Now that I got your attention...

My Domain registration as well as hosting service for my http://www.virtualpuzzlemuseum.com web site will expire in February, 2002.

I am no longer interested in continuing to update the site and pay for its continued existence.

I have a few options:

1. Find someone who will take all the info on my
site and incorporate it into their own site and
maintain it.

2. Someone who wants to take over ownership of the
Domain and and source files to keep the site
going.

3. Moving the site to a Free Hosting (banner ad)
service and simply let it live out its life there
with no further updates.

4. Let the site simply die.

I would rather that #4 did not happen simply because there is no other vast cube reference in existence and it would be a shame to see it disappear forever.

Also #2 would be difficult because I use a proprietary piece of software to create the web site. Unless you knew how to use the software or even had a copy of this software (called ToolBook - market price is about $800) it would not be possible to update the site. The HTML is in a very complex Table structure which would be almost impossible to edit with any standard HTML editor.

#1 would be best, but I can live with #3.

So, if anyone is interested, let me know.

Thanks,
Denny Dedmore
Cubologist

Unfortunately, this is not an idea. I just wanted to let you know that I the Virtual Museum has been a very useful source of information for me. From there I've gotten several ideas to do some simple puzzles. It was was also probably the first source that made me realize how rich in variety is the area of this type of puzzles. I'm sure that I am not the only one who saw the Virtual Museum and got hooked, trying to acquire as many as the beautiful puzzles as I could. Again thanks.

Perhaps option 5 is possible. Can you reconsider ?

How about option 6. Virtual Puzzle Museum - The book. In fact your info together with Jaap's solution site, Twisty's building ideas, Joshua Bell's patent site and some complement from Hendrik Haak's Museum would be the definitive "Cube Book".

Denny,

If you can locate a free site that supports ASP pages, ie domaindlx.com, I will code up your pages in ASP to remove the hundreds of pages required and make the site dynamic.

The possibility here is that users could potentially submit their own pictures and info. The whole backend could be ms-access driven and the content user driven.

The site would retain it's exact look and feel. Anyway, let me know if you want to go down this path and if you want me to have it all coded up for you.

Let me know your thoughts. I'd would be potentially sad to lose the resource.

I cannot begin to say how much I enjoy the Virtual Puzzle Museum. It has become THE authority on puzzles. It is an Institution.

We puzzle fans can't let it die. I don't have the hardware or the knowhow to keep it going, but I am willing to help fund it. If several of us put up $10 or $20 per year, would that be enough to help someone keep it going?

What do you say, team? Are we going to keep this thing alive?

Keeping it going is not a cost concern, as there are a variety of Free web hosting services I can place the site on to keep it "alive". Banner ads on Free hosting sites may be annoying but hey, we can't be

Keeping it up to date with new additions as puzzles come out or old "finds" that just are not in the museum yet, is the thing that will cease...

...that is unless someone is willing to take it over in some form or another.

I have received a couple of direct emails about this, since I posted the initial message, and perhaps one of those will turn out to be the solution.

No, I am afraid there is no option 5 ("to reconsider").

Option 6 sounds interesting if someone wants to create a book from the content. I doubt the resolution of the images (100 x N pixels in size) would print decently though - although they are great for Screen resolution.

An Acrobat based electronic book would be good option too.

I just realized that I have Acrobat (not just the reader tool but the "creation" tool), which means I can create a PDF file of my puzzle site. I had never used it to for "pulling" in a web site, but I just tried it and it works great.

Someone "could" print the PDF if they wanted but again, the quality of the images would not be crips...

This would allow the archiving of the site too, so that it is never lost over time.

So, aside from still looking for someone to take over the information on my site, I will most definitely create a PDF of the site at the time it is finally shut down.

This link is for the

2X2X3 SIAMESE. Is in the middle.

http://www.geocities.com/jhe70/b.html museum

This link is for the

the Super Magic. It is at the bottom.

http://www.org2.com/jaap/puzzles/magic.htm

Here are some more options (it is easy to volunteer other people):

- The Virtual museum could be incorpoprated into Twisty Megasite. Wayne has to approve.

- Incorporate the content of Virtual Museum into John Rausch's "Puzzle World". The problem here is that in the past he has not been interested in this particular area of puzzles since he thinks that there are not too many people that can craft them. Nevertheless ...

I am working with someone at the moment, who is interested in incorporating the data into his own Puzzle Site.

I won't mention names since it is not a "done deal" yet, but within a week should be.

So it appears the museum will not die, but will instead be transformed into a different format/layout more suitable for the other site.

I'll provide more details as I know them.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

- Cubologist