Thanks to everyone for jumping in.

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Permalink Reply by Parka on February 26, 2009 at 11:17am

Are most of the uploaded stuff from the old newspagedesigner.com lost or not transferred over?

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Permalink Reply by Tim Frank on February 27, 2009 at 9:28am

Unfortunately, we weren't able to buy the original database from the Sun Journal. (They can claim ownership because of programming work that Eric did on company time.) The site certainly was worth what they were asking, but the amount was far beyond what we could raise. The best we could do was to start over.

Knowing that this could happen, I had been posting warnings since late November. I'm sorry to everyone who lost work that was posted there.

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Permalink Reply by Parka on February 27, 2009 at 1:17pm

That's so sad. The archive was really invaluable. I can't believe that everything's gone.

I've been surfing NPD since it has started and has downloaded the infographics images every month. That's all they way up to the last month.

I've made the infographics available on my blog for download to everyone.

Copyright of course belongs to every person who has uploaded their precious work over the years.

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Permalink Reply by Lars Pryds on February 27, 2009 at 6:40pm

What does the Sun think it can gain from being so tight about the stuff people have uploaded for free? I just don't get it. There should be no business in this. Its content is really only inspiration for all of us, and as such invaluable …

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Permalink Reply by Parka on February 27, 2009 at 10:23pm

When you're talking to individuals, there's still room for negotiation.

If you're talking to a company, it's pretty much predictable — show me how they are paid and I will show you how they will behave.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Frank on February 27, 2009 at 11:15pm

Thanks guys,

Just for a little more background, the The Sun Journal kept the site going more than five years after I left the company, so we can't complain. If anything, I figure the SJ was wanting to recoup some of their expenses from the seven years that they supported the site. That's understandable and it doesn't negate what they did for us up to that point.

Sure, losing the old site is frustrating, but the way I see it, it's best to leave things on good terms and move forward. I hope this explanation helps a little.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Collins on March 3, 2009 at 10:41am

The archive was great, but the purge after the binge will also end up making the new site stronger. Keep fighting the good fight, Tim. This has been invaluable to our biz!

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Permalink Reply by Kate Hopwood on March 3, 2009 at 8:58pm

I work on a weekly feature section that's focused on local content. I love looking through features pages, but there are so many of them in such a variety of topics, as compared to business or news pages (which have variety but are usually communicating information in a similar way).

Would there be any interest in breaking down features pages into additional categories? Even something as simple as an Arts/Entertainment versus Lifestyles type of split might be helpful. I get inspiration from all pages, not just features, but I find features pages pile up quickly and can be slightly harder to sift through in one sitting.

Not sure how easy this would be to do and if others find they have similar thoughts. Just figured I would toss it out there, since now seems to the be time.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Frank on March 4, 2009 at 11:50pm

Thanks Kate. Good point. Actually, you choose the category by how you tag your work. I can also add extra categories in the drop down menu. The drop down items give you the same results as doing a search for sports, news, etc.

I hope that helps.

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Permalink Reply by Tracie Louck on March 5, 2009 at 1:39pm

I don't think you could ever search by the title or description (of each page), that might help, too.

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