Dear Len,

All of the difficulties are multiplied by the personal interconnections. Not just in this instance - as I knew Gio as a friend, though not anywhere near as well as you - but in some other instances I've gone through, it is painful but necessary to accept that not enough was done to ensure the life of a project in the event of a catastrophe.

Any important project like this should have all pertinant information shared at the very start, but it just didn't happen. I will continue to wish that you can present a case to GoDaddy for being a next-in-line administrator, even if you don't have any documentation as such. What I don't know is the following: is GoDaddy only the registrar of the domain name (newpentrace.net), or are they hosting the site as well? If not, do you know the hosting service, and are you in contact with them?

Whichever the answer, the link to the PT past weighs on two events: you are successful in recovering ownership of the domain, and you are successful in getting access to the hosting site. My concern is that the first may not be the bigger issue, but that the second may be a situation where the hosting was not continued and all the stored files were deleted. I very much hope this is not the case, but one must be prepared for it.

I would also urge you, and any and all PT members, past and present, think of what was on the site and consider that which makes sense for the future. It may be that a review of a pen show from more than a decade ago is not that great a loss, and surveys of lesser pens that are no longer current can stay in the past. If there are articles that span decades, bring light to a long pen history, or tell the tales of people and pens of the past, those would be worth resurrecting. Once you have divined what is worth putting the effort into saving, and quietly letting go of that which is no longer germain, then the next thing would be to focus on what will be the future content of the site.

I must be honest: there is so little traffic here, so little contribution to content in the form of messages, is it reasonable to think that people will now sit back and craft in-depth articles? I don't know the answer, but I don't think NewPentrace is or should be a one-man operation of both management and content creation. All of the people who pat you on the back for keeping the lights on should be considering THEIR role in whether or not this valuable voice has any relevance in the future, and the only way it will is if it continues to grow, mature, and breath. It is up to all of the members to think about how they want to contribute, and not merely log on every so often to read anything that may - or may not - have appeared. A group site bears the responsibility for community involvement, and I hope people - even those who consider themselves out of the game anymore - will step up to help you.

As I've said to you in PMs, I wish you all the best in this, and only bring stark thoughts to bring as much reality to bear. I've been in very similar situations, and I am currently in a gigantic version of this, with a mentor of fifty years having passed away and left a very large legacy in my care. It is daunting and I am unsure, many days, if I can fulfill the task.

But we do what we can, what we must. I'll hold you In the Light, Len. Reach out to me with a PM if you ever need a particular whatever.

My best wishes and regards,
Jon