Ted Staunton's 78s labels website

[max_phenol]

Hi!

Does anyone know what happened to Ted Staunton's phantastic website about 78s labels (www.tedstaunton.com)? Did it move to another address or is Ted no longer doing it?

Thanks!
Helmut

[Wolfe]

I went looking for it months ago and I couldn't find it. Too bad, it was a good resource, using rare label scans sent by many other collectors.

[rbuck]

you can access the prior site from the internet archive wayback machine--- https://archive.org/web/.

[alang]

oldcrank.com also seems to have disappeared

Andreas

[max_phenol]

I now heard from Ted. He gave up the website and is undecided what to do with it.

I offered to him to try to keep it running on my webspace, if it is compatible.

Or someone else could do that. It just should not disappear, as it is a highly valuable source for all 78s collectors.

We'll see what will happen with it ...

[Marco Gilardetti]

oldcrank.com also seems to have disappeared

That's sad. I remember it among the very first internet websites that had some information about gramophones, it has been in my "favourites" list ever since - I'm talking about 20 years, possibly more. Unfortunately in its case it seems that waybackmachine.org almost completely failed to take a "photograph" of the website: all of the articles are gone, it seems.

[max_phenol]

That's what will happen to most if not all privately run websites one day. Internet is great, no doubt, but it is nothing to last for ever. Hence a printed book will always be the best way to preserve information for a longer time (or, if treated well, for very long time) and that's why I am working on a book on cylinder record boxes and not doing a website on this topic.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I have to disagree. Most of the books about gramophones, especially those printed back in their days, I wouldn't even ever have known they existed, hadn't they been scanned and uploaded on internet websites. Since the internet exists, knowledge about gramophones literally skyrocketed.

[max_phenol]

Don't get me wrong. The internet is an extraordinary source of information, way more comprehensive than all books together. If websites are hosted by i.e. a big organisation or by the government, there is a good chance that they will survive many decades and stand the requirements of technical changes (which is a big issue with websites, as standards change so quickly). But if a website is a lifelong work of one single person who runs it privately (and that's the case here - Ted Staunton's website) then there will be a point where this person gets older and one day he'll pass away. Very rarely there is someone in the family or friends who takes over the work afterwards. So, this website will just disappear forever. The information in books is there for many decades. They get damaged or thrown away too, but not as fast as digital information. Even the last remaining example of a book can be scanned again in 100 years and put online. Go try transferring digital data of a website that was made in 2022 in 100 years ... good luck!

So, yes, books are old-fashioned, expensive and not easy to access for millions of people. But how much information would we have today if previous collectors and early music researchers had not written books and still do publish books?

Also for someone who has a passion for analog music and mechanical machines that play it books should be something special too, instead a useless medium from the past.

[Marco Gilardetti]

I don't want to insist on this matter and eventually irritate you, but wether a physical book or multiple scans of it spread all over the world in thousands of copies will survive better on the long run is highly debatable, to say the least. I have seen with my eyes beautiful photographic albums, as well as entire collections of records of some fellows who passed away sent to the dump (perhaps with the exception of the few common dozen titles that would obviously sell well) and huge libraries leaving for the paper recycle facility (many of the books belonging to my mother unfortunately included). And no: state libraries won't take those books, and the few that they may eventually decide to take, they will keep only for a limited period of time, and then it's paper recycle facility again.

This said, I wish you good work and good luck with your book, to which I am really looking forward.