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        Pete Atkin >> News >> Archiving the website clivejames.com
        
(Message started by: S J Birkill on Today at 23:30)

Title: Archiving the website clivejames.com
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 23:30

I have begun in a small way the rebuilding of Clive's magnificent edifice clivejames.com, which disappeared from the Web sometime in late 2018. I don't know why it vanished without notice or trace -- I can speculate that Clive, realising there was more important work for his failing strength, decided to let the website go and instead devote himself to his writings. And rather than leaving his Internet castle to crumble as the topicality of its content waned and ever more of its external links ceased to work, he let it be razed to the ground.

For me, the site's treasure was not merely in the extracts (many) from his own works, all already published elsewhere, but in his selection of guest writers' essays and poetry, and his comments on them and their work. A great many of the names meant nothing to me at the start, but their words were an inspiration.

Rather than risk all this being lost (though I expect Clive's webmasters to have saved the original files), I have collected such material as I've been able to locate from sources various across the Web, but in particular the remarkable Wayback Machine, and reassembled it with all the menus intact and working, and almost all the broken links mended. I've only just begun though, so at the moment anything beyond the 'Essays' and 'Poetry' sections will return a 'Not Found' error.

My intention here is to preserve the site as an archive for the enthusiast, an image, a snapshot of how clivejames.com stood when the plug was pulled, but with most of the holes patched up and the floors vacuumed. I don't propose to update or add new material beyond what Clive included, nor to pass off this archive as current, or as the original -- it will form just a part of the peteatkin.com website, tucked away along with the existing Atkin/James archive material. There will be no commercial aspect -- I have removed all Google ads and the online shop pages.

Continuation of this venture is necessarily dependent on Clive's blessing. Should he request that it be taken down, I shall comply; equally if the original site returns, this one will go. For the time being I shall continue to add more of the old content -- next is the 'Books' section.

I have written a short introductory page here (https://www.peteatkin.com/cj/files/archive.htm).

Stephen J Birkill, Webmaster, 'Smash Flops', Administrator, 'Midnight Voices'.

Title: Re: Archiving the website clivejames.com
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 23:57

Now there's a thing! No sooner have I announced our archive than a revised version of the original pops up. And I only re-checked a couple of days ago. So... that should save me some work!

Congrats to Dawn Mancer, credited on the Home Page. Now to see what she's done with the site...

Welcome back the real clivejames.com (http://www.clivejames.com/) !

Title: Re: Archiving the website clivejames.com
Post by Rob Spence on 08.10.19 at 15:04

Thanks for doing this, Steve. I couldn't get clivejames.com to work, but then thought to add the old-fashioned www, and there it is!

Title: Re: Archiving the website clivejames.com
Post by S J Birkill on 09.10.19 at 08:37

As you'll have noticed, Rob, Dawn's new site has (so far) only a small fraction of the original site's content. But the archive concept isn't dead -- watch this space (or that) !