- City
- Dexter
- State
- MI
We are sorry to have to share very bad news. Last night, the data center where the forum is housed had a catastrophic combination of equipment failures that resulted in the loss of both the active/current and backup local copies of the forum database. The active and backup copies were on separate drives and both were destroyed. There was a functional, full off-site backup of the forum, but — for reasons about which we’re not yet completely clear — the most recent remote backup is from early in the morning on May 23 of this year.
To be completely clear, this was not a hacking situation and no user data was compromised in any way, it was purely hardware-related and we are not the only site/entity that was affected.
To say that we are infuriated at this situation would be a massive understatement, but it is what it is. The company we have worked with for hosting the forum for years has failed us and, therefore, you. This is a “perfect storm” type of situation that is not supposed to be possible. At least we do have a working backup, it's just not what it should be.
Sadly, this means that all new threads/posts from May 23rd forward no longer exist, users registered since then will have to re-register, user information (passwords, emails, avatars, signatures, etc) and any paid membership upgrades/renewals are all reset back to the whatever they were in the May backup. Basically, as far as the forum is concerned, it’s as if today is May 23.
I have felt physically ill since I found out about this and typing this is beyond painful. There are no words to express how sorry we are about this situation. Obviously, there will be changes to the way we run, store and verify our backups moving forward and we’re still digging into what happened to fully understand whatever changes need to be made.
It may not mean anything, but we have needed and used our backups in the past for various reasons and have never had a problem with implementing them. It was so seamless that most users would never have known or noticed. Worth noting, we do still have all of the photos that were downloaded to our own server from Photobucket prior to them shutting down the free hosting that wiped photos off of so many internet forums.
The odds against something like this happening are absolutely astronomical.
I will work back through the membership upgrades/renewals but it will likely take some time, so be patient with me. Remember that you will need to use the password on your account from May 23. If you need to get a password reminder/reset, use the password reset function on the login page below the username/password fields.
With deepest regret and apologies,
Eric/bigwalton
I will leave this thread open for the time being, but I won't tolerate bashing or ranting. This is an awful situation but it is what it is and nothing is going to change it.
To be completely clear, this was not a hacking situation and no user data was compromised in any way, it was purely hardware-related and we are not the only site/entity that was affected.
To say that we are infuriated at this situation would be a massive understatement, but it is what it is. The company we have worked with for hosting the forum for years has failed us and, therefore, you. This is a “perfect storm” type of situation that is not supposed to be possible. At least we do have a working backup, it's just not what it should be.
Sadly, this means that all new threads/posts from May 23rd forward no longer exist, users registered since then will have to re-register, user information (passwords, emails, avatars, signatures, etc) and any paid membership upgrades/renewals are all reset back to the whatever they were in the May backup. Basically, as far as the forum is concerned, it’s as if today is May 23.
I have felt physically ill since I found out about this and typing this is beyond painful. There are no words to express how sorry we are about this situation. Obviously, there will be changes to the way we run, store and verify our backups moving forward and we’re still digging into what happened to fully understand whatever changes need to be made.
It may not mean anything, but we have needed and used our backups in the past for various reasons and have never had a problem with implementing them. It was so seamless that most users would never have known or noticed. Worth noting, we do still have all of the photos that were downloaded to our own server from Photobucket prior to them shutting down the free hosting that wiped photos off of so many internet forums.
The odds against something like this happening are absolutely astronomical.
I will work back through the membership upgrades/renewals but it will likely take some time, so be patient with me. Remember that you will need to use the password on your account from May 23. If you need to get a password reminder/reset, use the password reset function on the login page below the username/password fields.
With deepest regret and apologies,
Eric/bigwalton
I will leave this thread open for the time being, but I won't tolerate bashing or ranting. This is an awful situation but it is what it is and nothing is going to change it.
I was wondering what happened as earlier today I was only able to see my posts as recent as May 22. Its a shame as all the knowledge, build threads, and everything is gone. But as you said.......it is what it is. This site still rocks and its the first web site I check everyday.
and that means the same for the National