Brickshelf closes down 2007/07/31

Well, it looks like there is both good and bad news on Brickshelf. I still don't know why it is closing, but it seems more certain: the site has opened with a somewhat more informative message stating

"Notice: Brickshelf will be shutting down on 2007/07/31.
Please save your files to your computer."

So it looks like one of my favorite LEGO sources, a place where more than a decade of wonderful building has been cataloged, and the only source of some of these images on the net (from folks who have left the hobby for one reason or another) is soon to be no more. The slightly good news is you have a final chance to grab at least the stuff you already know where it is... before it is sadly gone forever. Gallery contains 1,907,738 files in 197,568 folders as of 16 Jul 2007, 3:28 PM... a really terrible loss.

I'm not sure where I'll move for my on-line image hosting. some have suggested Maj.com, but given this rather sudden departure of Brickshelf, I'm not sure I'm confortable with that route at this time. Flickr? Others?

Update, 4:07 PM: there is a bulk backup utility, developed by Bob Kojima, that you can use to download and save Brickshelf galleries. BZPower is hosting it currently, and you can download it here:

http://www.bzpower.com/downloads/BSBackup_0013.zip

Note that it can be configured to pause between downloads, and also I believe can be scheduled to download at certain times. Please, if you use this, put a couple of seconds in the "seconds between" field so that the server is not swamped by a thousand simultaneous requests. Thanks to Bob for writing this, BZPower for hosting it, and Brickshelf for giving the community this window... as well as many many years of wonderful service!

--
Brian Davis
(who now has to figure out how to patch hundreds of links in this blog, other forums, etc. But I'm certainly not alone on that count).