Re: Did Firestream Music Vault bite the dust again or it just me?

by MikeInFla Sun May 31, 2020 8:34 pm

So who is Solid? I heard from him and he said he doesn't own it anymore.

by oldschooldoom Sun May 31, 2020 9:42 pm

Solid prefers his real identity to be undisclosed. But some of us know who he is.

He and Dale Huffman created Firestream more than 10 years ago. Solid was the code writer and knew how to salvage the site after each hack.

by oldschooldoom Tue Jun 09, 2020 7:45 pm

Here's a little update from David:

"Solid is the one that has everything. I've been in commutation with him, BUT, it has been extremely frustrating. Over the past couple years I have asked him numerous time to give me access so that I can create backups of the site, but to no avail. Now he tells me the server was shutdown and discontinued and he has to see if there's a way to retrieve an old backup. Of course, I have everyone emailing me, but I lost complete control after Solid took it over. I am going to try to contact Solid and see if there is anything I can do."

Dave also added: "Here's the thing though... He said he would look for an old back-up and hand over all the files to me. Great! except.... It will need hosted and maintained. He doesn;t want to deal with it anymore"

So..... The community will have to help cover expenses.
The tough part is, Solid redesigned the whole thing.. So, I have no idea what he did... My concern is, even if we do get it all, will we be able to edit it and maintain it since we had no part of building it. I suppose one thing at a time for now.

So, I will contact Solid and see if anything can be done. It's beginning to sound like it might be lost. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Yes, this is extremely frustrating. I have been i communication with Solid, but responses has been slow. Well, not much to say at this point, other than the situation is being evaluated. No time frame on having it resolved as of yet.

We will see what happens."

by jeffcorpse Wed Jun 10, 2020 5:18 am

Really sad, especially after all of the hard work in getting it going again from before.

by Soldier777 Wed Jun 24, 2020 5:55 pm

I put some work in displaying my collection. Hopefully the side will be running at some point. It was/is a great resource site. If that site can't be resurrected, hopefully someone will create another similar christian music resource site.

by crucifyd Wed Jun 24, 2020 8:01 pm

you can still see old versions...

https://web.archive.org/web/20191218085051/http://firestreamvault.com/

by jeffcorpse Thu Jun 25, 2020 11:13 am

crucifyd wrote:you can still see old versions...

https://web.archive.org/web/20191218085051/http://firestreamvault.com/

THANK YOU!

by Kerrick Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:03 pm

David posted on their FB page an update. Check it out and if you've got a FB account, please post your thoughts too!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/206901306169825/announcements/

David wrote:UPDATE:
As you all know, the FSV has been down. So, here's what happened: Solid had the FSV site hosted on his company's server for the past several years. Unfortunately, without warning, the company dropped the server causing the website to go down.
Where does this leave us now?

THE GOOD NEWS: Solid supplied me with everything he had so I can take over hosting and maintaining the site. Currently, I have a splash screen on the site: http://firestreamvault.com/

THE BAD NEWS: It turns out that the last backup retrieved was from 2015. That means any albums or user-accounts added in the past 4/5 years is gone. Bottom-line, Relaunching the site would mean re-building the past 5-years again.

If I'm 100% honest, losing that much leaves me feeling deflated and asking myself -- Is it worth the effort again?

With that said, the FSV has always been for the community at large, so I wanted to present the situation to everyone involved and open up a dialog about it.

A few things to consider:
1) It takes resources, time, and money to maintain.
2) There's no guarantee it won't happen again. (this has been a recurring situation with FSV and often becomes a target for hackers.)
3) While it is a labor of love, we need to weigh-out what it provides versus what it takes/needs.
4) IF it were to continue, Hosting/Maintenance fees would need to be covered by donations. (This could change if ads are used to cover the cost - Something to discuss IF we were to try again)

Please keep in mind, no matter the consensus, everything will need to be weighed out as to how and when any of this can be handled.
I work long days and with 2 young ones (6 and 2) my time is extremely limited these days. So please be patient if my responses are delayed.

With that said......... What say you?

by Temple of Blood Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:49 pm

What is the point of FSV?

You can add/review albums at rateyourmusic.com and there are plenty of forums and social media groups where you can talk with other fans.

I don't see a reason to keep it going except for nostalgia IMHO.

by Kerrick Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:12 pm

I see it as a sort of Metal Archives that's already filtered out the secular/anti-Christian stuff and includes a broader range of styles (punk, industrial, etc.). There is (was) also a lot of pretty obscure stuff on there. You're right, all the info on Firestream is scattered elsewhere, though it consolidated so much in one central spot which was pretty nice IMO.

by Guest Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:27 pm

Kerrick wrote:I see it as a sort of Metal Archives that's already filtered out the secular/anti-Christian stuff and includes a broader range of styles (punk, industrial, etc.). There is (was) also a lot of pretty obscure stuff on there. You're right, all the info on Firestream is scattered elsewhere, though it consolidated so much in one central spot which was pretty nice IMO.

Exactly, no other singular site had the amount of Christian rock/metal cataloged like Firestream had. It will be missed.

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