A Gramophone Wiki

[Andrew Reed]

Greetings,

Last night, I found myself wondering: is there any kind of structured knowledge base or wiki dedicated specifically to gramophones?
Something akin to Discogs for 78rpm records, but focused on talking machines themselves — particularly European models, as I’m French and most of my collection and interest revolve around them.

I'm aware of the Radio Museum, of course, but I find it rather cumbersome and not especially intuitive when it comes to learning specifically about gramophones.

Any recommendations or existing resources would be greatly appreciated.
And if such a resource doesn’t exist — well, perhaps it’s time we create one.

I'm more of a C89 developer — well, a dilettante one — but I’ve also worked with Python and have some basics in C#. A site like Win3x.org, using good old PHP and SQL, wouldn’t be that hard to set up. I mean, just look at the forum you’re reading this on — clearly, we’re not afraid of some 90s aesthetics and IE 5 compatibility.

Thank you in advance!

[m_nakamura]

I'd really like to do something like that too. I'd contribute Japanese-related (and other asiatic).

[Andrew Reed]

Well, in practice, I could probably build the whole thing myself — the structure, the backend, the templates.
The catch? Hosting, of course.

I could throw it on my NAS — if only it weren’t designed solely for file storage and didn’t behave like a hand-cranked modem trying to stream an opera.

Sure, we could use Wix or Fandom. But then Wix insists on plastering its name across every square inch of the screen like a proud sponsor of mediocrity. And Fandom… well, if Mojang had to pay to make a supposedly "free" wiki usable, that probably says everything. Also, the loss of good old HTTP backward compatibility — call me old-fashioned, but I find that a bit distasteful.

There might be some free, underpowered VPS hosting solutions out there. But frankly, buying a proper server — or even a modest VPS subscription like Hostinger — is beyond my current budget.

Still, I’m open to ideas. Maybe there’s a forgotten corner of the web still willing to host a gramophone wiki for the sake of history and eccentric charm.