A trip down memory lane

[SpaceFanatic64]

More and more time seems to pass every time I come here, huh? I've made a bit of an effort to try and return to Celestia; these days though I mainly read the forums a lot more than I post. It's also crazy to think of how far I've come in life since 2018. When I first joined this site, I had only been in 7th grade for a couple of weeks; come to the present, I've since graduated high school and am now working through community college to achieve greater goals. In the days when I was active often, I was very eager and had good intentions, but since I was young and immature, I can now see through my old posts that I would sometimes be pushy and honestly overzealous at times (especially in regards to Celestia Origin. If you're reading this, Art Blos, this is my formal apology for constantly wanting new spacecraft with every new version). It was also nice to see old names I was familiar with from then (greetings to toutatis, gironde, Croc (RIP), LukeCel, CM1215, heck, even Joey P, though he left the site and never turned back. This also goes out to those whose names I have forgotten to put here). I wonder if the Celestia Discord server still exists, and if so, how that place is doing. I was there for a couple of months in 2019 but since my interest in Celestia had waned by then I eventually left not long after. I'm not really interested in rejoining the place; I'm already in enough servers as it is. It does make me a bit sad to see that this place isn't nearly as active as it once was anymore though, especially with how the Celestia Origin threads used to blow up (to an extent, and it also seems like I was one of those who was responsible for that) yet barely crack few replies aside from content updates these days.

A couple of random, assorted questions I have that someone can hopefully answer:
1. When did the Celestial Matters forum go down? I used to have an account on there a few years back but seldom used it.
2. What's the status of the Celestia Motherlode site? It seems to still be in a state where it's not accepting any uploads; if that's the case then who is maintaining the site despite its age?

[DaveBowman2001]

Hey there, SpaceFanatic64, welcome back! Most of the community is much more active on the Celestia Discord server than on the Forums nowadays, with add-on devs (like me) only posting here when we're about to publish new, or update old add-ons.

To answer your question regarding the Motherlode, afaik it's never going to accept any new add-ons anymore (iirc some ibiblio conflict or something), so either here on the Forums directly or to the Celestia Mobile's add-ons section are the usual go-to places. Also, Celestial Matters went permanently offline in 2020 and it seems that its only admin has no interest in reviving it once more

[Art Blos]

especially in regards to Celestia Origin. If you're reading this, Art Blos, this is my formal apology for constantly wanting new spacecraft with every new version

I have no complaints. If people are genuinely interested in our project and want to see even more interesting objects there, I am only glad.

Moreover, starting in November 2024 and at least until November 2025, we will be adding new spacecrafts. In parallel with this, ongoing a comprehensive revision of all spacecrafts included in 16 version. This is our most important task for the whole year. Therefore our desires coincide.

[John Van Vliet]

as for the motherload --- as i recall the last admin disappeared with the passwords

it is still up but no updates to it

[SpaceFanatic64]

Makes sense, I had suspected as much. I think when I first started using Celestia in August 2017 or so, the Motherlode was also dormant. Hell, the new addons page doesn't even work anymore so it's hard to see what was the last uploaded thing. As I understand it was in a rather tumultuous state in 2020/21, but since I was absent from the community during that time my knowledge is rather spotty.

On an unrelated note, I still find it shocking that jujuapapa ended up being a sockpuppet of an old Celestia user who was notorious for releasing other peoples' addons on some website. He was under our noses for a couple of years before action was taken. I'm fairly certain that this is how the story went but a few details may be wrong.

[Art Blos]

I'll take this opportunity to ask, maybe someone knows.

Why did disappear the user Janus, who provided server space for our project?
He hasn't logged in since August 2022 and the servers are no longer available. I suspect the worst.

[SpaceFanatic64]

I hope he has not passed, though with the inactivity and the site going down your fears may be unfortunately true.

Are the older versions of Celestia Origin saved or archived anywhere, or are they now gone too? I don't need them, obviously, I was only curious.

[Art Blos]

Are the older versions of Celestia Origin saved or archived anywhere, or are they now gone too? I don't need them, obviously, I was only curious.

Only 13 version is saved, as the last one compatible with Celestia 1.6.1(2). I don't see any point in keeping the other versions.

[SpaceFanatic64]

That's fair. Also, from what I recall, CO first released in 2016; how come a post was never made on the forum then?

[Art Blos]

Also, from what I recall, CO first released in 2016

Yes, the "zero" pre-release was published on June 12, 2016, but the project's founding date is considered to be July 29, when I created a group on the VKontakte website (you can write it down in the English Wikipedia ).

how come a post was never made on the forum then?

In 2016 we were in a heated conflict with Alexell (we considered him the main culprit in the collapse of our previous common project), and our first forum release on September 24, 2017 was under real threat of being quickly removed. Many forum members probably didn't even know what kind of behind-the-scenes squabbles were going on in those days. But fortunately, people showed interest. The discussions and proposals were unstoppable, and we are lucky to stay here.