What´s up with Avsim

[gera]

Does anyone "really" know what has delayed the "Library of this prestigious site" so long to come up online????.......I was buying some fresh fish yesterday when I remembered this.......anyone???:pop4:

[Navy Chief]

Interesting correlation: fresh fish = AVSIM Yeah, that works!

No idea about AVSIM. I quit even trying the library link any more.

NC

[Warrant]

AVSIM was hacked a while ago, desroying most of their site and library. They have HUGE trouble to recover their immense library. I think there is still a detailled explaination at their home page about what happened, and with what concequences.

What a joy you must have, being a hacker.....a few minutes of playtime, and so much damage done.:rocket:

Really hope they catch and trial these sorry SOB's :sniper::barf::toilet:

[cheezyflier]

i wonder if the library is coming back at all. surely it coulda been back up by now, what's it been? 2 months?

[Navy Chief]

Just a thought, but I imagine all this trouble that AVSIM is having will have an impact on the attendance at the AVSIM Convention this Sept. in Ohio. I cancelled for financial reasons, long before their website was hacked.

NC

[Roger]

Well put Ck:applause:

[JSkorna]

The AVSIM Convention was canceled about 10 days ago.

[gera]

Many of our staff offered assistance and a helping hand as well as many key Community members with experience. I read several post where well renowned code writers and web developers offered their service for free.

Sitting here and looking at this from my perspective I can't understand not letting people help. The only answer I can come up with is a matter of trust. I think the flight simulator community that supports fan sites are a bunch of kind and helpful people. At SOH we try to include everyone in the site and give them a say in its direction or even in it being on-line or closed.

There is one difference that may change the game, advertising revenue. SOH can remain a pure Community site and owe no favors to anyone because we have never ran a PAID ad, banner, preview or review. Our only advertising is self promotion and Donationware whereas ALL proceeds go directly into buying bandwidth. I could never figure out whether AVSIM and FlightSim are commercial sites or just plain community supported sites. It seems to me with the number of ads and knowing the type of revenue to expect from visitors there should be a profit and not a loss.

In my mind a site is either Public Service or Commercial and if Commercial the site should be a legal business with public profit/loss statements. Business don't take public donations!

I'm sorry if I have pissed anyone off, this is all my personal opinion and not the views of Sim-Outhouse or any other members of the staff.

Hola Canelo......

I agree with you 100%. I beleive that after receiving "such great collaboration from all dollar wise" they should take the help and advise from many as you say. They should remember that if they received the Dollars so easily they could do the same with knowledgable people in order to get things going---I hope no "Bigger" dissappointment surfaces from this delay in the near or far future.....some people can be indolent or otherwise. To many this "technical" delay could just mean something else specially since no specific communications on the "proceedings" has been coming forth from those guys....:kilroy:

[n4gix]

The plans for the AVSIM Library are no state secret, and they have been totally transparent to anyone with eyes to read and at least basic comprehension skills.

The reason it is taking so long is that each .zip file is being checked individually for integrity. Try to imagine how long it might take five people to check >150,000 zip files...

Once satisfied that all the files are intact, the plan is to restore/reindex the original library routines, and then proceed to design the new library routines.

[Henry]

I'm sorry if I have pissed anyone off, this is all my personal opinion and not the views of Sim-Outhouse or any other members of the staff.
as we have hats off this is my view
Whatever the mangement at AVSIM decides
its up to them, agree or not, if they come out better
Great if they do not it is there call
time will tell
my personal opinion as a member
MHB

[Wing_Z]

I was amazed with how fluidly current files appeared on Flightsim.com and elsewhere.
I guess that's one of the upsides of fast communication and multiple sites.
We are blessed as a community to have this.
If AVSIM dallies too long, they will become just a fallback repository...

[Navy Chief]

The AVSIM Convention was canceled about 10 days ago.


Oops. Well, like I said, I haven't visited their site much lately. But this does not surprise me.

I went to the 2007 AVSIM convention in Seattle, and had a great time.

NC

[anthony31]

Once bitten, twice shy for AVSIM perhaps?

They did hire a volunteer to help with their systems but he was promptly sacked when it was suspected and alleged that he stole email addresses of AVSIM members. This was only days before AVSIM was hacked but I'm sure that was just a coincidence.

Perhaps, understandably, they'd be a bit cautious about who they let have access to their system just for now (I'm not saying that those offering to help AVSIM had bad intentions :) ).

[Navy Chief]

It really is a shame. The AVSIM library was my first choice for files most of the time. Thankfully, I have disc after disc of files that may never be replaced. NC

[Meshman]

They did hire a volunteer to help with their systems but he was promptly sacked when it was suspected and alleged that he stole email addresses of AVSIM members. This was only days before AVSIM was hacked but I'm sure that was just a coincidence.


Not suspected or alleged. Just before the hack Mr. Server Guy went and acknowledged in the General Forums that he had utilized the Avsim data to do "some" emails. I was aghast when he slandered hard-working people all around the world as he proclaimed he wasn't some "low-life spammer" or words very near to those. Mr. Server Guy was shortly thereafter relieved of his duties with Avsim. I doubt (as Paul Harvey might have said) that we will know "the rest of the story".

[cheezyflier]

The reason it is taking so long is that each .zip file is being checked individually for integrity. Try to imagine how long it might take five people to check >150,000 zip files...

Once satisfied that all the files are intact, the plan is to restore/reindex the original library routines, and then proceed to design the new library routines.


if that's the case, then by now there must be plenty of files that could already be re-posted. while i do think it's cool they would scan each zip file, having only 5 people doing it is a grueling amount of work. what's that? 30,000 zip files each? enough to keep ones personal eniac busy for quite a while, and certainly further reason to allow others to share the load.
i currently hold only about 150G of data on my crappy little dell, (i'm not counting the free space) and i know how long it takes me to do a virus scan.
i bet my crappy little computer could quite a few zip files in a month's time.
i'm just saying that by now, there should be at least some files up for people.
hopefully they will cull some of the less....desireable files. i don't see flightsim as being able to fill avsim's shoes in the configuration we are familiar with. flightsim is a cool site, don't get me wrong. but the avsim library was herculean in comparison.

[BananaBob]

Half the files are probably that Chile photoreal scenery I always saw there, LOL! Man that has to be a lotta files right there?:ernae:

[dougal]

I've been registered on the Avsim forums for serveral years and, although an absolute gem for info and files, I found it a little patronising. I've always felt that the 'main man' treats folk like he's a school teacher.

I think the way members have been spoken to regarding requests for info about the library emphasizes that. The word "transparent" was used earlier. Well, I'm sorry but I disagree: Most who have asked have received short shrift.

It's why I'm here and not there. Shame I think:-(

[dswo]

My connection with AVSIM: I'm a reviewer, I've uploaded some files, I've downloaded a lot of files. That the rest of the site is back up, intact and quickly, is almost a miracle. I'll be grateful when the file server is back up too. It's a free service. It doesn't have a full-time staff to organize the volunteer help that's been offered, so the work goes more slowly. No doubt they could put some of the most popular files back, but that would delay the opening of the complete library. That might be a good trade-off, but the one they're making now isn't a bad trade-off, given that there are two or three other libraries where people can get the really popular stuff now.

I do like the forum here better, but I think that's mostly scale: the group here is smaller, and therefore individual personalities stand out more. (For better and for worse -- usually for better, although the mods might disagree after this last weekend.) A side-effect of hanging out here: I have become much more interested in military aviation. Two years ago, I had zero interest in flying jet fighters; now I'm playing with the Tomcat every night.