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Paul has died after a short illness... He was not yet 60 years old.

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Weia - can you clarify? Which Paul?

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'Our' Paul, the Paul Beuk of this excellent website.

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I am shocked - Paul was such a force, and made such an enormous contribution to the study of Diptera through setting up and maintaining the Diptera.info website. He will be greatly missed. Condolences to his family and colleagues.

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Paul was diagnosed with cancer somewhere half of February and it was instantly clear it was beyond cure.... prognoses was he had several weeks to live. It turned out to be only several days, once we got informed. He suffered from serious pain in leg and back, so at least the suffering is over.


Theo

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I guess it is appropriate to post the mourning card here

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Great dipterologist and Paul Beuk has determined many species in this site. Of course diptera.info will endure for many and many years too. So in a way Paul Beuk will be always present.
My sincere condolences.

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This is really a shock! What a tragic! Paul Beuk was an institution for me since I discovered this website more than 20 years ago.

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Two or three weeks ago, Paul kindly sent me pdf articles I requested...
It's a nightmare!
Paul's death cannot be undone. I'll get down to business. The best thing that can be done to honor Paul's memory is to continue his work, not to let Diptera.info die with him.
For example, I have some free funds. Please let me know (I don't know who I'm contacting right now) how I can be of help.

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Does Paul as administrator have an heir? This web site will fail over time without maintenance and a server to run on.

I might be able to help with technical issues and hosting. I am not a PHP wizard.

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Hi John,
Thanks for your offer. We will look into it, after March 8th.
Your offer is well noted
Theo

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Very sad news. This site changed my life by introducing me to dipterology. I am very grateful to Paul for this, and also for all his kindness towards me whenever we interacted. My condolences to family and friends.

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I do not know, what to write...
Excellent dipterologist, good man, always prepared to help...
We will miss you, Paul!
Libor

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Yes, he will be a great loss to Dipterology. I think I am still one of the only Admins on diptera.info and am happy to help out, but the site probably needs more admins and obviously secure hosting.

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My sincere condolences; I am very sad and touched.
Michel

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RIP, Paul.
We should pay our tribute by making every effort to continue diptera.info.

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I'm appalled! My heartfelt condolences to Paul's family and friends.
Eric

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My condolences to his family
I met Paul once when he came to the UK, he showed me how to net Pachygaster atra from the underside of leaves. What an immensely friendly fellow. Only yesterday I mentioned him on iNaturalist to a fellow Netherlands recorder.
He will be very much missed

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I'm shocked! It's a devastating loss—my deepest condolences to Paul's family and friends.

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... Condolences to Paul's family and friends.

If it is any help, I am IT educated so can try to help where needed.

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diptera.info is synonymous with Paul Beuk. I wish that i had a cure for cancer and a time machine to save Paul's life. Dominus vobiscum, Paul. For everyone else here: please visit your doctor regularly for checkups.

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I just want to place this thread first.

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Indeed.

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I don't know what to say, it is so devastating.

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So, due to the passing of Paul, this website has no owner and no webmaster any longer.
Clearly, this needs to be tackled if we wish the website to stay alive. I am in contact with Paul's daughter and Paul's wife and daughter would like the website to stay alive as well.

This is only possible if somebody or somebodies are volunteering to take over the website.
If you are seriously interested, give me a PM.


Theo

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I consulted with my friend, she is a good specialist. She said that the website was hand-written by Paul. I see three reasonable possibilities.
1. Paul's wife and daughter if they want and can.
2. 2nd and the best is John Carr, administrator of BugGuide. If he agree I'll transfer him 1000$.
3. To move diptera.info to Russia. It maybe doubtful because of present political situation. However, I'm ready.

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HI Nikita

Thanks again. Option one is not an option, so your option 2 becomes option 1. We first need to get control over the website and the cash flow. At the moment, I am in contact with his daughter, but I am afraid she known little to nothing ... but work in progress.


Theo

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well, i am a PHP programmer and web developer. If John cannot undertake this project and you have no other options, then you can consider transferring the forum to me. I would have to have all of the files from the serve including the database. We would have to find a host from Germany, where i live. I would need time to transfer the domain name to a new host as well. Do not panic. Let me know if you cannot find a resolution...

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Not exactly. The forum is powered by http://www.php-fu... (PHP Fusion). The latest version was launched in 2022. This means that the software is not actively developed anymore. The gallery is probably hand-written.

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Actually, this is also not entirely true. It seems to me that the whole website is PHP fusion. And it is still being developed, last release was in february: https://github.com/PHPFusion/PHPFusion.

Dieter

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I have only just learnt the sad news and am deeply touched. My thoughts are with Paul's family and all his fellow dipterologists who have to mourn the loss of a wonderful person.
The website, which has developed into a worldwide meeting place for all those interested in Diptera and has produced a large number of scientific findings, must be preserved as Paul's legacy. However, given the international significance it has now achieved, it should no longer be managed from the private desk of a single expert. Any entomological research institution of renown (which also has IT specialists) should consider itself fortunate to be able to continue such a project and thus enhance its own reputation. (That would be the ideal case, but we know what taxonomic research is like these days: economising, cutting back, cancelling...) All forum members who are still actively working in universities, museums or institutes should examine the possibilities in this regard, perhaps third-party funds can be raised in addition to donations.
Unfortunately, as a retiree who is not actually an entomologist, I have no adequate contacts and my voice does not carry the necessary weight. But as far as I can, I would definitely like to support the continuation of Diptera.info.
Kind regards to all friends, Sundew

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Dear dipterologist: time for an update on the host / management situation.
Paul's wife and daughter have been a great help in getting access to all the control panels of diptera.info. And it appears we have succeeded. In any case, I'd like to introduce you to Chris Raper and John Carr as new superadmins for diptera.info. They both have been long and outstanding members of this website and both are quite knowledgable on the computer php stuff etc. Let me know what you think!

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Of course, payment is an other issue. As far as we (Chris, John and myself) are aware of, there are no payment issues on short notice. Of course, running a website costs money, for payment hosting compagnies etc. So the new management is not responsible for paying for the website themselves, this community is ! Some members have already offered donations, for which we are grateful.
On the long run, we feel it might be better to get the site hosted at some institution, since the financial risks might be (too) big for individuals.

Let us know what you think (either here or in a PM) !


Theo

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Theo,

Great news.
As a webmaster of entomoloy websites, I know the work involved in maintaining such sites on the long run.
I don't have free time for this (I'm now 77), but I'll always be there if needed.
Good luck to Chris and John.

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That is good news indeed. Good that two very active members like Chris and John are willing to take care of the site as super-admins! Thank you Chris and John!

As far as the payment is concerned, I just made a new donation. I noticed that information about the donation was sent to:

Webwinkelgegevens
muscapaul@gmail.com

So, that may need to be changed also.

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We think we have access to all the management interfaces needed to keep the web site working: domain name registrar, server hosting, and diptera.info admin access. In the next year we will need to upgrade the operating system for the server. An upgrade button on a control panel invites us to press it. Pressing it comes with some risk. We do not have a plan for making system backups.

We also think we know all the bills that need to be paid to run the site. There is a monthly bill for hosting and a few annual bills for domain name registrations. We do not have a long term plan to pay the bills. Paul's family will make sure the next monthly charge to his credit card goes through. Paul's family also has access to his PayPal account. The server hosting and domain registry accounts need to be transferred to a new owner with a new billing method.

As mentioned, an institutional owner could provide stability. Donations to schools and museums can come with tax benefits. The expense may be too small for a school to be willing to accept targeted donations for use only to run the site. Accountants need to see a return on investment for the cost of setting up a new fund. Donations may need to go to the entomology department as a whole, or the institution as a whole.

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Tribute to Paul in dutch most important newspaper

https://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/paul-beuk-1965-2025-gold-internationaal-als-een-autoriteit-op-het-terrein-van-de-tweevleugelige-insecten~bb42e2c8/?referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fduckduckgo.com%2F


(Maybe not open access)

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By the way, big thanks to Gerard Pennards for this

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A shocking news. RIP!

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I just read to my horror the article about the death of Paul Beuk in my newspaper (Volkskrant).
Hard to imagine that he is no longer with us. Of course much too young. He rests in peace. Good to read here that his work is being taken over on Diptera.

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Thank you Gerard. Good newspaper article!

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Just a quick update from myself...

Obviously, a big thanks to Carin, Paul's widow, and to Meike, his daughter, for helping us unpick the situation with Paul's hosting etc. and for their commitment to maintaining Paul's legacy.

Nikita has made a very generous offer of funding and we are just working out the best way to move these funds to the hosts.

Next we really need to build a much broader team of diptera.info members who can help act as Admins but also people who can help with securing funding / support for diptera.info going forward. I don't have any strong feelings on how we should achieve this yet so I'm open to suggestions.

My time is going to be fairly short this summer as my father has broken his back and needs a lot of support from me - and lives 2.5 hours away, so I have to do a lot of travelling in and around a full-time job and looking after family here. If we could get a few more minds to help with this and do some of the organisation and administration then that would take pressure off the 3 of us and help us move forward without depending on a few people.

Anyway, I think we should open up discussion and see what the active members think.

Chris R.