<p>Scott Aaronson just <a href="http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1082">reported</a> that the Complexity Zoo is down because the graduate student that was hosting it has graduated.</p>

<p>To get the Complexity Zoo working again, we need someone to host and a copy of the site.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-31T17:44:03.747Z
What would that take ?
Suresh Venkat
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-31T12:00:50.337Z
2012-07-31T12:00:50.337Z
Tyson Williams
<p>Now that the site is again up and running, I guess anyone can download most (?) of the data (machine-readable source code, with full edit history) as follows:</p>

<ul>
<li>Go to <a href="http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Special:Export">http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Special:Export</a></li>
<li>Enter <code>Computational Complexity</code> in the field "Add pages from category", click "Add" — double-check that all relevant pages are now listed in the text box</li>
<li>Un-check "Include only the current revision"</li>
<li>Click "Export"</li>
</ul>

<p>It produces a fairly large file, approx. 160 MB.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-01T22:28:26.967Z
there's some awesome graph mining that might be worth doing on this :)
Suresh Venkat
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-08-01T22:21:54.863Z
2012-08-01T22:21:54.863Z
Jukka Suomela
<p>I cannot remark on whether the Zoo has a continuous existence on the web or elsewhere. However, there are still some proto-Zoo and Zoo-derived resources available on the web.</p>

<ul>
<li>There seems to be a copy of at least an earlier incarnation of the Zoo on <a href="http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~greg/zoology/">Greg Kuperburg's UC&nbsp;Davis website</a>.</li>
<li>A <a href="http://cse.unl.edu/~cbourke/latex/ComplexityZoo.pdf">Latex/PDF version of some state of the Zoo</a> written by Chris Bourke seems still to be available on his webspace at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.</li>
</ul>

<p>Other sources on the net seem to be links to the first (or to the URL to the <strong>stanford.edu</strong> subsite), or pieces of the second.</p>

<p>It is worth noting that the entire <strong>qwiki.stanford.edu</strong> subsite seems to have disappeared, and that google searches for "qwiki", with or without specifying "stanford", either yields references to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwiki">a multimedia product launched in January of last year</a>, or produces <a href="http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&amp;q=%22qwiki%22+stanford">the typical spoor</a> of SEO companies trying to leach off of online resources.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T15:39:40.633Z
2012-07-25T15:39:40.633Z
Niel de Beaudrap
<p>This is a non-technical question, but certainly relevant for the TCS community. If considered inappropriate, feel free to close.</p>

<p>The <a href="http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Complexity Zoo</a> webpage (<a href="http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo</a>) has certainly been of great service to the TCS community over the years. Apparently it is down since quite a while. I was wondering, if someone is still maintaining it, if it has moved, if there is a backup server, or if there are other plans to preserve this wonderful database of complexity classes, their relationships and citations to relevant publications. If not, are there comparable webpages that could be used as a replacement?</p>

<p>UPDATE (Aug 1, 2012): The Zoo is <a href="https://complexityzoo.uwaterloo.ca/Complexity_Zoo" rel="nofollow noreferrer">back online</a>, and <a href="http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1082" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Scott is looking for people volunteering to mirror</a> it to avoid any future outages.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T13:21:17.997Z
Please do not abuse cstheory.stackexchange.com as a place for announcements and discussions.  Thanks.
Tsuyoshi Ito
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T13:29:52.777Z
Have you tried to email any of the zookeepers?
Alessandro Cosentino
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T13:32:34.663Z
@AlessandroCosentino: yes, Chris Granade did respond to me. He was only involved in maintaining part of the content, but not at all with running the server.
Martin Schwarz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T13:36:33.720Z
@TsuyoshiIto: I see the concern, but I think asking the relevant community about preserving a relevant community resource is not inappropriate. Anyway, I will certaintly accept a ballot to close the question.
Martin Schwarz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T14:50:47.163Z
A question (and warning sign to the community) about the status of a valuable resource seems strictly more  pertinent a question to the study of theoretical computer science as one about [Alan Turing documentaries](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/11791/alan-turing-documentaries) or [Funny TCS-related papers etc](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/3111/funny-tcs-related-papers-etc). Of course, at such a time as the Zoo is found to be in good working shape, it would also be appropriate to flag the question as "too localized".
Niel de Beaudrap
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T14:52:03.550Z
@Niel: Existence of those questions has nothing to do with whether this question is in scope.
Tsuyoshi Ito
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T14:53:41.483Z
@TsuyoshiIto: that is true; I'm just demonstrating lower bounds which the community seems happy to accept (including those with moderator power, inasmuch as those questions are still open), supplemented with the argument that we should expect those lower bounds to be very loose indeed.
Niel de Beaudrap
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T14:53:49.570Z
Where is your question?  “Is the Complexity Zoo dead?” is not a question.  And it is sad to see that this non-question receives 9 up-votes just in two hours whereas much real questions receive much less attention.  This shows one of the worst aspects of cstheory.stackexchange.com.
Tsuyoshi Ito
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T14:59:42.167Z
By the way, I am not doubting that you posted this non-question in good faith, although it is an inappropriate use of this website.
Tsuyoshi Ito
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T15:05:51.270Z
@TsuyoshiIto: I thought that "I was wondering, if someone is still maintaining it, if it has moved, or if there are other plans to preserve this wonderful database of complexity classes, their relationships and citations to relevant publications" was enough of a question to me to surpass mere alarmism. (And it is technically answerable: for instance, there exists a [PDF version](http://cse.unl.edu/~cbourke/latex/ComplexityZoo.pdf) of the state of the Zoo at some point in time.) -- As for the popularity of this and other "soft" questions relative to others: maybe accessibility is the problem?
Niel de Beaudrap
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T18:03:05.443Z
think that the use of comments to argue whether a question is ontopic or not is not a good use of stackexchange yet it constantly happens here in the TCS stackexchange. it seems the community here is a little overzealous as gatekeepers compared to other stackexchanges. its basically a meta issue. just use the other mechanisms-- voting, closing questions in extreme cases, the meta section.
vzn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T20:04:44.790Z
@vzn is exactly on the money: this discussion is for meta
Sasho Nikolov
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T20:12:32.733Z
a discussion at meta.mathoverflow (which is similar in spirit to cstheory.se more so than other se sites) concluded that a somewhat similar question is not appropriate there http://goo.gl/Xw58f. but our question has more hope for an objective answer
Sasho Nikolov
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T20:26:57.707Z
@Martin, I am also sad that it is down but I agree with Tsuyoshi. Administrative questions about the Zoo should be sent directly to the people managing it (Scott, Greg, ...). I think a more reasonable question would be to ask for a backup version or a similar site that can be used as a replacement while the Zoo is down. I would suggest that you edit the post in that direction.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T20:54:16.897Z
There's also a snapshot of the site [here](http://web.archive.org/web/20110720050024/http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo) (as of July 20, 2011).
arnab
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-25T21:06:19.630Z
@Kaveh: I've updated the question as recommended.
Martin Schwarz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-26T04:38:24.630Z
I know that I'm a little late to the party here, but to be completely honest, questions like this keep me coming back here. We're a community, and this is relevant to me. Besides, it's a soft question. Without soft questions this site can be really dry.
Josephine Moeller
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-26T14:43:46.453Z
clarification-- seems like comments in the form "this is not TCS" are not helpful. (just downvote it only for equivalent or better effect.) comments in the form "this is not TCS & downvoted this because [xxx]" are somewhat more helpful. comments in the form "this is not TCS but it would be if it were adj'd/rephrased as [yyy] (and would upvote it in that case)" are probably most helpful/constructive. ps the Complexity Zoo is one of the more high profile TCS resources for the public, is referred to all over this stackexchange & defn deserves significant attn/care from the TCS community.
vzn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-07-27T22:59:56.217Z
@arnab: That should be an answer, and quite possibly should be the accepted answer.
Niel de Beaudrap
<cc.complexity-theory><reference-request><soft-question>
Is there a backup/replacement for the Complexity Zoo?
Martin Schwarz
# Is there a backup/replacement for the Complexity Zoo?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2012-07-25)

This is a non-technical question, but certainly relevant for the TCS community. If considered inappropriate, feel free to close.

The [Complexity Zoo](http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo) webpage (<http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo>) has certainly been of great service to the TCS community over the years. Apparently it is down since quite a while. I was wondering, if someone is still maintaining it, if it has moved, if there is a backup server, or if there are other plans to preserve this wonderful database of complexity classes, their relationships and citations to relevant publications. If not, are there comparable webpages that could be used as a replacement?

UPDATE (Aug 1, 2012): The Zoo is [back online](https://complexityzoo.uwaterloo.ca/Complexity_Zoo), and [Scott is looking for people volunteering to mirror](http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1082) it to avoid any future outages.

**Tags:** cc.complexity-theory, reference-request, soft-question
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Please do not abuse cstheory.stackexchange.com as a place for announcements and discussions.  Thanks.  
> **username_2**: Have you tried to email any of the zookeepers?  
> **username_0**: @AlessandroCosentino: yes, Chris Granade did respond to me. He was only involved in maintaining part of the content, but not at all with running the server.  
> **username_0**: @TsuyoshiIto: I see the concern, but I think asking the relevant community about preserving a relevant community resource is not inappropriate. Anyway, I will certaintly accept a ballot to close the question.  
> **username_3**: A question (and warning sign to the community) about the status of a valuable resource seems strictly more  pertinent a question to the study of theoretical computer science as one about [Alan Turing documentaries](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/11791/alan-turing-documentaries) or [Funny TCS-related papers etc](http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/3111/funny-tcs-related-papers-etc). Of course, at such a time as the Zoo is found to be in good working shape, it would also be appropriate to flag the question as "too localized".  
> **username_1**: @Niel: Existence of those questions has nothing to do with whether this question is in scope.  
> **username_3**: @TsuyoshiIto: that is true; I'm just demonstrating lower bounds which the community seems happy to accept (including those with moderator power, inasmuch as those questions are still open), supplemented with the argument that we should expect those lower bounds to be very loose indeed.  
> **username_1**: Where is your question?  “Is the Complexity Zoo dead?” is not a question.  And it is sad to see that this non-question receives 9 up-votes just in two hours whereas much real questions receive much less attention.  This shows one of the worst aspects of cstheory.stackexchange.com.  
> **username_1**: By the way, I am not doubting that you posted this non-question in good faith, although it is an inappropriate use of this website.  
> **username_3**: @TsuyoshiIto: I thought that "I was wondering, if someone is still maintaining it, if it has moved, or if there are other plans to preserve this wonderful database of complexity classes, their relationships and citations to relevant publications" was enough of a question to me to surpass mere alarmism. (And it is technically answerable: for instance, there exists a [PDF version](http://cse.unl.edu/~cbourke/latex/ComplexityZoo.pdf) of the state of the Zoo at some point in time.) -- As for the popularity of this and other "soft" questions relative to others: maybe accessibility is the problem?  
> **username_4**: think that the use of comments to argue whether a question is ontopic or not is not a good use of stackexchange yet it constantly happens here in the TCS stackexchange. it seems the community here is a little overzealous as gatekeepers compared to other stackexchanges. its basically a meta issue. just use the other mechanisms-- voting, closing questions in extreme cases, the meta section.  
> **username_5**: @vzn is exactly on the money: this discussion is for meta  
> **username_5**: a discussion at meta.mathoverflow (which is similar in spirit to cstheory.se more so than other se sites) concluded that a somewhat similar question is not appropriate there http://goo.gl/Xw58f. but our question has more hope for an objective answer  
> **username_6**: @Martin, I am also sad that it is down but I agree with Tsuyoshi. Administrative questions about the Zoo should be sent directly to the people managing it (Scott, Greg, ...). I think a more reasonable question would be to ask for a backup version or a similar site that can be used as a replacement while the Zoo is down. I would suggest that you edit the post in that direction.  
> **username_7**: There's also a snapshot of the site [here](http://web.archive.org/web/20110720050024/http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Complexity_Zoo) (as of July 20, 2011).  
> **username_0**: @Kaveh: I've updated the question as recommended.  
> **username_8**: I know that I'm a little late to the party here, but to be completely honest, questions like this keep me coming back here. We're a community, and this is relevant to me. Besides, it's a soft question. Without soft questions this site can be really dry.  
> **username_4**: clarification-- seems like comments in the form "this is not TCS" are not helpful. (just downvote it only for equivalent or better effect.) comments in the form "this is not TCS & downvoted this because [xxx]" are somewhat more helpful. comments in the form "this is not TCS but it would be if it were adj'd/rephrased as [yyy] (and would upvote it in that case)" are probably most helpful/constructive. ps the Complexity Zoo is one of the more high profile TCS resources for the public, is referred to all over this stackexchange & defn deserves significant attn/care from the TCS community.  
> **username_3**: @arnab: That should be an answer, and quite possibly should be the accepted answer.  

---

## 3 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2012-07-25. Score: 13 | Accepted answer

I cannot remark on whether the Zoo has a continuous existence on the web or elsewhere. However, there are still some proto-Zoo and Zoo-derived resources available on the web.

* There seems to be a copy of at least an earlier incarnation of the Zoo on [Greg Kuperburg's UC Davis website](http://www.math.ucdavis.edu/~greg/zoology/).
* A [Latex/PDF version of some state of the Zoo](http://cse.unl.edu/~cbourke/latex/ComplexityZoo.pdf) written by Chris Bourke seems still to be available on his webspace at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Other sources on the net seem to be links to the first (or to the URL to the **stanford.edu** subsite), or pieces of the second.

It is worth noting that the entire **qwiki.stanford.edu** subsite seems to have disappeared, and that google searches for "qwiki", with or without specifying "stanford", either yields references to [a multimedia product launched in January of last year](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwiki), or produces [the typical spoor](http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22qwiki%22+stanford) of SEO companies trying to leach off of online resources.


---

### Answer by username_9 on 2012-07-31. Score: 7

Scott Aaronson just [reported](http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=1082) that the Complexity Zoo is down because the graduate student that was hosting it has graduated.

To get the Complexity Zoo working again, we need someone to host and a copy of the site.

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: What would that take ?  

---

### Answer by username_11 on 2012-08-01. Score: 7

Now that the site is again up and running, I guess anyone can download most (?) of the data (machine-readable source code, with full edit history) as follows:

* Go to <http://qwiki.stanford.edu/index.php/Special:Export>
* Enter `Computational Complexity` in the field "Add pages from category", click "Add" — double-check that all relevant pages are now listed in the text box
* Un-check "Include only the current revision"
* Click "Export"

It produces a fairly large file, approx. 160 MB.

> **Comments:**
> **username_10**: there's some awesome graph mining that might be worth doing on this :)  

---

