State of the Forums...

Feedback to the editors about the zine not relating to any specific issue.

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Vila
Senior Editor
Posts: 45
Joined: September 19, 2020, 01:57:53 PM

State of the Forums...

Post by Vila »

By now it must be obvious to everyone that there has been a glitch in the matrix.

The bad news is that a lot of posts are now unrecoverable.

The good news is that we can rebuild.

People will have to re-register. No getting around it, if you can't log in now, you'll have to go through the registration all over again. I'm sorry, but it can't be helped. Yes, the staff and I have now learned what we can do to minimize the impact should this ever happen again. No, we did not know how to do that before. We didn't know it was necessary before this happened. Now, we do know.

You can blame this inconvenience on the spam-bots. Those buggers are relentless.

OK, here's what will happen from now on: With every new issue flip, I will run a backup of a database that saves all the forum memberships and posts. That way, if there is another crash, we will only lose the most recent month's worth of new members and posts. I have to learn how to do that. I didn't know how to so it before. Those backups will be stored in one or more of my external hard drives here at home. We will not depend on "the kindness of strangers" from now on.

I am also looking into making a backup of the entire website. Right now, it could be stored on a small thumbdrive. That backup wouldn't be as simple as firing up the old File Transfer Protocol program and clicking Copy. It'll have to be done in stages--little by little. There is a limit as to how many files can be transferred in a single go. Too many files in one gulp and the FTP shuts off. I found that out last week when I was backing up really old directories of files from back in the day, before we began our present, issue-based file system. You see, back in the day we shoved everything new into just a few directories. Those buggers got huge, and unwieldy. Now, we're more compartmentalized, with lots of tiny directories. The new way is less likely to bork the FTP. The old way is what's going to slow me down.

And no, we can't possibly put the entire website onto a single data CD. The website is just too big. I can't put a 5 pound watermelon into a 2 pound sack. Plus, there's not a way to do a multi-disk format, either. Too many files would have to be on each and every disk to make that work. But I can make backups on several different external hard drives and thumbdrives so that everything could be recoverable in an extreme emergency.

That's the plan: multiple offline backups of the site itself, updated every month as each new issue goes online, with a separate backup for the forums every month as well. The older files will be the hold-up. The newer files will be easy.

So, I'm sorry this happened, but we can rebuild. Blame the spam-bots. They caused this to happen. We'll just have to adapt faster than they do, from now on.

Dan
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Lester Curtis
Long Fiction Editor
Posts: 2736
Joined: January 11, 2010, 12:03:56 AM
Location: by the time you read this, I'll be somewhere else

Re: State of the Forums...

Post by Lester Curtis »

Also, if you find you've been deleted, please re-register using your old screen name. That way I'll be able to find you among the long list of spammers I have to delete each day. I have a list of the deleted account names.

Anyone wishing to join who has NOT had an account previously, please write to me at:

serials@aphelion-webzine.com

Put 'New account' in the topic line and give me the screen name you wish to use so I can look for it among the spam.
I was raised by humans. What's your excuse?
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Wormtongue
Poetry Editor
Posts: 39
Joined: September 18, 2020, 07:16:57 PM
Location: Emerald City, Oz
Contact:

Re: State of the Forums...

Post by Wormtongue »

I would just like to point out that I was on the other side of the planet when the events took place.

In ter net? What strange words you use!
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