Volunteers Needed for PDF Off-Site Backup

[Moderating Staff]

Due to the increased earth changes and with the .ning being solely in California, we are looking for volunteers to assist with off-site back up of the .ning.  The .ning is currently 26 gigabites and is too much to put into a PDF, however, we are looking to have just the jist of the information.  Most of the blogs have an introduction and this can be included,  such as Planet X captures, 7 Steps and South American Roll to name but a few examples and there are a lot of relevant blogs featuring important information.  There are also too many comments in the blogs and would be impossible to include them all.  Any ZT in the blogs is on the ZT site as well as the News Letters.  

We are looking for 50-70 page information booklet which can be down loaded off-site and passed around to anyone who is interested in learning more about Planet X - aka Nibiru and the poleshift.  

Your thoughts and ideas are welcome!

[Nancy Lieder]

Did though the About, Contact, and Nibiru drop downs on the menu bar, and all converted and only 2.5 MB big! 

http://www.zetatalk4.com/ningtest/poleshift.html

3/15 now also did Signs menu dropdowns. Discovered that only the comments on the 1st page are captured. It would be a lot of work to get all the comments, as some of these go up to 100 pages or more. But the blog itself, with a sample of comments, at least makes the point. The gist of the issue is presented. 

Center front part, the Don't Panic part, now works as hypertext too. Most of this was in YT or ZT, not on the ning. Now 5.13 MB big

3/16 did Tectonics and 7of10 drop down too. I am checking with Kojima who is doing PDF copies to see if this captures all the comments on a blog. If so, I can link to his PDF at the end of the hypertext page. This is all of course only as a backup incase of a catatrophic loss of the ning. Now 8 MB big

3/17 did ZetaTalk, UFO/CC, PoleShift, Survival sections in the drop down menu bar up top. Size now 9.74 MB. Am now working to factor in the PDF's that Kojima created of the blogs and forums. Perhaps have a hypertext of the blog top, then PDF of the comments. Not sure how to proceed as yet. 

[Nancy Lieder]

I did a test, using the replace-all from the top level linking page, I removed:

  http://poleshift.ning.com/

to blank. This retains all links and graphics. In the page to be accessed, linked-to, there is a problem due to being saved as the TITLE as the file name. The TITLE will include spaces, which are represented as

  %20

The link-to page was named as this during the save-as process.

Water%20disappears%20in%20the%20Pamlico%20and%20Neuse%20rivers%20in%20North%20Carolina%20-%20Earth%20Changes%20and%20the%20Pole%20Shift.htm

But this is represented in the link-from page as a dash and is abrieviated, the Carolina cut off. The file saved also has extra info at the end, the name of the link-from page.  

  water-disappears-in-the-pamlico-and-neuse-rivers-in-north

I got this to work by setting up directory tree including profiles and blogs, and putting the link-to page there. I also ensured the renamed files had an .html at the end. I then inserted an .html at the end of the linking call, so the file name and linking command are exactly the same. This WORKED. All images and dates are correct. Even the comments came along. 

I used Chrome.

[Nancy Lieder]

Wow, Jorge, I was unaware that one could save as html but tried it and it worked, the saved page worked! Even the graphics. This is definitely the way to go, as it skips that step of having to convert PDF to HTML. However, I have not moved to linking the html's together, so one can link from one to another. But I know that can be done tweeking the links. As you say, lots of work, but doable. I'm thrilled.

I have been trying not to be involved in this project as at 78 years of age, and doing New ZetaTalk and the Newsletter and Interviews and 15 Mirror Sites, there is nothing left of me. But I tend to get sucked in. THANK YOU for your efforts. 

............

I can't stop thinking about this, so excited. I tweek hypertext all the time so it is a natural terrain for me. It would be so simple to do a "change all" command on the hypertext stuff saved off so that the links saying "poleshift.ning.com" would just be a direct link, or even replace "poleshift.ning.com" with another address internal to the new hypertext site. 

I really must turn my eyes away, I need to go shopping and clean the house. Can't tell you how far behind I have fallen lately. 

[Jorge Mejia]

Some ideas, hopefully some of these are fresh and not noise. As I understand the effort is two-fold:
1. Full backup of the Ning (either a top layered html site pointing to backed up PDFs, or pure html copy of the Ning), and/or,
2. A distributable "abstract" of the Ning in PDF format.

My premise would be:
- Backup everything, preferably in html, strip what is not needed, convert important stuff to PDFs for distribution, or,
- Backup only pinned blog posts in PDF format, convert to html as necessary.

Some ideas for full html backup:
1. Defining the menu structure with folder and file name conventions, probably using the existing menu structure.
2. Stripping some of the redundant or unnecessary code found in each Ning page using uBlock Origin https://www.ublock.org/.
3. Using "Save Page As..." command found in Firefox, Opera, Chrome. for each Ning page.
4. Link the various menus with the corresponding pages, link the various pages within a category.
5. Download and link new content in offline site, link new content.

PDF backup:
1. Defining the menu structure with folder and file name conventions.
2. Stripping some of the redundant code found in each Ning page using uBlock Origin https://www.ublock.org/.
3. Use the "Screenshot" (Firefox) or "Snapshot" (Opera) function for pinned blog posts.
4. Link the various menus with the corresponding PDF files.
5. Download and link new content in offline site, link new content.

Some points worth mentioning:
- Single PDFs would have to be processed with character recognition for them to be text searchable.
- Bandwidth usage will increase as people start backing up the site.
- Most of the text and images will be backed up, not so any external links: YouTube videos or other material hosted elsewhere.
- The site structure for the Ning html backup copy could change in the future, but it would require more effort to re link individual elements/posts. Getting it right the first time is important.
- I would say there are some thousands of pages, backing up everything in html can be done, relatively easy, but it will take time, as well as bandwidth usage. A decision has to be made to define what exactly and how much will be backed up.
- Complying with the Ning's policy of how much can be backed up or how much code can be stripped is something to consider.
- Some individual elements, such as member name, could be individually linked, as necessary. Time consuming, but possible.

[Mike Ridlon]

Your goal(s) is(are) not difficult but is(are) relatively time consuming.  My testing was reasonably successful so I will continue until asked not to.  If nothing else the info I can save/backup will be archived offline but I can make it available upon request, eventually.  I will share my methods as success allows.  To the moderators;  Like so many, I have a family and am working full time while preparing to save as many as I can so please be patient with me.  I hope I have not overstepped my bounds.

Nancy's Comment: Thank you too! Can you share any lessons learned about converting PDF to html? What tool works best. What is dropped?  

[Jorge Mejia]

Observations when converting 20180304WaterDisappearinNC.pdf to html (Using the Foxit Phantom PDF software):

- Individual images inserted in the PDF are rendered as one single image when converting from PDF to html.
(Inserting a space between images probably would render individual images).

- Took almost a minute to analyze and process one single PDF page to html.
(Time issues when converting hundreds of PDFs, I guess faster processors yields smaller rendering times.

- URLs are rendered correctly.

- Timestamps at the top of PDF file are inserted to html code
(could cause confusion: timestamp of PDF file created is not the same as timestamp of post created).

Still working on Nancy's questions below. So far I agree on capturing all data "as is" first. It's always better having raw data, we can process it later.  Don't want to post something you've already tried so I'll give it a try and share more observations :)

Nancy's Comment: Thank you so much! I was wondering about the fact that an eventual hypertext site would not have members, so the link to the member who posted a blog would be a problem, potentially. Hopefully the dates on included data, photos and articles, will be a clue. Some blogs are timeless re their content, and not a problem thus. 

[Nancy Lieder]

20180304WaterDisappearinNC.pdf

Re the question of converting PDF to html? I seems others have dealt with this. This tool offers a free trial. 

https://pdf.wondershare.com/how-to/convert-pdf-to-url.html

Would someone please try this on a ning PDF? I have included a PDF on this comment to use. Ning has a weird structure, no just html and scripts. THANK YOU!

Here is a second site, this free altogether. 

http://www.pdfonline.com/convert-pdf-to-html/

[Nancy Lieder]

Some of the moderators have been saving to PDF the past week or so, and storing this in their PC's. There is lots of space hither and non to store 32 GB of data, including the ZT mirror sites which seldom use that much space. The issue is bandwidth.

Picture this. The Pole Shift ning, located on the San Andreas, is devastated. Lost, and backup copies lost. If one gives the prior ning audience an option to download ALL the PDF's, the bandwidth costs would be impossible. I mean, 40,000 unique visitors every week, 160,000 in total, all wanting the entire 32 GB immediately. 

I think the first priority is to capture all the data, albeit not the last day or so, offsite from the ning. Store in redundant locations, for safety. Then at least it is not lost. Perhaps scan for recent data every month or so, and hold that as an update of sorts. 

The second priority, my thinking, would be to rebuild the ning elsewhere, in hypertext format. This takes panic in the people out of the equation. Instead of 160,000 people in panic wanting it ALL, there would be a communal sigh of relief. They would start taking this or that link, getting the latest, or at least being reassured. This would cost no more than a website, or perhaps could even be included in some of the ZetaTalk mirror sites. The space requirements could be spread around, linking to the data where it is held. 

If this option were eventually taken, my question to YOU bright folks out there is:

- Can a PDF of the main content of a pinned blog be converted to hypertext? In other words, can we build a top layer of hypertext and then list the PDF kept as archives? Or perhaps all the PDFs could be converted to hypertext. 

- Will a search option work on PDF content as well as text or hypertext content? If we do the above, keeping the archive data in PDF format, will the public be able to find their old and treasured stuff? 

- We currently have pinned blogs and non pinned blogs and various discussions. Should we index this content? Keywords, or categories, and old ning titles? 

- What should be the structure of such a rebuilt ning? We would need more than the current menu bar up top. I nominate Stan to develop the trunk and tree branches of any eventual rebuilt ning. He clearly has a passion for this and has been dying to do it. 

[Moderating Staff]

We are not converting zetatalk.com to pdf it's the poleshift.ning.com we are looking to convert.  The intent is to get a back up of the .ning.  in PDF format and onto a USB.  We are looking at copying the Introductions to the blogs the main part and trying not to include too many comments or none at all, as they will take up a lot of space. 

[Mike Ridlon]

Will converting zetatalk.com to a pdf file with selectable text and hyperlinks fit your needs?  Once the pdf is created it can be printed.  I haven't tried this yet btw but have found some options to accomplish it.