Thoughts on VNDB Preservation
As most of you know, the near-sole creator and maintainer of VNDB, Yorhel, has passed away. Yorhel has done more than any of us for bringing awareness of and information on VNs to the West, and we have suffered a massive loss for the VN community.
As much as the community needs time to grieve, it is also a matter of urgency that we have a concrete plan for how to keep the site running. Everything Yorhel had put on the internet related to VNDB, including the site itself, the git repo with code, database dumps, etc all seem to have been self-hosted. We should act under the assumption that these resources will go down in the near future unless Yorhel has left behind very specific instructions about how to keep the site going (including passwords for hosting services and such).
As far as I know, VNDB mods have not announced that they have the ability to keep the site running themselves yet, and until we have a clear understanding of the situation, we should assume that they do not have this ability.
Code and database backups
The code for the site itself is at https://code.blicky.net/yorhel/vndb.git and can be put on your own computer with a git client simply using git clone https://code.blicky.net/yorhel/vndb.git.
Database dumps are here: https://vndb.org/d14.
As the site could possibly go down at any time, I recommend anyone and everyone with the technical capability to do so to download these sources, and if possible, even get a local copy running on your computer. The site is dockerized and detailed instructions for running it are on the README at https://code.blicky.net/yorhel/vndb.git, so this should be doable for most people with a CS background.
Hosting
Normally, re-hosting a website that you have running locally is not too difficult. I believe that VNDB will be more difficult than usual.
As you may know, VNDB has representative images of every VN out there, and Japanese laws regarding images of underage-looking people are most likely more lax than those in your country of residence or citizenship. In other words, there are real legal barriers with regards to re-hosting the site.
In the event that one of us will have to re-host VNDB, whoever re-hosts the site must be absolutely certain that it is legal for them to do so, and take extra care in this sense.
I myself have the technical capability to re-host VNDB, but cannot due to my citizenship and potential legal issues that it would cause (unless I nuked many images from the site and/or banned many VNs from the site, which sort of defeats the purpose).
From my understanding, Yorhel had Dutch citizenship, and I have confirmed that the site was also hosted in the Netherlands. Anyone with Japanese citizenship would also probably be ok to host the site. I am not sure about the laws of other countries.
Community Effort
I would recommend anyone with the ability and time to do so to:
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Comment in this thread regarding whether you were able to get the site running locally or not
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Comment about whether it would be legally feasible for you to re-host the site if necessary
Furthering development on VNDB is also an issue, but not as pressing an issue as making sure it survives in the first place, so I believe those discussions should be saved for later.
Thank you for creating VNDB Yorhel, and rest in peace.
u/jsmile from JAST has put up a read-only backup, just in case:
https://old.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1s0g70p/thoughts_on_vndb_preservation/ocaen5a/
I'm able to assist.
If on the technical side, try getting a local version up with the database restored and let us know how it goes. I am currently also in the process of doing this
I have a copy running locally with the database restored. Next, I'll look into making it into a public mirror. It might take a day or two.
o7
I can try doing so too. Hoping there's no extra unknown/undocumented CLI operations to get it stood up.
There's a full mirror of the code and the dumps here:
https://dl.teitoku.net/share/vndb/
Funny that OP hasn't responded to this comment but is telling everyone else why they're wrong for not panicking lol
I upvoted it and it's good to know
It doesn't solve the "who hosts it and where" problem
Jast has offered to help whenever possible as well, so there is a path forwards there possibly.
https://vndb.org/t24792
My concern is data not included in the backup, most notably user data, discussions, etc.
If the staff have no way to get VNDB’s data I think a large scale crawl of VNDB is needed to preserve everything possible.
I’d much rather VNDB be preserved by a group like jast who are much more trustworthy given their existing site and backend, then someone suddenly taking over who could possibly host it.
With things like kaguya, I’m concerned about people who want to change VNDB (most notably the data it allows, etc). I don’t want VNDB to become a filtered website, it is a source of information rivalling egs, not someone’s AI driven hobby project.
I’m someone who in the past wanted VNDB to become more modern visually, but I’ve learned how wrong it would be to take it and butcher its existence, it’s efficient and direct.
While I absolutely understand the concern, I think this is jumping the gun a bit. It's probably best to wait until an actual decision is made by the rest of the staff on what they plan to do before trying to set up any online mirrors or other sites etc.
I don't think you're doing anything wrong, as such, and I definitely don't want to lose the database -- but I think the community should give the staff some time and space to work out their resources and options. They've just lost their friend and boss and are dealing with this harder than any of us are (not to diminish anybody's emotions).
It's worth noting that gambs didn't get along with the vndb staff and they banned his account. I'd take anything he has to say about vndb and its staff with a grain of salt.
I could potentially provide assistance with any front end issues, but honestly I don't think that's the biggest concern right now.
I did a quick WHOIS lookup on
vndb.organd it looks like the domain is set to expire on 2026-09-17 at 06:56:12 UTC. The VNDB mods are probably already aware of this.blicky.net(which hosts the nameservers and git for VNDB) is set to expire 2026-06-29 at 14:45:32 UTC. The VNDB mods are probably aware of this as well.We don't have a way of looking into the status of hosting (afaik) but the domains at least aren't going to expire until September.
If anyone is planning to grab all the data from the git + API, I would suggest you wait a little bit to see what mods have to say. A million people downloading a fuckton of data can incur a LOT of fees, and paying an exorbitant hosting bill is the last thing Yorhel's family and loved ones need. I'm sure all of us would donate to such a cause, but donations come with their own set of issues and burdens. Let's try to avoid adding "what are the tax ramifications for donations meant to pay for web hosting when the webmaster is deceased?" to someone's plate.
This seems like a well-meaning thread, but I think OP doesn't understand just how open source VNDB is, and just how much access the other admins had to it. There's no way it will just suddenly disappear forever tomorrow if we don't panic and act now.
Site preservation issues beliar alluded to are probably, at most, just things like ownership of the domain name, and the fact that the hosting may expire. Given how open source the site and its data are and how a number of mods have admin access to the full DB beyond just dump data, I would be shocked if someone like beliar doesn't have the ability to re-deploy the site. (But a new domain name and hosted site may be necessary.) I'm sure they are discussing and contemplating these issues right now, and have a lot more info than we do.
The true VNDB will always be the VNDB that is run by the people yorhel picked, who put in the time and know all the details of how to make the site work, and they are also the only people with full user data. Whether VNDB stays on vndb.org, or mods have to announce it's moving to a new domain name, that's the only true VNDB. Only yorhel passed away, not them.
The nature of VNDB as open source means that anyone can create a copy of it with enough hard work put into configuring it (without user accounts, of course) but let's not jump the gun here.
If you look at the commit activity: https://code.blicky.net/yorhel/vndb/activity/contributors
You can see that literally only Yorhel worked on the site itself. So I am not even sure if the other mods have the technical ability to run the site or not.
This, is at least a better post compared to that insensitive fk who pretends to mourn for Yorhel then shortly after advertise another site, trying to get people to jump ship.
I think waiting for the other admins post first would be the best but 1 or 2 backup won't hurt either.
Would really suck to see the site disappear as it feels like it's the cornerstone for the Western community.
All the best and RIP to Yorhel who probably is one of, if not the most important person in the community.
I just want to point out that I'd be wary if you are in Japan and/or hosting this on a Japanese server. Not because of laws around risky NSFW content, but rather about laws regarding copyright.
While it is unlikely that it will be an issue, Japanese law (and also in general Japanese "morality"*) around re-hosting artwork is veeeeeery peculiar. I've been warned before on websites like misskey, mastodon, etc for sharing screenshots of visual novels because I was "stealing" the artworks without consent of the artist and re-publishing them (on social media). I've been warned because I literally took a photo of my hand holding an ebook reader with a page of a light novel with an image on it, because I was not the owner of that drawing.
I don't think there's any legal ground for an actual takedown, to be completely honest, but it might cause some legal pains. Especially if you're a foreigner living in Japan you don't want to risk your status of residence being compromised because of a website rehost.
* - I mention "morality" because I've literally been reported a few times from random Japanese people because of "artwork sharing" as they feel like it's their own moral duty to do so, even if they have nothing to do with the author or artwork in question.
I was able to build backend and make it running month ago
BUT! d14 dumps is not suitable for creating site mirror. They are "plain" dumps that doesn't contain many of necessary data to make it compatible with own "mirror" of VNDB. So we need real raw sql dumps from production vndb database or some way to convert this plain dumps into sql-compatible dumps (but in that way we lose some important data such as editing history that is a core of vndb)
Thought I would highlight this, from the db dump page:
If anyone is interested they could archive the respective discussion pages with the internet archive.
Would be a shame to lose reviews too, especially for jp only vns, there's most likely many entries where the review on there is the only one that has been written in english, not to mention iconic ones such as demonbane or from yoru no hitsuji's games. Unless there's a separate table/column for them I'd assume they'd be counted as part of "anything discussion board related" but I'm not familiar with db's
I like the idea and would like to join the effort. I can help with technical stuff server- and database side. No hosting capabilities unfortunately. I love vndb and have always wanted to see it improved and maybe this is a good chance to do it.
I'll also pull a copy, get it running locally and see from there.
VNDB has a lot of pics without mosaic censorship, those images can't be hosted in Japan.
Hi gambs and the rest of the VN community,
I'm definitely an unfamiliar face around here (I don't read too many visual novels - I'm much more of a manga/light novel guy myself), however I heard of Yorhel's passing and how his & the community's work could potentially become lost. I would hate to see such an integral part of the otaku community be lost because of this tragic passing. So, I wanted to offer my services here.
I have a server with the following specs:
256 GB of RAM
7 TB of space (~6 TB used; would probably have to get another SSD to fit the entirety of VNDB on it, but that's no issue)
Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2 (48) @ 3.50 GHz
NVIDIA Tesla P4 GPU
runs Debian 13 "Trixie"
The server is located in New Jersey, USA, so any concerns regarding content should be a non-issue. (including "lolige" or anything similar)
I have 10+ years of experience in maintaining several projects as well as dealing with heavy abuse (including mitigating a 100 GBPS+ DDoS attack). I also have quite a bit of programming experience so while I'm not overly familiar with Perl (which appears to be what VNDB is written in), I'm absolutely willing to learn it and would probably be able to fix things should anything break.
Are you just looking for an archive? Or a "continuation" of sorts? I'd probably just do the former for now but would be happy to do the latter as well should VNDB go fully down. (Ideally if we did a continuation, someone trusted would own the domain and I'd just give them the resources/SSH access on my server.)
I'd also be willing to give you or other trusted people SSH access to the server so you can look around and see if it will fit the needs.
Let me know!
Like I said in a previous comment the best course of action is for now trying to help the mods that they will probably have problems in the long run. While OP has good intentions it is not the best solution to try to act indipendent from them imo.
What a unfortunate thing to learn this morning.. How sad.. That website has helped me (and many others) so so much. Man. Heck :(
My impression is that Yorhal had been in some sort of condition for a while? In such case it's likely he already had a contingency plan.
I hope the admins can get their act together but at the same time, redundancies are never bad.
Even if the current admins had complete access to the site, there’s no guarantee the site will continue working like before. Different leadership, different policies and enforcement. Development has effectively ceased, so the site isn’t going to get better without adding to the team.
Ideally, the site functions as before. But it’s better to have backups and not need them, then need them and not have any.
If the new leadership continues the status quo, good.
If they run the site into the ground, better to have those backups ready.
In either case, they will need a developer sooner or later. While the site is nostalgic, it’s still missing QOL features that could vastly improve user experience on the site.
I hope the best for VNDB.
In the end Yorhel trusted beliar a lot, so I wouldn't be worried about the leadership point, the moderation part was already lead and represented by beliar when Yorhel was absent. The website in fact is still running normally today, in these days there won't be immediate danger, the problem is surely in the long run which they are working on it. However your other point is correct, Yorhel was practically the only one that developed the website so they will need someone that helps in that part since it is necessary to maintain the website for multiple reasons.
As for my condition, i cannot hosted it on my country because of some restrictions.
I think they update the current condition (from the 1st post).
"Initially I wanted to wait a bit with the announcement until the moderation team can provide more information about the future of the website, however the rumour mill has forced my hand. At the moment I can only say that we are working on certain channels to preserve the website, but cannot give much information today."
Also seems some people tried to create a thread on VNDB about preservation as you concerned on current condition. May some of you interested with it can posted on there too.
Is it possible for the Internet Archive to archive VNDBs data
Just to be clear for anyone, it IS perfectly legal in the US because anime characters do not look "indistinguishable" from real humans and nothing on vndb is remotely "obscene" anyway.
Since fictional art is protected under the first amendment, wouldn't hosting the site in America be fine? (While lawmakers have tried to make art illegal, it's been overruled every single time for it being unconstitutional)