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Project Alice

Project Alice

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
2,105
2,193
Post Falls, ID
Hi all, Most of you probably know about the Macintosh Garden. There is also Macintosh Repository, which has most of the same software, but I have been able to find a few things NOT on the garden.
They also have a forum now: https://www.macintoshrepository.org/forum/
Just thought I'd share for those of you that didn't know.
It looks like the admin recently created the forum, but if we PPC users ever get abandoned on here for some reason this seems like a decent place to go to. It's already bad enough with the vibe over on the intel forums IMO.
 
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Yes some very few stuff there that are not on the Garden. But it started mostly as a ripping of all that was on the MacintoshGarden, together with screenshots, softwares descriptions e all from MacintoshGarden contributors , while not in a single way mentioning the MacintoshGarden, displaying adds, AND asking for $ contribution... note you can't download more than 1Gb if you're not a donator...

Moreover, the "abandonware" concept is fuzzy, and some editors don't like the concept at all.
A lot of them keep blind eyes on sharing old softwares as long as no one make money from it.
A site asking for $ (contributions, donations... what ever you call it) for it is the best way to attract software editors bad attention... :/ And that after can fall on other sites too.

I'd rather download what I can find there that is not on the MacintoshGarden, and upload it on the macintosh garden :D
 
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I avoid it on principle for the reason @galgot mentioned - they charge for any substantial download and are therefore seeking to make profit from the abandonware they host - legal ramifications abound on that.
Plus of course, they've lifted content from MG which has been curated/donated/repackaged by the MG community.
 
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Project Alice said:
It looks like the admin recently created the forum, but if we PPC users ever get abandoned on here for some reason this seems like a decent place to go to. It's already bad enough with the vibe over on the intel forums IMO.
Click to expand...

There's a grand total of one post so far, so no telling whether this forum will have legs but there are already other forums already ticking over:

thinkclassic.org (pre-Intel forums)
68kmla.org (for pre-PPC machines)
macos9lives.com (anything to do with pre-OSX hard/software with an emphasis on audio/DAWs)
applefritter.com (anything goes but an emphasis on pre-Intel Apple)
 
weckart said:
There's a grand total of one post so far, so no telling whether this forum will have legs but there are already other forums already ticking over:

thinkclassic.org (pre-Intel forums)
68kmla.org (for pre-PPC machines)
macos9lives.com (anything to do with pre-OSX hard/software with an emphasis on audio/DAWs)
applefritter.com (anything goes but an emphasis on pre-Intel Apple)
Click to expand...

Reddit also has a good community built around vintage Macs.

If you can stand all the other stuff on reddit (not that you have to, you could just stay in r/VintageApple if you want).
 
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Raging Dufus said:
Reddit also has a good community built around vintage Macs.
Click to expand...

I find r/VintageApple very superficial, it mostly consists of people posting photos of something they've bought with little intention of using it and the knowledge level on there is pretty sparse. Any help you try to give folks is drowned out by a blizzard of misinformation.
Oh...and then there's the whole down voting thing :/
 
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Dronecatcher said:
I find r/VintageApple very superficial, it mostly consists of people posting photos of something they've bought with little intention of using it and the knowledge level on there is pretty sparse. Any help you try to give folks is drowned out by a blizzard of misinformation.
Oh...and then there's the whole down voting thing :/
Click to expand...

I do agree - it's just something I look at when I'm bored and nothing's going on here.

There's nothing out there, that I've found, that really compares to this place.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
I find r/VintageApple very superficial, it mostly consists of people posting photos of something they've bought with little intention of using it and the knowledge level on there is pretty sparse. Any help you try to give folks is drowned out by a blizzard of misinformation.
Oh...and then there's the whole down voting thing :/
Click to expand...
Reddit is the Wild West of internet forums. You have to have a thick skin to be on there. I tend to only engage when I know (positively) that I'm right or the thread is opinion based. Either way, downvoting is still a thing as you mentioned.

Fortunately, most of the other subreddits I frequent are decent.

MacRumors used to have an upvote/downvote system. It inspired a lot of flame wars and petty downvoting. That's why the downvoting part was eventually removed. Now, with this new forum software we just have 'likes'. I'm not fond of the 'Facebook' aspect of that; however, unlike the up/down voting before it, likes are transparent. You know who liked your post. There's no hiding in any anonymity of your up or down vote.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
Yes, I'm not a fan of the whole internet anonymity aspect, that's why I try to maintain a cohesive link to all my web participation and use a real photo for avatars etc
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I hear you.

For those reasons I maintain the same username in any forum type site I sign up on. You can do a Google search for my username and find those forums. The same person you find there, you'll find here. I have only one deviation and that's a site that I run and it's an RPG site (think Dungeons & Dragons) that basically only I use.

The other thing is that you run into the same people in other places. It's nice when you find others because they recognize your username from a different forum.
 
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Dronecatcher said:
I try to maintain a cohesive link to all my web participation and use a real photo for avatars etc
Click to expand...

eyoungren said:
I maintain the same username in any forum type site I sign up on. You can do a Google search for my username and find those forums. The same person you find there, you'll find here.
Click to expand...

Kudos to you gentlemen, I respect that. Fact is, I've seen both of your usernames in other forums/blogs that I frequent.

As for avatars, I choose to use artistic approximations of my own, irrationally yelly face.
 
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I much prefer this forum to r/vintageapple, I used to hang out there but mostly left after almost all the posts started being "I just got this on eBay, what to do with it" and the same answers in the comments repeated over and over again. Here most users have very extensive knowledge of any older Apple product and are constantly working to keep them usable in the modern world.

I've been trying to get away from reddit in general lately, the anonymity and voting system is really effective at breeding a very toxic culture. It's like PRSI here, but spread across the whole site. Older style forums like this one are much better in my opinion.
 
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If we're being thorough, we need to mention the Apple Support Communities. I was there often back in the day when I was trying to get my feet wet in the Mac world. Not so much once I figured things out, but still every now and then an Internet search would take me that way.

The reason I moved away from them though, is that it's much less of a social place. It's more oriented toward support, rather than (as here on MR) enthusiasts sharing ways to keep these marvelous machines relevant and wring the last bit of performance out of them - plus all the support you could hope for. These things keep me coming back here.

Seems though, that discussions on Apple's site are still a relatively happening place, even for our old Macs. I don't really care for the way they still have things divided up, by categories of vintage hardware and software. There are different forums for Power Macs, PowerBooks, iMacs, Mac OS 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, etc., etc., etc. There are even different forums for different versions of Apple applications that fit within those categories. You run the risk of not getting an answer to your problem if you don't post it in the right place, which has happened to me.
 
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Raging Dufus said:
If we're being thorough, we need to mention the Apple Support Communities. I was there often back in the day when I was trying to get my feet wet in the Mac world. Not so much once I figured things out, but still every now and then an Internet search would take me that way.

The reason I moved away from them though, is that it's much less of a social place. It's more oriented toward support, rather than (as here on MR) enthusiasts sharing ways to keep these marvelous machines relevant and wring the last bit of performance out of them - plus all the support you could hope for. These things keep me coming back here.
Click to expand...
I departed those forums once I figured out the way the 'power' structure works over there.

Lots of old time Mac users who started with the Mac back in 1984 who sit at the top of that structure. Challenging them is verboten because they know everything there is to know and whatever they proclaim is always the correct answer. If you have a solution that works, or are right, but it's not an answer that squares with official Apple policy, it's rejected out of hand and ridiculed.

They are the people who distribute the Koolaid that Apple makes. Any deviation from official Apple policy or support is attacked by them and if Apple changes anything they change too. If Apple has amnesia about previous things, so do they. If a problem Apple wants to ignore comes up, they ignore it too. They are highly critical of any deviation and unless your device is 6 months old or less you will be criticized for using outdated hardware and software. I've seen them outright refuse to help because users were not up to date to their satisfaction.

Apple uses them as unpaid 'geniuses' that advocate for Apple, but it seems part of their time on the forum is to report anything to Apple that Apple wouldn't like and they are relentless about it. This works hand in hand with the mods who seek out and terminate any threads about problems with Apple hardware or software that Apple does not officially acknowledge.

The rest are those who are either trying to do enough time and posts there to be accepted into this clique, or infrequent or transitory customers looking for help.

It's an insidious and pervasive tone over there that you only see if you stick around a while. Try and help and you get cut down, especially if using old hardware and software.

It's what the Intel forums here on MacRumors aspire to be but can't because not everyone in that section can afford to be 6 months or less current.
 
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eyoungren said:
I departed those forums once I figured out the way the 'power' structure is there.

Lots of old time Mac users who started with the Mac back in 1984 who sit at the top of that structure. Challenging them is verboten because they know everything there is to know and whatever they proclaim is always the correct answer. If you have a solution that works, or are right, but it's not an answer that squares with official Apple policy, it's rejected out of hand and ridiculed.

They are the people who distribute the Koolaid that Apple makes. Any deviation from official Apple policy or support is attacked by them and if Apple changes anything they change too. If Apple has amnesia about previous things, so do they. If a problem Apple wants to ignore comes up, they ignore it too. They are highly critical of any deviation and unless your device is 6 months old or less you will be criticized for using outdated hardware and software. I've seen them outright refuse to help because users were not up to date to their satisfaction.

Apple uses them as unpaid 'geniuses' that advocate for Apple, but it seems part of their time on the forum is to report anything to Apple that Apple wouldn't like and they are relentless about it. This works hand in hand with the mods who seek out and terminate any threads about problems with Apple hardware or software that Apple does not officially acknowledge.

The rest are those who are either trying to do enough time and posts there to be accepted into this clique, or infrequent or transitory customers looking for help.

It's an insidious and pervasive tone over there that you only see if you stick around a while. Try and help and you get cut down, especially if using old hardware and software.

It's what the Intel forums here on MacRumors aspire to be but can't because not everyone in that section can afford to be 6 months or less current.
Click to expand...

@eyoungren, may I suggest an avatar change?

upload_2019-1-18_9-16-38.jpeg



You're like the Gandalf of this place. I mean that in the best possible way.

There's lots of pretty cool elves around here too - and I also mean that in the best possible way.

Myself, I'm more like a half-drunk hobbit sitting with a pint of ale and his feet up on a table in the Green Dragon.
 
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wicknix said:
Here are a couple more. Both seem fairly active. I haven't registered with either, as i prefer here, but i do frequent them when i'm bored. https://www.mac-forums.com/forums/index.php and https://www.mac-help.com/

EDIT: Neither has a dedicated powerpc section, however you still see posts about older stuff scattered throughout.

Cheers
Click to expand...
I jumped over to mac-help based on your link and stumbled onto someone wanting to rescue an iBook suffering from what I assume is the GPU solder issue. I directed them this way so hopefully they'll come figure out how fun of a rabbit hole PPC can be. :p
Here's the thread if anyone's interested: https://www.mac-help.com/threads/depressed-about-my-white-ibook.224984/
 
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Raging Dufus said:
@eyoungren, may I suggest an avatar change?

View attachment 816334


You're like the Gandalf of this place. I mean that in the best possible way.

There's lots of pretty cool elves around here too - and I also mean that in the best possible way.

Myself, I'm more like a half-drunk hobbit sitting with a pint of ale and his feet up on a table in the Green Dragon.
Click to expand...
LOL. Thanks for that.

I've been involved in online stuff since 1984 when I was 14 and discovered my local Commodore user group and that they had a BBS. I've just never disconnected. :D

I just try and remember how things go on the places I frequent. There is always turnover and new people don't know the history.

PS. I see you more as one of the dwarves from Thorin's company. :D
 
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