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Roland Ranfft (and database) news

sheepdoll
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gatorcpa gatorcpa
Now that site is no longer working.

Here is direct link to the Internet Archive mirror site:

https://web.archive.org/web/2023030...fft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk

Unfortunately, the search feature no longer works.

My condolences to his family and friends. 馃槵
gatorcpa

Seems to be slow and spotty. Could be a lot of people are scraping it. Many of the links forward to the missing page references of which there are over 10000 urls archived. Now if I could only find a references to Venus 206.

The cache variation does not seem to work well as any search link tries to take one to the main site which is down.

I guess all one can do is wait.
 
nitediver
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That's really sad news. I had noticed the website was down yesterday but didn't know why. I hope his precious database can be recovered somehow.
 
BLOW UP
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sheepdoll sheepdoll
Seems to be slow and spotty. Could be a lot of people are scraping it. Many of the links forward to the missing page references of which there are over 10000 urls archived. Now if I could only find a references to Venus 206.

The cache variation does not seem to work well as any search link tries to take one to the main site which is down.

I guess all one can do is wait.

I've been doing each search in Google using just the keywords and then cache: i.e. Ranfft Valjoux 7730
It seems to work pretty well for me.
 
RODDYJB
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Disappointing news for sure. He & his website were very helpful...
 
sheepdoll
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BLOW UP BLOW UP
I've been doing each search in Google using just the keywords and then cache: i.e. Ranfft Valjoux 7730
It seems to work pretty well for me.
Until google starts serving the 404 page.
I managed to make the cache search work.

Still trying to find out more about that Venus 206 I have. The Venus 203 case did not fit and the correctors were in the wrong place. Ranfft never had a unique page for the 206 which is built on the 180 plates but with a calendar like the 200 which has a chronograph.

the cache method does let me screegrab the venus pages. Of course I do have the data sheets, but this was more convenient for quick checks.

I remain optimistic that parts of it will come back in one way or another.
 
BLOW UP
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sheepdoll sheepdoll
Until google starts serving the 404 page.
I managed to make the cache search work.

Still trying to find out more about that Venus 206 I have. The Venus 203 case did not fit and the correctors were in the wrong place. Ranfft never had a unique page for the 206 which is built on the 180 plates but with a calendar like the 200 which has a chronograph.

the cache method does let me screegrab the venus pages. Of course I do have the data sheets, but this was more convenient for quick checks.

I remain optimistic that parts of it will come back in one way or another.

Seems to be working well at this end.. give this link a try: https://webcache.googleusercontent....sca_esv=559872417&hl=en&gl=uk&strip=1&vwsrc=0
 
sheepdoll
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It works now. Will it work in a day, a week a year? Five years 10?

It certantly is a workaround.

Archive.org may evolve a similar problem. As time progresses the 404 pages get entered into the cache as people attempt to click on them or crawers crawl the site. On archive.org the color of the hits represents the type of link stored which can be helpful.

Content 'owners' can also request take down notices. Which can affect the archive quality. In theory there is a file robots.txt which can control wheather a site is scraped or not. Given the pages archive.org does serve there is a good chance the data was not restricted.

If I and at least one other are considering creating an AI from bestfit and related ephemera, There are probably dozen of others as well. Ranfft site did have a nice parametric search. It was not perfect as the Venus 203/206 data was concerned. The pictures were a bit on the small side and one photo used to represent the base caliber.

So there is room for improvement.
 
Dan S
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The person who created the GitHub-hosted version (which is not functional at this moment) says that they are working to move it to a different host. They also mentioned that they are working on a similar project that will be superior, but it's not clear whether the Ranfft data will be incorporated or not.

This seems to be very much in flux at the moment, but here is the WUS thread where it is being discussed.
https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/ranfft-db-backup.5515165/#post-57004536
 
HamDoctor
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Here's another update: the site is now online and functional (though in beta). You can find it here:

https://ranfft.org/

Thanks to xchwarze at the WatchUseek message board. It's great to have a replacement for this invaluable resource.
 
gatorcpa
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HamDoctor HamDoctor
Here's another update: the site is now online and functional (though in beta). You can find it here:

https://ranfft.org/

Thanks to xchwarze at the WatchUseek message board. It's great to have a replacement for this invaluable resource.
Thank you so much for hosting this. We all appreciate it.
gatorcpa
 
HamDoctor
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gatorcpa gatorcpa
Thank you so much for hosting this. We all appreciate it.
gatorcpa
Just to prevent misunderstandings: it wasn't me who hosted it, but WUS member xchwarze. But yes, I agree 100% in appreciating this...

I still hope that Dr. Ranfft didn't pass away (there's a few inconsistencies with the news of his death, like his title as "Dr." not being mentioned in the obituary, and the reported place of death isn't fitting with his last known place of residence). Would be nice to find out that our worries are unfounded. At the same time, I consider it heartening to see that immediate steps are taken by the community to rescue a valuable resource for all of us.
 
sheepdoll
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Better than nothing
I miss the parametric search. That is what I used the most. I have trays of watch movements and that was helpful in identifying them.
 
Mark020
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For me as well
 
sheepdoll
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full translation of the above link using giggle

"We are now in contact with Mr. Ranfft's sister-in-law and can therefore clear up the rumours. Unfortunately, the status is not good and the future of the archive is therefore unclear. As soon as something new arises and there is a contact person, we will be informed.

Roland Ranfft passed away on June 15 of this year. He was widowed and had no children. Since he has not settled his estate, everything else is taken care of by the probate court in Wilhelmshaven (last place of residence).

The rights to his archive, the data and the domain are therefore open. We ask you to refrain from further speculation and attempts to contact you."
 
Dan S
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JimJupiter JimJupiter
http://www.ranfft.de/uhr/index.html

works again,..at least for me.
Gone again, sadly.

This represents an interesting lesson about archival data in the Information Age. Enjoy it while you can, including all of your music, images, and video, because you never know when it will disappear.
 
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