From 1998 to 2025, I founded and ran the non-profit Webb-site.com (now archived at archive.org), comprising Webb-site Reports (news, opinions and analysis) and the Webb-site Database of public-source data. See the About Us page in the archive for more details, and media coverage here.
In May-2020, I was diagnosed with advanced metastatic prostate cancer. By early 2025, this was becoming debilitating and I was running out of treatment options, so I announced an orderly shutdown of the database, starting with those data which had to be collected manually, effective 31-Mar-2025. Automated data collection continued.
In Oct-2025, with my health in decline, I decided to let the dedicated server shut down when it expired on 31-Oct-2025.
But (at the time of writing) I am obviously not dead yet. I will continue to air my opinions on this substack site as and when I have the time and energy to do so. If you subscribe (for free) then you’ll get automated notifications of new items.
Regarding the database, I set up an online Webb-site Repository of all the software that I wrote to collect data, and all the pages used to display it. For as long as possible, I will update the repository with weekly data dumps, as my automated collection is still running. Hopefully, one or more public-spirited individuals or organisations will build on this, taking forward whichever parts of the database they want and making it publicly available for free, as I did.
If you are interested in working with the Webb-site Repository, then head over to the dedicated Webbrepo Substack for that.
Carpe diem, and Gar Yau!
David M Webb MBE
Founder, Webb-site.com
Stay up-to-date
Never miss an update—every new post is sent directly to your email inbox. For a spam-free, ad-free reading experience, plus audio and community features, get the Substack app.
