oGEC shutdown?

hi!

just right now, in my two previous posts I have linked some oGEC stuff, also my signature contains productforums.google.com address, but none is working...! (all navigates to some help page)

copy/paste, do not click (even if you could) on these links below!

an oGEC link to check: >>https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/gec-nature-science-moderated/XuWLjCLGAns/L7aCADB5hFMJ

and the page, one arrives: >>https://support.google.com/?gpf=%23!msg%2Fgec-nature-science-moderated%2FXuWLjCLGAns%2FL7aCADB5hFMJ

and following error page after I try to enter through GE / GEC layer (other oGEC posting than the one above): >>https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/gec-history-illustrated-moderated/-/jb9rp29JYUQJ


I am shaking with fear, they have thrown it to the dustbin, right after the tons of panoramio shots!    Hope, only some temporary server issue!

what can be known?

thanks!

g

I clicked on " The Official Old Forum" and it took me to "https://support.google.com/?gpf=%23!forum%2Fgec"  apparently the old forum doesn't exist anymore.

I believe all the old google product forum groups were replace with the new forum format. So the now retired GEC, was permanently removed, since it couldn't be transferred to the new platform.

Perhaps, it wasn't a good idea to move GEC, that lrae created to Google Product Forums in the first place.

thank you ET for calming response!

since I have got in contact with Noisette on the "new-platform GE help community" >GEHC< (:, and she was not very "positive":

Hi syzygy, the help forums have moved to a new platform, and the old help forums are no longer directly accessible. This has impacted the old GEC which was on the same platform as the old help forums. I'm trying to find out if anything can be done, but I have to say, I'm not very positive

I'll be sure to let you know if I hear anything.

GEHC post

I really often make good use of the GE/GEC layer -as I did with the Pano-, so really do hope very much, that we won't lose another -still brilliant- global info-source or else I will really go mad to Google! (:
very frustrating they keep ruin all the most useful datasets, that were provided by users, and give what: e.g. photos of Dubai skyscrapers in the middle of the Takla-Makan desert...):
(okay, I do not want to be unfair: GE Photo layer slowly "gets better"...)

on the new GEHC I have seen alchemist251 too so greenhorns and jerks are in safe at least!(;

oGEC was supposed to be frozen but it seems that powers-that-be at Google have killed it now. None of my old GEC links are working now. Shame on you Google for removing this vast storehouse of knowledge created by efforts of thousands of contributors. 

I m seriously thinking of moving my posts in blogger.com to some other location. With Google's reputation as serial Product Killer one never knows which product will be killed next.
 

Apr 4, 2019 5:24:26 GMT CuriousJM said:

oGEC was supposed to be frozen but it seems that powers-that-be at Google have killed it now. ...
 

Hey J, my dear co-member and friend!
I would like to emphasize my strong hope, that this is only a temporary issue and after some server-platform-hocus-pocus, data will be available again. (in some state of existence at least)

I have no other explanation for this "killing passion" and "renewal mania" than Google tries to gain on Apple with teeth and nails and it seems in our days not the human, but money itself makes decisions. Nothing else, but profit matters.

one thing is strange however, that this time they did not take the trouble to warn users about the changes as they did by Pano or G+.

as I wrote, I am waiting for an answer also on GEHelpC, but it seems we'll have to wait some more now...

to say: I am sooo curious JM!(;

anyhow; if one day you decide to leave the "sinking ship", please drop a thread for me so that I will find you and your always interesting and valuable GE stuff!  

your brother in hope:

g

Craig is currently trying to find a solution with Google. I hold a small hope something can be done, but I'm afraid it is a very very small hope. When we know either way, I shall post in Open Forum.

All the best Steve

Apr 4, 2019 6:04:15 GMT Admin said:

Craig is currently trying to find a solution with Google. ... it is a very very small hope. ..

Dear Steve! 

Very sad, that also You think this way.

Might the Lord give Craig hard balls enough to be able to do some, or else...

...if they really will terminate our data, is there anything We could do? ...I do not know; a common action on the court for example? - They did not warn us to save, so many valuable kmz stuff (do not mention post bodies) might have been lost this way! ("lost" is not the best expression - it is gonna be "stealth" if happens)

One thing that they let us to host and share our data for free, and an other thing, now they unexpectedly take these data (without warning) which indeed have big value for the authors and anyone who could have made good use of them.

I always prefered (and praised) Google products, but now I feel betrayed...):

Looking forward to your "sentence" with my deepest worries.

g

I always prefered (and praised) Google products, but now I feel betrayed...):

I feel the same way. Will keep you posted when I know.

Hi Steve,

Thankyou for your effort. Under these circumstances gearthblog.com is painfully missed. We could always rely on Frank to 'get their attention'!

We've seen enough cultural heritage go to waste. That's what this is.

Best regards,
daarbennikweer

when we speak about this recent shutdown of oGEC often we use expressions like "killed" or "terminated", however GE/GEC layer is still active and by "empty placemarks" displays oGEC post body.


does not it mean that oGEC content still exists somewhere, also that it is still being connected with GE desktop application as well?

this is the last straw I can cling to at least; a faint ray of hope for that our good old database might be return one day...!

Good research syzygy!

In 2006 the protagonist in my sequal 'Hicon' had allready witnessed some remarkable events in the history of the Google Earth Community:
users.bart.nl/~werkum/placemarks/hicon/hicon3.htm (original post: bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=543324&page=0&vc=&PHPSESSID=#Post543324)

Will our super hero see his links restored? And will he perhaps one day meet Google's new hero Carmen Sandiego  in Google Earth for Chrome and apps ?

Best regards,
Daarbennikweer

while we wait that long, often I think of my "lost" kmz presentations. (these are quite lost -hard to reach- for me as locked into the HDD of my old, dissasembled PC.)

also I am thinking a lot about us - the group of people who took this GE stuff by heart from the beginning, sharing tons of (STILL!) useful data!

...

once, on the oGEC we had a thread "Future of the GEC" and I just cannot recall what were written there! - could any old fellows help me to remember?

sad, Today (in the future of those times) most important question is the "Future of the oGEC database" - the pure existence of this irreplaceable fountain of mapped, global wisdom...

Despite the work by Craig, I have yet to hear anything. I feel the old GEC is now lost forever, after being promised that it would always be an archive.
We are now the last of what was.

It's a very sad time indeed.

Google does do evil.

Hi Steve,

What do you mean in technical terms by 'lost'?

Would involvement of the Internetarchive or Wikimedia be an option or campaigning elsewhere?

Best regards,

Daarbennikweer

 

Lost as everything from the oGEC is no longer available. Any posts you may have, will have to be re-done here.

Hi Steve,

I know but you wrote 'I have yet to hear anything. I feel . . .'

So no Googler let know that the database was deleted? Or perhaps just (purposefully) overseen in migration?

In case of the latter it would be nice to know for what reasons? Diskusage perhaps or traffic Or Googles new productforum architecture?

Long ago ogleearth.com observed another motive:

The downside to a bulletin board? Google doesn’t host the web that it indexes, but it does host that instance of the geoweb known as the Google Earth Community. And this has already created plenty of friction, mostly with governments unhappy at the manner in which Google Earth Community members are annotating state “secrets” with merry abandon. This ultimate responsibility is a potential Achilles heel for Google, as discussed on Ogle Earth before, because Google’s international business
interests could be held hostage locally by governments.

Maybe they just wanted to get rid of us because of all the ugly broken Photobucket links,

In case of diskusage: did anybody discus Googles willingness to part with the data? Albeit that they may have not forced us to consent with parting with our copyright enough for a GDPR aproved handover.

It's a shame anyway.

Best regards,

Daarbennikweer

OgleEarth, Valery Hronusov, Thameen Darby, ... familiar names, I keep in my good memories! - thanks daarbennikweer for interesting link!

yep, there were signs much before; only to mention the case when sasroodkapje (Cees - my dear friend from Holland) went mad at Google and left the "sinking boat". (coincidence, he was famous about his worldwide shipwreck collection!)
...
an unfriendly, hypocrite world we live in. - has anyone noticed, democracy has lost its meaning and dissolved in globalism, and that now money governs a simulated freedom in so called developed societies?
also do not forget the bigger part of mankind - masses; billions of people living in fear and/or poverty all around the Globe!
...

May 31, 2019 17:14:39 GMT daarbennikweer said:

...So no Googler let know that the database was deleted? Or perhaps just (purposefully) overseen in migration? ...

first quoted question of yours that has stuck in my mind, that whether Google had the right to do such? If yes; why was so necessary then to carry out those well-presented "save-your-data"- and "move-your-photos" campaigns before the G+ and Panoramio shutdowns? - why the GEC platform would be the only exception? 

the one thing that is because I still dare to believe truth behind your second question... it takes too long anyways... at least to hear something for sure!

or is it true; "nothing is for sure, but death"?

And now this link I have found doing a GImage search on mobile for my PhotoBucket nick; syzygy426 (Also that was my very first GEC nick. )


googlegroups.com/a/googleproductforums.com/group/gec-history-illustrated-moderated/attach/86d04a1eee3a1a03/Hungarian%20Regional%20Embroideries.kmz?part=4

An old and thought to be lost kmz collection of mine about hungarian regions of embroidery art:




Besides for me simple existence of this link is quite a mystery itself, also an other important question comes up: If this one exists, then where are all the others?

(some very first version of my kurgans kmz I have found since, but no more nowhere)

EDIT: other oddity I have just realised, that PhotoBucket watermarks has disappeared from images which indeed were there yesterday...! 

This time also I have proof screenie from last night:


All these happenings start to sound in very chinese for me... (;

Hi syzygy,

Besides for me simple existence of this link is quite a mystery itself, also an other important question comes up: If this one exists, then where are all the others?

Read more: googleearthcommunity.proboards.com/post/new/6022#ixzz5tz3uu562

Congrats on finding your lost kmz! I get no 'productforum' kmz links when I try my nick. Wouldn't know what that might signify anyway.

cheers,

daarbenkweer

Is there a chance, that Lrae, could have the oldGEC data on his physical server hard drives before transferring it to Google.
Perhaps as backups, in case of future misfortunes with Google.

Hi Everybody,

Google just terminated another Google Earth Galery layer: Wikiloc.com.

Wikiloc has been one of my favourite layers right from the start in 2008.

Apparently also without notice to these fine people at (the Wikiloc forum):

nl.wikiloc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=10563&hilit=google+earth+layer

Since I'm not a Wikiloc member I can't tell who's idea this was. Just looking for clues like the rest of us.

Shame, I just pointed a friend to it the other day

Regards,

Daarbennikweer

I have given up asking Google what is happening now, they seem to ignore my messages too. 

Sept 4, 2019 10:15:17 GMT daarbennikweer said:

...Google just terminated another Google Earth Galery layer: Wikiloc.com. ... 

Shame, I just pointed a friend to it the other day...

just as it were by me with oGEC links...

thanks for report on next level of mass-suck, presented by Pappa Googie again!

What could be the reason in this case? What was wrong with them their data?