Guys, I am a long time Porsche enthusiast and just 3 years ago bought my first 993. I do much of the maintenance myself and have really enjoyed PCARWorkshop. I hope it gets restored and would be willing to help.

Just wanted to also say also that while much info is available in other places I appreciate the clean and nicely designed nature of this site which is why it was my first choice. Hope it returns!

 

Thanks, Mike, and everyone who has offered to help! If a GoFundMe page is started, shoot me a PM so I can make this a sticky.

 

Ok, here is the status:

- I have had the site repeatedly vandalized - mostly because its a Wiki, and designed for multiple contributors
- The server farm (and the company supporting it) are shut down
- I have complete backups of the site
- I have also had multiple offers for help which is much appreciated!

I have a bit of a plan:
- wait for the crummy weather to set in so I am not building a site while its sunny outside - in Vancouver you have to plan that way. That will be in November onwards.
- look at alternative hosting solutions, and see how a "conversion" might go/cost
- evaluate the sites actual usefulness - a lot of the same articles exist on Pelican part and p-car.com, but there are sections like the engine rebuilding section and TSB's that was unique to the site. Honestly, I have not had a tidal wave of people contacting me about the site.

Cheers,

Mike

 

Random thought: why not upload many of the write-ups onto the 993 RL technical page?

https://rennlist.com/how-tos/c/porsche-993-37642/

 

I think that's a bad idea

Rennlist has changed over the years, and is owned by a for profit company.

I would rather give you money Mike, than pay for a membership here. I bet you will have a bunch of people who will agree with me I light if the recent changes.

 

Hey Mike J -

I'd like to assist. In critical path terms,, is a solely owned server or server host the next/initial step? How does one cast for a server host position?
Is there such a thing as a server-host share co-op of some kind?

There are 993 owners lined up behind me - who cheer on the idea of rejuvenating your pcarworkshop.com site. Let's get it done.

Cheers, M/S

 

Guys,

Running servers and managing software yourself is old school and non value add. You will run into the same problem eventually as it will get hacked like the old site.

The most scalable approach (assuming we don't hire a webmaster and a tech-ops engineer) is to use a saas (software as a service) based product like WordPress and then migrate the content and probably a site refresh with it. BTW, I no affiliation with WordPress, but have numerous experiences with it and it is a great service.

This will be a good platform to future proof it as you let the experts to maintain the hardware and software indefinitely for a nominal monthly fee while content (the most important stuff) is owned by whoever is the admin for the site. You can make it as far have it co-admined or delegated ownership where certain parts of the site are managed by delegates like here on RL so the precious content can be managed in posterity as people come and go.

The site will need funding if you want it advertisement free. It is anywhere from $10-25 a month depending on how fancy a site you want it to be... my recommendation is to keep it advertisement free first and then open it up later to sponsors so you focus on the content and experience.

https://wordpress.com/pricing

 

Now you're talking ! Thanks Samurai_K

 

 

I agree that running your own dedicated server is "old school". Many of us have been there, done that, and eventually dumped it because it was a pain to manage. Just dealing with all the breaches and exploits is time consuming.

Using a virtual server like EC2, Azure, Google or the one mentioned above ChicagoVPS will still open you up to attacks and exploits of your CSM system. You will still be dealing with all that nasty administration and platform updates. It's a shame, because using a container or VM based solution would be ideal. If the service folds, you pack up and quickly redeploy in someone else's infrastructure.

As someone mentioned earlier, for minimal administration and headaches, leveraging an existing cloud based platform like wordpress or others where you (we) can concentrate on the content is best.

No pain, no fuss but a monthly bill.

I suggest we start by defining the requirements before jumping to a solution.
i.e. expected monthly bandwidth and storage requirements and what expansion abilities are required in the near term and long term.

What were the pcarworkshop.com bandwidth and storage requrirements for data , not the host OS and applications? I assume it was tiny - way less than 1 Gig.

 

Here is a DIY guide:

http://www.garageguides.com/guide/po...-the-isv-valve

 

Odd, just today I went to get on the site for reference, to find it NLA. I'd contribute to a fund, Mike's efforts to assemble this info were/are appreciated.

 

Why can't Internet Brands add a sub section to the 993 forum for PCA Workshop. We support Rennlist, they should support us.

 

Another thought is why don't we add each DIY that was in PCA Workshop as an individual thread in this 993 forum and we can title each thread with a PCA Workshop name like PCA Workshop DIY oil change so it would be easy to search?

 

Rennlist does have a 993 DIY forum. It is not necessarily the best format for presenting info but it is does exist.