Many `https://github.com/chriskempson/...` links are dead

[NNBnh]

https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-textmate at

https://github.com/base16-project/base16/blob/c13a31c6a99b6921f0dd120277c142e52fc2d7b2/README.md?plain=1#L136-L138

https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-html-preview at

https://github.com/base16-project/base16/blob/c13a31c6a99b6921f0dd120277c142e52fc2d7b2/README.md?plain=1#L179-L181

https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-code-examples at

https://github.com/base16-project/base16/blob/c13a31c6a99b6921f0dd120277c142e52fc2d7b2/README.md?plain=1#L226-L228

are all dead...

[joshgoebel]

You include multiple links in each block yet I know for certain https://github.com/highlightjs/base16-highlightjs is not dead, nor is https://github.com/atelierbram/base16-prism. Could you please double check and edit your post accordingly?

[arcnmx]

it's specifically the URLs with the prefix mentioned in the title. All repos that formed the (previous) canonical upstream for base16 are suddenly gone, breaking countless links all over the place.

Notably, the original base16-schemes-source and base16-templates-source repos are now gone, which kills the v0.9 compatibility layer, and any builders that may have used github as a source for list.yaml will break.

[NNBnh]

You include multiple links in each block yet I know for certain https://github.com/highlightjs/base16-highlightjs is not dead, nor is https://github.com/atelierbram/base16-prism. Could you please double check and edit your post accordingly?

Only links from Chriskempson is dead, other links in the block are completely fine.

Instead of only show one line that contain the dead links, I expand the block for a bit too easily find the position of them relative in the file.

_{I probably shouldn't done that because it more confusing...}

[forrestli74]

This includes https://github.com/chriskempson/base16, which is really bad. It's the first page of google search "base16". It will probably get lower ranked if it continues to be broken. @belak

[NNBnh]

I notice that this repo is now a fork of mateomarks/base16 instead of chriskempson/base16...

[belak]

It looks like all the base16 repos hosted on his account are gone - I got a response from GitHub support earlier today and I've reached out for more information and to see if it can be fixed.

Unfortunately, there's a non-zero chance Chris Kempson's stuff is now gone - my guess is that he came back and took it private.

[belak]

So, here's what I've been able to figure out so far: Chris either made all his base16 repos private or deleted them, along with all the code. This made the oldest fork of those repos into the default fork. For this spec repo, that was mateomarks/base16.

I've reached out to @mateomarks via email to see if he'd be willing to transfer his fork to me so I can at least point something to these repos. However, if he doesn't reply in the next day, I think it would make sense to detach from those repos and do what we can to continue.

Either way, once that's resolved I plan to go into public relations mode - these repos disappeared for everyone everywhere which has to be annoying to anybody using them. I'd like to let people know that we'd like to continue maintaining this project and where to find us.

I am operating under the assumption that any of the repos Chris previously maintained are gone for good - if they come back, we can look at copying over the ones we don't have. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem very likely at this point.

[forrestli74]

Good work, belak! We also need to fix his other repos, like base16-vim.

[belak]

Hi all! Here's an update on what's been going on:

Firstly, because the original repos are gone, here's an archive.org link to a large portion of the conversation where we tried to move this over to an org with Chris's help: https://web.archive.org/web/20220603173440/https://github.com/chriskempson/base16/issues/74.

1. So far Chris unfortunately has not made any attempt to reach out - and we still have no way of contacting him. His website is still down and all emails sent to his email address bounce. I have sent him messages on a number of platforms, but there's no guarantee those will get any response. He has been re-invited to this org.
2. It looks like Chris blocked me on GitHub, perhaps because he's unhappy with how this went down and I previously had commit access to some of the repositories. This unfortunately means I am unable to invite him to the org any more because GitHub just throws an error, but I will see if another admin can. I tried to do it twice before now, but they expired. This also means I cannot comment on any of his other repo's issues.
3. That brings us to this: people are already filing issues (https://github.com/chriskempson/tomorrow-theme/issues/354). Unfortunately, because of the previous point, GitHub prevents me from commenting on them.
4. I've reached out to @mateomarks (who has the oldest fork of base16-spec) and @danielsz (who has the oldest fork of base16-shell) via email to see if they're willing to transfer the repos to me so we can point them at the updated repos. If anyone finds other repos (I haven't located the original base16-vim) where the default fork has been changed and the owner is still active on GitHub, please let me know so I can reach out to them. EDIT: base16-shell has been transferred. I've renamed our previous base16-shell repo to base16-shell-legacy, moved all open issues to it, and archived it - we may remove it later unless there's a reason not to.
5. I've told GitHub support that we're detaching this repo from the repo network (so it won't say "forked from ..." any more). If we don't hear back from @mateomarks in the next day or two, I will be going through with this so we can move forward.

[jgb]

Ah, thanks for letting me know! I'v updated my vimrc to point to the new base16-project and everything seems fine both for base16-shell and base16-vim, which I use daily.

Weirdly enough, the base16 repos are back online on chriskempsons github account. He deleted the issue I created on his repo tomorrow-theme and removed the issue tracker from most or all of his repos.

• jgb

[chawyehsu]

I've told GitHub support that we're detaching this repo from the repo network (so it won't say "forked from ..." any more).

I vote this up. Since the original repo has totally gone there is no need to keep the fork-of-fork network. Simply detach and move forward.

[joshgoebel]

The repos are back online. Thanks, Chris! Does anything more need to be done here? Are there any our org should fork just to preserve them for the future?

[belak]

Here’s the story so far:

1. Chris has re-uploaded his repos with a number of changes
   • History is completely gone on the spec and sources repos.
   • Spec (on his repos) is back to 0.9.1
   • Schemes sources no longer links to our repo
   • There’s a new base16-builders repo
   • Issue trackers have been removed from all his repos
   • The original base16 spec repo seems to have been deleted and recreated rather than rewritten
2. Chris still hasn’t reached out to us and I remain blocked so I cannot comment or submit pull requests to these original repos.
3. Because there are no issue trackers, there is still no way of contacting Chris or knowing his intentions or why he chose this route.
4. He seems to have declined our org invitation.
5. I’m still waiting to hear back from GitHub support about detaching our repo - hopefully that will happen today.

[belak]

I'm closing this issue - we've given as much background as we can in #51, and if you'd like discussion can continue in #52. Thanks all!