What's happening?

SquarePenguin's get_iplayer forums are now closed and have been archived.

Have they been deleted?

Nope. The forums have been archived, not deleted.

All forums, threads and posts are still available and can be accessed at the exact same URLs as before. Use the link in the top nav bar to take a look if you like.

What does 'archived' mean?

It means that the forums have been turned into static html files serving just the content of the forums/threads/posts. The underlying software and server that powered the forums has been removed and securely deleted.

User accounts, passwords, emails, Personally Identifying Information, profiles and backups have been securely deleted and the VPS hosting the site has been deleted.

The forums are now simply a collection of static html files serving the content of the forums as basic web pages.

Can I log in and post still though?

No. The forums are no longer interactive. There are no user accounts or posting capabilities.

I'm mad about this!

I envy your ability to feel anything at all.

But seriously, none of the forum content has been lost, this just means there will be no new content on these forums in the future.

Why is this happening!!

It's a little under 7 years since I put together the first edition of the fourms.

7 years is a pretty long time. Things change, jobs change, families and commitments grow and change.

The forums were stuck on clunky software that has been dragging it's heels for years over a much needed update.

Add to that regular security updates and awkward integration with the forums customisation, ongoing need for moderation as well as the underlying Ubuntu 16.04 server powering the forums approaching End of Life within the next 9 months or so and the effort to conduct a root and branch replacement of everything was too much of a commitment.

Oh, add to that Mailgun now charging for every tier of email delivery too. The fuss of setting up email to be sent 'properly' from a server that had less than 10 months until it needed replacing definitely tipped the scales over to 'just not worth the hassle'.

Lazy? Perhaps. Honest? Definitely.

Why now?

Two things:

1) Coronavirus, obviously.

If this global crisis has given me one thing it's been the headspace to rebalance life, work and commitments. I don't know if an internet archeologist will stop by here in 50 years and find this, but I can give you first hand confirmation that this pandemic has allowed me perform a top to bottom reassessment and reprioritisation of my life.

In between near constant childcare and more walking that I can shake a stick at of course! :-)

This change I announce here in this post is just one small and insignificant reflection of that wider reality that many now face around the world.

2) Dinkypumpkin, the person who maintains get_iplayer, decided to bow out of providing support on the forum. That meant I needed to take a look at the future of the forums more closely and here we are now at this solution.

But this is unexpected!!!

Well, I did mention it on the forums. Some people even replied!

Are the guides going to remain?

Yes. Essentially, the entire content on both domains (https://www.squarepenguin.co.uk and https://forums.squarepenguin.co.uk) will remain accessible indefinitely.

What if updates/changes occur to get_iplayer?

Both sites are now available on GitHub in public repositories. Pull requests are welcome and those within reason will be merged.

I want to talk about this! I have a suggestion/question/desire to vent!

Feel free to raise an issue on the forum repository. I'll pay it some attention over the next few weeks, but will exponentially back off checking/replying as time passes.

If you wish to contribute to the main site, to update guides or provide enhancements, you can make a pull request on the www site repository and this will be monitored more closely:

https://github.com/SquarePenguin101/www.squarepenguin.co.uk/pulls

What's to say you won't just delete everything one day?

That may happen. But it is highly unlikely.

No useful publicly published content has been deleted during this archiving process (save for some extraneous attachments from the old forum).

Both sites now sit on a stable platform backed by some of the largest tech companies in the world. Content is also increasingly free and easy to host as technological progress continues. And as the content is now simply a collection of small static html text files and a few small images it can be hosted almost anywhere with absolute ease and a minimum of commitment/time required to administrate it.

In addition - you are also free to clone the site repos and keep a copy for yourself. You can also republish content in line with the license that is linked in the footer of every single page.

What if someone else makes a forum?

I welcome it! Please create an issue or make a pull request and this blog and the forum site can be updated to include a link to the new location.

Where do I go in the mean time if I need help?

Best place is probably the mailing list. If somewhere else pops up I'll be sure to link it.

But for now...

Gordon Joly