WordStar Discussion

General => Discussion => Topic started by: Phil White on February 03, 2009, 01:47:29 PM

Title: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Phil White on February 03, 2009, 01:47:29 PM
Just wondered if anyone here knows what happened to the Wordstar Users Group (Wordstar2.com).  The message I get is that their site license has expired.  I've been a Wordstar user since 1982 with the old CPM Osborne 1.  I'm using ws7d now on an XP system and found their archives very helpful.  Appreciate any info.
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gene Wirchenko on February 10, 2009, 03:43:29 AM
I subscribe to the mailing list.  The last user post I have is dated the 12th of last month.  Following that was a status message dated the 1st.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: PGAGA on February 11, 2009, 01:07:22 AM
Tuesday, February 10, 2009

All of Diana's sites of which I know have expired.  I have attempted to contact her at the four addresses I have with no response.  I am concerned that all is not well with her.

Phil
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Phil White on February 12, 2009, 03:03:10 AM
I certainly hope that isn't the case and that she's OK. 
The Wordstar2 Internet Archive:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070825153600/www.wordstar2.com/index.php

has the bare bones of the old site including links to the Wordstar Archives pages, but all the posts there are absent.   FAQ's on the site say it will take up to 6 months for a site to be fully archived.   Thanks in advance for any further info.   WUG was very valuable, I think, to more folks than we know.

Phil W
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Forum Admin on February 12, 2009, 03:21:47 AM
It is certainly out of character for Diana, I do hope that she's alright!

Hosting services don't keep long backups for expired sites, so don't rely on things being archived in six months, if no one is keeping the site active.

I've been doing a bit of digging on the Net following these questions. I know that Diana had a site called The Writer's Place, and looking for this I found: http://www.writersplace.org/ (http://www.writersplace.org/) I'd expected .com.

Searching the Web for Diana Kirk gave me a Facebook page with a picture that looks like Gloria Vando at The Writer's Place. I've sent a message asking for information on Diana (Gloria) and will report back here if I receive a reply.

Regards
Mike
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gene Wirchenko on February 16, 2009, 07:15:43 PM
This is the sig block from her last post that I have.  That was 2008-03-13.

--
Diana Kirk
The Writer's Place
530 Showers Dr., Ste. 7, MS 105
Mountain View, CA 94040-4740  USA
Phone 650-278-1278


Registered Linux User #327485
The Writer's Place, http://www.thewritersplace.com
Personal site, http://www.dianahkirk.com
The Write Stop, http://www.writestop.com
WordStar Users Group, http://www.wordstar2.com
***** End of Sig Block *****

The first address shows as not found.  The other three all have GoDaddy landing pages saying that the domain name expired in mid-January (13th, 13th, and 18th, respectively).

I have not tried snail mail or phone.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gene Wirchenko on March 03, 2009, 01:53:13 AM
Although wordstar2.com is parked, I just got the monthly "wordstar2.com mailing list memberships reminder" post.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: dw-mike on March 22, 2009, 03:45:38 PM
Well i am just starting out with wordstar, and was wondering what happened to the wordstar user group ;  hope Diana is ok-i have tried in vain to reach her also.

I am glad to see, this group is still going strong-i thought it quite strange, there was hardly any activety on the Wordstar user group - seeings Wordstar seems a great program .

Regards:  A happy :   dw-mike     ;)




Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Retlaw on May 07, 2009, 06:05:04 PM
My name is Walter Holmes
I was a member of the wordstar users group
and regularly received the mailing list from
Diana Kirk, received the automated notification about 3
weeks ago, tried several times to contact her about
a problem with my spill chucker, but mail keeps, bouncing
back.
Contacted Judy and she doesn't know whats happened either

Regards

Retlaw.
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Forum Admin on May 07, 2009, 06:08:34 PM
Hi! I spotted the RetLaw name immediately.

I tried again last week to find a contact that worked, but nothing. She's just dissapeared! The site she had has gone, but the maillist is still ticking over by the looks of it.

Regards
Mike
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gene Wirchenko on May 07, 2009, 09:05:59 PM
Quote from: Forum Admin on May 07, 2009, 06:08:34 PM
Hi! I spotted the RetLaw name immediately.

I tried again last week to find a contact that worked, but nothing. She's just dissapeared! The site she had has gone, but the maillist is still ticking over by the looks of it.

I am not getting any messages from it.  I am still getting the monthly status E-mail.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gloria on November 10, 2009, 04:08:36 PM
To all of you wondering about Diana Kirk, The sad news is she passed away about Feb 09 from a heart attack.  Having her own business, there was no one to take the business over.  We're quite surprized ourselves.  There was no notices to the clients etc.  She was smart and a good person. If you might need more info, not that I have much let me know.  Now I am at a lose of what to do for my project.
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gloria on November 10, 2009, 04:08:36 PM
Sorry to say Diana has passed away.
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Forum Admin on November 10, 2009, 04:15:26 PM
Thanks for letting us know Gloria.
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: Gene Wirchenko on December 02, 2009, 01:07:53 AM
I am still getting the mailing list monthly status posts.  Does anyone know how to get them to stop?

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: mrweber on March 18, 2010, 10:10:57 PM
there is a small but active wordstar users group that meets irregularly in the jim fuller room of the little creatures brewery, in fremantle, western australia

we are also convening an assembly of like minded folk at the acec2010.info starting easter monday (dockers v essendon at the mcg) thru the conference to the following friday.

drop us a line if you get down under

c ya

mark

Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: AndrewP on June 10, 2010, 04:43:37 AM
Quote from: Gene Wirchenko on December 02, 2009, 01:07:53 AM
I am still getting the mailing list monthly status posts.  Does anyone know how to get them to stop?

Unless you can convince the ISP that the site/group owner is deceased and have them take it down, try setting up email blocking in your inbox at the ISP level, before it ever reaches your computer.  That's worked for me with organizations that don't pay attention to mailing list removal requests.
Title: Re: What happened to the Wordstar Users Group?
Post by: AndrewP on June 10, 2010, 04:43:37 AM
Quote from: Phil White on February 12, 2009, 03:03:10 AM
The Wordstar2 Internet Archive:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070825153600/www.wordstar2.com/index.php

has the bare bones of the old site including links to the Wordstar Archives pages, but all the posts there are absent.   FAQ's on the site say it will take up to 6 months for a site to be fully archived.

Alas, some sites get archived only upon specific request by the site's administrator, and, unless I'm mistaken, the Internet Archive's 'bots respect "nofollow", "noindex" and "noarchive" rules, so it's possible that certain pages will never be archived.  (Thus, oblivion was the fate of much of Yahoo! Geocities when it was shut down in October 2009.)