The FKF seems to have become inaccessible. Nothing has been posted there since February 3 and when I attempt to access, I just get a note saying that my “message contains too few characters”.
I just tried searching for “folding kayak forum” and came up with this: https://www.foldingkayaks.org/phpBB/
There are posts dated 2020.
However, when I tried to register I got this: This page isn’t working
www.foldingkayaks.org is currently unable to handle this request.
HTTP ERROR 500
If anyone has contact with the admin of the folding kayak board, could you PM it to me? If this site is, in fact, gone, I may be able to import that old content to paddling.com’s message boards.
Error 500 is a server error that might mean in just needs to be restarted.
Still unable to register, though. WhoIs reveals:
omain Name: FOLDINGKAYAKS.ORG
Registry Domain ID: D18048309-LROR
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.dreamhost.com
Registrar URL: http://www.dreamhost.com/
Updated Date: 2019-12-19T13:21:23Z
Creation Date: 2000-01-19T15:42:33Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2021-01-19T15:42:32Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date:
Registrar: New Dream Network, LLC dba DreamHost Web Hosting
Registrar IANA ID: 431
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse@dreamhost.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +213.2719359
Reseller:
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registrant Organization: EDELMAN, MICHAEL
Registrant State/Province: MI
Registrant Country: US
Name Server: NS.NEWDREAM.NET
Name Server: NS2.NEWDREAM.NET
Name Server: NS3.NEWDREAM.NET
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form https://www.icann.org/wicf/)
Last update of WHOIS database: 2020-02-17T19:34:01Z <<<
I’m a regular on the Folding Kayaks forum and just checked it out – there do seem to be some issues (I got that mass error code on a couple of post strings but most other recent ones were still displaying normally.) The fact that some very old defunct post strings showed up in the “active forums” list makes me think it is a system glitch.
Mike Edelman runs it pretty much alone and sometimes there are temporary partial or more serious outages when upgrades are necessary. I’ll check it again tomorrow and if it is still showing problems I’ll email him to see what is going on.
It has been hard to keep such a forum going let alone growing when we keep losing folding kayak manufacturers. Folbot and Feathercraft are gone and I’ve been worried about Pakboat since their devastating warehouse fire last year.
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Hi Kerry, I emailed Michael after I tried several times to respond to the initial posting from a new member and got an error message that told me I had entered “too few characters”. Michael’s reply stated that there was a “problem resulting from the current version of phpBB not being up to date” and that he was working on it. That was more than a week ago. I’ve owned twelve kayaks over the years, only two of them being folder’s including my Kurrent 2.0 and with the hope of acquiring an inflatable Aironaut from Doug Simpson whenever he can bear to part with one of the three boats that he still owns (He said to try him in about a year from now). I’m not sure what it is but there’s something compelling about these fussy little boats that is almost addictive. A pity if we lose the only vehicle for communicating our affection, frustration, and whatever else with others equally afflicted.
Jake
There is always facebook. A few groups for folding kayaks there now
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I was able to contact Michael the owner of the site and he said
“I’m in the midst of a long-overdue upgrade that’s going to take several days as I relearn stuff I haven’t done in years. If you can, let people know this is ongoing, as I can’t post to my website, either”
2 Likes
An update from Michael:
“You can let people know that the forum is up again, bug-free. It’s still missing the custom logo and and few other bits, but everything is working just fine.”
1 Like
I just checked it out and the update works well – I like the layout better too! Posted a couple of replies and they seemed to load faster than they had before. And, thank heavens, the annoying “winking emojis” window is gone!