Re: the 'backup' concept:
I've been contemplating possible backup scenarios for the forums for... well, several months, at least. I first looked into it more than a year ago, because I suspect I was skirting the TOS when I was compiling a list of thread links; I've been more aggressively pursuing it since the beginning of the year, for other reasons. I don't like speaking up and suggesting such a thing if I don't have a viable proposal, however, which is why I haven't said anything so far.
Unfortunately, it appears that there is no easy migration path from Yuku to ... anything else. Hell, there's no path at all, and Yuku has sent cease-and-desist letters to people who have tried to develop solutions that would let you migrate your Yuku board to something else. And nowhere can I find anything from Yuku that even allows you to backup your existing forum -- their response seems to be "don't worry, we keep backups". Which may well be true but makes it difficult to engineer a migration solution that doesn't violate their TOS.
So, an alternate communication channel might well be nice, but any sort of mirror as a backup is problematic, at best.
That said, I have a domain, a webhost with plenty of bandwidth and webspace to spare, and am willing to offer same to provide an alternate, guaranteed ad-and-other-shenanigans-free, channel, if such a thing is desired. I'd offer to host the -boards-, at that, but as said, there's no easy way to do so.
Re: the possibility of getting Yuku to change... call me a cynic, but, I don't think it'll happen. It took a year to get search fixed -- a feature you could reasonably say you're paying for, Bob -- and at that it required a few of us pestering them about it for anything to happen. And as Bob noted, their TOS basically says they can do whatever they want, and if you don't like it, tough.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
I've been contemplating possible backup scenarios for the forums for... well, several months, at least. I first looked into it more than a year ago, because I suspect I was skirting the TOS when I was compiling a list of thread links; I've been more aggressively pursuing it since the beginning of the year, for other reasons. I don't like speaking up and suggesting such a thing if I don't have a viable proposal, however, which is why I haven't said anything so far.
Unfortunately, it appears that there is no easy migration path from Yuku to ... anything else. Hell, there's no path at all, and Yuku has sent cease-and-desist letters to people who have tried to develop solutions that would let you migrate your Yuku board to something else. And nowhere can I find anything from Yuku that even allows you to backup your existing forum -- their response seems to be "don't worry, we keep backups". Which may well be true but makes it difficult to engineer a migration solution that doesn't violate their TOS.
So, an alternate communication channel might well be nice, but any sort of mirror as a backup is problematic, at best.
That said, I have a domain, a webhost with plenty of bandwidth and webspace to spare, and am willing to offer same to provide an alternate, guaranteed ad-and-other-shenanigans-free, channel, if such a thing is desired. I'd offer to host the -boards-, at that, but as said, there's no easy way to do so.
Re: the possibility of getting Yuku to change... call me a cynic, but, I don't think it'll happen. It took a year to get search fixed -- a feature you could reasonably say you're paying for, Bob -- and at that it required a few of us pestering them about it for anything to happen. And as Bob noted, their TOS basically says they can do whatever they want, and if you don't like it, tough.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs