Author Topic: What Happened on May 26, 2011?  (Read 10407 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Richard

  • Founder
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 10227
  • Karma: 397
  • Gender: Male
    • Richard's Animorphs Forum
What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« on: May 26, 2011, 05:12:37 PM »
Short version:

Everything that happened after May 21, 2011 is lost in time. The forum went through a restore on May 26, 2011.

This means that if you made a post after May 21, 2011, joined after May 21, 2011 or even updated your profile after May 21, 2011 none of it reflects on the forum.

A small concession to our loyal members:

Board board posts will count toward post counts for a week, beginning today, ending June 2, 2011.



Blog Version:

Quote
Call it RAFpocalypse, or call it the Massive RAF Restore, but today May 26, 2011 marks the first time in our history that the forum had to be restored using a five day old backup.

So here is what happened: in the evening of May 26, I begin going through the forum, making incremental changes; one of these changes was an option to prune the forum. I often prune the forum every month or so, or whenever I have the time. By pruning, I mean removing "moved topic notices". But one of the options was to remove "all posts" prior to 7 days that are deemed inactive. This latter option was the one I inadvertently selected versus deleting "moved topic notices" made prior to 7 days.

By doing this pruning, all posts were removed that were not posted in 7 days.

This left RAF with a total of 200,000+ posts and a 200+ topics.

Having noticed what had taken place, and knowing there was no "undo" to this action (deleting posts actually deletes them, forever) I immediately contacted our host (HostGator) in an attempt to get a server copy of the forum's database.



HostGator makes a backup of all files and databases on their servers every Saturday. Unfortunately for us, Saturday last was 5 days ago. They restored the database in 10 minutes.


So in the blink of an eye, RAF lost thousands of posts, hundreds of personal messages, countless profile edits, karma updates; everything made since May 21, 2011. Even members who registered after May 21, 2011 will have to do so again.


This massive time travel will make RPGs awkward, conversations in Personal Messages weird, and certainly will make history recording spotty. It's a crippling blow, but I hope we can move past it.


Again, I would like to apologize to EVERYONE who is affected by this.

Regards,

Richard
« Last Edit: May 26, 2011, 06:01:53 PM by Richard »

Offline Phoenix004

  • RAF Ancient
  • Sr. Staff
  • *****
  • Posts: 20492
  • Karma: 710
  • Gender: Male
  • With great RAFpower comes great RAFsponsibility...
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2011, 05:22:18 PM »
For a second there I was convinced I'd gone through some kind of time warp, lol.

Crap, my PMs for the past week are gone too. Anyone who already sent me a PM regarding my world trip will have to resend it. Just noticed that even stuff like karma and activity levels have decreased. It's literally like time has rewinded... Richard, were you messing around with my time machine? :P
« Last Edit: May 26, 2011, 05:27:03 PM by Phoenix004 »
Animorphs Travels #1 The Invasion
http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?topic=10876.msg860745#msg860745

RAFcon 2015: It's always Hot Dog Day somewhere!

Offline Stephquiem

  • #1 Poster 8)
  • Gold Donor
  • *********
  • Posts: 32678
  • Karma: 615
  • Gender: Female
  • ^ Hugh. Not House, dagnabit.
    • Facebook
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2011, 05:24:30 PM »
Is there a way to get it back?

'Cause... seriously. I lost 337 posts.

Offline Richard

  • Founder
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 10227
  • Karma: 397
  • Gender: Male
    • Richard's Animorphs Forum
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2011, 05:25:39 PM »
Is there a way to get it back?

'Cause... seriously. I lost 337 posts.

Sorry, May 21 is the best I can do.

Offline DinosaurNothlit

  • Pixellated Prehistoric Paradox
  • Gold Donor
  • *********
  • Posts: 14066
  • Karma: 521
  • Gender: Female
  • RAWR!
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #4 on: May 26, 2011, 05:26:57 PM »
Has anyone tried googling Richard's Animorphs Forum and then using the cached page?

Offline Phoenix004

  • RAF Ancient
  • Sr. Staff
  • *****
  • Posts: 20492
  • Karma: 710
  • Gender: Male
  • With great RAFpower comes great RAFsponsibility...
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #5 on: May 26, 2011, 05:28:17 PM »
Just tried that Dino, didn't work.
Animorphs Travels #1 The Invasion
http://animorphsforum.com/index.php?topic=10876.msg860745#msg860745

RAFcon 2015: It's always Hot Dog Day somewhere!

Offline Stephquiem

  • #1 Poster 8)
  • Gold Donor
  • *********
  • Posts: 32678
  • Karma: 615
  • Gender: Female
  • ^ Hugh. Not House, dagnabit.
    • Facebook
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #6 on: May 26, 2011, 05:31:00 PM »
Fantastic. -_-

Offline Aluminator (Kit)

  • Most Ladylike-Robot-superhero-weak ankled Chippendale-loose cannon teleporter-1/64 ninja-not British comedian-also not Steph-Kit in spirit-Sharing member for life-cuddlestorm-bricklayer-necromancer-Hot Dog Day enthusiast!
  • Social Staff
  • ****
  • Posts: 6974
  • Karma: 416
  • Gender: Male
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2011, 05:41:36 PM »
Thanks for keeping us abreast of what's going on here, Richard. At least now I know I'm not losing it :P

Marie and Abby are my wonderful RAFsisters ^_^
Salem's Story

Offline SuperBlue

  • God
  • ********
  • Posts: 6088
  • Karma: 273
  • Gender: Male
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2011, 05:45:08 PM »
My activity bar....*eye twitches* my precious activity bar.....and my post count...........exc use me while I go cry.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2011, 05:48:30 PM by Big Blue »
Richard is really Anna in disguise!

Thread of the Year(simsRAF) and Fan Fiction of the Year(RAFamorphs)[2011] Funniest Member[2012]
Quote from: 12:34:05 AM (horsefan1023)
  Glaflafock
I'm Sealie's Wonder Twin. Jess, Cody, and Demos' brother. And Estrid and Nate's father/great grandfather(time machine, don't ask)

Offline Richard

  • Founder
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 10227
  • Karma: 397
  • Gender: Male
    • Richard's Animorphs Forum
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2011, 05:47:52 PM »
My activity bar....*eye twitches* my precious activity bar.....and my post count...........exc use me while I go cry

Sorry Blue :(

Offline SuperBlue

  • God
  • ********
  • Posts: 6088
  • Karma: 273
  • Gender: Male
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2011, 05:48:55 PM »
 I demand reparation! And by that I mean the spilling of somebody's blood! Doesn't matter who! Somebody must be sacrificed so RAF will give me my posts back!

*pulls out meat cleaver*

Any volunteers!?
Richard is really Anna in disguise!

Thread of the Year(simsRAF) and Fan Fiction of the Year(RAFamorphs)[2011] Funniest Member[2012]
Quote from: 12:34:05 AM (horsefan1023)
  Glaflafock
I'm Sealie's Wonder Twin. Jess, Cody, and Demos' brother. And Estrid and Nate's father/great grandfather(time machine, don't ask)

Offline Stephquiem

  • #1 Poster 8)
  • Gold Donor
  • *********
  • Posts: 32678
  • Karma: 615
  • Gender: Female
  • ^ Hugh. Not House, dagnabit.
    • Facebook
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2011, 05:49:42 PM »
My activity bar....*eye twitches* my precious activity bar.....and my post count...........exc use me while I go cry.

Your post count? MY post count! I lost more than anybody. :-X

I demand reparation! And by that I mean the spilling of somebody's blood! Doesn't matter who! Somebody must be sacrificed so RAF will give me my posts back!

*pulls out meat cleaver*

Any volunteers!?

I vote a random lurker.

Offline Terenia

  • Jr. Staff
  • *****
  • Posts: 10125
  • Karma: 490
  • Gender: Female
  • Got it memorized?
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #12 on: May 26, 2011, 05:50:56 PM »
I would have much preferred a real time warp. I wouldn't mind it being last Saturday again...

Oh well, it could've been a lot worse!

Best Fanfiction Author 2008
Best Roleplay Writer 2009
RAFian Artist of the Year 2010
Best Roleplay Writer 2011
Best Roleplay Writer 2013

Offline SuperBlue

  • God
  • ********
  • Posts: 6088
  • Karma: 273
  • Gender: Male
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #13 on: May 26, 2011, 05:52:40 PM »
The fact that we ended up back on the prophesied end of the world frightens me a little :P
Richard is really Anna in disguise!

Thread of the Year(simsRAF) and Fan Fiction of the Year(RAFamorphs)[2011] Funniest Member[2012]
Quote from: 12:34:05 AM (horsefan1023)
  Glaflafock
I'm Sealie's Wonder Twin. Jess, Cody, and Demos' brother. And Estrid and Nate's father/great grandfather(time machine, don't ask)

Offline Richard

  • Founder
  • Administrator
  • *****
  • Posts: 10227
  • Karma: 397
  • Gender: Male
    • Richard's Animorphs Forum
Re: What Happened on May 26, 2011?
« Reply #14 on: May 26, 2011, 06:00:29 PM »
Here's a concession (a horrible attempt at one, really).

Board board posts will count toward post counts for a week, beginning today.