Phonoland is closing down after 19 years...

[OrthoFan]

SEE: https://www.phonoland.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8470

Phonoland was one of first web-based discussion forums exclusively devoted to antique and vintage sound systems, and in its heyday, drew posts from members around the world. It was established at about the same time as "The Old Time Victrola Music Message Board," but unlike the OTVMMB, Phonoland was still owned and operated by its founder.

While participation in the site's acoustic gramophone/phonograph forum dwindled after the establishment of the Talking Machine Forum--many Phonoland members gravitated to this site--it still drew a considerable number of posts from Jukebox fans, and I'm sure, will be sorely missed by them.

OF

[Retrograde]

19 years is a pretty good run for a forum or most any "hobby" website.

People used to say "once you put something on the internet it's there forever" ...well maybe not.

[OrthoSean]

I would hope that someone could somehow archive what IS there. I've gleaned lots of useful jukebox repair tips from there over the years and Ron Rich was always extra helpful with his advice (and rarely wrong). It would be a shame to lose all that, even if it becomes "dead". Surely there must be something that could be done to make it a searchable archive of sorts?

Sean

[fran604g]

I would hope that someone could somehow archive what IS there. I've gleaned lots of useful jukebox repair tips from there over the years and Ron Rich was always extra helpful with his advice (and rarely wrong). It would be a shame to lose all that, even if it becomes "dead". Surely there must be something that could be done to make it a searchable archive of sorts?

Sean

Is it possible to archive and migrate the content over to TMF?

Fran

[phono-smitten]

Phonoland has been crawled by Internet Archive as recently as April of this year so it looks like a good amount of the content will continue to be available through the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.phonoland.com

[HisMastersVoice]

Fran, there's no way to import that data into the TMF, no. It's sad that he doesn't just pass it on to someone who is interested in running it, much like what happened here several years ago. Surely there is someone out there willing to pay for it and take over management.