OOC: State of the TBDF
Hey folks. As most of you know, TBDF's been down for a while.
First, thank you all for your patience, and I apologize for the mess this has turned into. Let me assure you that we've been working behind the scenes to resolve this -- first, to figure out what of the corrupted database can still be salvaged and restore that, and second, to evaluate and prepare for the next step. Now that the first step's been resolved (somewhat), I have some bad news for you guys.
1) TBDF is up again, but only account information (e.g. signatures), uploaded images, and PMs through June 2010 are available. If you'd like to preserve any of that, please back it up soon.
But Ephe, what happened to all the posts? The short story is that the database storing all of the forum info got partially corrupted. Unfortunately for all of us, the corrupted section was storing all of the posts.
The longer story is that TBDF has been an incredibly fragile and barely functional site these past two years, ever since a forced server migration in June 2010. While the forums continued to work and operate, the database was completely inaccessible. As a result of our nameserver woes, TBDF got reverted to the pre-migration database (which, according to our host's information, is where the site should always have been). This is why the available data doesn't extend past June 2010.
Since then, of course, TBDF's forum software has been updated, and with it the expected structure of the database. When the site was ungracefully reverted, the database table with all the forum posts (phorum_messages) became corrupted, hence the Phorum error message this past month. Normally, you can fix a table by restoring it, but since the keys got corrupted, MySQL has no idea how to even read the table. Given the size of the exported database file, it's possible the data is completely gone. Currently, that table's been replaced with a completely empty one so the forum doesn't panic. I do have a copy of the database pre-tinkering to see what else I can pull out of it, but at this point, I can't guarantee more than what is available currently.
That said, if anyone has an older (or newer!) copy of the database, please let me know. With a backup version of the forum, I may be able to restore at least part of the forum posts, which would be fantastic.
2) Given TBDF's website woes, Thierry and I are planning to switch hosts, and probably forum software too. We don't have an ETA on this yet, but we'll keep you posted once we have more details. In the meantime, please feel free to throw out suggestions on either/both here.
Wherever we decide to go, I do plan on putting up whatever skeleton of the old forums up as well as a read-only resource. Just to be on the safe side though, please back up whatever you'd like to keep now. I don't foresee the move taking place before MoP (if only because that's terribly short timing for folks to back up their info), but we'll see.
Again, thank you so much for your patience and your understanding. I know it's been frustrating/sad to see it down; god knows I still check the site daily out of habit, so I totally understand. If you've got any questions, comments, suggestions, complaints, or whatever concerning the TBDF and/or its future -- please, please feel free to talk to me. I don't bite, and I'm not easily offended, promise. ;)
First, thank you all for your patience, and I apologize for the mess this has turned into. Let me assure you that we've been working behind the scenes to resolve this -- first, to figure out what of the corrupted database can still be salvaged and restore that, and second, to evaluate and prepare for the next step. Now that the first step's been resolved (somewhat), I have some bad news for you guys.
1) TBDF is up again, but only account information (e.g. signatures), uploaded images, and PMs through June 2010 are available. If you'd like to preserve any of that, please back it up soon.
But Ephe, what happened to all the posts? The short story is that the database storing all of the forum info got partially corrupted. Unfortunately for all of us, the corrupted section was storing all of the posts.
The longer story is that TBDF has been an incredibly fragile and barely functional site these past two years, ever since a forced server migration in June 2010. While the forums continued to work and operate, the database was completely inaccessible. As a result of our nameserver woes, TBDF got reverted to the pre-migration database (which, according to our host's information, is where the site should always have been). This is why the available data doesn't extend past June 2010.
Since then, of course, TBDF's forum software has been updated, and with it the expected structure of the database. When the site was ungracefully reverted, the database table with all the forum posts (phorum_messages) became corrupted, hence the Phorum error message this past month. Normally, you can fix a table by restoring it, but since the keys got corrupted, MySQL has no idea how to even read the table. Given the size of the exported database file, it's possible the data is completely gone. Currently, that table's been replaced with a completely empty one so the forum doesn't panic. I do have a copy of the database pre-tinkering to see what else I can pull out of it, but at this point, I can't guarantee more than what is available currently.
That said, if anyone has an older (or newer!) copy of the database, please let me know. With a backup version of the forum, I may be able to restore at least part of the forum posts, which would be fantastic.
2) Given TBDF's website woes, Thierry and I are planning to switch hosts, and probably forum software too. We don't have an ETA on this yet, but we'll keep you posted once we have more details. In the meantime, please feel free to throw out suggestions on either/both here.
Wherever we decide to go, I do plan on putting up whatever skeleton of the old forums up as well as a read-only resource. Just to be on the safe side though, please back up whatever you'd like to keep now. I don't foresee the move taking place before MoP (if only because that's terribly short timing for folks to back up their info), but we'll see.
Again, thank you so much for your patience and your understanding. I know it's been frustrating/sad to see it down; god knows I still check the site daily out of habit, so I totally understand. If you've got any questions, comments, suggestions, complaints, or whatever concerning the TBDF and/or its future -- please, please feel free to talk to me. I don't bite, and I'm not easily offended, promise. ;)