Black Vault Wiki Site Down

Stone Gargoyle · Wed Mar 10, 2021 7:33 am

My apologies for the Black Vault Wiki site being down this past month. I notified Nimmy about it but he has yet to get it back up and running.

Daniel Stoker · Wed Mar 10, 2021 5:53 pm

Clearly we need to re-up the beatings!!!!

Daniel Stoker

Stone Gargoyle · Thu Mar 11, 2021 10:33 am

He doesn't seem to want to bother with it. With all the work I put into it, it's frustrating.

slade the sniper · Fri Mar 12, 2021 12:03 am

That's just super sad

Is there any way to transport that info to these forums somewhere so all the work isn't lost?

-STS

Glistam · Unread post by **Glistam** » Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:51 am

Stone Gargoyle wrote:He doesn't seem to want to bother with it. With all the work I put into it, it's frustrating.

Yeah. I've been waiting years for my account request to get approved. It all seems moot now.

Stone Gargoyle · Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:34 am

slade the sniper wrote:That's just super sad

Is there any way to transport that info to these forums somewhere so all the work isn't lost?

-STS

All the materials were taken from threads on these forums. To collect them all again would be very hard. I don't have copies of the pages as files. That was something I had planned to do but never got around to. We're talking thousands of pages.

slade the sniper · Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:07 pm

You can't just ask him for the files? He does have backups?

-STS

Daniel Stoker · Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:21 pm

I'm far from NMI's biggest fan (And I'm sure I'm not his either), but do you want me to try reaching him via Facebook and see if I can get some help with this?

Daniel Stoker

Stone Gargoyle · Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:08 pm

I've been pestering him for a month. I think it may be that he just doesn't want to pay for the site anymore. He's saying he's too busy, but I think it's more than that. He's gone through a lot in the past few years.

Stone Gargoyle · Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:12 pm

slade the sniper wrote:You can't just ask him for the files? He does have backups?

-STS

With very few exceptions, I was the one posting everything over and I would be the one who should have kept backups. But I didn't. Nimmy had very little involvement with the site. He didn't keep any backups and neither did I.

Captain_Nibbz · Fri Mar 12, 2021 7:59 pm

What was the black vault wiki?

Curbludgeon · Unread post by **Curbludgeon** » Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:06 pm

I've never used a web scraper with the Wayback Machine so don't know if it's problematic, but the most recent snapshot of the site was taken 26 Jan.

Stone Gargoyle · Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:50 pm

Curbludgeon wrote:I've never used a web scraper with the Wayback Machine so don't know if it's problematic, but the most recent snapshot of the site was taken 26 Jan.

What is a web scraper?

Stone Gargoyle · Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:53 pm

Captain_Nibbz wrote:What was the black vault wiki?

A wiki site hosted by Nimmy where I collected various materials from these boards, mostly superabilities originally posted to the New Powers thread.

Curbludgeon · Unread post by **Curbludgeon** » Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:26 pm

A web scraper is a data extraction tool used to copy records whole-hog from a website. There are a bunch available.

Stone Gargoyle · Fri Mar 12, 2021 10:34 pm

Curbludgeon wrote:A web scraper is a data extraction tool used to copy records whole-hog from a website. There are a bunch available.

Good to know. Maybe I can manage to salvage some of the pages on the site. I'm guessing it will be a long and drawn-out process to get all the pages though.

RockJock · Unread post by **RockJock** » Mon Mar 15, 2021 1:09 am

Wayback Machine Downloader might be worth a shot. It is one of the aforementioned scrapers. archivarix is another option. They do a certain number of pages/files for free. I know there are pay to play ways of doing this as well, no clue onthe cost.

Stone Gargoyle · Mon Mar 15, 2021 2:52 pm

RockJock wrote:Wayback Machine Downloader might be worth a shot. It is one of the aforementioned scrapers. archivarix is another option. They do a certainnumber of pages/files for free. I know there are pay to play ways of doing this as well, no clue onthe cost.

I don't have money right now to pay for a scraper. To salvage the Black Vaut Wiki would require one that can handle about two thousand (and more) pages of material.

RockJock · Unread post by **RockJock** » Tue Mar 16, 2021 1:21 am

The Downloader is free I think. I just don't know how easy it is.

Stone Gargoyle · Tue Mar 16, 2021 3:03 pm

Wayback Machine Downloader is not free. It has a free trial.

Daniel Stoker · Tue Mar 16, 2021 4:49 pm

So good time to use the free trial?

More seriously what do you need to set up an account for said trial and what does it offer?

Daniel Stoker

Stone Gargoyle · Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:02 pm

Usually you have to enter credit card information for a free trial and it charges you after a time if you do not cancel. The prices are $15 for one domain recovery, $60 to turn the site into a Wordpress conversion (whatever that is), and $79 a month to subscribe for unlimited access. The demo only recovers the first four pages and does not convert the pages to wordpress files, only HTML pages which must be uploaded on a server.

Curbludgeon · Unread post by **Curbludgeon** » Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:15 pm

Wayback-machine-downloader is free, but admittedly a bit of a hassle to get working. Open source software like Scrapy is free as well. The larger problem is that only a fraction of the pages on a given website are captured within a given snapshot. Poking around the link I put up a few posts above quickly leads to nonarchived pages.

I don't know this NMI person, but whatever company they purchased hosting through likely has a backup, and shooting them a quick email for such ain't a big ask.

Stone Gargoyle · Tue Mar 16, 2021 8:19 pm

I don't know who NMI went through as a host for the Black Vault Wiki. That wasn't my responsibility.

Old_Hand · Unread post by **Old_Hand** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 8:30 pm

Yeah this sucks. This is actually my first post on the forums(I haven't been on forums like this in easily 10 years); made an account just so I could start manually searching through the forums to try and restore some of the powers my group had collectively decided were good for our games. Funnily enough, they were mostly your entries, StoneGargoyle. We're trying to put together our own wiki with the books' powers and also a lot of black vault powers, complete with a RNG system for randomly rolling characters with all of those included. Unfortunately the search system is down on the forums currently - is it usually like that? Or is my timing bad?

If you have suggestions or something, feel free to reply here or PM me or something.

The Baron of chaos · Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:49 pm

This is very sad. And source of lot of frustration.
It lead me to go on all the pages of the new power thread, writing down a sort of index on my paper notebook(i'm old i like to write on paper, what can you do) number of page, name of the power(if i liked a lot i put author name). It took me weeks and two whole notebook and 5 Bic pens. And still i fear i missed something!

Stone Gargoyle · Thu Apr 15, 2021 3:57 pm

My frustration isn't with the powers. Those are easily enough located. My frustration stems from all the other stuff I've written over the years that is in a dozen or more threads that I will need to try and locate.

taalismn · Unread post by **taalismn** » Sat Apr 17, 2021 8:25 pm

Damn. I was using the Black Vault to research and make sure I didn't re-invent somebody else's wheel when writing up new powers.

Stone Gargoyle · Tue Apr 20, 2021 7:56 am

taalismn wrote:Damn. I was using the Black Vault to research and make sure I didn't re-invent somebody else's wheel when writing up new powers.

I feel ya. I was in the midst of trying to fix and update powers and it is easier when you can look up a specific power without wading through the New Powers thread. Not to mention when referencing a power in another thread being able to link to a wiki page rather than trying to locate it in New Powers.

zerombr · Unread post by **zerombr** » Tue Apr 20, 2021 6:48 pm

depending on what servicing fees are, there could always be a community effort, like with a patreon or something

Stone Gargoyle · Tue Apr 20, 2021 9:31 pm

zerombr wrote:depending on what servicing fees are, there could always be a community effort, like with a patreon or something

I am low income. No matter what the cost, I cannot afford it. Nimmy was paying to have the site hosted before. I am more worried about getting my stuff downloaded into files on my computer than putting them up on another site right now.

Daniel Stoker · Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:37 pm

Depending on how much it is I'd be willing to help fork over some cash, especially if it's just temporary so we can rescue it for now and save the info.

Daniel Stoker

Stone Gargoyle · Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:44 pm

Daniel Stoker wrote:Depending on how much it is I'd be willing to help fork over some cash, especially if it's just temporary so we can rescue it for now and save the info.

Daniel Stoker

You'll have to talk to NMI about that.

Daniel Stoker · Thu Apr 22, 2021 11:00 am

I'm not sure that conversation would end well.

Daniel Stoker

Stone Gargoyle · Thu Apr 22, 2021 2:58 pm

Daniel Stoker wrote:I'm not sure that conversation would end well.

Daniel Stoker

He's tired of paying for it, which I can understand. I got tired of being alone to post things to it and being the only ne to check to make sure there was no funny business going on.

Daniel Stoker · Thu Apr 22, 2021 3:10 pm

I can totally understand that, I was more addressing the fact that he and I haven't seen eye to eye on stuff in the past and I'm not sure how he'd take something coming from me.

Daniel Stoker

Stone Gargoyle · Thu Apr 22, 2021 4:34 pm

Ah. I suppose that would be a problem.

Glistam · Unread post by **Glistam** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:12 pm

Stone Gargoyle wrote:
Daniel Stoker wrote:I'm not sure that conversation would end well.

Daniel Stoker
He's tired of paying for it, which I can understand. I got tired of being alone to post things to it and being the only ne to check to make sure there was no funny business going on.

I followed the directions to request access and NMI never responded. I only had one power I was of a mind to add anyway, and I know it's all a moot point now, but if he wasn't caring about it anymore I wish he would've transitioned it to those who still did. I donated money to help renew it last time and it's just sad to see it was all for naught.

Stone Gargoyle · Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:27 pm

Glistam wrote:I followed the directions to request access and NMI never responded. I only had one power I was of a mind to add anyway, and I know it's all a moot point now, but if he wasn't caring about it anymore I wish he would've transitioned it to those who still did. I donated money to help renew it last time and it's just sad to see it was all for naught.

Nimmy's gone through a lot in recent years. I don't hold it against him not wanting to pay for the site anymore. But like you say, he could have let someone else take over paying for it if he didn't want to.

testitout8mm · Unread post by **testitout8mm** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 5:50 am

I was looking for some other powers and a few forums and people pointed me at the black vault. I daw in the forums here that it went out in 2017 and is now down again. I get not wanting to pay for it. I'm willing to put up a patron for 1dollar or something and if it pays for it cool. if not and the site is only 200 a year I can pay that for the next decade. I'm not going to be great as a site admin besides editing and the like. But I can keep the basic site paid for and running. I just registered here for the first time because I'd like the site back up. Let me know if someone with the ability to get the site admin or information transferred is interested.

Stone Gargoyle · Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:13 pm

Any inquiries regarding the Black Vault Wiki should be made to Mr. Deific NMI. As far as I know, it is not coming back. It was a lot of work to maintain the site and I was the only one posting to it, so I don't think it was worth the effort to keep it up.

testitout8mm · Unread post by **testitout8mm** » Sat Oct 16, 2021 3:44 pm

Stone Gargoyle wrote:Any inquiries regarding the Black Vault Wiki should be made to Mr. Deific NMI. As far as I know, it is not coming back. It was a lot of work to maintain the site and I was the only one posting to it, so I don't think it was worth the effort to keep it up.

I thought about trying that too, but I can't send a private message. I think it's because I'm too new to the site.
There isn't anything else I've been a part of yet.

Thanks for the answer though stone.
I know some of your powers are the reason I'm looking for the vault actually. It's part of why I tried to see if I could friend you when I found out I couldn't send messages when I joined.
Maybe I can find someone that has a backup of the powers and I can get ahold of that for my home games. I'll have to go through some more of the forums to see what I can find. I started with a search for "black vault" and thought I'd found what I needed.

Any suggestions to get the old gods' attention until I can send messages?

Stone Gargoyle · Sat Oct 16, 2021 8:59 pm

I am in the process of compiling a file with the powers Iczer and I posted to the New Powers thread. If you pm me with your email address I would be glad to send you a copy. Hopefully the file will be small enough to send.

testitout8mm · Unread post by **testitout8mm** » Sun Oct 17, 2021 3:11 pm

Stone Gargoyle wrote:I am in the process of compiling a file with the powers Iczer and I posted to the New Powers thread. If you pm me with your email address I would be glad to send you a copy. Hopefully the file will be small enough to send.

I found line breaks last message! First time joining a forum thing.

Anyway, that would be awesome. I'm not sure how long before I can send a pm though. The new powers thread is pretty awesome though. Makes me sad for missing the vault.

Sir James · Unread post by **Sir James** » Sun Oct 31, 2021 4:54 am

Did anyone ever make a pdf with all the Powers?

Stone Gargoyle · Mon Nov 01, 2021 7:42 pm

Sir James wrote:Did anyone ever make a pdf with all the Powers?

Nope.

Master Mold · Unread post by **Master Mold** » Wed Nov 10, 2021 7:14 am

I have various text files (several hundred pages) of both minor and major abilities. Some are sorted, some aren't, and as I never thought I'd need them outside of my gaming group, I didn't save the creators names with most of them. However, I would be happy to email them to an interested party if so desired. Please let me know.

Master Mold · Unread post by **Master Mold** » Wed Nov 10, 2021 8:11 am

I apparently also have many of the Black Vault minor abilities saved as individual web pages, though sadly none of the majors...

Stone Gargoyle · Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:26 pm

The New Powers thread has most of the super powers that were posted to the Black vault Wiki if you have the patience to copy and paste them. That is what I am currently doing.

Unread post by **NMI** » Sun Jan 02, 2022 6:20 pm

As the owner of the site, it saddens me to say that the site is permanently down.
It is running off of an EXTEREMELY OLD version of mediawiki that I do not know how to update and is NOT supported. Also, the lowest version of PHP on my hosts server no longer supports it - which is what broke it in the first place.

I suppose it could be updated, but I do not have the knowledge to do so, nor the money to pay someone.
I could install a new, blank mediawiki, but would need someone to copy the THOUSANDS of pages of powers and material over.