Careful.... that's getting close to one of my marketing lines for our site's membership: "Cheaper than a pack of smokes and a whole lot better for you..."
I would be careful about associating your service with something most people now find repellent! It's also meaningless if you don't smoke. Comparisons with cups of coffee or chocolate bars seem safer to me. With regards UKTS, I'm amazed it's still running.
Isn't anything cheaper than a pack of smokes nowadays, anyway? And also, I agree with the comments about associating with something that is socially unaccepted.
Tea, coffee, cocoa or any drinks like that have caffeine in them. Who still drinks an English Cup Of Tea?
It isn't socially unacceptable though is it? Also Coffee in small doses is far less damaging than smoking in small doses.
Caffeine is a problem in high usage. It loses its effect and instead becomes a drug for your body as a dependency. Hence why some might not feel like a morning cup of coffee wakes them up; they drink too much of it or other caffeinated products.
I don’t smoke, I rarely drink booze but I now feel like a delinquent as I do drink tea and coffee (not at the same time (yet)).
And back to the subject of the thread in hand IE UKTS. I have noticed I got a certification expired pop up which I had to press I accept on to enter the site. Wonder if this will get fixed this time giving we are now past the expected removal of the site ?
just had a look just now and its not appearing now so may just been a one off earlier................. hopefully
I'm getting 503 Service Unavailable errors when trying to download stuff. The rest of the website works fine.
Just gone back to try again and now getting the 404 error to download. But rest of website is loading fine
I get a 503 error - Service Unavailable The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Just checked UKTS and the website appears to be still present, unless the downloads isn’t working. Matt did say 31st August but did have a stay of execution as he was busy making Train Sim World 4 which has since been released. Another step in UKTS signing out of the box.
I cannot download either, I need the invisible blocker, somehow I cannot find any backup for it. Anyone know if it is located elsewhere on another website ?
DTG Matt, the UKTS download area is now non-operational, and who knows how long the catalog and forum will be up before they too will present the dreaded "Service Unavailable" error message. I'm aware of two parties who offered to take over UKTS, lock stock and barrel. Has there been any movement forward on this important issue?
I’ve stopped using UKTS a month ago, I now upload my reskins somewhere’s else. It’s hard to believe the latest content was uploaded to UKTS on 24th September, which is three weeks ago now. Whats next for UKTS now?
If there are no plans to resurrect the site or put in the hands of a new owner, wouldn’t it just be better to pull the plug and let it go rather than the situation where some parts work for some people and others don’t. Otherwise it’s just raising false hopes of a reprieve when the hangman is in the room next door adjusting the drop!
My reskins are available at AlanThomsonSim.com and TrainSimCommunity.com. And by the way Vern, Sulitjelma Railway Class 37 Locos and Ci-28 Coach are now available from Train Sim Community.
The plug was pulled, at least by Matt, he paid up until the end of August I believe and thus terminated the service, so anything remaining active is down to the server hosts and only they can act upon the flipping of the actual switch. Nobody is intentionally and actively keeping things going and certainly no one is trying to illicit false hopes, it will all go offline soon enough of that I have no doubt.
As Reef said, the drop has already happened; Matt paid up until the end of August and that was that. However, all files and the forums are still intact (Matt in fact stated that he had backed up the entire lot somewhere) and there have been two concrete offers to take up the responsibility of running these files, whether on the current server or on someone else's. I for one do not want to see well over a decade of work simply vanish into the ether; there is so much fine work that has been submitted that it would be, IMHO, a crime to let it all vanish when there are offers to make it live again.
As Matt has stated previously, he currently doesn't have the time to hand it all over to another person. Its not as simple as giving them a set of keys.
As someone who was a professional for over 40 years with rare book metadata at 2 large universities and was involved in the transferal of large amounts of data, I am more than aware of the problems and the amount of work necessary to affect a happy result. All I'd like to hear is that this is being actively addressed, even if it is simply to say that this situation will indeed get attention in the near future. In other words, something other than silence ...
Matt has said in this thread that when he has some free time he can look at it. Unfortunately he has a full time job, Plus a family to look after so his "free time" might not come around all that often for him.
Unfortunately I am a pessimist when it comes to UKTS and Matts free time. Don't forget and please correct me if I am wrong, Matt did not even inform people on UKTS that he intended to close the site ! In fact he has be conspicuous by his lack of input on the UKTS forums as to the impending closure . He left all that to his father !
I think people should resign themselves to UKTS having gone for good. It's not the end of the world. There's still a lot of good stuff out there and still being created. I thought a lot of content on UKTS had become very dated, and some of it was never any good.
Have to agree with you. UKTS in the early days literally became a one stop shop for MSTS and TSC. There is still a lot of "good stuff" being created for what is now quite an old game unfortunately its scattered across multiply web sites.
The information on the homepage says Reminder: Shutting Down in August A reminder that UKTrainSim in its current guise and ownership will be closing its doors in August. I posted the first piece of info on the 14th Jan after Matt had posted here https://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=361&t=154641 Peter posted on the 17th Jan to the Site Admin Queries section https://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=154648
Yes there was information posted on the home page, and I saw that within a few days of it being posted. My point being that although it appears that Matt was funding the site, and this has been discussed on this site ( DTG Forums ) Matt never felt the need to discuss it on the site he was actually closing down, which I find very peculiar.
How many threads on UKTS were asking about it?, Matt only discussed on this Forum because people were asking him about it here, he didn't start a thread about it. If no one was asking on UKTS then why should matt discuss it there. He put up the notification with plenty of time for people.
We've received many UKTS files from third parties, and I recently put a change in place that will allow for searching and downloading using the UKTS file ID's. We even re-indexed our file IDs to avoid duplication... a somewhat innocuous change as the file ID wasn't part of our visible details, but it will help make it a little easier to find things based on archived forum data in other places like archive.org or pdf/txt documentation for routes/activities. Much of the other metadata fits our data structure, but some doesn't e.g. the notion of operating company. In short, the file library is preserved, and the biggest barrier from us making it available is ethics. It's bad form to put up a mirror if there's no clarity on a reprieve. I also don't want to solicit donations for covering the online storage expenses or commit our own funds if the UKTS site is going to ultimately remain static yet available. But.... it's also approaching 60 days past the close date without any clarity... We may start to make files available if downloads not working on UKTS isn't just a temporary issue.
It's why I chose Texas for our hosting... That guarantees our free speech protections, leaving us the ability to leverage multiple sins and guilty pleasures as incentive to buy a membership without fear of reprisals. The only downside is we can't engage in automobile sales or sell liquor on Sundays before noon.
That's a pity, I was considering buying a Toyota Tacoma and some Jack Daniels off you at the same time tomorrow.
I just looked at the download section today, and there have been some files uploaded by ellinotoff79on 19 October 2023, either the date is incorrect or they were uploaded last week but not possible to download. Strange?
Odd. This is what shows on the newest files link... 03Sep... unless that's being cached or wasn't being updated dynamically. But the homepage shows those 7 new scenarios... Odd.
