07-02-2014, 07:51 AM
07-02-2014, 10:39 AM
For whatever reasons fallenflags.org is not working. Anyone know why not?
07-02-2014, 11:04 AM
Sorry - can't resist it - "maybe it is a fallen flag?" 
07-02-2014, 11:24 AM
...flux capacitor problems ...
07-02-2014, 05:13 PM
On <!-- e --><a href="mailto:MFCL@yahoogroups.com">MFCL@yahoogroups.com</a><!-- e --> there's talk of a lack of donations to keep it running. Personally too poor to donate myself.
07-02-2014, 10:48 PM
What amount of dollars are we talking about? I donated several times because I think his site is important for many of us. I have no idea how much a web site with heavy transaction load costs to be hosted without advertisement.
07-03-2014, 09:58 AM
shortliner Wrote:Sorry - can't resist it - "maybe it is a fallen flag?"
I was thinking of how ironic that was too!
07-03-2014, 10:31 AM
teejay Wrote:...flux capacitor problems ...The E.L. Brown flux capacitor and lightning don't always play well together.
07-03-2014, 03:52 PM
OK Boys & Girls here's the official word from George Elwood himself:
The Railroad Fallen Flags web (RRFF) site was first installed on the
internet in November 1994. Using a small amount of available space on my
internet provider's server, small images files were made available. Running
out of space, I was offered space on the Bluemoon server in Buffalo. The
site was stood up there in Oct 1997.
In 2002 the site was listed as one of the top ten RR related web sites by
"Model Railroader."" The next year it was named the best site by the
magazine. That year the site received over 65000 hits in one month, the high
point. The site has been cited in other magazines over the years. The site
has provided support for various model projects, articles and books.
The RRFF has been a true labor of love for me. I don't have a clue as to the
number of hours I have spent. Since I retired at the end of last year, I
have been putting in even more hours. I start between 0730 and 1000 and end
between 2200 and 2300 every day. Of course I take time to eat, walk and
complete tasks around the house although this list is growing longer.
When I started the image size was kept to around 35k in order to get the
most online. This image size has now moved to around 100K.
Some of the operator manuals are much larger. I prevent WebCrawler's from
gathering information on the site material. With the number of files, this
would impact the overall operation of the site. It does keep me off the
various search engines which result in low visibility across the railfan
community and a low access rate.
As of shutdown the RRFF has 358,698 files with a total size of 28.7GB.
Images run from the 1800's to last week. I don't have an exact count but
over 1000 railroads and private car/loco owners are present on the system.
Looking at the basic numbers for May, the site supported over 770000
successful requests for 56GB of data transfer.
In 2002 the RRFF requested donations to support the site. The response was
great and this continued over the years providing yearly funding of the
site.
The donation drive for July 2013-Jun 2014 provided barely enough for the
year by using some of the left over funds from the previous year. As a
result, I decided to see how many people cared about the site and I removed
the easy link to PayPal and the snail mail address. In the previous 12
months only 13 people requested information on how to send a donation. A few
foreign visitors found my PayPal account and sent a donation. The end result
is that there are not enough funds to cover another year. On 30 Jun 2014 I
removed the RRFF from the Bluemoon system and my account was terminated.
I would like to thank those of you who have supported the site over the
years either through donations or submitting material to post. All have been
great appreciated.
That being said, I have another location for the RRFF. Using the limited
donations from the past year and the rest from my mad money, the new site is
paid for the next year. The RRFF will return within 1-3 weeks at the same
URL (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rr-fallenflags.org">http://www.rr-fallenflags.org</a><!-- m -->) if everything goes right. I will be
going through the current material on the site and removing duplicate and
poor quality images before standing it up. I have also noted some misplaced
files which will be placed in the correct location. If you have been
submitting material to the site, continue to do so as I will continue to
process the files and will start with a large number of images.
The Railroad Fallen Flags web (RRFF) site was first installed on the
internet in November 1994. Using a small amount of available space on my
internet provider's server, small images files were made available. Running
out of space, I was offered space on the Bluemoon server in Buffalo. The
site was stood up there in Oct 1997.
In 2002 the site was listed as one of the top ten RR related web sites by
"Model Railroader."" The next year it was named the best site by the
magazine. That year the site received over 65000 hits in one month, the high
point. The site has been cited in other magazines over the years. The site
has provided support for various model projects, articles and books.
The RRFF has been a true labor of love for me. I don't have a clue as to the
number of hours I have spent. Since I retired at the end of last year, I
have been putting in even more hours. I start between 0730 and 1000 and end
between 2200 and 2300 every day. Of course I take time to eat, walk and
complete tasks around the house although this list is growing longer.
When I started the image size was kept to around 35k in order to get the
most online. This image size has now moved to around 100K.
Some of the operator manuals are much larger. I prevent WebCrawler's from
gathering information on the site material. With the number of files, this
would impact the overall operation of the site. It does keep me off the
various search engines which result in low visibility across the railfan
community and a low access rate.
As of shutdown the RRFF has 358,698 files with a total size of 28.7GB.
Images run from the 1800's to last week. I don't have an exact count but
over 1000 railroads and private car/loco owners are present on the system.
Looking at the basic numbers for May, the site supported over 770000
successful requests for 56GB of data transfer.
In 2002 the RRFF requested donations to support the site. The response was
great and this continued over the years providing yearly funding of the
site.
The donation drive for July 2013-Jun 2014 provided barely enough for the
year by using some of the left over funds from the previous year. As a
result, I decided to see how many people cared about the site and I removed
the easy link to PayPal and the snail mail address. In the previous 12
months only 13 people requested information on how to send a donation. A few
foreign visitors found my PayPal account and sent a donation. The end result
is that there are not enough funds to cover another year. On 30 Jun 2014 I
removed the RRFF from the Bluemoon system and my account was terminated.
I would like to thank those of you who have supported the site over the
years either through donations or submitting material to post. All have been
great appreciated.
That being said, I have another location for the RRFF. Using the limited
donations from the past year and the rest from my mad money, the new site is
paid for the next year. The RRFF will return within 1-3 weeks at the same
URL (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rr-fallenflags.org">http://www.rr-fallenflags.org</a><!-- m -->) if everything goes right. I will be
going through the current material on the site and removing duplicate and
poor quality images before standing it up. I have also noted some misplaced
files which will be placed in the correct location. If you have been
submitting material to the site, continue to do so as I will continue to
process the files and will start with a large number of images.
07-07-2014, 09:06 PM
I'd donate, but I spent all my hobby money on books.
07-16-2014, 09:18 PM
The Fallen Flags railroad site is up and running again. Same address.
Charlie
Charlie
07-16-2014, 11:22 PM
Good to see it is back. Made a quick donation to keep it up. I hope he finds a way to communicate in advance when fundings runs low. Removing the donate button and see what happens was not his brightest idea.
I hope big blue will send a clear message when funding ever runs low.
I hope big blue will send a clear message when funding ever runs low.