interested yet technically unskilled member of the group not wishing to appear as a heckler or interupter of proceedings I record here my appreciation of the time and effort afforded by Keith Williams and Ray Pemberton towards the continuation and prosperity of this site and will remain silent on this subject until such time as we meet in our new premises.
ReplyDeleteThe discerning reader will have spotted a grammatical error and a spelling mistake in my last comment.
ReplyDelete.
Shirley Hemingway,
ReplyDeleteI spotted your spelling mistake but not your grammatical error, so not discerning enough! But I thought your style could have been improved by the use of some punctuation, and perhaps by splitting the text into two shorter sentences. 9/10!
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Believe me the fascinating transcripts for a Good Historical Description took my breath away full stop I had to take another deep one to markedly exclaim my appreciation in post(sic) haste. You will admit the spelling mistake was easy but we (Keith and I ) shall wait to see who grasps the grammar.
ReplyDelete.
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ReplyDeleteShirl,
The bit of the article that intrigued me was:
TREE PLANTING UNDER THE UMBRELLA
Following the opening ceremony Princess Mary had tea, the following having the honour of taking it with her: Sir James and Miss Hinchcliffe, Sir Percy and Lady Jackson, The Bishop of Sheffield and Mrs Burrows, Miss Kenyon-Slaney, lady-in- waiting, Mr and Mrs J. H. Hallam, Canon Littlewood, Mr and Mrs J. Servant, Mesdames Walker, Wilson, Whileblood and Winder (members of the Board of Governors), Mr Tom Williams, M.P. and Mrs Williams, and the Rev. W. H. Evers and Mrs Evers. The tea room and retiring room were creations of sheer delight. The floral decorations were provided by Mrs Darley.
You will note that Mr Shipley Turner, a mere headmaster of the school, and therefore a county council employee, was not included in the tea party. Very strict class distinctions in those days. However, my Uncle Tom was there!
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And with you still safeguarding the School's reputation I'm tempted to say the Williamsons have kept a finger in the pie.
ReplyDelete.
Ray,
ReplyDeleteI'm posting this on the new site as my first comment, by way of a trial. Congratulations on creating what looks like being a very useful and attractive site for the TGS habitual bloggers. There will be a modest learning curve for our older members, but most of it looks intuitive. A step by step guide to how to join would be useful. I already had a gmail address so it was very simple for me.
I like the fact that the spell checking is instantaneous, and that one can opt on the blog to receive copies of comments by email. Looking forward to seeing what you can achieve with the picture archive, and ready to help with the picture captions in due course. We have two months to complete that task.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMany thanks for your positive response.
ReplyDeleteIn case I fall under a bus, would you mind sending your gmail address to thornegrammar@gmail.com so that I can add you as an administrator ?
Cheers
Ray
Ray,
DeleteThank you for the invitation in your message of 26 Sept to act as administrator on the new site but as you know I declined. Eleven years in the role is more than enough.
When Multiply announced the closure of our site I was convinced that it would not be possible to create a viable replacement site without paying for it. But your hard work has shown that I may have been too pessimistic. I admire your efforts to make the new site resemble the one we are about to lose.
There are some features of the new site on Blogger that I think are an improvement, and some we'll just have to get used to. But there are also four major problems which need to be resolved if the site is to become viable:
1. There appears to be no way an ordinary member can start a new blog, or post a video clip or music file. It may be that an administrator can do this for us, but we need your reassurance on that point. Do we have an administrator willing and able to do it on request?
2. The current Blog section is a jumble of Multiply Blogs and a lot of other material, some of which I have never seen before. To simplify access I suggest that all the least important and more transient Blogs, and all the non Blog material, should be deleted from the Blog page on Blogger, leaving us with only the following:
- - - Closure of TGS site on Multiply (to be removed when the migration is a distant memory)
- - - Memories of TGS
- - - News of TGS Alumni
- - - Thorne and District News
- - - Weather Reports
- - - Read any Good Books Lately
- - - The No Thread Thread
Perhaps others have a different view, or will suggest other blogs to retain. But I believe the objective should be to reduce the number to a level where they can all be easily accessed for posting and reading.
3. There are tabs on the new site labelled NOTES and REVIEW which take you to pages which are empty. Those titles were preordained on Multiply and were not changeable by the administrators. It would make sense to change the titles, or delete the tabs and create new ones labelled NOTICES and HISTORY, before we reload the appropriate content to them.
4. The photographic record has several problems:
- There is no index to the photo albums at present. An index with automatic links to the appropriate album like the one we had on Multiply would be appreciated.
- Many photos have strayed into the wrong albums. And the photos are no longer in a logical sequence within their albums.
- The photos have lost all their captions, without which many of them will be meaningless to the majority of viewers.
I and others have volunteered to help, but at present there does not seem to be any way that anyone other than you can carry out those tasks. How would you like to proceed, and can we help?
Just joined this new version of the Thorne Grammar blog. Glad to see that all the archive will not be lost. Spent a couple of weeks in and around Thorne last month. I played golf with Peter Raper (1967) leaver and we met Stan Willis the maths teacher at Kingswood Golf club. Looking and doing well in his early 80's.
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