The future of the Forgotten Jets site: Happy update

[Chris Brame]

Over the last several months I've been conversing online with Nathan Decker, owner of the Forgotten Jets website which is part of his millionmonkeytheater.com group. As some of you know, I've been helping with finding info and photos for the aircraft on each list, which contains a capsule history and (if available) a photo of every aircraft of that type built. It's become an excellent resource, ranking up there with the Baugher lists. Nathan isn't a WIXer but he appreciates the help from several of us who have contributed info and photos.

The site: http://www.millionmonkeytheater.com/ForgottenJets.html

Last Friday he sent the following letter, which he gave permission to post here. It reads in part:

Way back in late 2005 when I first decided to start a webpage for old jets I made myself two promises. One, that I would never, ever spend a single penny on this project, get everything for free online. Check! The second was to go ten years and then move on to a different hobby (I do this a lot). Well, at the end of this year it will be a decade and I think I'm ready to turn this badboy over to someone else. Probably move on to “Forgotten Steam Trains” or “Forgotten WWI French Destroyers” or something equally obscure.

So, I don't plan on just shuttering the site, because I've poured 10 years of blood and tears into it, but I would like to find someone who will/can take over the operations of it. That's the text on all 60 odd plane types plus about 40,000 photos, the whole lot. Ideally, I'd love to see Forgotten Jets continue just as it is, just with someone else at the helm. I ask nothing in return other than a promise to keep it going because it really is an amazing collection of information that is simply not available anywhere else on the internet and it still has a lot of life left in it. Also, I'd love to become a “contributor” instead of the “owner”; I want to be the one emailing photos and updates every now and then to the new boss. They would have to get their own website domain but all the HTML and CSS and everything could be transferred over to that without any trouble at all (seriously, like ten keystrokes to change it all over).

I still have until the end of the year, so if no one steps up and wants the site by then, I'll have to reevaluate things. But I'm still pretty committed to stepping away after ten years, I can already feel myself moving on.

Any thoughts?

Nate

And to follow up:

As far as posting it on your forum, yes, that would be lovely. Coming from you it will carry more weight than from me, since I'm the outsider no one knows. I will certainly not just give it away to anyone, and not to some one who isn't going to help it grow; so I'm aware that there might not be anyone out there who will work, but I should make the effort anyway. I'm not in any great hurry to move on anyway; I still have a ton of stuff I want to add to the site and I get literally a dozen emails a day to sift through, I don't want to leave it shabby . Surely there's another guy out there who wants all this stuff, but until then I'll keep it warm and cozy. Serious inquires only and all that.

Feel free to cut-and-paste the first email and this one into a message to post, and feel free to put my email addy on there, I'm always open to chatting with anyone.

Oh, and if it wasn't clear, I just want to spin off the Forgotten Jets part; the movie reviews and the other stuff under the Million Monkey Theater umbrella will stay with me. I have to have somewhere to post my Forgotten Japanese Ironclad Gunboats page .

So is there anyone here who would like to take over the Forgotten Jets site (Attn Scott: or even have it be an adjunct to WIX?)?

Nathan can be contacted at nmdecke -at- hotmail.com if you're interested. Thanks!

Last edited by Chris Brame on Tue Jun 30, 2015 2:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Project Warbird]

I think Nathan Milarta would be the person for this.

[Scott Rose]

I can find a home for it as part of the Warbirds Resource Group and will gladly host it and assume the operating costs. If Nathan would be interested in being the managing editor for the site, all the better.

Lets not let another site go quietly into the night like Duncan's Sabre Site.

[Chris Brame]

Good on ya, Scott! Have you been in touch with both Nathans?

[Nathan]

I would love to, but I'm full of projects and lack of time as it is. So I will decline the offer. I honestly wish Nathan would keep working on the website. Why put all that work into something and then leave? It's a masterpiece and I sure would like to see it kept going!

Thanks,
Nathan

[Chris Brame]

Update - Got an email yesterday from Nathan Decker:

Well, I just can't pull the trigger on the site, so I'm going to keep it up and running after all. It has really become like one of my children, frustrating and annoying at times, but great fun and always interesting. I just don't know how I could walk away at this point; my email inbox is full every single day and I still have a thousand years worth of blank-filling to do to even make it half as good as I'd like. So, forget what I said before, business as usual now .
Nate

Good to hear! A great resource will continue. Many thanks to Nathan and all the other online historians who keep these nuggets of information available to all.