Ouch! (1 Viewer)

[Pat Hartman]

I lost over 3,000 posts and they weren't from the watercooler since I rarely post there! Not to mention the 2,000 posts I lost the last time this site crashed. If Jon can't promise a better backup system, I may have to move on. I put an awful lot of effort into maintaining a presence here and I'm sure that others do also. I hate to have it all be vulnerable to a jerk who think's he's the master of the universe because he can cause disruption in the lives of others when the simple expedient of regular backups could have saved the day.

 

[ChrisO]

Pat, I totally agree.

You are the one that has lost the most, apart from everyone else like me, who almost religiously reads your posts.

But I seriously think that no data has actually been lost. I think what has been lost is the linkage to those posts. We are, by the nature of the default site software, restricted to not going back further than 500 posts.

Some of the links to, for instance the code archive, have been broken but I think the data is still there. There does not appear to have been a deletion of data, simply because the earliest post by members seems to be governed on latest post count, 500, and the forum in which the post was made. The date of the post seems to be irrelevant.

Therefore, I think what we are looking at is a site restriction on 500 posts and a hack of the linkages.

But I still totally agree.

Kind regards,
Chris.

 

[JoeSanders]

Ms Hartman,
As one who has benefited from your knowledge (and you’re willingness to share it) I implore you to continue your mission.

This is not different from any act of vandalism or even terrorism for that matter; we cannot allow destructive elements in our world to deter us from positive pursuits.

People rarely get a chance to meet someone like yourself, willing to assist and teach us, in the way you have. Many of our careers have benefited from your work.

Thank you and all of the generous people on this board.

 

[raskew]

Chris -

Tend to agree with your analysis. It shouldn't be too difficult to go back to the host and determine if the data still exists in a usable format.

If it does, are the software folks (i.e., VB Bulletin) involved in the recovery effort? It'd just be nice to know what efforts are in progress to restore the site, and we don't seem to be getting any meaningful updates. Everyone's gone silent?!

Jon--can you 'chime in' on this?

Bob

 

[Jon]

The vBulletin team did the best they could to restore the data, so I am told. They have told me the data is gone. But I kind of suspect that what they are saying is they don't know how to get to this data. I supplied a backup which was about 1 year old, which had some of the table structure information in it. They said that would help. After they used this, they could get back some of the forums. However, I get the feeling that when they used that, it may have deleted the other forum info. Anyway, they inform me they cannot recover anymore.

Currently, I have installed phpMyAdmin and am trying to download the data and structure. However, it is not letting me so I will get onto technical support. The site uses a host that has been around for ages, since the forum was set up a very long time ago. This host does not have the typical cpanel you normally get and it has very limited features. I left it there due to the fear of losing forum information when transferring to another host. But their facilities seem to me - especially after what happened - to be inadequate. For a start, I would have thought they would have had more than a one day backup. Is it normal for a hosting account to just back up for one day? My lack of backups was due to it pushing my traffic levels into a prohibitive costing bracket for the hosting and also the need to send elivated support tickets to the people concerned just to do a backup. The traffic caused by downloading the nearly 2 gig of data would have pushed me into the next tier up hosting bracket which was 5 times more expensive, believe it or not.

Anyway, it would be a pity to see you go Pat. In a way, it is like the "terrorist" who did this is getting their way, which is to ruin these forums. That would be a crying shame.

My intentions are to:

1. Upgrade to the latest and most secure version of vBulletin.

2. Restore all the orginal forum sections (even if we can't get the data).

3. Restore moderator privaledges but ask that all passwords are changed.

4. Make a backup of the latest posts and structure.

5. Find a better host (maybe a dedicated server?) that will give me cpanel, phpMyAdmin and other features, so that the administration of these forums is far easier.

I'm hoping for continued support with these forums. It is such a shame that someone has tried to spoil them but I will do my best to get them back up and running again.

 

[Vassago]

I lost over 3,000 posts and they weren't from the watercooler since I rarely post there! Not to mention the 2,000 posts I lost the last time this site crashed. If Jon can't promise a better backup system, I may have to move on. I put an awful lot of effort into maintaining a presence here and I'm sure that others do also. I hate to have it all be vulnerable to a jerk who think's he's the master of the universe because he can cause disruption in the lives of others when the simple expedient of regular backups could have saved the day.

I implore you to stay as well Pat. Rest assured that most of the regulars on this forum feel your anger in losing such valuable information. Now is not the time to quit, but to build a new and better forum with even more information and less B.S. than the old one.

 

[Pat Hartman]

I really don't want to start again elsewhere. Perhaps if Jon threatened the existing host with moving the forum, they might step up to the plate (American baseball metaphor) and do what they should have been doing all along.

PS, Jon, the former moderators seem to have lost their moderator status as part of this mess.

One other thing. I still wouldn't be here if I hadn't happened to log on with my laptop yesterday. People who don't think to clear their cookies and web cache still can't get in. I only just got access from my desktop tonight. If it is possible to send an email to all registered users with instructions and an explaination, that would be good PR and keep the site from loosing many members.

 

[Pat Hartman]

What's happening? I'm getting nothing but blank pages except for this thread.

Nevermind - I made the mistake of changing the forum style back to Access World. That seemed to make everything except the one post I had made at the time, inaccessable. Once I cleared out the cookies and cache, everything came back. Better warn people about that also

 

[Kodo]

AHHHH!
if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

 

[skea]

Pat,even when i clear my cookies and cache,i will and another time will not log in through the normal forums login.
I need to first go to the thread i need then click post-reply so that it can prompt for the Sign-In. there it takes me direct, but alas, i cant access the Access-World Forums index.php page again.
Folks what we should understand from Jon is that most of the data is gone Lets accept it that way and move on. Let alone the water cooler bunter and the code/samples forum, this forum is based on a question answer approach, as long as the users dont go, i for one truts that before christmas, the forum will be as before. So lets stand by Jon and not stab him, he is way too much in confusion at the moment.

 

[Rich]

AHHHH!
if there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

Yes, catch the bas....s who keep stealing my posts!

 

[Jon]

I have downloaded the structure and will be updating the forums to a new version today. This should sort out the cookie problem.

 

[jrjr]

What's happening? I'm getting nothing but blank pages except for this thread.

Nevermind - I made the mistake of changing the forum style back to Access World. That seemed to make everything except the one post I had made at the time, inaccessable. Once I cleared out the cookies and cache, everything came back. Better warn people about that also

I was getting blank pages even after clearing cookies and cache. Going into my profile and changing my forum skin to 'Forum Default' fixed the issue for me as well as some others that had the same trouble.

 

[JoeSanders]

Jon,
I meant to thank you earlier as well. I, and I imagine we, thank very much for spending your time and money to provide us with such a valuable place.

Also to all the mods and decision makers. Thanks for keeping the Watercooler completely without limits. I have seen some people actually learn a little about life, from each other there.

 

[Vassago]

Yes, catch the bas....s who keep stealing my posts!

It wasn't me, it was the one armed man.

 

[Pat Hartman]

In my house, it's always the cat who did it.

 

[JPritch]

Ms Hartman,
As one who has benefited from your knowledge (and you’re willingness to share it) I implore you to continue your mission.

I didn't know "Pat" Hartman was a woman. I had just assumed...well shame on me!

 

[Vassago]

I didn't know "Pat" Hartman was a woman. I had just assumed...well shame on me!

You think a male could have that much knowledge stored up in there of complex calculations and pages of code?

 

[Rich]

Since Pat doesn't object to being seen as one of the lads, I wonder if she stands her shout at the bar?

 

[Pat Hartman]

I once danced on a bar. Does that count?