11
$\begingroup$

Currently it seems our old https://www.or-exchange.org/ website is completely offline. There were however some very interesting posts. Is there a read-only version of this page somewhere?

NOTE: I do not ask to copy the content of the old forum to our new or.stackexhange.com.

Update: or-exchange.org is (temporarily) back online in read-only mode.

$\endgroup$
6
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ It isn't down; it is offline for maintenance and you can expect to see it again in about 6 to 8 weeks. $\endgroup$
    – double-beep
    May 31, 2019 at 16:25
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @double-beep Given that it already took about 12 months to change the text on the holding page from "We'll be back soon..." to "We'll be back soon ... maybe.", I think it's fair to say: not going to happen. -- Personally, I'd love to see my contributions back online (since I probably would be shocked to re-learn what I once "knew"), but... $\endgroup$
    – fbahr
    May 31, 2019 at 16:39
  • $\begingroup$ I know you didnt ask specidically about copying/importing the old forums content, but please read the following thread before considering a wholesale copying of content from elsewhere — Should questions on <other site> be copied to OR SE? $\endgroup$
    – Robert Cartaino
    May 31, 2019 at 22:17
  • $\begingroup$ @RobertCartaino someone voted to close this post as off topic. I somehow agree, but the migration would be rejected by the closure. Could you clear the migration history for this post to allow closing by the community without unexpected bad things happening? $\endgroup$
    – MEE
    Jun 1, 2019 at 6:09
  • $\begingroup$ @RobertCartaino just to clarify: I have no intention to copy or merge the old forum into this new one. I do fail to see how this question is offtopic. This new forum originated from the fact that the old one went offline. Many of us were actively using the old forum and spent quite some time writing quality answers. $\endgroup$
    – Joris Kinable
    Jun 1, 2019 at 11:49
  • $\begingroup$ @MEEthesneakyuser good catch. Done. $\endgroup$
    – Robert Cartaino
    Jun 1, 2019 at 12:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2
$\begingroup$

You are right, it'd be a good idea to migrate some posts here, but with community wiki and following the attribution guidelines! We aren't just going to copy all the stuff from there and paste it without attribution.

An interesting idea, would be to search in https://web.archive.org for https://www.or-exchange.org, but... I have ninja'd you. Here are all the snapshots. You can select the year from the timeline.

The newest snapshot is from 20 November 2018, but with server errors. There's one with redeirects from 8 November 2018 if you are interested. However, none of the questions has been snapshotted.

However, I didn't even know that such site existed. What were its maintainers? And why was it shut down? Is this information known? Maybe contacting the maintainers of it would help.

The OR-exchange site is now read-only! Enjoy.

$\endgroup$
12
  • $\begingroup$ I think the OP was asking for exactly what you posted -- a read-only version of or-exchange that is external to SE. Not a wholesale migration to OR.SE. $\endgroup$
    – LarrySnyder610
    May 31, 2019 at 16:43
  • $\begingroup$ It would be useful to know who's managing the old or-exchange.org website, or in other words, who should I bug to get a read-only copy... $\endgroup$
    – Joris Kinable
    May 31, 2019 at 16:43
  • $\begingroup$ or-exchange died because it got over-spammed. In fact, the impetus to propose this OR.SE site came out of a conversation on twitter lamenting the fact that or-exchange is no longer with us. $\endgroup$
    – LarrySnyder610
    May 31, 2019 at 16:44
  • $\begingroup$ @JorisKinable You could try pinging or-exchange on Twitter: twitter.com/or_exchange. Someone is still actively tweeting from that handle. $\endgroup$
    – LarrySnyder610
    May 31, 2019 at 16:45
  • $\begingroup$ @ LarrySnyder610 That "someone" would be me... -- but I don't have any insights in the inner workings/latest "status" of operations. Afaict, @prubin volunteered to manage the site after INFORMS launched its Connect community (, or-exchange still being hosted on an INFORMS server). $\endgroup$
    – fbahr
    May 31, 2019 at 16:54
  • $\begingroup$ PS, again: I know, "downvoting" grants a "critics" badge ...but... com'on folks: the answer @double-beeb provided doesn't deserve a negative score. $\endgroup$
    – fbahr
    May 31, 2019 at 16:59
  • $\begingroup$ @fbahr I didn't know that was you. Thanks for your service. $\endgroup$
    – LarrySnyder610
    May 31, 2019 at 19:54
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Please do not use Community Wiki as a means to distance a user from their ownership of a post. If someone runs into an issue, they should ask it in their own words in the context of this site. But consider the opportunity for engagement and ownership you lose every time you're just copying a post from another site. Doing so blocks any chances of someone from this community asking that question themselves. I talk about this more in Should questions asked on <other site> be copied here?. It's just a really poor way to start a site $\endgroup$
    – Robert Cartaino
    May 31, 2019 at 22:26
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @RobertCartaino sorry if I wasn't clear. The OP mentioned that there were some interesting posts there (which maybe should be copied here). Of course if someone runs into the same issue won't just copy-paste all the question and the answerer will find the original question and copy the answer! My original idea was to copy these interesting posts here for future visitors. In this case, community wiki helps because: a) The post is owned by the community, actually, b) it prevents the OP to earn unneeded reputation! And I agree with you: the site wasn't created to have posts from another sites! $\endgroup$
    – double-beep
    Jun 1, 2019 at 5:45
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ OR Exchange was started by Mike Trick (Carnegie Mellon U) as a replacement for the sci.op-research USENET group. Mike hosted it for a while, but eventually talked INFORMS into adopting it (meaning they did the hosting and the community did the moderating, such as there was). As noted elsewhere, it got in the cross-hairs of a lot of bots, and unfortunately the platform (OSQA) has essentially no spam controls. I was doing some administration (with help from a staffer at INFORMS), but fixing it would be more work than INFORMS could/would put into it. $\endgroup$
    – prubin Mod
    Jun 1, 2019 at 16:18
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @JorisKinable and I are currently in communication with INFORMS to see about getting a read-only version of OR-X hosted there (not too likely) or getting a database dump. If we got a db dump, the questions would then be to what to migrate it, how to do so, and who would host the RO version. $\endgroup$
    – prubin Mod
    Jun 1, 2019 at 16:20
  • 6
    $\begingroup$ Update on OR-X status: INFORMS is maintaining it in read-only mode. Account creation and posting of new questions are disabled. I tweaked the sidebar and "about" page to point people wishing to ask a question to this site. $\endgroup$
    – prubin Mod
    Jun 4, 2019 at 14:55

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .