gearmaker.org 3.0

[gm-admin]

On the second iteration of https://gearmaker.org, I hired an SMF SME who also had a hosting company.  We hired him to set up, maintain, and host.  Gearmaker.org became unresponsive.  Attempts to contact through tickets, phone, and email were unsuccessful.

I sifted through various IT forums and found others going through similar frustrations trying to get in touch with him.  A few attempts were made with gently contacting his family members and coworkers on social media.  His daughter emailed me and confirmed her father died.  This was confirmed by other members within his professional community.

There may have been a possibility of getting hands on the server.  As one could imagine, it could subject all parties involved to unknown unintended consequences.  I chose not to pursue the matter.

Throughout all of this, I never had the good sense to backup the site.  Now we have auto back up and I've learned how to do it manually.  One of those really simple things I hadn't considered.

Time to start over :-/