[DECtalk] The archive is closing

Tony Baechler tony at baechler.net
Fri Oct 30 00:38:55 EDT 2009


Hi all,

First, thanks to Blake and Kattie for their uploads.  Three files were 
uploaded and moved to the appropriate directories.  I didn't officially 
announce that at the time, so I'm mentioning it here.

After giving it more thought over the past weeks, I have made my final 
decision about the DECtalk archive.  The archive will close on November 
15, 2009.  If you prefer, that is also 15 November or 2009-11-15.  That 
doesn't mean that the archive will disappear then, but that means that 
no more uploads will be allowed and the archive will become frozen.  On 
or around December 31 (or 31 December), the archive will no longer exist 
and will be officially removed.  Some time between now and then, I still 
intend to delete the copyrighted and adult files, but I don't know if 
that will happen or not.  I will still set up ftp accounts for anyone 
who wants to upload anything between now and the 15th of November.

There are two main reasons for this decision.  The first is the lack of 
uploads.  Two people uploading three files just isn't worth it.  The 
second and bigger reason is my lack of interest.  I'm simply burned out 
with it and it's time to move on.  I think and hope that it was fun for 
people in the past, but I don't think people care nowadays.  I don't 
know how many people are on this list, but I would guess not many.  
Also, DECtalk itself has changed a lot since Patrick and others started 
making audio files and many new software speech engines have come on the 
scene.  As I said before, I think it has outlived its usefulness and its 
time has come and gone.  I know I certainly enjoyed it when I first 
found it in 2004.

If anyone wants to take over the archive, either by hosting or 
maintaining it, please contact me.  Bandwidth is not a problem, so I 
would still be willing to host it if someone else wants to be the 
maintainer.  I would prefer that someone takes over hosting as well, but 
I am flexible.  You can write to me privately if interested.  All 
maintenance would be with ftp and you would have to set up your own file 
upload service if you want to accept uploads.  You would be responsible 
for all administration, web pages, etc.

As always, nothing is final until it actually happens, but unless I get 
a lot of objection and suddenly renewed interest, the above is my plan 
for the archive.  In a way it's too bad to see it     end, but I pretty 
much don't have the time or interest to deal with it.  Comments and/or 
suggestions are of course welcome.

Tony Baechler, DECtalk archive maintainer
tony at baechler.net




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