The Death of PlanetSourceCode
Recently, I went to one my favorite source code repositories, just to check out new submissions, and see how things are progressing in the community. I always enjoy seeing how up and coming young programmers are learning new ways to keep our favorite "old, dead" language alive.
Much to my surprise, I found the site to be inoperable. Thinking that it was a transient problem, I tried again the next day, with the same results. I next tried the usual things, like checking Azure services (PSC was hosted there), domain tools (domain is still registered), as well as some other basic places. Everything seemed fine, except the site wasn't responding.
After a bit more searching around, I found a post on a popular VB-related website.
From Ian Ippolito, to a member of VBForums:
Hey thanks Richard that's really nice of you to say. Well you will not envy the situation with Planet Source Code. It has been unprofitable for many years so I have been subsidizing it and paying about $500 a month to keep it running. But, recently the extremely old version of Windows server that is running on had an update which removed a now obsolete version of TLS. But the extremely old version of IIS doesn't support the change. I could probably debug it if I could figure out what some of that software is on there but I have lost the documentation years ago. And at this point it would cost way too much to try to get back up (for something that is a money loser anyway). So unfortunately it is shutting down. Sorry about that.
So it seems that the site is no more. Mr. Ippolito has decided the site was not worth the cost. I don't hold any ill will; quite the contrary. Mr. Ippolito has provided valuable learning tool for many, many people across the globe, for many years. I wish nothing but the best for Mr. Ippolito in his retirement.
I've attempted to contact Mr. Ippolito several times, over several different platforms, and have received no responses. My queries were mainly around saving the content for future programmers by hosting the content on my own site, at no cost to him, or to consumers of the content. I still believe the content has learning value, even if it has no monetary value.
Since Mr. Ippolito has not responded to my repeated hails, I can only deduce that he has no further interest in the content of the site.
Way back in the time before time, I purchased the Jumbo CDs, which contain content of PSC. I've begun the process of importing the data to fortypoundhead.com, and I am not charging for the content, and you only need to sign up if you want to submit code of your own to the site. As of this writing, around 8,000 entries have been made. Enjoy.
Heck, if it takes off, and if people actually participate, I might even hold monthly contests. I just want to do my part to help the world learn.
Loading Comments ...
Comments
dwirch posted this comment on 2020-09-11:
I'm happy to provide this space for others to post their projects, as well as for others to learn from. It was a sad day when I learned PSC was no more.
authentictechniquessoftware@gmail.com posted this comment on 2020-09-27:
Hi, I'm so glad I finally found out about PSC somewhere, even though the news is very sad... :/
Planet Source Code, rest in peace.
Thank you, mighty Mr Dwirch, for continuing on the new platform.
Thmsz23
dwirch posted this comment on 2020-09-27:
@Thmsz23: I was sad to see the passing of PSC. I only hope that I can continue the tradition.
Please let me know if there is anything you'd like to see on the site, and feel free to make your own submissions. If there is enough interest and activity, I'll revive the monthly contest!
rburlile86 posted this comment on 2020-10-05:
I hope someone can cache all the source code from PSC. I learned vb6 and dotnet practically from PSC. Sad to see it gone.AnonymousCoward posted this comment on 2020-11-16:
PSC is a greate place to share codes. You can learn how to improve your coding by ppl comments. Thanks PSC again.
chrishultberg posted this comment on 2020-12-15:
So sad to know that PSCode.com is officially offline - forever...
When it went offline the last time and they recovered from the PSC CD's, it was a very exciting time and I felt that this would keep the website alive forever.
The good news is that there's the new Github repo: https://github.com/Planet-Source-Code
Thank you FourtyPoundHead for creating THIS WEBSITE to help keep the code well preserved.
Thank you to everyone for all their hard work in keeping our dream alive!
dwirch posted this comment on 2020-12-16:
I'm happy to provide the space for these valuable learning materials. I've been trying to provide a space for lost knowledge, as well as a place for folks to post their own projects, and I hope to have succeeded in some degree. I don't get much input from the community, so I hope the site is providing value to to the folks that use it.
I haven't seen much interest, but if there is, I'd like to resurrect another feature of the old PSC: Monthly coding contests, with prizes like Amazon gift cards, cash, or even sponsored prizes.
I saw that Github repo. It was the subject of a thread over on vbforums that I took part in, when we were all trying to find a solution. I'm glad it was set up, over there, as that repo seems to cover the entirety of the jumbo CDs, not just VB6. This site (fortypoundhead) just has the VB6 related content. If there is a demand, I still have the CDs, and can ingest the rest of the content here as well.
Thanks for the kind words, and have a great day!
You must be logged in to make a comment.
Dave Carter posted this comment on 2020-09-11:
Thanks dwirch, I now know to stop hoping to find PSC live.
I have been looking for somewhere else to upload my 'VB6 Source Code Browsers' and 'API Viewer'; perhaps I can take your offer and release them to your platform.
Best,
Dave