Total Data Loss

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korexus
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Total Data Loss

Post by korexus » Mon Nov 21, 2016 9:19 pm

Well this is annoying.

In order to fix the problem with the database taking up all the space on the server, I needed to back it up, drop it and restore it from the back up.

Restoring from the back up did not work.

I have asked our host if they have a back up image of the server, but they do not. (We don't pay them for one, but I thought it worth checking just in case.)

We've now lost all the server data we ever had, which is why everything looks so sparse. All games, all forum posts, everything.

I still have all the game code, but that won't run without the appropriate database to put information in to. I'm going to have to recreate them, and I don't necessarily remember what they all looked like.

This could take quite a long time. To be honest, right now I don't know if I'll manage it. I've enjoyed playing around with WoK for the last decade or so, but it's not as though much has been happening on the site recently.

I'll see what can be recreated easily, and re-evaluate then. Feel free to make a forum account and maybe even fill in some missing content. The good thing about this is that if I can get things running again it's a fresh start for everyone. There should also be plenty of chance to shape the direction of WoK's future, without having to worry too much about what we did in the past.


Sorry about this. :(


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Re: Total Data Loss

Post by Ecrivian » Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:01 pm

Chris! No worries man. This is good, a refresh. We can work towards a better WOK! Maybe even we can go back to some simpler times. However I hardly think that this is the "dark" ages of WOK. Maybe we can even use that! If you have Bryk's email I would suggest reaching out to him, maybe he has some files or other suggestions.
War determines not who is right, but who is left. We shall see in the days ahead whom of you appear atop the pile of corpses.

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Re: Total Data Loss

Post by Ecrivian » Wed Nov 23, 2016 7:27 pm

A Google image search gave me this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=kaomari ... IAg#imgrc=_

The maps look good, and there's even Saladin's avatar!
War determines not who is right, but who is left. We shall see in the days ahead whom of you appear atop the pile of corpses.

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Re: Total Data Loss

Post by korexus » Wed Nov 23, 2016 8:27 pm

Thanks, Ec.

The majority of the old site will probably be available through https://archive.org/ though it might take some rumaging.

I was planning to pull things like the background stories from there, but It's not worth reconstructing the entire forum that way.

I still have all the blank maps, and for many of the older maps I also have the ini file. I haven't checked if I've got all of them though.

Mostly the information that's missing is historical. - Posts, games, users. I might be able to reconstruct publically visible game pages from archives eventually, but turn reports are gone for good.

The other piece of the puzzle that's missing is the structure of the database, but that can be deduced from the code that used it which is what I'm doing right now.


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Re: Total Data Loss

Post by korexus » Sun Mar 19, 2017 12:28 am

I've managed to recover a fair amount of the forum data. - I found an old backup lying around.

When I say old, I do mean it. We now have posts up to the end of 2008 and then picking up again at the end of 2016. 8 years is still a huge amount of missing data, but this does bring back more than I was expecting.

The same dump had a fair bit of game information, so I'll attempt to reintegrate that too (though it took me a month just to do the forum data, so no promises...)

The indexing of posts from this year is a bit wonky, because I tried to put them directly on top of the older posts. I'm hoping that legitimate new posts (like this) will show up properly.


This has re-created quite a lot of user accounts, but because phpBB has had several version changes since that backup was made, people will still have trouble logging in...


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Re: Total Data Loss

Post by Dragonette » Thu Mar 30, 2017 8:31 am

Trust it to be all my most cringe worthy posts you have managed to return!

On a serious note great find and good work.

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Re: Total Data Loss

Post by korexus » Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:45 pm

I've made a tool that allows me to (manually) recreate forum posts. You'll notice a few about Intermediate WoK have appeared in the last few days. They're easy to spot because they start with "This is a recovered post, originally by NN at DDTT".

Now to surf around various archive sites and see how many old posts I can recover!

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