Recovering lost threads

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Sep 21, 2016

• #1

This will not always work, but it's worth a try.

If you know the URL of a thread which was lost (perhaps you bookmarked it) you may be able to find it again.

Go to the address in your browser, but add cache: before the URL. It may well still be in your browser cache if you have not cleared it recently. You will then have to copy/paste and repost it.

 

Last edited: Sep 21, 2016

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N

Nagol

Unimportant

• Sep 21, 2016

• #2

Alternatively, use google to search for some keywords targeting enworld.org and if you're lucky, google will still have a cache.

For example, if I wanted to look at my posts in the DC 30 to 35 thread, I'd enter the following in the google search box (without the quotes): "site:enworld.org Nagol ManBearCat 2016 30 35". A cache exists and can be viewed if there is a small triangle to the right of the green URL in the item. Click the triangle to use the cache version.

 

tuxgeo

Adventurer

• Sep 21, 2016

• #3

Hmm. I tried that to find the cached version of my "Teaser for Moana" thread.

Google did show small, green triangles; but when I clicked them, all I got was the main Google home page.

 

N

Nagol

Unimportant

• Sep 21, 2016

• #4

tuxgeo said:

Hmm. I tried that to find the cached version of my "Teaser for Moana" thread.

Google did show small, green triangles; but when I clicked them, all I got was the main Google home page.

Click to expand...

I get sent to the home page if I use the other mouse button. Clicking once with the main mouse button should have a small pop-up with the word "Cache". Choosing that item brings up the cached version.

What were the search terms, if I may ask?

 

tuxgeo

Adventurer

• Sep 21, 2016

• #5

OK, I'll bet it was the "mouse button" issue. I'll try clicking on the word, "Cache."

The search terms were
site:enworld.org "teaser for moana"

 

N

Nagol

Unimportant

• Sep 21, 2016

• #6

Some of the results are cached.

Here's the direct link to the first google cache in the results: http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ser-for-Moana/page2+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca It's page 2.

 

eamon

Explorer

• Sep 21, 2016

• #7

Now that enworld is up again and those ids are being reused, I wouldn't count on the google cache staying around for a long time, however.

I just checked archive.org, and alas the last spider of enworld was in may this year, so no luck there.

 

Cleon

Legend

• Sep 21, 2016

• #8

Hi all!

I'd like to mention that I routinely archive our Creature Catalog conversions over on General Monster Talk as soon as they are completed, so it'd be simple enough to repost those once things are back to normal. At the moment we don't have any threads apart from the stickied ones in Monster Talk and Homebrews is entirely empty.

Unfortunately any conversion that hadn't been finished aren't in my personal computer's archive since I saw little point in updating them with each change.

Freyar and I are in the process of recovering what we can of the CC forum's "working draft" monster conversions from Google's caches and our fading memories. As far as I can tell only one is missing completely - the Paper Warrior - but we've been set back a few weeks or months with the others.

Is it possible to safely recover the most recently saved version of a post from its post ID? If so, we could get the most up-to-date versions of the Working Drafts back.

Is there any chance that the latest versions of the threads can be recovered from the enworld hard drives or are they gone for good? Even if you can only extract the Creature Catalog forum threads as raw text I'd be willing to put in the time to parse out the monster conversions and repost them.

 

Morrus

Well, that was fun

Staff member

• Sep 21, 2016

• #9

We've recovered everything we can.

However, the CC threads are not lost! I'm not sure why, but they all ended up in the 5E forum. They're all there. That's odd. I appreciate it's a PITA!

 

Cleon

Legend

• Sep 21, 2016

• #10

Morrus said:

We've recovered everything we can.

Click to expand...

That's unfortunate but I was afraid that's how it would be. I've finished checking my archive and google's caches and there appear to be only a dozen or so converted monsters who were "broken".

All the others new critters are available and are in a updated version of the Test CC Archive I sent Darjr a few months ago. It should be a relatively simple matter to replace the current CCtest with the update.

Morrus said:

However, the CC threads are not lost! I'm not sure why, but they all ended up in the 5E forum. They're all there. That's odd. I appreciate it's a PITA!

Click to expand...

Wandering into an area two editions away from where they belong seems a pretty good definition of lost to me!

I appreciate it's hardly a high priority, but once you've got everything cleaned up is there any prospect of the threads moving back to their original forums?

If not there are ways Freyar and I could work around it.