Recent Downtime and Loss of Content

[Patrick]

Hello,

Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com.

It's been a crazy and frustrating 55 hours. 55 hours, in the grand scheme of things, isn't that long. But, as I was working to return this website back to normal, it seemed like an eternity. As you may know, during this time, KarateForums.com went through a series of issues, including the site being inaccessible due to a "suspended" message and then being back, but with lost content and read only access - meaning that you couldn't post or edit anything.

I apologize for these issues. I've been running KarateForums.com for nearly 10 and a half years and when something like this happens, no one is more frustrated than I am. Downtime happens, but what really bothers me is when content is lost. When people contribute something to this community and that contribution is lost due to technical issues, that eats me up.

And that is what happened. We lost approximately 5 days of contributions which, I can't say this enough, bothers me. I have a regular backup system in place that helps to limit any loss of content due to a catastrophic event like this one - and it worked. If not for our own backup system, we would have lost 10 days worth of contributions, which would have been even worse.

Due to an error by the company that previously hosted this website, our live databases were terminated while I was on the road, visiting my brother at college. Not only that, but they had no backup more recent than 10 days ago. This is inexcusable. I spent yesterday basically trying to find out whether or not that was true, holding out hope that a more recent copy existed, and failing to receive any response for many hours, which added insult to injury.

We were able to get the 10 day old website back online, but knowing that I had a more recent copy of the database backed up, I made it read only so that no further contributions would be lost when I overwrote the 10 day old copy with the 5 day old copy. Not only that, but I decided, to be fully confident moving forward, I wanted to execute an emergency server move before accepting further contributions and opening back up. That is what I have spent today working on.

If your posted something that has now been lost, and you remember what it was, I encourage you to post it again and I would greatly appreciate it.

I apologize for the loss of content. I value all solid contributions to our community and to lose any is supremely disappointing to me.

Thank you for your time, patience and understanding.

Sincerely,

Patrick

[ninjanurse]

Thank you Patrick for your hard work and dedication to Karate Forums!!

[Patrick]

Thank you, Heidi. I appreciate that.

Patrick

[DWx]

Can't imagine how frustrating that must have been. Thanks for all you do for the site Patrick

[GeoGiant]

Stuff happens, don't sweat it.

[ps1]

Don't sweat it man. Nothing's been said that won't or can't be said again. You do a great job with the forum. No one blames you at all!

[Patrick]

Thank you very much, Danielle, GeoGiant and ps1. That means a lot. I appreciate you.

Patrick

[Wolfman08]

Due to an error by the company that previously hosted this website, our live databases were terminated while I was on the road

Wha... How? Are they just a bunch of kolas mashing buttons or something? How much practice is required to rise that level of incompetence?

Insults directed at that company aside, no big deal. It happens that a website hosting company will occasionally delete the forum wholesale. Or, something.

[evergrey]

Hey Patrick- thank you for all your hard work! It'll be okay, ultimately. :}

[bushido_man96]

You've done a fantastic job through all this, Patrick. Just think to yourself, now, how much worse could it ever get, right? I respect your hard work and dedication to keep your communities running as they do. Keep up the good work, Patrick.