Forum Outage and Postdisappearance

[Ogion]

Hi all,
It seems, after the forum downtime of the last half day or so, that they (the server hoster) have rolled in a backup from around the 4th of July, thus erasing the posts from since then. I have no idea why that was, but i guess they will have had their reasons.
(Just so you know, we are thinking about the possibility of moving to another server or even another hosting company, but we need to talk with the forum creator, who is a bit tough to reach).

Ogion

 

[Deleted member 1424]

The PMs were deleted as well.

 

[Toad]

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo my pm's and posts...!!!

 

[echoplex]

Wow, I'd be upset if I had posted something long and thoughtful in the last few days, only to see it get deleted. Of course, it's quite rare that I do such a thing anyway.

Now I'm scared to post. What if it gets deleted too?

 

[Ulysses]

Let this be a lesson to you all. >:0

 

[Artifice Orisit]

Oh, so this is what it is.

I was freaking out because I've got old PMs showing up as unread, for about ten minutes there I was terrified that I'd ended up in a parallel universe and I had unwittingly stolen that Cognisant's laptop.
Do you have any idea how terrifying it is to think you're going to be hunted down and killed by yourself; I've always been very firmly against interdimensional duplicates invading my turf, the whole "stealing the laptop" thing wasn't going to win me any sympathy points... although I suppose it would make an excellent hostage.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Yesterday was definitely a good time to catch up on those three lengthy PMs I needed to write...

This situation is rather distressing to me...

...So, I guess you're recommending saving a copy of everything we write until something is fixed about the situation?
​

 

[Ogion]

Well, it would only be a bad fix but you could copynpaste everything you think is important to a textfile, while or after posting, so that should the forum have another crash, you would still have it on file.
Actually, this should be standard procedure anyway. There is no warranty that for example a forum will always be accessible, that your posts are always there etc. In fact, the probability is really high that every form of forum, blog or whatever will only be temporary. You shouldn't count on your stuff being here infinitely. So always save to your computer the stuff that you find interesting, important etc. And make backups of it too, cause hard drives also are not eternal means of storage...

Ogion

 

[Xel]

Lets do the time warp again!

Darn it I may have to make my thread on Emotion again. I could possibly make it better than the first time though.

 

[Toad]

lol @ Cog

 

[eudemonia]

Ogion, how much does it cost to maintain the forum? It seems that its a serious weakness having to rely on someone who does not participate. Maybe we could all donate or something?

 

[walfin]

Our thoughts will live on forever.

The material world is but transient.

Let it be.

 

[zxc]

Noticed today that the Bill Hicks thread I started recently had disappeared completely... At first I read a little too much into it... hehe.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

PMs indeed lost. I only got 2 stories saved for the writing brawl. Damn, I didn't see this coming.

 

[fullerene]

I was talking to lor about it, nia, and it's not so much that ragnar doesn't participate as it is that he doesn't believe it's ethically sound for the owner of something to participate in it or have any say in how it's run. Also: it wasn't his fault. He pays for it to be hosted by a company that hosts websites, and they had server problems. Every website on the server had to be reset back a few days.

 

[Toad]

How much does it cost for hosting?

 

[Ogion]

Without knowing anything about Ragnars specific contract with asmallorange, here is their page for the standard deal:
http://www.asmallorange.com/hosting/shared/.

Ogion

 

[Toad]

Who is Ragar...I thought Lightspeed was in charge?

 

[Ogion]

*Ragnar (sry, my typo) is the one who pays for the hosting. I think Ragnar and lightspeed together made this, but Ragnar pays the bills.

Ogion

 

[Kidege]

wow. that hurt.

and, what had Decaf said? Decaf? what did you answer to the GGG post? <--- measure of a human being's depth.

 

[walfin]

PMs indeed lost. I only got 2 stories saved for the writing brawl. Damn, I didn't see this coming.

OMG, the poor sods whose stories vaporised.

I hope they have backups.

 

[Decaf]

wow. that hurt.

and, what had Decaf said? Decaf? what did you answer to the GGG post? <--- measure of a human being's depth.

I think I called Cog a Zonder... can't remember now though

 

[Kidege]

A "Selonian Jedi Padawan who worked as a crime fighter in Imperial Center's lower levels."?

 

[Decaf]

A "Selonian Jedi Padawan who worked as a crime fighter in Imperial Center's lower levels."?

When you made the first GGG comment I was unfamiliar with Dan Savage so I assumed the anime reference, GaoGaiGar. But if you meant Good, Giving and Game, then clearly I missed the boat

Oh, and I like your new(?) sig

 

[Kidege]

Thankies

Now we'll never know if CK's indeed GGG

 

[preilemus]

okay, my parents blocked this site, so my appearance on here is going to be very scarce until

A) school starts again
B) i get a laptop
C) i beef up my hacking skills

I will still be on here and irc occasionally though, as there is a computer at my place of work.

dont expect to see much of me in the meantime, though

EDIT: wow, just realized this is the wrong thread, but whatever. the damage is done

 

[Tyria]

okay, my parents blocked this site, so my appearance on here is going to be very scarce until

A) school starts again
B) i get a laptop
C) i beef up my hacking skills

I will still be on here and irc occasionally though, as there is a computer at my place of work.

dont expect to see much of me in the meantime, though

Hope to see you back on when you have any of those things, Glovehead. We will miss seeing you as much.

 

[FireHawk]

Oh, I have not been on much on account of my computer's death. I hope to be on again around Tuesday.

 

[Ogion]

We have an Absence of the Forum thread btw...

Ogion

 

[preilemus]

my bad, ogion. move it if you want to

 

[Ogion]

Nah, i'm too lazy

Ogion

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Well...

That crash wiped out nearly two weeks of content. PMs cleared out, too...

This is pretty desperately bad, in my opinion... Has there been any luck reaching the forum's owners?
​

 

[Anthile]

No.

Only that this is not longer acceptable. We cannot even get a backup and upload that on another server.


I don't really know what to say except that I am really disappointed and angry at the moment.
There is nothing we can do and I feel really sorry for that.

 

[fullerene]

wait, seriously? Again?

 

[Jesin]

OK, yeah, this is bad.

Unless someone else is using that Youtube account, Ragnar was on the internet yesterday, so we should be able to contact him. I hope we can.

EDIT: I just sent him a message on Youtube.

 

[loveofreason]

Supposedly Ragnar takes weekly backups.....

so not sure why we lost two weeks...

bloody depressing.

 

[Kidege]

What!?

Aarrgh.

 

[Anthile]

Supposedly Ragnar takes weekly backups.....

so not sure why we lost two weeks...

bloody depressing.

The most depressing part is that I have issues with making new postings. Actually I wanted to open some new threads at this weekend but the forum was mostly unavailable for me.
But now? Who knows if it's still there when I come back the next time.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Aye, I'm with you there, Anthile.

I did start saving copies of my posts since the last crash... but almost none of the posts to which I reply are there... to say nothing of the threads which are entirely gone.

Personally, I'm all for whatever measures can be taken stop the decline, myself. Without the ability to trust the forum to keep existing I can't see much reason to be actively posting.
​

 

[fullerene]

I lucked out a bit, this time, cause I didn't have any really important posts or PMs deleted. Still... 2 weeks is a hella lotta content, and I'm sure many others weren't so lucky.

 

[Agent Intellect]

should make a new forum and move there. one thats actually owned by someone active on it.

 

[Razare]

Haha wow, I've just noticed the forum went poop. Was looking for my post from yesterday and couldn't find it. Thought I had lost my mind and imagined posting it.

 

[loveofreason]

Beware the phrase nazi, cryptonia... you lucked in technically, because things went your way. Lucking out is losing.




I want my messages back... there was a detailed record of my insanity over the last two weeks.

*sigh*

But then a handful of people can be relieved that they don't have to respond to more of my insane, self-absorbed, not-even-cognisant ramblings.

Luck is a funny thing, eh?



edit: I've been thinking about that AI... if Ragnar still doesn't show up I guess that's exactly what we'll have to do...

 

[Razare]

Nooooo...!!! I lost my high score in Hexxagon!

 

[Sapphire Harp]

Nooooo...!!! I lost my high score in Hexxagon!

Oh come on now... those records have been disappearing for months.

Actually, I wonder if they stem from the same problem?

​

 

[Artifice Orisit]

But then a handful of people can be relieved that they don't have to respond to more of my insane, self-absorbed, not-even-cognisant ramblings.

Eh, what?

 

[Thread Killer]

I stopped back here and saw the mess. I guess no one has successfully contacted ragnar?

How unfortunate.

 

[Ragnar]

I stopped back here and saw the mess. I guess no one has successfully contacted ragnar?

How unfortunate.

Hi

No, no-one successfully contacted me, but coincidentally I selected this morning to upgrade vbulletin, which seemed to go ok. As for the hosting I shall discuss this with the admins. I am sorry to hear about the losses --- this was no doubt due to the massive ddos attacks upon A Small Orange this month which crashed their servers --- and many other fora --- as I mentioned elsewhere. I don't think any host can be blamed for acts of viciousness, and they have contacted the FBI --- which will not help this embroglio.

Yes I take weekly backups: sometimes more frequently; but in this situation that does not help since, a/ restoring a database means all subsequent posts would be lost, and b/ a past backup would not work in the upgraded vbulletin.

The upgrade ought to fix errors of the database, but not help the poor hosting, nor protect such hosts from ddos attacks --- perhaps religiously inclined members might care to remember the attackers in their prayers, preferably with mention of sudden death.


And no, I shall not participate here as a member. It gives too much weight to the owner since he or she always has the last word in disputes, and there's always the temptation to say 'This is how it shall be.' solely based upon the unstriven power of ownership. Power needs to depend upon legitimacy, not money. Besides which one-man-band forums suck.



Ragnar


BTW the smilies here are awful. I'll look into that.

 

[Anthile]

Oh well, that seems like a Deus Ex Machine ending.

Odd, I remember that I looked in the ASO forums together with Jesin but we didn't found anything useful.
I just hope that moving isn't necessary and that we can fix the problems with ASO.

Anyway, update seems to be successful.


Grüße nach Deutschland

 

[Thread Killer]

Well, he apparently doesn't or hasn't used this forum, so yeah, that sucks.

edit: wop, didn't see your post. just inputed in since I had to leave right away. Good to hear.