I’d like to share some exciting changes happening at Swaylock’s.
For starters, I’ve finalized converting the old Swaylock’s site into a static archive. More details on this below.
I’ve also created a new Instagram channel, @swaylocksarchives, to post gems from the past twenty-plus years, plus community member builds, announcements, contests, promotions and additional content. I hope you’ll follow along.
Going forward, my plan is to focus on a larger, more sustainable vision for Swaylock’s. This includes a new home for our community. I’ve got some interesting things in the works, so stay tuned to this Substack channel for updates!
🙏 Big shout out to Swaylock’s newest Supporting Members:
Lssmo, Wouter, Randall, Ross, Hal, Jasper, Dean, Tom
Introducing The Archives: 1999-2022
First a little backstory in case you’re new here or otherwise been out of the loop.
For some time now (several years infact), Swaylock’s has been stuck between a rock and a hard place: Paying several hundred dollars a month to keep the site running on woefully out-of-date software while migrating to a new platform would cost too much time and money.. The bleeding had to stop asap!
With considerable difficulty, I made the decision to freeze the forum, disable all login and content creation and create a static archive of the site. This would enable me to cut costs quickly at the expense of a jarring halt to the Swaylock’s community.
I’m glad to report that this first step is complete. It took me longer than expected but our 23 year conversation about surfcraft is now permanently archived and searchable in a form that costs way less to operate.
“How do I ___________?”
Search the archives! I’ve hooked the archive up to Google Programmable Search which gives us the power of Google search right in the archives. The speed and accuracy are amazing.
The new search can also be used for all Swaylock’s images. For example, if you search “Skill 100” and click the images tab, you’ll see 10 pages of Skil planer images pulled from the archives:
Pretty slick if you ask me.
Another thing to note: If you browse the archives, you’ll notice placeholder banners that say “Advertise here - coming soon.” As part of the archiving process, I’ve done away with all third-party banner advertisements and reserved those slots for actual Swaylock’s Sponsors. More on this in the next update!!
Thanks for reading and until next time, enjoy!
— Mike Paler
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