[Clayart] Imminent shutdown of Digitalfire- Gofundme for Tony

[Ivy Glasgow via Clayart]

For those who have not already heard, here is recent sad news about Digitalfire.com. It is under legal threat from Plainsman Clays and will be taken down in its entirety by June 27.



There is a fundraiser to help Tony Hansen with legal and IT costs at Gofundme: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-digitalfire



There is some commentary from Tony on the Digitalfire homepage, which I'll copy-paste here since the site has apparently been experiencing very heavy traffic and has been intermittently unavailable:



What's Happening At Digitalfire



Digitalfire<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/digitalfire+reference+library> is facing a takedown order from Plainsman<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/plainsman+clays> Clays. They are revoking permission to "use any Plainsman content" "on any platform". This is broad and vague enough, and the site large enough, that I am unable to comply or even interpret it in the short timeframe (June 27). This notice arrived with a threat to turn over the plainsmanclays.ca URL, which I rightfully own (and use to voluntarily fund and maintain a live site backup) and plainsmanpotterysupply.com (which I don't have). I had to shut down Digitalfire for part of today because so many people were taking backups of the site. We just need to get them to relent on this demand, call off the lawyer and agree that digitalfire.com is just commentary and I have the right to share research that I compiled. There are lots of backup sites (many people have the API<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/digitalfire+api> en
dpoints); don't start downloading or scraping again and overload the server.

Insight-live<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/digitalfire+insight-live>.com is not affected by this issue.





The Physical Digitalfire

Is about to be no more

The lawyer's current threat: "Remove any documentation or data of DigitalFire<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/digitalfire+reference+library> from Plainsman's premises" (this may differ from what Plainsman<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/plainsman+clays> itself is saying, not sure why). I am too traumatized to go there. Without the data, the tests are useless.

There were hundreds of projects in the pipeline producing data. Promising ones were DIY<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/do-it-yourself> dipping glazes<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/dipping+glaze>, base coat<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/base-coat+dipping+glaze> dipping glazes, an Alberta slip<https://digitalfire.com/material/32> calcination<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/calcination> pilot, casting Coffee clay<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.php?product=12943> (without raw manganese or umber), casting M390<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.php?product=12876>, M340<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.php?product=12875> and even H440<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.php?product=12885>, a new 440-on-steroids, 200 mesh<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/200+mesh> MNP<https://digitalfire.com/picture/2324> PR3D<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.php?product=12902> work, the beer bottle demo casting, better and new engobes<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/engobe>, DIY
underglaze<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/underglaze>, an amazing iron red glaze<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/iron+red+glaze>, and so much more. I was learning the power of CAD<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/3d+design>, donating 3D printers<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/3d+printer>. There were countless projects to help customers navigate the idiosyncratic clays. And for companies/people from around the world. The physical assets could have been the basis for a one-of-a-kind Digitalfire field school for DIY clay-gathering and testing. Luke Lindoe<https://rongetty.com/category/people/18> worked there. His books and the personal records, and those of past techs in the local ceramic industry are there. I knew every square inch, and resisting the demand to dismantle it two years ago got me fired the first time. It was the place I discovered smectite as a catalyst for translucency<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/translucency>, Crystal Ice<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.
php?product=12882>, 3D case molding, the amazing G2934<https://digitalfire.com/recipe/g2934> base matte<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/base+glaze> (and gunmetal black), drop and hold<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/drop-and-soak+firing> firing, how to calculate Alberta slip<https://plainsmanclays.ca/data/index.php?product=12910>, flow GLFL testing, SHAB test<https://digitalfire.com/test/shab> procedures, so many glaze chemistry<https://digitalfire.com/glossary/glaze+chemistry> success stories. Perhaps most important, records of testing and recent trips I did to Flintoft, the Blue Hills, Claybank<https://digitalfire.com/url/3605> and other sites having much better clay than the current mine in Saskatchewan (no lab has ever documented these amazing clays like I did).


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