Martin
Global Moderator
HWI Management Team
Posts: 3,339
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Post by Martin on Apr 8, 2007 13:51:06 GMT
Hi Jon
I would be amazed if this wasn't possible as all systems are generally backed up at least once a day.
Roger/Dave - Is this the case with HWI?
Martin
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Post by roger on Apr 8, 2007 14:53:51 GMT
Hi Martin,
The main HWI is backed up regularly but the forum is not because it cannot be done other than by the cut and paste method into a Word (or similar) document and then the reverse to transfer it back to the forum. We simply do not have the resourses to do that. Even if we did, every post (yep, all 30,000 of them) would appear under my ID which would make it look as though I had been talking to myself for the last three years.
To answer a point made by Jon, when a post is deleted from a forum, it really is deleted. The is no way it can be brought back. At the moment, I don't believe the posts on the official forum have been deleted. I suspect they are currently merely invisible due to some software problem which may or may not have been caused by a virus.
All the above refer to ProBoards forums but I imagine Yabb is pretty much the same in that way. Decca would argue that the historical content of their forum is relatively unimportant. I know the loyal fans would disagree but, bearing in mind it takes a lot of time to run a forum, and time is money, they may have a point.
Roger
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Post by jons on Apr 8, 2007 15:01:19 GMT
But Roger do you access the forum on a code level? Each post is stored as a reply. I assume if the information on Yabb is still there then it can be reintegrated into the forum.
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Post by toronado on Apr 8, 2007 15:01:49 GMT
According to ProBoards, they keep backups of the databases, and will restore the forums to a previous backup if you post for help on their boards, but I have no idea how often they do it.
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Post by jons on Apr 8, 2007 15:09:25 GMT
Thank you Tornado! I knew they had back-ups! All the information should be there to build up a forum. Each post as reply information on were its positioned. BTW data can be retrieved from a server's hard-drive if necessary because it is not overwritten, simply invisible until it is overwritten by new information.
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Post by roger on Apr 8, 2007 15:09:49 GMT
But Roger do you access the forum on a code level? No Jon, we cannot because we don't *own* the forum in the way that we own the main site and therefore have no access to it at code level (other than to create, modify, or delete existing boards, change the skin, etc). This forum is ultimately owned by ProBoards but registered to me. Other than that, I think toronado has answered your question. Let's hope we never have to put it to the test! Roger |
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Post by Richard on Apr 8, 2007 15:11:13 GMT
Hello again folks!  The disappearance of the membership list on Hayley's official forum is almost certainly caused by the same problem. Although the current membership is shown as two, thanks to Eli and Clarissa joining during the last 24 hours, I can still log in and view members' profiles via the remaining posts. This makes me think the missing posts have been hidden rather than deleted. At the moment I can only find 51 of my 829 posts there, which means another 200 have disappeared since I checked yesterday!  Watch that space!  Richard  |
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Post by jons on Apr 8, 2007 15:15:46 GMT
Hi Roger and Richard,
In theory you could be right. All the members are there I think, apart from some that have un-registered.
I'm going to shut-up now and wait.
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Dave
Administrator
HWI Admin
Posts: 7,699
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Post by Dave on Apr 8, 2007 15:23:50 GMT
According to ProBoards, they keep backups of the databases, and will restore the forums to a previous backup if you post for help on their boards, but I have no idea how often they do it. We are lucky that Patrick the Proboards owner is highly technically competent and seems to care very much about maintaining a good reputation for them. Yes they do regular backups and I'm sure they use RAID technology and other high-tech methods of keeping the data safe. He has in the past, I have read, offered a substantial reward to anyone who can hack into the Proboards main servers (as distinct from individual forums). Therefore it is highly unlikely that any Proboards forum will suffer the same sort of problems as the Universal forums and if one does because it was hacked, yes Proboards would likely be able to restore it from their own backups. Well not unless Roger has a moment of madness and deletes everything himself and throws away the key! So don't any of you lot ever annoy him too much! I do wish there was an easy way of backing up an individual Proboards forum though - but unfortunately, there is not. The HWI main site data is of course safely backed up both on the web, PCs and regularly on (unhackable) DVDs and I have found ways of copying the occasional forum thread that I consider of particular interest, Cheers, Dave |
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Post by jons on Apr 8, 2007 15:27:17 GMT
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Post by johnpr98 on Apr 8, 2007 19:25:32 GMT
Hi All I've being reading this thread with intererest My current recomendation is not to post on any UCJ Yabb forum until UCJ have fixed the problem, Tuesday at the earliest. The UCJ forums are not stable at the moment and shouild be avoided to prevent further data loss Why is there a problem?Virus Hardware Bandwidth I don't know the answer, I've seen many forums disappear with no back up on many servers in my time, even Doctor Alan Solomon didn't get it right, I strongly recommend that any important posts are backed up, I am currently considerering pdf for those important posts. I changed Katherine's forum to log on before you see it, to help protection form any outsiders, not a UCJ directive, Gerrit has done the same on his KJI board. We are all in the same boat, the spammers, hackers are very active, back up the important posts while you still can. A easy way to restore your own back ups would be a good invention Take Care John (Admin/Co Mod on Katherine's forum) |
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Post by roger on Apr 8, 2007 19:37:39 GMT
Hi John,
Thank you very much for your thoughts and advice. I have asked the rest of the Admin/Mod team how they feel about enforcing log in before viewing the forum. It is not something that I would normally wish to do as that greatly reduces the number of people who are currently able to view information (obviously!). However, it is something that we shall consider as a matter of some urgency.
Thanks again,
Roger
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Post by johnpr98 on Apr 8, 2007 19:46:31 GMT
Hi Roger Dave and all Gerrit only enforced log in at KJI because he is away, I'm on no way trying to be a scaremonger here. 13 new members registered on Katherine's forum today, these members have disappeared as well within the last 30 minutes. A worrying time no matter who your favourite artist is, it may all be down to a faulty server? John  |
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Post by johnpr98 on Apr 8, 2007 19:55:15 GMT
One more thing The Aled Post Jon referred to has now gone, I tried to add to it and I managed to delete myself as a member and the section, which was starting from scratch again! John |
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Post by roger on Apr 8, 2007 19:58:17 GMT
13 new members registered on Katherine's forum today, these members have disappeared as well within the last 30 minutes. John Hi John, Yes, I see what you mean. There were two new members of Hayley's official forum earlier today and they've now gone too. We are hoping it is a server problem rather than something more sinister. Good luck! Roger |
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