“Technologically Orphaned”? More like “Incompetent”. They had a programmer who apparently didn’t document anything or provide any way for non-programmers to do anything (ie. a unprofessional hack) and no plans as to what to do if this guy gets hit by a bus. I don’t know what the revenue, if any, for this site is but it must be close to zero if they can’t even put up an ad on one of the freelancer bulletin boards for someone to come in and do some code archeology. Unless it was programmed in something occult like Zug there’s got to be a whole community of people versed in the technology involved.
When I work on a mission critical system for anyone my code has is fully documented with at least as many lines of non-jargon, plain English comments as there are of code and I provide a go-to for finding people who can just pick up that code and run with it if I come down with food poisoning or something. Hence hiring me means that you don’t run the risk of oblivion due to things like this. (Full disclosure - I have a large financial interest in me.)
This sounds like a job for Archive Team.
Looking at the page source it appears to have been written using asp.net, which is one of the most common web technologies in existence. I didn’t see anything in the post about the code being undocumented. Documented or not, a person without technical skills won’t know how to change things. It is unfortunate that a full admin interface wasn’t created but I don’t think that should necessarily be put on the programmer if they weren’t tasked with doing so. Sounds like he just wants to be rid of the hassle of running the site, which might be understandable if it takes a lot of time to run with little coming back in return.
Aww. 
What about FreakingNews? 
If he just wants to be rid of it and isn’t looking for a payday, a single post on Reddit would likely bring dozens of alternative solutions.
There are some really amazing entries in those contests.
That would be pretty sad if Worth1000 went away. It provided some of the best shooping around. I found it very inspirational. Something like Cracked’s photo articles just aren’t close in quality.
I mean, you know…I can see the pixels.
Let me guess: “Refactoring,” with no automated tests…
Some entries are among my favorite pieces of art anywhere. The biomechanical creatures especially. If it does become a static gallery, hopefully those inspirational pieces are easier to find than they have been with the site problems.
I’m sure someone could kickstarter it’s rebirth. I am really caught up in a couple of massive projects, anyone else who can step up ?
Personally I never understood Cory’s love of this place - my interest in the posts was always inversely proportional to his excitement over it.
The fact that the owner can’t find someone to work on the code speaks volumes as to the quality of the site itself. I think it is less that they can’t find someone and more than they don’t want to pay them.
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