Things still going?

[Ratspeed]

Hello! I'm not new to the site or the idea of making DIY Bookscanners, but this is my first post. Been trying to prioritize things.

I had a question about the site, and if things are still going with it? I understand the site got hacked a while back, but 66% of the site is still down, it appears! The Wiki and News are returning 404's. So I was wondering if plans are still proceeding to promote DIY Book scanners or if it's a dead project? I was anxious to look at the plans for making my own frame. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[bonesgeorge]

Well, thing is, a new plan's been out a while, like a month or so. You should go to the main page and search for thread "Start here". You should find everything there, though, when I was about to start my own, I didn't really find them in the first post, but Daniel wrote to a guy asked about the files lately that all are there.

OFF

I'm pretty impressed about the whole site, but I couldn't make out why isn't there a simple guide through to the latest stuffs, as it's non of their interest (they don't make money out of ads, no donations and you can make and sell your own builds here). So I didn't understand why there is no simple guide throughs around, now I see that the Wiki used to work... pretty strange indeed!

Hello! I'm not new to the site or the idea of making DIY Bookscanners, but this is my first post. Been trying to prioritize things.

I had a question about the site, and if things are still going with it? I understand the site got hacked a while back, but 66% of the site is still down, it appears! The Wiki and News are returning 404's. So I was wondering if plans are still proceeding to promote DIY Book scanners or if it's a dead project? I was anxious to look at the plans for making my own frame. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

[abmartin]

Ratspeed,

I can assure you that work is still going on at this site. I'm not one of those doing the work, but I eagerly watch in awe for the work others do each day. A lot of work is being done finishing the hackerspace scanner (see the pinned thread at the top of the hardware section). Rob is even making these available for sale as a kit. The plans are also available under an open hardware license. It's a growing project, not a dead one. (One of these days, I need to get one of those models cut to replace my ailing "New Standard" -- my craftsmanship is starting to show problems after the first 500 books in its 18 month life. Each camera has gone past the 10,000 pic number reset point four times! The Hackerspace model looks like it would survive many times that!)

I don't want to put words in the mouths of the admins, but I think they are too busy getting the Hackerspace design out there to put those back up yet. The news is a reflection of the forum anyway! A lot of the info from the wiki can be found in Rob's "getting started" thread too which can serve as a guide to the forums. One day, I am sure the wiki will be back. It's just a difficult thing to restore. They have posted updates on the site status in the "technical support" forum.

The forum is the key part of the site anyway! Those who do the most work are more interested in doing it and pushing forward than continually updating summary threads. I, for one, prefer that they do what they do. There is a DIY emphasis here. For those who don't like that approach, you can purchase a kit from Rob who has written some really great looking documentation on assembly!

To those who do the work: Keep it up! Don't be discouraged by those who don't look at the date stamps in the fora to see the amazing stuff you do everyday! Dan and Rob with the new design, you guys rock! Tulon, who keeps bettering ScanTailor even though he doesn't enjoy it anymore, thank you so much for the work you do everyday (and I am even more impressed by the patience you show to trolling feature requests from those who don't take the time to understand the program!). Strider1551, thanks for solving my binding needs making a difficult job easy. Anonymous2, thanks for making important tools available to folks in such a usable form! Steve, thanks for writing a great tool that I use almost everyday! And then there are you guys who blow my mind every day with your technical brilliance with those automated scanners! Lots of amazing software development work lately too, which I haven't yet had the opportunity to try. I look forward to it! I feel lucky to live in a world where people give of themselves to such an extent and respond with grace to us freeloaders!

[Heelgrasper]

I understand the site got hacked a while back, but 66% of the site is still down, it appears!

I have to wonder what you base that number on. My best estimate is that about 10% of the site is still down. And it's the 10% that was rarely being updated. Can't really think of anything that was in the Wiki or the news that you can't find in the forum where hardly a day goes by without some new improvement to software or hardware.

[Gado]

I have to wonder what you base that number on. My best estimate is that about 10% of the site is still down. And it's the 10% that was rarely being updated. Can't really think of anything that was in the Wiki or the news that you can't find in the forum where hardly a day goes by without some new improvement to software or hardware.

I agree. I hadn't checked this forum the past couple weeks when the hacking occurred, and were it not for those talking about it in posts, I would never have noticed the upset. I've been browsing the forums well over a year now, and it'd be hard to imagine 2/3 the site still being down. As the main page has always addressed News/Wiki/Forum in roughly a Good/Better/Best format, respectively, the forum is and will probably always be the best source for the latest information since everyone can contribute in an an open-dialogue format. I had used the wiki a couple times (months back) to find a picture from posted builds, but those are just as easily found within forum threads; and when the site claims "We NEVER update the news," it can be taken at face value.

[daniel_reetz]

I really appreciate the discussion here, and abmartin definitely has it right. Rob and I have been working every spare minute on getting the new design ready. I am personally very indebted to Rob for getting kits out there so early!

All the data from the Wiki and News are saved, but they were basically covered in spammer code when we were hacked. Eventually, I will sort them out.

For now, my plan is to replace the main diybookscanner.org page with a wordpress installation, so I can have news right there and keep things updated. That will replace the old /news page. As for the wiki, I'm loathe to put up a new one. We had more people spending more time fighting spam than we did having people writing actual content. It felt like a poor use of their time.

If anyone wants to suggest a good way to keep people continuously updated, I'm interested in hearing suggestions, though they can't distract too much from the actual work. I personally started a work thread where I show people what I've been doing to get the new designs ready.

[daniel_reetz]

Also, I hope everyone can keep in mind that Rob and I (and pretty much all contributors here) have day jobs. My job is in R&D and is very demanding and often I work into the night for weeks on end just to travel across the country to set something up. And frankly, I have other hobbies that aren't book scanning... once in a while it is refreshing to look at those.

[qubit]

All the data from the Wiki and News are saved, but they were basically covered in spammer code when we were hacked. Eventually, I will sort them out.

For now, my plan is to replace the main diybookscanner.org page with a wordpress installation, so I can have news right there and keep things updated. That will replace the old /news page. As for the wiki, I'm loathe to put up a new one. We had more people spending more time fighting spam than we did having people writing actual content. It felt like a poor use of their time.

I've just been lurking on the site for a while, but I'd be happy to help clean up the old wiki content from spammer attacks.

In my experience installing/admining wikis, a good compromise to a completely public wiki is to

• require accounts to edit
• Remove public account registration
• make a few trusted people admins/mods
• make wiki-account-request@website go to the mods
• And only publish that email address as an image on the website (changing it if/when the spambots discover it)

If you have only a handful of account requests daily, this keeps the wiki pretty darn spam-free. It does create a higher barrier to access, so it might be a slight discouragement for an unmotivated visitor, but it's usually a fair trade-off to get rid of the spam.

[daniel_reetz]

I'm definitely interested in your offer and will take you up on it shortly.

[Ratspeed]

I love the idea of making the front page a WordPress installation. It would take a day to do, and if assistance is required, I'd be more than happy to help.

The reason why I said 66% of the site is down is because 2/3rds of the major hyperlinks at the top of the site have been broken for almost a year now. For new visitors, they are the most compelling visual component, so I think it's fair to say that the site appears to be only 33% functional to newcomers like myself. Now with that said, I'm compelled to agree that the forum is indeed a very important element of the site... it's the only part of the site that's currently working. I hope you can agree that a solid front page would really help keep the public informed and also offer RSS to keep up with news.

Thanks again for the hard work, and I'll try to keep in touch a bit more often. I might be looking to make this bookscanner fairly soon. No commercial alternatives are available as of yet since Ion Audio ceased development.

Cheers!