Announcement Website Update Dumpster Fire

[Matt Derrick]

I apologize for the weirdness with the website over the past two weeks.

I attempted an upgrade of the forum software we are using and the short version is that it did not work out the way I had planned.

Due to some misconfigurations of the server and some mistakes on my part, I did not notice some of the most major problems until well after a week after the upgrade was made.

The biggest problem was that some images were missing, but there were also a few errors with the database resulting in weird posts not appearing where they should be.

Unfortunately due to the way the upgrade process was designed, I lost the photos on many (but not all) of the threads that were promoted to our 'featured threads' section. This is particularly depressing to me since these were awesome photos in some of the best content that was contributed to StP.

I decided to roll back the website to a backup from 12/31/17, approximately two weeks ago. Unfortunately once again, the way the upgrade process was designed combined with the particular server configuration I had set up meant that the photos could not be recovered for these posts even after restoring from the backup.

So, I'm currently working on restoring photos from what few backups I have (mainly for my own articles and some stuff that was archived on the way back machine) but unless the original author can re-upload the photos, they are permanently gone.

Fortunately, this only effects about 30 threads in total, so anything that wasn't in the featured threads/articles section should be fine (which is 99.9% of the site) and their photos should show up properly.

As for any upgrades, StP will be sticking to the current version of the xenforo software (1.5) for the foreseeable future. We will not be attempting an upgrade to the new version (2.0) anytime soon; at least until more addons become available and I do more thorough testing on an server separate from the StP website.

Also, I will be looking into moving the website way from our current host (Linode.com) to a new host (most likely digitalocean.com) in the next 2-3 months (after I've spent our current credit with Linode). This is because their experimental 'block storage' feature was largely to blame for this loss of data and general confusion with the upgrade.

Keep in mind that any content posted or changes to your account made between 12/31/17 and 01/10/18 has been irrevocably lost and will need to be repeated.

I apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any questions or need assistance with anything please feel free to send me a message or post in this thread.

 

[Koala]

When will I learn to back up my stuff!!!! Lost my 'through the night to albuquerque' story that I put up right after the new update went live. Damn.

Glad nearly 100% of the posts are still around tho! Thanks for keeping us updated

 

[Matt Derrick]

When will I learn to back up my stuff!!!! Lost my 'through the night to albuquerque' story that I put up right after the new update went live. Damn.

Glad nearly 100% of the posts are still around tho! Thanks for keeping us updated

yeah, im super sorry about that, i feel awful about it. you might try and see if some of the pics got captured on http://web.archive.org/

 

[Matt Derrick]

well, here's some good news.... i found an old copy from august 2017 that should have all the missing photos! yay for making multiple backups! i just gotta go to town where the internet is good and download the 14gb file and see what's inside...

 

[quad8]

I appreciate what you're trying to do to ensure the integrity of this community without too much of a compromise. I know that it's a bitch within a bitch to deal with databases and message board software because I been there myself. It's not easy and it doesn't always get any easier. The only thing I was good at was PHP, phpMyAdmin/MySQL, and phpBB which we know is open source message board software. I used to create custom templates for phpBB back when it was version 2.x but I retired from all that.

 

[Jerrell]

I rarely acknowledge that I know anything (and honestly have forgotten a LOT) about the world of IT. Even though it was my job for the better part of two decades. haha
I've made similar mis...calculations myself. So yeah, I also feel your pain.

 

[salxtina]

Thanks for the updates. The "Nancy Minus" thread seems to have disappeared, any way to get it restored?

 

[Matt Derrick]

If it was posted between the dates listed above, I'm afraid not.

 

[Hobo Mud]

At least your doing everything in your power to continuously update and make the site better. I think your doing a fantastic job and all the hard work you have put into STP is certainly recognized. Keep on keeping on brother.