I understand unsuccessful boards closing down, but popular ones seem almost equally likely to do so. What comes to mind is ProjectW, the leader in the scene at the time, followed by BayW. Some of them resurface after some time, but never seem to attain their original glory after their memberbase has dispersed.
known unknowns! BayW was different issue (too much hassle, with too little pay for extremely high maintenance hobby) WarezBB same as above, even they had load of mods and squabbles ended up unresolved, nobody was able to deal with problems or willing to (major management site bugs there PHP) nSane?- to some degree combination of all of them, especially, since old management retired + trying to solve unsolved earlier site compatibility issues with forum format and features- "pick your own", as saying goes. Saying all of it, I do not discount possibility they'll come back as many "teams" had own communications between them-self, hence endless giving spirit might have diminished somewhat, but still work and share their work on their own, trademarked as their own, but not in the same "community forum" format
The forum is offline, but the main site is back online. -- Honestly, these people have so many problems I am surprised they are even able to keep their loyal following. lol -- Since the main site is back online, I would assume, eventually, assuming they do not screw up again, it should, eventually, be back online. -- Did I forget to mention the instability of that site? lol
I do not believe the issue is with IPS as they have previously claimed, but rather the error I suspect is between the admin and her/his keyboard (poor server management). However, on the off chance that IPS is truly the issue, DAZ once told me nsane follows here. If true, at this time, I would like to remind them that they could convert their forum without losing any data to WoltLab. Especially now, since WoltLab allows everyone, even people who are not customers, to try their beta software for free. This allows for better feedback and review since everyone gets to put their 2 cents into the development before the final release. The current release of 3.1 suite is beta 4 https://community.woltlab.com/thread/264350-woltlab-suite-3-1-beta-4-download/ and at the very least, it would allow them to give it a try at no cost (for free). If they decide to keep WoltLab, they can then buy it after the final release (which would be stable). If not satisfied with WoltLab, they could then install a fresh copy of IPS and convert back (again losing nothing) and have a stable install of IPS. -- Either way, it would be a win, win for them.
I doubt they still do, or they would have responded by now to this long thread. But if they do or you can somehow get in contact with them, why don't you offer your help, as you seem to know the stuff. You'll win the gratitude of a great deal of people.
If I were to step in, assuming I want to put myself through that kind of punishment, I would want to back up their whole site (everything), convert them locally (since a few things which have transpired seems to suggest they once had a security issue and you do not want anything compromised on the new setup), wipe their box and start fresh on a new OS install, then upload the clean, stable converted forum. But in truth, some of the other comments and happenings, suggest that a wipe would not be enough as I suspect their current host or box cannot handle the traffic they receive (I suspect things first started to go downhill when their admin tried to optimize their box to compensate for this). It would be time-consuming. edit: Spoiler: basic outline CLOSE forum (1st step before doing a complete backup) backup and download backup locally backup again to another remote source (always good to have more than one backup on more than one location) Change DNS with proxy firewall (Cloudflare for example) convert site locally Fresh install OS on new host and/or box Configure new box Manually adjust records on Cloudflare to point to new box (thus helping to keep new box's true IP a secret. -- Not 100% guaranteed, but generally smart practice) Upload newly converted site Prevent hotlinking (further helps to keep new box's true IP a secret) Open Forum.
Actual nSane, guy that started the site has left it for the care of few other prominent members, he himself continued in a direction of his media development as warez has never been his true passion... ~2008-9. Prominent members have (had?) comms on What'sApp (at least it has been discussed), https://www.tapatalk.com/topic/57378-nsane-forums/292310-***********-on-whatsapp
I don't use tapatalk either, also I don't use a mobile phone either. never had a need for one and don't intend to get one. Good old landline for me
* sigh * Tapatalk is a really poor app to use on a forum, primarily for four reasons They insert links to your competitor, drawing traffic away from your site They insert ads into your site, generating revenue away from you They scrape content from your site It can (it has in the past) added extra load to for your non-mobile users (those not using the app) All this has been documented and argued over the years. I would not advise anyone to add Tapatalk to their community. -- Sad that the owner has stepped away. Clearly whoever has been running things has not been doing a good job (this thread seems to document that fact pretty well).
Don't use it myself. I only mentioned it, as it is only remaining record of that convo TBH it is the time to find real alternative or to create community/forum with similar moto/rules and as many as poss same members
If you make new one and it is with the same rules, then you will have wait soon the same fate. It is absolutely inevitable that any anarchy ends with the crash.