ARMAHOLIC website not working

[jerryhopper 286]

IMPORTANT UPDATE!  

For now, ARMA2OA files are of the highest value.   *DO NOT DELETE THEM*

Now here is  the first GOOD news since the demise of armaholic, and the depressing contact-attempts.

Regarding ARMA1 files,  @W0lle has a reasonable portion of the files,   All Arma sections except : weapons and mpmissions
Regarding ARMA2 files @jerryhopper has 100% of all addons listed on armaholic.   also 100% of all mpmissions.
Regarding ARMA2OA files,  no information is yet available, aside from the scraped fileinformation.  all addons are considered high-value files.

 

So we have the raw files, but no searchable index. this is something i will do later.  i'd like to focus on indexing what's missing.
But - if you need files, you know the name - or you have the patience to manually search - The Arma2 mod-section from armaholic is available now! 

 

NEED ARMA2 FILES?

Armaholic file-mirror for ARMA2 (25GB): http://ftp.armedassault.info/armaholic/arma2/  

This mirror is  missing the Arma2 sections : 'scenario' 'patches 'modules' 'editing-tools' 'editing-scripts' 'editing-templates'

 

NEED ARMA FILES?

Armaholic file-mirror for Arma (Armed-Assault) (45GB) : http://ftp.armedassault.info/armaholic/arma1/
This mirror is missing the Arma sections: Mpmissions, Weapons

[EO 11275]

Statues will be built for you guys. ^^

[MarineRecon191 10]

9 hours ago, WGP said:

Does that do what you need, or do you need anything else binks related ?

 

(I've updated the previous post)

That's all, thanks

[jerryhopper 286]

Hey all..  

 

i wanted to share something with you guys about armaholic.

I dont want to point fingers, or blame anyone - i have only one goal and that is preserving arma history. 
Next to that, i'd like to understand things.  I am fully aware that everyone has its own reasons to stop or quit with arma - or their websites about arma. i respect everybodies choice, but that doesnt mean i understand it.

 

 

So, here is my story.

 

From the moment Armaholic went down, i looked for ways to efficiently index what has been lost. Some of you who read my posts know that i was attempting to use the waybackmachine to scrape the data.  So i started downloading all armaholic-related stuff from the waybackmachine.   

Meanwhile, i was searching on google for filenames etc and i checked the domainname status of armaholic.
We know that the domain seems to be sold or lost, and i started thinking....  what happens if a domain is lost?  - it probably points to different servers.
This means that its quite possible that the original armaholic-server is still up, only the domain-name is pointing to a different ip. i figured that if this was true, i needed to find the old IP adress that the armaholic was pointing to.  Thanks to SecurityTrails, i was able to find this ip which is 5.133.183.13

When i changed my local hosts-file on my pc,i added the lines below:  
armaholic.com 5.133.183.13 
www.armaholic.com 5.133.183.13   

 

After saving the file and when i navigated to the armaholic website, i found that the website was working!
Immedeatly i started scraping ALL addon data from the site.  Once i had a textfile with all the download pages, i started to download as many addons as i could.
Luckyly, w0lle wanted to help and started downloading the arma1 addons.  i started downloading the arma2 addons.   WE WERE HAPPY!

But today, the day after we found out this loophole - i was downloading like a madman when suddenly a 404 popped up.  i ignored this, coz shit happens!  but also the next downloads all produced 404 errors. When i tried a file, that i downloaded earlier, again a 404.  I switched IP adresses, cleared browser-caches - but nothing worked.

 

So, my urge to archive data has learned me a few things.

 

1.  armaholic.com domain is sold(?) at least it has a diff owner.
2.  the armaholic server is still up.
3.  the armaholic files are hosted on www.armaholic.net  and downloads originate from www.visitor.armaholic.net
4.  armaholic has anti-leech/abuse mechanics, but the 404 isnt part of this function
5.  the Owner of armaholic tweeted about the end of armaholic. and suggests that people can take over the data.
6.  the contact info from this tweet info@joocoo.nl does exist, but doesnt reply to anyone.
7.  the associated phonenumber for joocoo.nl is out of order.
8.  When the sysadmin of armaholic finds out i have been downloading from armaholic while its down, decides to close the loophole.  
 

i can safely say that the sysadmin of armaholic does tweet about the end of armaholic, and in the past days - didnt reply to anyone who emailed him.  Yet he deliberately shut-down the downloads TODAY.

I can understand and accept if people decide to stop with arma activities, but i really like to understand why the armaholic-sysadmin denies access to their files, and is not answering emails. 

Foxhound, i dont have beef with you. i dont know if you have beef with anyone here in the community. But isnt it a bit harsh to deny innocent players access to files that are essential to the game?

Or maybe this is some late april-1 joke, where you (in the near future) launch a renewed website with all its old content? - If this is the case, i find it a very peculiar joke.

My question to Armaholic / Foxhound
 
My attempt to archive the data has given me a lot of arma1 and arma2 files - but not all. 
I hope that somehow, you (foxhound) reads this post, and like to elaborate on what is going on. if there is a way to work things out, let us (or me) know. i cannot believe that you dont understand the historical value of 20yrs of generated community-data, and i dont understand why you -so sudden- denies access to this data.

 

I have send you several emails to several adresses, i even included my phonenumber. 
If you wanna talk - talk to me. im here. i like to understand, and help where i can With only one goal: preserve history

Sincerly,

Your favorite Arma-TalkShowHost from the past : Jerry Hopper.

 

 

 

 

UPDATE;  i just learned from a community-member, that at least 1 person had a reply from the joocoo.nl contact-address

UPDATE2 : i decided to make the response public
----------------------------
Hi ,
 
Good to hear from you and thank you for your interest.
 
 
You are very welcome to continue the website in whatever form you like. I have no interest what so ever to continue working on it.
I can provide you the database, the website files, 2 domains (armaholic.net and armaholic.eu) and of course all files which is around 1.6TB in size. Also I would hand over the twitter account, the youtube account and the facebook account (if thats possible without compromising my own security).
I am looking for financial compensation towards the database and the website (as that contains all images etc used in the DB) and the domains. We had around 150.000 users and over 30.000 pages. The CMS used is Cotonti.
You could simply host the website as is, or import the DB into a different CMS and go from there.
 
I do not have a set asking price. Please feel free to make me an offer what the website, the database and the domains are worth to you and maybe we can agree on something.
 
Looking forward to hear from you.
 
 
Kind regards,
 

-----------------------------------------

Additional Note:

How about we setup a crowdfund?!  im happy to chip in.

 

Additional note2: 
Be aware that i already made a copy with httrack of the armaholic site. I also have most Arma1 & 2 files.   
- I think we're about to play the game of "whats the value?"

[W0lle 1050]

As Jerry mentioned above, I was able to retrieve (almost) everything from Arma1. Except MPMissions and Weapons. And of course some files hosted external like on OFPEC are not covered. In total it's about 42 GB.

No reply on my emails from him. And as sad as it is, I guess I give up. If he's not interested in talking, well it is as  it is.

It's just sad to see more than a century of good relationship and partnership is thrown away like this.

Matter of fact is that Foxhound is around and - most probably - is reading this thread. Yet he's refusing to talk with the community nor at least giving us the possibility to retrieve the files.

He however is fine with replying to externals.

 

Talk with us Peter. Whatever happened, we - this community, your loyal visitors for years - are not your enemy nor responsible.

[bullet purveyor 85]

Nice job salvaging stuff guys! 🙂

I'll guess the irony here are that so many was worried of Steam and their release of the workshop. What would happen to all mods uploaded there when Valve decides to pull the plug?

Then the bastion community site of the Arma franchise just vanishes over night 😧

 

Game companies should maybe have a tighter relationship with volunteers guarding a huge part of the history of their game. So they can rescue the legacy made by thousands of people in case someone just decides to shut it all down. Imagine Nexus closing without warning. I'm wondering if Bethesda have any backup of the vast library of mods for all their games?

I'm gonna miss checking in on Armaholic to see whats new in the armaverse 😢 I hope Foxhound is okay

[jerryhopper 286]

27 minutes ago, bullet purveyor said:

Nice job salvaging stuff guys! 🙂

I'll guess the irony here are that so many was worried of Steam and their release of the workshop. What would happen to all mods uploaded there when Valve decides to pull the plug?

Then the bastion community site of the Arma franchise just vanishes over night 😧

 

Game companies should maybe have a tighter relationship with volunteers guarding a huge part of the history of their game. So they can rescue the legacy made by thousands of people in case someone just decides to shut it all down. Imagine Nexus closing without warning. I'm wondering if Bethesda have any backup of the vast library of mods for all their games?

I'm gonna miss checking in on Armaholic to see whats new in the armaverse 😢 I hope Foxhound is okay

 

i think valve has some kind of agreement with the game-publisher.  i cant imagine all is lost if valve stops - there are legal agreements with bi, although i dont know how what garantees are given regarding user-submitted data.
 

[W0lle 1050]

I'd rather say, if Valve stops his activities we have a lot more problems than just the lost game content. 😂

[BB_Frost 37]

2 hours ago, jerryhopper said:

 

Additional note2: 
Be aware that i already made a copy with httrack of the armaholic site. I also have most Arma1 & 2 files.   
- I think we're about to play the game of "whats the value?"

 

Now we know why you got cut off downloading the files. 

Also, I would suggest the domain names themselves hold no value. It can go back up as whatever and people will just learn the new address. armatrove.net or something. 🙂

I was a subscriber for the last 4.5 years even though I very rarely used the site (been playing A3, so Steam downloads are a lot faster even than subscriber speeds) - I was impressed with what Foxhound was doing. So I'd be willing to subscribe to whatever new venture takes over and contribute to a crowdfund for startup costs / purchase costs.

[jerryhopper 286]

I''m already paying A LOT on electricity to keep armedassault.info (and ofpr.info files) (hosted@home) available to the public.
I didnt own armedassault.info - it was handed over to me for free, just so i can host it as some kind of payback to the community, and the fun ive had with the game.
Therefore, i am not willing to pay money to take over the data.

 

If armaholic gets saved (by buying it) im happy to host the whole thing for free, for as long as im able to. In case i am not able anymore, the data can be taken over for free by anyone that is interested.

 

Crowdfund : Free Armaholic

So,  if the community wants armaholic preserved in its current form,  feel free to donate to my crowdfunding initiative.
I have set a goal for 500 euro's   i dont know if this amount is enough, as that is totally up to Foxhound.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/free-armaholic

lets see what happens!

[matt714 2]

10 hours ago, Gunter Severloh said:

They? You mean Foxhound the man the myth, the legend ... the Boss that ran Armaholic, no he didn't just pull the plug

he has the whole database of everything, if you go back a few pages one of the posters, posted a twitter post of Foxhound

stating he has the database, the site wasn't hacked, or anything of the sort, and any inquiries to acquire the database contact him

at his supplied email address.

     Read my post one up, theres a link at the top that archives the site but that is not the site that still exist, although we can still see

content from the forum, just nothing we can download, Jerryhopper is working on recovering addons and mods from it.

   15+ years of content between 4-5 games you aint going to just pull the plug and all is gone, Foxhound among the others that

worked on and for the site cherished and are proud of what they built, so its highly unlikely they dropped it and left.

 

I'm not that aware of the situation, except the paid sub thing.

 

Getting back into Arma 1 / series after a decade or so. 

 

[EDIT]

 

And he's actually asking for money. 😕

[jerryhopper 286]

That paid subscription thing makes me wonder what 'rights' people have. i mean people that actually have a paid subscription @armaholic ....
i cant imagine dutch law allows sudden 'service cutoff' when having paying customers....  just sayin' 

 

[BB_Frost 37]

2 minutes ago, jerryhopper said:

That paid subscription thing makes me wonder what 'rights' people have. i mean people that actually have a paid subscription @armaholic ....
i cant imagine dutch law allows sudden 'service cutoff' when having paying customers....  just sayin' 

 

 

I found out the site was offline when I got an email that was a refund of my May payment and the cancellation of my subscription. So he did take care of the people who were subscribed, I'd say. He probably could have kept the May payment, honestly, without much concern, but it was refunded to me, at least.

[jerryhopper 286]

1 minute ago, BB_Frost said:

 

I found out the site was offline when I got an email that was a refund of my May payment and the cancellation of my subscription. So he did take care of the people who were subscribed, I'd say. He probably could have kept the May payment, honestly, without much concern, but it was refunded to me, at least.

 

thanks for clearing that up.  i was just wondering how that worked.

[BrewerOfBohemia 14]

This whole situation - shutting down over night without warning, lack of communication, shutting down again after the loophole has been discovered and asking money for the database, it seems more like a ransom situation rather than anything else. If I knew Armaholic was going down, I'd happily donate some money to help keep it going for a while longer, but not like this. Feels especially sketchy since some of those files in the database he's asking money for were created by me. At least I think that by the database we mean all the .pbo's and other content.

 

I do appreciate all Armaholic and Foxhound did for us over the years, a week ago I couldn't be happier about it. But now just thinking about the name Armaholic gets me a sour taste in my mouth. I hope things will get cleared up one day, but I'm pretty much hopeless at this point.

 

Many thanks to everybody trying to resolve the situation.

[W0lle 1050]

31 minutes ago, matt714 said:

 

I'm not that aware of the situation, except the paid sub thing.

 

Getting back into Arma 1 / series after a decade or so. 

 

[EDIT]

 

And he's actually asking for money. 😕

Well he asks for money for the 2 other armaholic domains, the website database and pictures. Not for the addons/missions hosted there.
But he also won't give the addons/missions away so anyone else can host them. That's his very own problem though he might have to deal with.

In my opinion, I wouldn't pay anything for the domains. The 'brand' Armaholic is burned since that 'Casino' took over the main domain.

[MarineRecon191 10]

  Man, I'm just glad that ARMAHOLIC is recoverable.

[SopmodJack75 4]

Guys i accept that old Fox has his valid reasons but we can`t let the Arma series die so i`m willing to help by uploading all my Arma,Arma 2/OA/CO and Arma 3 addons and mods,i have Arma (A1)weapons for you Jerry Hopper but not all, I also have ww2 mods for arma1,2 and 3 plus a whole bunch of other addons and mods.All i need is a location to upload them to.My arma1 addons are on dvd`s so i`ll have to copy them to my pc first,and more arma2 addons but i have an ammount of arma2 addons on my hardisk and  many a3 mods and addons too.I`ll be visiting here and see what can be done ,at home i don`t have internet and this is my father`s pc i`m on but i`ll be regularly checking on this nasty situation that we`re in

Edited June 2, 2021 by SopmodJack75
misplaced

[MarineRecon191 10]

1 minute ago, SopmodJack75 said:

Guys i accept that old Fox has his valid reasons but we can`t let the Arma series die so i`m willing to help by uploading all my Arma,Arma 2/OA/CO and Arma 3 addons and mods,i have Arma (A1)weapons for you Jerry Hopper but not all, I also have ww2 mods for arma1,2 and 3 plus a whole bunch of other addons and mods.All i need is a location to upload them to.My arma1 addons are on dvd`s so i`ll have to copy them to my pc first,and more arma2 addons but i have an ammount of arma2 addons on my hardisk and  many a3 mods and addons too.I`ll be visiting here and see what can be done ,at home i don`t have internet and this is my father`s pc i`m on but i`ll be regularly checking on this nasty that situation we`re in

  I would love to help you with ARMA 2 Operation Arrowhead/Combined Operations since I am most interested in saving both of those. I have a google drive up for saving ARMA 2 CO mods!

[SopmodJack75 4]

That`s great MarineRecon191,Give me the link and i`ll start uploading right now 😉 

[MarineRecon191 10]

22 minutes ago, SopmodJack75 said:

That`s great MarineRecon191,Give me the link and i`ll start uploading right now 😉 

Alright sounds great!
 

Edited June 2, 2021 by MarineRecon191
Removed a link

[MarineRecon191 10]

Actually I'll send it to your DMs as it is more secure

[ZackTactical34 86]

From a business perspective, I do wonder if rushing out a crowdfund is a good idea before the price is even agreed upon. That's all I'm going to say.

[SopmodJack75 4]

1 hour ago, MarineRecon191 said:

Actually I'll send it to your DMs as it is more secure

Thanks mate 😉 and thanks again for telling me HOW TO UPLOAD since i`m a nube 😉

[blackland 26]

Who has the rights to the modifications and content and who gets to decide to charge money for it? That's something you should ask yourself!

Sorry, but the whole way this went without comment and warning should not be paid. Disrespectful! This is no way to deal with each other! 😞