Dear friends,
After being urged to do so by a lot of you (thanks!), I have backed up this blog on WordPress. You can now find the backup blog here:
http://thesaker.wordpress.com/
For the time being, this is only a backup option so PLEASE continue to post your comments here and not on the backup blog.
Also, I am, alas, limited to 13MB of blogger import on WordPress. At least the newest 13MB have been uploaded. But the full XML file of this blog is 92.5MB so only the recent stuff has been backed up. I have already stored the full 92.5MB of backup in a safe location, but unless somebody offers to host it elsewhere, only the more recent stuff will be on WordPress (from May 2011 from what I can see).
I also have another emergency backup blog here: http://thesaker.ucoz.com/blog but that one does not allow any importing of other blogs. Still we can use it to stay in touch should something happen here.
Also, just as a reminder, my backup email address is vineyardsaker@mail.ru, you can use it if you want, I also check it regularly.
Also,
I am still looking for somebody capable and willing to automatically mirror this blog elsewhere, this would be the best solution by far. Can anybody do that?
Finally, some of you have reported that this blog has been offline for 10min with a message saying that it has been deleted. These are most likely blogger bugs, local network overloads or DNS problems. So far, I did not get any threats from Google and, frankly, irritating as this blog might be for some, I am doing nothing against the Google policies. I know, they can still pull the plug anytime they want, but at least on my end I do not see any signs of that happening.
A automatic mirror, hosted in Russia or China would, of course, be ideal (-: just saying, hint hint :-)
Please write down all the info above so you know where to find me, and all the wonderful contributors/commentators, should something ugly happen.
Many thanks and kind regards,
The Saker
Hi,
I would be happy to post your articles on my blog http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.nz/. You can email me at westenra at clear.net.nz
I originally wanted to offer my help, but then I realised that it would be better to wait to see if someone with actual experience would volunteer (and in the meanwhile investigate how to do it technically). If it is of any help there seems to be a guide on how to mirror wordpress blogs:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/184574171/Mirroring-Gva-Guide
Apart from that, noblogs.org platform is run by Italian activists who focus on internet privacy. I am mentioning them because their e-mail service is noted to be very good.
I’d be happy to host it on the Wikispooks server FOC.
I already host the ISGP website for similar reasons.
It is a private vps situated in County Carlow, Ireland which gives it a slightly enhanced degree of legal protection compared to US or UK-based servers on matters of US-UK official concern. I don’t set too much store by such things really but the case of Babar Ahmad demonstrates that the mere fact of a site being hosted on US territory renders its operator vulnerable to extradition if it falls foul of US ‘national security interests’.
I know you are already domiciled in the US but the point really is that all US-ISP’s are susceptible to the bidding of the US NS establishment.
If you are interested then we need to move to private emails – preferably using PGP.
don’t count on wordpress. One of my sites was recently killed by WP for “violating community standards”. Fortunately, it’s archived in the deep web. I’d do more than one mirror, if I were you.
You could store it in a Git (or any other CVS system) repository and publish from there. This works well together with static blog generators (like Jekyll, Pelican, and others).
You can keep it in Github, for instance, and serve it from there. Github serves static pages directly. But it could be easily be served from anywhere else.
The advantage is that anyone can easily fork it (make a copy in Github) or clone it (make a copy somewhere else).
The disadvantage is that it requires minimal understanding of how Git (or Mercurial, etc) works. Normally you’d use the command line, but there are also graphical clients.
Also, while for some it is an advantage, you will probably have to edit your posts using Markdown or something similar.
@N4aL the full pdf is available here
http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/mirroring-gva-guide.pdf
no scribd fee
Hi Saker,
i’ve set up a wp wich is fed from your blog under
http://the-saker.tk/
Server is located in germany. It should update automatically every 10 minutes. Unfortunately, it could only read the latest 24 posts, as blogger.com doesn’t export more via RSS. But if you send me that big XML-File, i could import it all. Or even better: Post it on some file-sharing site like
http://www.share-online.biz/
so other ppl. can also mirror it without hassle.
Cheers!
@Marty Crabneck: i’ve set up a wp wich is fed from your blog under http://the-saker.tk/ Server is located in germany. It should update automatically every 10 minutes.
FANTASTIC!!! That is the best thing ever. Later today or tomorrow I will make a full post about this.
Unfortunately, it could only read the latest 24 posts, as blogger.com doesn’t export more via RSS. But if you send me that big XML-File, i could import it all. Or even better: Post it on some file-sharing site like
Done. You (and others) can grab it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/c99lj374f1t10kf/blog-04-13-2014.xml
I am very very grateful to you, really, thanks a lot!
Kind regards,
The Saker
@Marty Crabneck (and others):
Here is the full site (as of yesterday) on share-online:
http://www.share-online.biz/dl/R0OF214NOMJ
Cheers,
The Saker
@Wikispooks:I’d be happy to host it on the Wikispooks server FOC. (…)I know you are already domiciled in the US but the point really is that all US-ISP’s are susceptible to the bidding of the US NS establishment. If you are interested then we need to move to private emails – preferably using PGP.
I am definitely interested. Can you send me an email (with PGP if you want, but that is probably futile on a gmail account like mine).
Kind regards and thanks,
The Saker
VINEYARDSAKER: said…
I am very very grateful to you, really, thanks a lot!
No big deal, i’m glad i could help.
Now, i’ve managed to import that XML, so hopefully there’s a full backup (without comments) online. Only the Tags and Categories are missing, all import plugins i tried so far ignored them. In the next days, i’ll try out different plugins or fix them. Meanwhile, it is probably a good idea to have some other backups, because the server which hosts this is a free service. The folks running it are dependend on donations and maybe they are forced to shut it down one day. But since they are online for several years, i’m pretty confident they’ll go on.