What about moving to a new site? I don't know much about it, and I don't know the cost, but maybe we could all chip in to move us somewhere with better "customer service"? I know I'm talking more like starting over, but even though I haven't come here much lately, I'd hate the site to disappear If you need help Ken, I'm betting a lot of us here would help with whatever you need? denise
Thanks, but I can't move the database unless I have access to the database. Trust me, it has nothing whatsoever to do with money. I don't have access to the database because the hosting company was sold from one company to another, to another, and another, and I don't know why nothing is being done. I am getting replies from them again, but still not what I need. Ken
I get it now Ken, sorry I didn't realize the "big picture" So you would literally have to start from scratch
Ken has talked with us about this before, and while it IS an option, it is pretty much our last-ditch kind of option. We would lose every bit of content we have from here, like posts from older members who have since passed away (like our dear Ina), and just lots of topics that we refer back to every day. @Nancy Hart has literally years of her diary on here, and that would all be lost if we have to start over. So, we are all putting up with this as best as we can, taking breaks when it is down, and hoping that eventually, the hosting people will cooperate with Ken and get us moved to a better server, or at least give him access to the database.
Is there any way people can download things like their diaries they want to hang onto? I know that would be an overwhelming job. I really think people should be prepared, as best as we can be, in case the site goes down and stays down. Hate to be like the Grim Reeper, and it would be sad to lose all the info for sure but I've never had so many red-flags on this site as I'm having now. I'm sure everyone here is making the best of it The internet is not a reliable place to store anything, and all my pictures for example, that are on Google Drive, are backed up to USB flash drives. Probably an external hard-drive would be a good thing for anyone have a lot to back up Come to think of it, Ken did say he doesn't have access at all, to his database so he sure can't back that up
I'll start backing up things I want to keep now. Please give a heads up if you decide to start all over. It will take me a while, but I can pull an all-nighter if necessary.
I didn't get this at first either, but Ken probably won't have any warning, and he can't even get to the database himself. This new company won't answer his call for support/help. Boy do I know what that is like, every time I have to call a company and can't even get a human on the line, just an agonizing listen to some recorded "AI" message. I think it's good to back up your stuff though. Let me know if I can help. One thing I do that's pretty easy, but I do understand you have years of text @Nancy Hart, but use the "cutting" tool to make a picture. I have Windows 10 and 11 on my puters, so if you have Mac/Apple, than someone else could maybe help you with that denise PS if you want to save text you can copy and paste into a new forum, for example, just highlite the text, and copy into a Notepad if you have Windows, or whatever Apple has that is similar Here's an example of how I take a snip and save to my photos in a file:
The easiest thing to do is download pages of a thread as html format. Is there a way to make more posts appear per page? It looks like the default is around 15, but it may be by amount of text instead of number of posts.
I do not think that we have to worry about the forum completely being gone, just inaccessible to write anything new on, it would show up as an archived website. I might be wrong on this. Both John Brunner and Ken would be better able to provide information on whether people should save backup on important things or not, and the best way to do it.
You would need access to the database in order to bulk-download comments, and you'd have to be the Administrator to get such assess, but even then the hosting company would have to give you the login credentials. There is one thing that I've done in the past for offline viewing of a webpage. You can use this to quickly save each Page of a thread, one at a time. It launches locally and looks just like the forum, with all the comments, pics and graphics, and uses the browser's File/SavePage feature. It's a very easy way for folks to archive their own stuff. I'll do up instructions and post them in the Help forum.
Okay, I created instructions on how you can archive a page from here (or archive an entire thread, one page at a time) onto your local computer. Instructions Here In a nutshell, all you do is create a folder on your machine to save the stuff, then use the File/SavePageAs menu command on your browser for each webpage. Easy-Peasey
It wouldn't help to get it back into the forum if we had to rebuild because only access to the database would do that. Still, for posterity, any site page can be saved on the Wayback Machine by entering the URL of each page into the "Save Page Now" field on Wayback. The Wayback Machine does spider the site, randomly saving pages, but the nature of a constantly changing forum is that it doesn't get to most of the pages on its own. To save an entire thread in the Wayback Machine (aka Internet Archive), you can start by entering the current last page of the thread in the "Save Page Now" field - then hit "Save Page" - for this thread; at this time, that would be http://www.seniorsonly.club/threads/look-at-this-ken.23956/page-4 Once it has been saved in Wayback, you will see the message: "A snapshot was captured. Visit page: (followed by a URL)." Click on that URL, and you will see the page as it has been saved in the Wayback Machine. For example, I just saved the (currently) last page of this thread, and this is what it looks like in the Wayback Machine. It won't show this post because I hadn't yet posted it when I saved the page. From there, you can click through the thread (or into other threads that you want to save) by clicking the "Prev" link, and if they are not already saved, they will be saved. Not everything saved in the Wayback Machine appears there immediately. Sometimes, it gets backed up, and there will be a backlog, but it will eventually be saved in Wayback. The more you play around with it, the better you will understand the Wayback Machine. For example, if you save Page 4 of a thread, then (in Wayback) navigate via "Prev" to Page 3, if Page 3 had already been saved in Wayback, it won't show Page 4 (although it has been archived) because there was no Page 4 when Page 3 was initially archived. In that event, you must enter the URL for Page 3 as you did the one for Page 4 (or whatever the last page was). But if the previous page has not been saved, it will ask if you want to save it. It's really easy to figure out once you've played with it. It's a great way to archive any site on the Internet that you might want to save for later reference. Once saved, anyone can access it via Wayback, not just you. Unfortunately, this wouldn't help me to rebuild the site if someone eventually pulls the plug on it, but it would save it for posterity.
I am currently hearing from them again, but the problem hasn't yet been resolved. For example, this just came a moment ago: That sounds exciting, but I have heard similar before, leading only to months of no further contact. The guy who sent this is the only one who has personally replied to my pleas. The problem is that ColoCrossing is the parent company of the company that currently owns the hosting company we're on. Since no one at that company will reply to me (except for some techs who don't have access to the accounts area), he refers it to whoever should be doing it at the subsidiary company, but they don't follow up. My fingers are crossed (which makes it really hard to type), but I won't assume that the problem is about to be resolved.