Oolite Bulletins

Not sure if this is old news as I've been away for some time (please accept my apologies if it is) but I've noticed that Oolite.org no longer seems to be up?

Yap what happen??? seems oolite has been down for 2 days now.... anybody knows anything??? please share.....

I have no idea what happened, but it sure doesn't look good.

AFAIK there is a single sponsor for the site, he alone can check what is going on and fix it.
He has not been active for quite some years. And there is only one guy in the forum who might have some contact.

So anything may have happened, ranging from nonpayment to the site malfunctioning or having been hacked.
I recall we had discussions about this setup before (see e.g. here and here).

BTW, this board's performance seems also heavily impacted. And http://dilbert.com is not what it used to be...

Not sure if it is related but the Expansion Manager also seems to be having a problem. Went looking for updates that may have been missed since the Main Page went down. Could not get an updated Expansion List to download. Chose the proper options and it just sits there not doing anything. Gave it a good five minutes thinking it might just be slow but nothing ever downloaded. Both the Main Page and the Expansion Manager are major sources of OXZ update and release information for Oolite. Hope there is a solution on the event horizon. If there is anything the general populous can do to help please let us know as most would be more than willing to pitch in and get things running smoothly once again.

The Expansion Manager hits addons.oolite.org to retrieve the OXZs list, so if the domain is down it makes sense that the whole thing hangs.

The OXZs manifest file can be hosted on other servers as well. If anyone decides to temporarily host the file somewhere else until the situation (hopefully) gets resolved, then users wanting to use the Expansion Manager will need to insert the key "oxz-index-url" in their .GNUstepDefaults file and set its value to the new URL, e.g.

Hi y'all!

The oolite.org domain status as shown at whois.com is clientHold and autoRenewPeriod.

https://icann.org/epp#clientHold wrote:

This status code tells your domain's registry to not activate your domain in the DNS and as a consequence, it will not resolve. It is an uncommon status that is usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.

https://icann.org/epp#autoRenewPeriod wrote:

This grace period is provided after a domain name registration period expires and is extended (renewed) automatically by the registry. If the registrar deletes the domain name during this period, the registry provides a credit to the registrar for the cost of the renewal.

It seems it's a matter of missing payment for renewal.
I think I managed to message Jens; I will only know once he reverts to me.
Hoping he will get my message I will return with some feedback here.

It is an uncommon status that is usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.

Quite!

Getafix wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 11:18 am

Hi y'all!

The oolite.org domain status as shown at whois.com is clientHold and autoRenewPeriod.

but it also tells that domain "Expires On:2024-03-05"

another_commander wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 10:34 am

The OXZs manifest file can be hosted on other servers as well. If anyone decides to temporarily host the file somewhere else until the situation (hopefully) gets resolved

To keep such file is easy but where to take such file? Also what about addons themself? Are they stored on other host?

hooky-mars wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 5:42 pm

To keep such file is easy but where to take such file? Also what about addons themself? Are they stored on other host?

The addons themselves should be fine, they are stored externally. Most of them are at the wiki, others at sites selected for hosting by the expansion authors.

Lists of OXPs on the wiki (the OXPs should all have download links apart from those on the "list of lost OXPS") are here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Category:OXP_Lists

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:24 pm

Lists of OXPs on the wiki (the OXPs should all have download links apart from those on the "list of lost OXPS") are here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Category:OXP_Lists

not all of them has download links. For instanse https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/BGS#B ... Groove_OXP does not have a link

hooky-mars wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 6:44 am

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Sun Mar 19, 2023 11:24 pm

Lists of OXPs on the wiki (the OXPs should all have download links apart from those on the "list of lost OXPS") are here: https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Category:OXP_Lists

not all of them has download links.

Ahah! Please let me know which - and I'll try and fix it.

Usually the link is to a page for that OXP with the download link at the bottom of the page.

Cholmondely wrote: ↑Mon Mar 20, 2023 7:01 am

Ahah! Please let me know which - and I'll try and fix it.

For instanse https://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/BGS#B ... Groove_OXP does not have a link