Website and Services Unavailable

[Programmer]

Unfortunately the website security seems to have been breached recently so I have taken it offline while I evaluate the situation. This also means that all the online services such as the deck exchange are also unavailable at the moment. I sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this will cause.

[baydar123]

Sorry to hear about the problem. Thanks for notifying us. I tried to access your website and when it did not work I was worried your domain was lost. Glad to hear you are working on the issue and hope it is resolved soon. Thanks again for keeping up a wonderful program.

[Programmer]

Having looked at all the options the only way of really guaranteeing the safety of the server would be to wipe it and make a fresh start (and I still wouldn't have worked out how it got compromised in the first place). It took me three months to fully set up and configure it a couple of years ago, and that was during the summer months when I had more time to spare than I do now. Unfortunately it is simply impractical to consider setting it up again the way it was with my current time constraints.

On reflection I have decided that probably the most sensible thing is to give up having a dedicated server and go back to a regular web hosting deal, something much ** but with limited bandwidth.

The good news is that I will be able to give the program away for free. The bad news is that it now won't support any of its server based, bandwidth consuming features such as the various file exchanges and the user profiles.

The website is back up and running now. If you are still getting automatically redirected to the Forum you might need to access the site by navigating to www.orphalese.net rather than using an existing shortcut. There is a version of the program labelled Version 9 available to download which contains all the normal desktop features without any of the previous limitations on the number of decks etc.

I am sure this announcement will be good news to some and not so good news to others. I feel particularly sorry for people who have registered the program recently, and I have refunded everybody who did so in the last month.

The Forum will still be here to answer any questions about the program and receive any suggestions for improvements. I will still be responding to posts and I am sure other users will continue to offer help too.

Thank you all for your continued support!

[baydar123]

Well, I am a newcomer to Tarot and Tarot software and have been very pleased with your program. Your most recent post is greatly appreciated. I am sorry that the exchange has been compromised, but understand your dilemna. Since this was a "weekend" project, you simply do not have the time to create a new system. However, if there is anything I can do to help (I am not a programmer but I can type and have an intermediate knowledge of computers :)) let me know.

It took me a while to settle on Orphalese becuase I was looking for all the options of comparable Tarot software. But after doing the research, only Orphalese did it all. And now you have to close a lot of its features down. I have been developing my interest and skill in Tarot and was happy to finally settle on Orphalese. I am still surprised there is not more interest in this type of customizable software. Nonetheless, I have a couple of questions and comments.

First, there are three main programs that come up when I do a Google search on Tarot software - Visual Tarot (from Germany), Tarot (by Matrix Software) and your program. There are a number of others but with fewer features than yours. Also, the Matrix software does not have a feature to create your own spreads nor does it allow any scanning of decks. The Visual Tarot program, however, seems very similar in concept to yours but costs $91 (or more if you want to include future updates) but has no instruction manual. It is a nice peice of software, but I could not figure out how to use certain features with the demo version. Since there was no manual, I had emailing questions and some were simply not answered. At any rate, I mention this because I am concerned about the future of your software and its amazing features. You have made it a free software, which is kind and noble, but without time and money, what will happen to the site, the program and its future development?

I understood your post as meaning the decks and spreads of other contributors will no longer be available for download and no one can upload any new decks or spreads, correct? Thus we will have to scan our own decks and create our own spreads for any future additions to the program, but will not be able to share, correct? Spreads can be shared in the forum with simple text input so then we can recreate the spreads we like manually. I did like the spread exchange, but that is not such a severe loss. The deck exchange, however, is a great loss. All those scanned decks are no longer avaialable. I suppose we could advise that we have the scanned decks in the forum and then somehow email them to interested parties. The files would not be that large. But perhaps that is not feasible either.

I was one of the recent registered users who recived a refund. That amazed me. I do sincerely appreciate your gesture, but would ask that you at least put a DONATIONS option on your site. It is wonderful that you are offering the program for free, but it still is worth something for your time, if only with voluntary donations. I personally want to refund your refund. Even without the exchange, your software is well worth the $26.36 your were charging. I am familiar with another Tarot software, Tarot SG- 2014. It is a simple but meaningful program which is good for learning tarot and costs $24.99. But it is limited with no feature to create decks or spreads. Also, there is no option to recreate a spread from a real deck. Aside from Visual Tarot, I have not found any software program like yours. I love that I can scan my own decks, create my own spreads, and save my readings as an .rtf file for editing. The other software programs are mostly like what you reference in your "About Orphalese" section. They are designed to act like a "Reader" and have very few customizable options. Thus, I am happy to contribute such a nominal amount for a program I get so much benefit from. Granted, losing the exchange is a bummer, but I still feel the software's customizalbe functions more than compensate for the loss of other features.

Thanks again for all your contributions to the Orphalese site and your continued support of this program. I do believe Orphalese Tarot is needed and hope there is a way to keep it running and developing for years to come. Again, if I can help in any way let me know.


David

[starcat2013]

Hello,

"There is a version of the program labelled Version 9 available to download which contains all the normal desktop features without any of the previous limitations on the number of decks etc."

Where is that version 9? I can't find it anywhere on the website. It's not on the download site.

Greetings
Sabine

[Programmer]

Hi David,

It is always a help to know that the program is appreciated and to hear such encouraging words.

First of all let me reassure you that I don't intend to close the site. The program has been going for about ten years so it is not something I can walk away from so easily. The new hosting deal is much ** than having a dedicated server. I just paid a hundred dollars in advance for a whole year. Also I have another hobby software project, a program for learning Chinese vocab, being hosted under the same deal. Finally, it is certainly possible that at some future point I will add the extra value of network based features back into the Orphalese Tarot so it will can go back to being something that generates money.

The problem with exchanging decks is really a double problem because it has a legal component as well as a technical one. Originally I had a website which just used normal website code to allow users to upload decks from a list which just grew and grew and let you preview some of the images. There was a particular publisher (everyone seems to think it was US Games but actually it wasn't) who got very upset and were actually going to sue me and try to close the site down etc because people could see these preview images from their decks. That was a really big headache. The answer I came up with was the peer to peer exchange because legally that was easier to defend. The deck images are temporarily cached on the server but this happens all the time on the internet. If you do a Google image search you are looking at images that have been cached on Google's servers but that does not make Google in breach of copyright.

The technical complication was that I could only get this to work by using the Windows Communication Foundation. This is a microsoft technology that relies on you opening TCP ports on the server. It is not something you can do with a normal web hosting deal, so that is why I had to have the dedicated server. Now it would seem that the server got compromised by some kind of worm or virus and I have to ask myself if it might have been through those open ports. In the four years or so that the peer to peer exchange was working I rewrote all the other network based features (spread exchange, card data exchange, user profiles and registration) to use the same technology. In hindsight this was a mistake because I had all my eggs in one basket. What I have done is basically the only solution that I can take in a hurry while guaranteeing the safety of the website and the downloads.

I have rescued all the spread files off the old server, and I have the databases with all the card data in. When I get time I will bundle these up into two zip downloads so people can have fun sorting through the hundreds of spreads or whatever. Like you say though, the decks are a greater loss. Of course, users of the forum are welcome to swap decks amongst themselves but it would have to be via email. Another alternative would be via a generic peer to peer platform like Vuze. People could post links to tracker files or whatever. And of course people are welcome to use this forum to discuss these ideas.

Thanks again for your support

Richard

[Programmer]

Hi Sabine,

All the links on the download page (http://www.orphalese.net/downloads.aspx) are to the new version 9 except for the external link to Download.com which is still version 8.12. This will take a little while to update. If you download any of the other versions (Tarot of Dreams, Aeclectic Tarot etc) you will find they are all the free version 9.

Cheers,
Richard

[Programmer]

As a post script to what I wrote above, if I later bring back a paid version of the program all the existing users will automatically be registered. I have all the registration data backed up.

[pandora]

Hallo Richard, ich bin ganz neu hier und von Deinem Programm begeistert.Ich arbeite jeden Tag damit. Bisher habe ich noch kein vergleichbares dieser Art gefunden. Es tut mir sehr leid zu hören was passiert ist.Ich hoffe sehr, daß Du Dich nicht entmutigen lässt, denn es ist wirklich ein "sprechendes Programm". Jedes Detail ist sorgsam durchdacht und mit viel Liebe erarbeitet. Wieviele Stunden..... Wie gesagt es ist eine große Bereicherung für mich .Da ich schon länger mit den Karten arbeite war es genau das, was mir noch gefehlt hat und dann gleich so ein Glücksgriff. . Vielen Dank für die Rückerstattung der Registrierungsgebühr. Das zeigt auch was für ein Mensch Du bist, das ist mehr als fair gewesen und ich hoffe sehr, dass Deine jahrelange Arbeit auf andere Art und Weise honoriert wird.Man bekommt im Leben immer einen Ausgleich und der sei Dir von Herzen gewünscht.Obwohl mein Englisch nicht so prächtig ist, arbeite ich mich brav durch dies Forum. - Danke auch an alle hier für die hilfreichen Kommentare in der Vergangenheit die sehr hilfreich sind.-Hiermit auch an alle Forenmitglieder ein Hallo und es freut mich hier zu sein. .Ich schreibe es alles gleich hier und hoffe es ist ok so...Ich wünsche Euch allen ein schönes WE und Dir, Richard, noch einmal Danke. Liebe Grüße Pandora

[Programmer]

Hallo Pandora, ich danke Ihnen sehr für Ihre freundlichen Worte der Unterstützung. Ich bin sehr froh, dass Sie das Programm genießen! Auch, bitte entschuldigen Sie mein schlechtes Deutsch, ich übersetzte dies mit Hilfe eines Programms