At least, I assume it's died a death as it can't be accessed any longer. A shame, the guys there were very knowledgeable, and able to help with most of my Canadian queries, particularly Temujin.
Mark (BFBSM) is/was an admin there. Temujin is also a member here. Erik's had nothing to do with it for yonks. I think he joined the army.
Vaguely remembered chatting with him about the site years ago, a search of my email turned up a brief interaction from 2011 which jogged the memory. Erik is indeed the man in question. He is a member at WW2F and posted about his site here: http://www.ww2f.com/threads/wwii-ca.1325/ Emails are sent, inquiries made. Let's hope for the best.
*Update.* Erik is no longer the owner, he parted with the site in 2011. Current owner is unknown. Anyone with insight or connections please contact me at the email in my signature. Help is sincerely appreciated.
Hi guys, Temujin here. Yes the site "went down" and both the moderator (Mark) and I have no clue why. No explanation from the Site Admin (Kevin) and we don't have his e-mail address. Mark has been trying to contact him thru Eric Hillis, but no luck so far. Some time ago, I offered to buy the site to run it, but my inquiry was turn down (supposedly from the site owners thru the Site Admin). I've not decided "where to go" to continue to help people. I do a lot of free research for people and I would love to continue with that if I could. Its a shame the site is down, as their was tons of valuable information for people researching Canadian (and other countries also) that is potential lost Anyway, I guess I'll have to decide how to continue to help people reconnect with their relatives pasts. Thanks for the inquires and comments, and as Otto said, if anyone has a email of connection to the site owners, please let me know, I would like to offer to buy the site again? Cheers
Hi, I wasn't really an admin. I got fed up with the amount of spam the forum attracted, so offered to help out with that - had nothing to do with any other part of the forum. I am really disappointed about it's demise, but pleased to see Temujin here. His knowledge and access to information regarding Canadian troops is impressive. Mark
As a Canuck, this is a sorry thing for me to see. I'd be happy to see the site stay online, any way I help with this would be a worthwhile endeavor.
Thank you for the offer. Untill we make contact with the current owners, I'm afraid we're in a holding pattern. As soon as we find out more, I'll let everyone know..........BUT if you have anyone in your organization is a "computer guy" maybe they can advise on HOW you find the owners of a website??? I'm looking for any help on finding them. The site has been down for a couple of weeks now, I was hoping it was a temporary think (maybe a update to the software or anything like that) but my gut says that its down for good, unless we can rescue it. Cheers
One thought while the digging continues, triggered by viewing a cache of their donors list. Any of you chaps ever made a donation to the CAW forum? There might conceivably be a recipient email address on the Paypal form, if anyone still has an email relating to such a transaction. Otto's rescued a few sites already that found themselves in a (possibly) similar situation, but as Temujin says, not a lot can be done without talking to whoever currently holds the data.
That's a good suggestion Von Poop.......I haven't (I thought my time was my donation) but I do know someone who did. I'll contact them and see if they have their e-mail Also, hopefully someone from the site may be members here and give us a clue
There's something called a "whois" search you can do, but all that tells me is it was registered through a hosting company called CanSpace Solutions. One could try sending them an email looking for their client's (the owner's) contact information.
Thank you. Yes I am done that and still waiting for a reply.......IF I get one. Thank you for the suggestion. I've also tried to find out more info on the hosting company (it's leadership) as I have a feeling that the owner "may" be part of that group......I may be wrong, but just a hunch. Thank you everyone on WW2talk membership for all the help and suggestions.
The site seems to have been last crawled by archive.org about a week ago. The archived pages redirects to: This website is currently unavailable. Which has a robot txt preventing access Might be a clue to the owner from this URL Geoff EDIT maybe someone forgot or could not pay a bill...
Geoff........again I agree. It may be as simple as "bill payment". Also, in the past Kevin (the Site Admin) was notoriously slow in checking the website and finding out what was going on. Their was cases in the past he didn't "check" into the website for a month, even though the current moderator or myself tried to PM him to tell him about issues (mostly spammers). I do know that since I have been a member on that site (since 2012) the site collects donations to run it, that average about $200 to $300 per year. It had fallen off a bit, due to the fact that spammer attacks had gotten worse and worse with NO attempt by Kevin to try and improve the site (with the latest update to the Site engine that I offered to fund)...... If it wasn't for Mark, the current (or I might have to say "former") Moderator, the site would have been unusable because of Spam attacks. But your suggestion is valid, I might try and contact Canspace solutions and see if its just a simple "bill pay" and the sight can go back up. Cheers
I've just started an on line chat with the hosting service, I'll see if I can find out more and report back