Forming a Mage Archive

[Frosted]

One of the biggest losses I feel is how difficult (sometimes impossible) it is to access old EJ threads, or old beta threads where devs discussed directly how mechanics worked under the hood (the gory details). While the waybackwhen machine allows us to access snapshots of the discussions that were had, accessing them in full (and in a quicker manner) would be preferred. In order to preserve the knowledge we generate within these forums, I think we should set up an archive for old threads (primarily TC ones) which cannot be posted on/edited, but are free to view in full to everyone who wants to look through them.

Threads like primary guides, mechanics compendiums, SimC APL evolution (and eventually actual programming of new spells/talents/perks discussion), formulation based mechanics modeling, and Beta dev mechanic explanations can all be tucked away and saved for when they are needed for reference.

Why would we ever need old info if we are constantly dealing with new problems?

While new problems may be different from the old, the thought process behind approaching these mechanics, the tools that were applied to solve them, and the eventual application of the solutions to these problems may serve as a guide or as inspiration to solving new problems. Additionally, it helps keep us from forgetting why SimC is doing something a specific way, or why we have modeled a spell one way or another.

I'd prefer if this stuff was also backed up somewhere off the site, and am willing to pay for hosting it.

[Kver]

There are a number of ways in which we can do this. The first and probably worst one in terms of site performance would be an archive on these very forums. This makes them very accessible, but it means that the database for the forum is larger and most scripts take longer to finish.

The easiest way in my opinion would be to make them on archives.altered-time.com or something similar. This could be a forum copy with a separate database, or a wiki, literally anything.

Hosting it isn't the issue really, though donations are always welcome.

[ZomgDPS]

A sad fact to report on this topic is that only recently, the last remaining (known) well documented public archive containing details of the talents and spells of WoW as they progressed from their introduction to the game all the way back from beta 1 of vanilla to present day, was lost. (I believe it was tied to the gamespy server shutdowns or something, not sure).

EIther way, there is great value in archiving old knowledge. There are sometimes deep insights that can be found even years after the data was relevant.