Flu Wiki Changing Format

[sharon sanders]

Apparently Flu Wiki is no longer online in any of its old formats. Links to the iconic flu forum no longer work. The 1st format "Old Yellow" closed several years ago in favor of the New Flu Wiki blog format. Also closed is the static reference site that was loaded with current and archived links to various flu related sources.

A sad day.

Flu Wiki was a leader on the internet in digital disease detection. Their "newshounds" were devoted and donated thousands of hours of their time to provide the most current and pertinent information on various disease topics - mostly flu.

Established in 2005 they were one of the first online public health forums. I remember so fondly the "Old Yellow" version of the site. Before facebook and twitter, Flu Wiki was a place to engage in online conversation. The pace was quick and smart. I remember logging on and scrolling to find the threads I was reading the night before. There "regular" people mixed with experts on all things flu. There were scientific discussions, news, ranting...it was great fun. Those were the days on the internet where everyone participated anonymously. For several years the identities of Dem and revere were a mystery. This added to the mystique of Flu Wiki. Part information, part research, it was public health "entertainment." A great way to learn about flu, genetics, virology, migration patterns, disease control.......

I will never forget how generous the team was in helping us get established in 2006. Thank you to the entire team for all of the years of selfless work.

I hope to see you back online soon!





From Mike Coston this morning:
Monday, January 12, 2015

Farewell To The Flu Wiki

# 9562

Flublogians are no doubt aware that the venerable Flu Wiki website has been down for several days, and last night it was announced via an email to its members that, after a decade of operations, the Wiki was no longer.

One of the first of the flu forums – and for a long time arguably the largest and best – the Flu Wiki was for many of us our first online `flu community’.
​

Started byDemFromCt, Melanie, Pogge, and Revere back in 2005, for the first few years, the Flu Wiki was Flublogia.

Format changes, the untimely deaths of two key members (Melanie Matson in 2008 and Pogge in 2014), and I suspect the the general movement of the internet away from forums and to newer social media outlets like Twitter &Facebook all took their toll.

But apparently the site’s domain and url were lost during the chaos that followed the demise of their long-time Sys-op Pogge, last summer.​

Bronco Bill emailed members last night to explain what happened, and after a brief farewell to the site, wrote:

We do have a Facebook page,https://www.facebook.com/groups/93263609767/, so if you have a Facebook account and wish to participate there, please feel free to do so. That page was set up as an extension of FluWiki, but could be so much more now.

​

There are apparently hopes by some members that they may be able to revive the Flu Wiki in some format or another, and I’ll report on that if it happens.

In the meantime the Flu Wiki will be remembered as an early pioneer in Flublogia - one that embraced the the science of influenza and encouraged sober and solid news gathering – and that provided a safe and sane forum where community-minded individuals could talk about influenza, and influenza preparedness.​

My profound thanks go the newshounds of Flu Wiki, who have been an invaluable resource for this humble blogger over the past decade.


Posted by Michael Coston at 6:21 AM

 

[JJackson]

A very sad day and a reminder of the Internets ephemeral nature. Data on the net is not permanent, vast amounts are lost everyday. It is incumbent on us all to try and watch for such dangers and store what we can. Your/my view of what is worth retaining may be rather different to those who are making decisions about retention and the first you are likely to know about the danger to data of importance is that it has gone.

 

[sharon sanders]

I am shocked about the vast numbers of the pandemic preparedness documents from 2006/07/08 that are dead links on the CDC and HHS site. Millions of dollars, history, and information lost. We have some of the only available data from those years.

 

[sharon sanders]

As far as the contents of the newfluwiki2, I think the core site is still there but it is not reachable through the internet. Hopefully someone will make it available again.

As to FluTrackers, we have many redundant safeguards in place. Our domain name is renewed through 2017. Also, our domain is owned by the FluTrackers.com Inc. non-profit corporation. If something happens to me, Sally, as an officer of the corporation, can legally take charge of the FluTrackers.com business including the domain. I also have key information about FluTrackers available in writing so that access to our systems can continue without me.

We have a backup of a full copy of this site made everyday. Plus, we have a copy routinely made externally to a "cloud". We have added security to all of our procedures.

We are as "safe" as anyone can be in the real world or the internet.