Frequently Asked Questions
Slipstream Preservation Project



Q1. What is the archive project?
A1. An attempt, mostly successful, to use a group effort on the part of former Slipstreamers to save all the Slipstream threads available at the time of the board's shutdown and make them publicly available.

Q2. What was Slipstream?
A2. Slipstream was a message board for the syndicated show Andromeda, run by Christian Hohne Sparborth. It opened in July 2000 and was closed permanently on January 24, 2003. At the time of closing it had over 2000 members and many more threads and still more posts, some of which were removed from the board to reduce strain on that server.

Q3. Why are you preserving it?
A3. Because I loved it, and because I believe history is important... and because I found enough people to help me to make it possible in the first place.

Q4. What is Andromeda?
A4. Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda was created by Gene Roddenberry, more commonly known as the creator of Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, prior to his death. It was developed by Robert Hewitt Wolfe and premiered in Fall 2000 as a syndicated show. It is produced by Tribune Entertainment and Fireworks. (Update: The show is presently running on the Sci-Fi channel and still running on regular stations later; the exact production situation is unclear to me but it appears to be a Tribune/SciFi channel project now.) For more information, visit AndromedaTV

Q5. You're nuts.
A5. That's not a question, but thank you. I prefer cashews. Next!

Q6. Can we have the smilies back? (You should have 'em back now, BTW. Enjoy. :) -Anakam )
A6. Maybe. It's being worked on; the problem lies in the software change that occurred in December 2002, as well as how the threads were originally saved. If you have any ideas, catch me at Ex Isle or email me.

Q7. I want the blue back!
A7. Dude, this is a place for QUESTIONS... ah, frell it. I'll stop being mean about that for now. The blue is in some index pages, but was not incorporated into the conversion script, partly for compatibility and partly because I didn't ask to have that background back. Incidentally, the nice shiny logo, whenever it gets put up, is blue. And blue. ;)

Q8. The colors on the index pages are awful. Can you change them?
A8. Probably not. I like most of them and out of the ones I don't like, the color scheme still reflects the tone of the forum, so I wind up liking it anyway. ;)

Q9. Change 'em or pay for my glasses!
A9. C'mon, it's not that bad! And I don't want to know your glasses prescription, k?

Q10. Can you personalize my threads so they're in purple or something?
A10. Not at this time. Check back in a few months (make that years) or so, when everything else is up and sorted out.

Q11. Can you delete my thread?
A11. Umm, no. Posts, yes. Threads, no, unless your post constitutes the whole thread. And sometimes small threads can fuel a good discussion later. As for why not.... see the disclaimer on the first page, please.

Q12. You killed my thread! Where is it?!
A12. Umm, hello? Join the club. Next question, phrased more nicely, if you please!

Q13. I still can't find my thread, and I'd like to know where it is?
A13. That's better. You could be remembering the forum, year, or title wrong and find it through a search, or it could be one of the threads we didn't save. Check Forum Draft Pages in order to search for your thread (pick a forum and hit Ctrl + F).

Q14. WTF is the POINT of the project if you just didn't save threads? Huh?
A14. Calm down. There were, according to an estimate by one of the people working on saving threads, about 15000 threads at the time Slipstream was shut down. Out of that, we still saved about 14000. That's pretty good, especially since we only had a week and a few of us killed our computers saving threads. The ones that weren't saved were probably ones that were very short in busy forums like Misc. I've regretted that choice ever since I made it, so please kindly direct your ire elsewhere if you have any about that. Thank you.

Q15. Who wrote these questions and the answers to them? It couldn't have been Anakam.
A15. It was indeed Anakam. I'm in my John of Gaunt persona; beware! Plus I'm at work and feeling a little crabby about everything.

Q16. Why should we suffer because you're in a bad mood?
A16. Topic hijacking can (erm, not now!) be found at the Argosy faction in The Beach on Ex Isle! :D This is the end of the random hijack for the FAQ page of the Slipstream Preservation Project!

Q17. Are you getting a search engine?
A17. I'm hoping to be able to use Google once this site has been up for a while and the pages are actually available through Google. If you have any other search engines, please drop by the most recent archive update thread in The Beach at Ex Isle and suggest it.

Q18. Who helped with this?
A18. A variety of people. Check out the Contributor's Page!

Q19. They did something wrong. Can I yell at them?
A19. Um, no. You can yell at me, though, since I'm in charge. Isn't leadership great? :p

Q20. They did everything absolutely right. Can I give them a medal?
A20. If you can find a way to send one across the 'Net... why not? :)

Q21. Who are those 'anonymous' people in the contributor's list?
A21. Those are people that helped save or resave threads or worked on the project in some other way and opted to not be listed as themselves when I made up that page.

Q22. I thought you were preserving Slipstream. Where's the OQ? Huh??!
A22. I didn't have access to OQ. It doesn't belong on this site. It is available elsewhere.... and as its leak is the official cause of the Slipstream shutdown, it's not going to be on this site.

Q23. Can I help?
A23. Yeah, there are a few different ways you can still help. We still need some threads resaved, and converting General Discussion (and Miscellaneous and Fan Fiction) for archiving is proving to be a real PITA. Drop by the most recent archive thread, PM me, or start a thread yourself at Ex Isle to help. If all that's done or you can't help with large files, I'm looking for people to go through the months and email me the right order of threads for that month, as most are put up in alphabetical order by the last month posted in (update: this should be fixed).

Q24. Will you quit moving the archive site around?
A24. I didn't move it that much.... this is only the second site. And it should be the permanent one. So, yes and no.

Q25. Why'd you move, anyway?
A25. I couldn't get more space at the free host the archives were originally on. Thus, I had to move to a non-free host to complete the archives.

Q26. Ouch. But at least you have your own domain now, right? How much?
A26. Right. And how much what? :cool: Less than I make per year, fortunately, if that's what you're getting at. ;)

Q27. That wasn't very helpful. I thought this was supposed to be a FAQ's page?
A27. It is. But you gotta be more specific! Especially if you want me to stay out of my John of Gaunt persona! (Have I given enough DSP refs yet? ;)

Q28. You're still nuts. Certifiable. Off the deep end.
A28. Why thank you. Cashews, please, ten pounds.

Q29. I want to submit another question.
A29. Email me, PM me on Ex Isle, or catch me in a thread about the archives on Ex Isle.

Q30. Why do posts seem to be edited before they were posted?
A30. It has to do with the forum software change that occured in December 2002, as near as I can tell.

Q31. Why are some posts in a thread before the thread actually started?
A31. As with the above, it has to do with the forum software change. The timestamps were adjusted by some hours and that messed up a number of things. There's also the possibility that it has to do with users setting the time to their time zone, since there were a number of people saving threads.

Q32. Where are the links back to the main page and everything from the month pages?
A32. Weeeeeeeellll... I didn't put them on initially. I'll probably go back and do them once I'm done with the archives as a whole.

Q33. When will this be done?
A33. Wow, it's a good thing I'm not in a John of Gaunt mood... ;) Seriously, I realized a couple of weeks ago that I had been doing this for over a year and a half. I want to be done by the two-year mark. Whether that is the day the Slipstream was shut in our faces (Jan 13), the day it went to read only (Jan 17), or the day it closed for good (Jan 24) doesn't make any difference. But I want it done. If I don't finish soon, it'll take longer to put the threads up than it did to do all that posting in the first place. ;)