Paul's Gruntz Page ... gone(?) No, server problem

[GooRoo]

Only a very few of the links (to Custom Levelz, for download) work. The Standard Levelz walkthroughz are no longer working, and this Forum'z staff memberz are unable to access the verified patchez that were stored for download at Paul's Gruntz Page. I have made the Windows (XP) screen resolution patchez available from my web host, and I know that those work. However, I am not sure that I have the proper file for the Version 1.01 patch to Gruntz, that fixes a number of small problems in Standard Levelz. (It has been too long since I applied it, and I believe it came in a self-extracting ZIPped file ... which I no longer have.) So I am not sure that I have made everything available that was part of that patch.

I am going to begin the project of uploading every Gruntz Custom Level I have to my own web host, and removing any links to Paul's Gruntz Page, replacing those links with links to my own hosted files. That will involve at least 80 Custom Levelz ... all those that Paul had made available before maintenance stopped on his web site. I believe that there are close to 50 Custom Levelz that designerz have sent to me, for distribution, that were not added to the menus of Paul's Gruntz Page. So about 2/3^rds of the Gruntz Custom Level threads will see "Edit: links to Paul's Gruntz Page removed." at the bottom of the CL description.

Note: if anyone has walkthroughs for the Gruntz Standard Levelz, please e-mail them to me, for replacement of links to Paul's Gruntz Page. Also, the walkthroughs of Custom Levelz that were available from Paul's Gruntz Page may no longer be available, so anyone with them stored on harddrives is asked to submit them for storing on my host.

Please post a reply to this thread, if you have any materials from Paul's Gruntz Page that Gruntzerz have been depending on for so many years. Post the name of whatever you have, along with your 'confidence level' in the material being complete, and accurate.

Thank you for your cooperation!

[FriedGruntzaholic]

Nope. Not gone. As a matter of fact, as of right now, Paul's site is now back up and running. The unnerving "404" error messages were caused by Paul's web site host/ISP having server problems.

[GooRoo]

Whew! I was afraid that a major resource for the Gruntzer community was gone. That would have been an incredible loss. Still, it was enough of a scare that I think it would be wise to back-up everything possible, so that Gruntz doesn't have "all of our eggz in one basket". I can easily handle all of the Custom Levelz, but the Standard Level walkthroughs, and many of the Custom Level walkthroughs I don't have ... I rely upon Paul's Gruntz Page for those.

I have not received any replies from Paul on the several dozen Custom Levelz I have sent to him for inclusion on his web site. If someone can contact him and receive permission for us to provide back-up copies of those walkthroughs via this Forum, I would appreciate it. I will e-mail him myself, but perhaps if several Gruntzerz were to request it, there would be a better chance of receiving a response (and hopefully, permission).

[GooRoo]

Hi Ed

Sorry that it took a while before returning a response to you, but I just
returned from my holidays.
Couple of weeks ago my ISP suffered from severe problems with its web
servers. That's why the
standard levels where not available. This didn't affect the custom levels,
which are on servers from my other ISP.
Anyway this was the first time the an outage did last that long. Though I
couldn't find the time to properly maintain
the Gruntz pages, I won't take the pages down without notice. I think you're
doing a great job with your website and
I don't see it as competition at all !!!. Grunzters try to help each other
not to compete
As it looks at the moment (I recently finished some major business projects)
I might find some time to add all
the missing custom levels. If I do I'll let you know so you can check for
any missing levels.
BTW don't worry about losing all the walktroughs and other stuff because the
complete
website is stored on my local PC as well and I take regular backups.

Regards
Paul

----- Original Message -----
From: GooRoo
To: Paul
Sent: Monday, July 05, 2004 12:35 AM
Subject: Gruntz stuff ... and bandwidth


> I have been linking to the files on your web page (Standard Level
walkthroughs, older Custom Levelz, etc.), rather than having them stored on
my own web host. Perhaps it was misguided, but I have done so because yours
is the premiere Gruntz web site in the world, and I felt that duplicating
anything you have accumulated and made available would be cutting you out of
the picture. By linking to your web site, many of the users see what you
have available, and have done for Gruntz. And hopefully, they browse around
your site and see your cavy portions.
>
> The recent outage of your web host (server) was a huge scare! When I
think of all of those Standard Level walkthroughs you have provided, and how
valuable they have been to the new Gruntzerz (yes! there are new
Gruntzerz!), I am frightened at the prospect of not having that resource
available. So far, I have forwarded all of the new Gruntz Custom Levelz to
you, and provided download links on my Forum for them ... intended to be
temporary, until you have made them available on your web site. Until
yesterday (scrambling, because of people wanting things only you had), I
only had those newer Custom Levelz linked from my web host. Now, I have
uploaded the patches (which I downloaded from YOUR site!) to my host, and
made them available for download by GooRoo's Gruntz Forum members. I don't
want to give even the appearance of competition ... I am far more interested
in cooperation, to provide the best possible service to those who love
Gruntz. I believe that I have been quite
> careful to give credit to the true source of everything available from
my Forum.
>
> If there is anything I can do to help you in maintaining your web site,
you only need to ask. As far as HTML is concerned, I am at the bottom of
the learning curve, but I learn quickly, with the application of the proper
incentive (sometimes a swift kick in the posterior ;^) if such help is
needed. My Forum is pretty much a matter of customizing something that is
provided ready-made, with hooks built-in for many of those customizations.
So I would be rather slow to be truly helpful in a site such as yours, that
appears to be self-constructed using HTML (or PHP, or ).
>
> Oh yes! And here is the latest Custom Level by a new designer (piaaf); a
"Trouble in the Tropicz" puzzle named "Expect The Unexpected!".
>
> Confirmed Gruntzaholic ... no remedy possible!

[Gamer]

Yes, Paui's site has been an excellent resource to us all, so thanks for having it!

I think it's good to have the walkthroughs somewhere or another though