DAT was started (directory of American Toolmakers) by my friend Bob Nelson and several others, and then became DATAMP
http://www.datamp.org/ This should be our model. I am willing to help a little (in my limited way) if we would strive to build an open source mechanics tool haven.
I corresponded with the AA guy (don't remember his name offhand) long before the site got so big and popular. He wasn't easy to get along with even then. Didn't want my pictures of stuff he didn't have, even offered freely.
The site will definitely go down eventually. One man shows don't last.
I have seen it happen with many others.
The first big electrolysis how-to site is totally gone. (I did some work on that one)
The big sawset directory is gone.
The Stanley plane dating /timeline pages and the original make your own spokeshave pages were rescued by grace of the Wayback and resurrected, at least mostly.
The first big Millers Falls site is iffy. Comes and goes.
On and on.
Galoot Image Central is basically gone.
Jim Esten dumped it one day out of the blue, but Wiktor Kuc is propping it up long enough for everyone to move their images. Should you have pictures there you don't have copies of, get them now.
Speaking of which Wik's
wkfinetools.com is by far the largest of its type on the net, and could be simply walked away from, at a moments notice.
No one has said anything, but Eric's Disstonian Institute is so big and beautiful and important now, it desperately deserves to be supported and saved no matter what happens.
The web is terribly large now but still terribly fragile.
Kitty could close down. Hundreds of original animated characters could simply disappear from human knowledge. Not like books, there is no real backup for future generations to find and savor.
History will mark us as,
The internet pioneers, much of which has been lost.
yours Scott
