[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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