The end of an era: the Cyburbia Resource Directory is no more

[Dan]

The Resource Directory, a hierarchical directory of planning-related Web sites, was where Cyburbia (then PAIRC) got its start in 1994.

With the advent of search engines that produce relevant results, and the exponential growth of urban planning-related sites, we stopped updating the Cyburbia Resource Directory several years ago. Keeping track of every urban planning site out there, and their constantly changing URLs, was just too much work. Instead, we directed most of our resources into the Forums and other related features that received the vast majority of this site's traffic.

We first announced the eventual removal of the Resource Directory about a year ago, and placed a notice on all of its pages.

About an hour ago, I purged the database of all tables related to the Resource Directory, removed the link directory scripts (InLink 2, which is no longer supported), and removed links to the Resource Directory. Visitors stumbling onto former Resource Directory URLs (http://www.cyburbia.org/directory/[something]) will be redirected to the Forums.

It's sad to see the Resource Directory go. For those that contributed links, thank you!

[Chet]

Dan thanks for the CRD while it lasted. In my early days on this site, it was very useful for research. But you're right, the effort it took had to have been enormous at the time. Wise choice, my friend.

[Dan]

Thanks, Chet!

Looking through the logs, most of the "people" visiting the Resource Directory were search engine bots, which seems ironic in a way.

Back in the day, the effort was enormous. One time, when the site was still hosted at UB, the database of links got deleted, and there was no backup. I had to recreate it from scratch; literally spending a few weeks surfing the Web to find as many planning-related links as I could

Considering how often URLs go bad on the list of planning job sites in the Career Development forum, it's now pretty much impossible for a human to maintain a good-sized directory of Web sites in any subject.

[NHPlanner]

It was the resource directory on "PAIRC" that got me started here...over 13 years ago...sad to see it go, but it was a necessary death.

[Joe Iliff]

Yes, PAIRC was a great resource for its time. Thanks for giving planning a "place" on the web, Dan.

[Seana]

Dan, sorry you didn't like my "R.I.P. PRD" tombstone.