Michigan State-Ends Site Down?

[bessertc]

In the long, slow slog that is updating the Michigan Highways website ( http://www.michiganhighways.org ) and porting it to the "new" design template, I was checking my external links and at least as of this morning, it looks like Dan Garnell's Michigan State-Ends website ( http://www.state-ends.com/michends/‎ ) is down/missing/gone. Anyone have any info on if this is a web hosting issue, an oversight (like when I forgot to renew my domain two years ago!), or has Dan just yanked the site completely?

An e-mail to the address listed on Gribblenation.com bounced back, so I've messaged him via Facebook to see what might be up. I didn't know if anyone here had heard what might be up, though...

[NE2]

State-ends was up about a week ago.

[hbelkins]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dan and GN have had a parting of the ways, given the comments certain of the GN partners have made about Dan here and elsewhere.

[CanesFan27]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dan and GN have had a parting of the ways, given the comments certain of the GN partners have made about Dan here and elsewhere.

Please don't assume, HB.

Because of lack of time and interest with updating state-ends (it's been 3-5 years since most of the site had been updated), I decided to let the website and domain expire.  I did not receive any objections from those involved in the site.

[bessertc]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dan and GN have had a parting of the ways, given the comments certain of the GN partners have made about Dan here and elsewhere.

Please don't assume, HB.

Because of lack of time and interest with updating state-ends (it's been 3-5 years since most of the site had been updated), I decided to let the website and domain expire.  I did not receive any objections from those involved in the site.

I actually was able to get a hold of Dan today and he's aware the site is offline and says he's laying out some plans for the future of the stuff he had on his State Ends site. I guess I should've just waited until I was able to contact him, as I'd rather not stir any pots that don't need stirring...

The thing that impacts me the most, though, is that nearly every single route listing on my website had a link to Dan's ends site and many times it was the only other external link. (Some routes are pretty boring, I guess.) But Dreamweaver should help me in that regard... and it keeps me on my toes, too!

[getemngo]

Because of lack of time and interest with updating state-ends (it's been 3-5 years since most of the site had been updated), I decided to let the website and domain expire.  I did not receive any objections from those involved in the site.

That's a shame. While massively outdated, it was a great service, one that I don't think we'll ever see again, at least covering that many states.

The last Dan and I talked about the site (couple years ago), he said that he was hesitant to update it because he didn't want to delete older photos. Weird reason, unless there were space issues I don't know about.

In my gradual quest to take over abandoned portions of Gribblenation, starting with the Meets page, I was planning to approach Dan and ask him if I could gain access to (and start updating) the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio Ends sites, once I had more time. Probably would have started in May or June 2014. If that went well, I was going to offer a redesign of the State Ends homepage and links page, if nobody else was doing them. Too little, too late?

Has everything been deleted already? I did a whois search and it looks like the domain doesn't actually expire until February 3.

[NE2]

There's always archive.org.

[CanesFan27]

Because of lack of time and interest with updating state-ends (it's been 3-5 years since most of the site had been updated), I decided to let the website and domain expire.  I did not receive any objections from those involved in the site.

That's a shame. While massively outdated, it was a great service, one that I don't think we'll ever see again, at least covering that many states.

The last Dan and I talked about the site (couple years ago), he said that he was hesitant to update it because he didn't want to delete older photos. Weird reason, unless there were space issues I don't know about.

In my gradual quest to take over abandoned portions of Gribblenation, starting with the Meets page, I was planning to approach Dan and ask him if I could gain access to (and start updating) the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio Ends sites, once I had more time. Probably would have started in May or June 2014. If that went well, I was going to offer a redesign of the State Ends homepage and links page, if nobody else was doing them. Too little, too late?

Has everything been deleted already? I did a whois search and it looks like the domain doesn't actually expire until February 3.

Let me address some of your points here.

1) There were not any space issues.  Each person involved in the site had the autonomy to run their state site as they pleased from design, to use of photos, etc. 

2) The domain just expires at a later date. The hosting service was up for renewal in December and for many reason it was decided not to renew.

3) Please contact me offline about the rest of your post.

Thanks.

[hbelkins]

In my gradual quest to take over abandoned portions of Gribblenation, starting with the Meets page, I was planning to approach Dan and ask him if I could gain access to (and start updating) the Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio Ends sites, once I had more time. Probably would have started in May or June 2014. If that went well, I was going to offer a redesign of the State Ends homepage and links page, if nobody else was doing them. Too little, too late?

I've said this elsewhere, but I'd love to see Slater's videos back online.

[AsphaltPlanet]

That's too bad about Michigan Highway Ends.  I think Dan once really enjoyed working on it.  It's kind of the end of an era.

[GeekJedi]

In the long, slow slog that is updating the Michigan Highways website ( http://www.michiganhighways.org ) and porting it to the "new" design template, I was checking my external links and at least as of this morning, it looks like Dan Garnell's Michigan State-Ends website ( http://www.state-ends.com/michends/‎ ) is down/missing/gone. Anyone have any info on if this is a web hosting issue, an oversight (like when I forgot to renew my domain two years ago!), or has Dan just yanked the site completely?

An e-mail to the address listed on Gribblenation.com bounced back, so I've messaged him via Facebook to see what might be up. I didn't know if anyone here had heard what might be up, though...

Are you planning any updates to the Wisconsin Highways site? 

[Tom]

There's always archive.org.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031027145032/http://www.state-ends.com/michigan/

http://web.archive.org/web/20130827223720/http://www.canhighways.com/MI

[getemngo]

Ohhh, what a mess, what a mess, what a mess. I was going to hold off on posting an update until this was resolved, but somebody had to go and bump the topic.

Adam (CanesFan27) was not willing to sell the state-ends.com domain to anyone else, but he pointed out that once it expired, it was up for grabs. When it went up for auction, I bid on it and I won it. And I paid the auction site. However, I ran into some financial issues and never actually paid the registrar. Pretty soon I ran into some personal problems too, failed out of school, got fired from two different fast food jobs, yadda yadda, and restoring the site wound up way on the back burner.

I've received permission from Dan Garnell and Doug Kerr to restore their states' sites, so if/when State-Ends ever returns, it won't have all the states it used to, but it will have Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.

This week I began working once again on getting the domain back, but I was not successful before it expired (again) on February 3. So now I have 3 different companies that all have no idea what the hell is going on, fighting each other and fighting me at the same time.    It's actually really funny to watch, if not for the feeling that I've lost the domain and will have to start the process all over again (and there's no doubt it's my fault - I know that).

We shall see what happens, I guess!