Umm... subscribed threads go buh-bye?

[RuminDange]

Count me in on the loss......

What no backup of the database? That is bad.

RD

 

[Michael Morris]

Count me in on the loss......

What no backup of the database? That is bad.

RD

The database is backed up weekly - on the new server it will probably back up nightly since executing a backup takes a considerable amount of processor space.

While this was a severe glitch - it doesn't stand up there with the kind of crash mandating a reset to backup. Remember that ENWorld, at peak times, gets a couple hundred posts an hour. Any reset would lose a lot of data.

 

[RuminDange]

The database is backed up weekly - on the new server it will probably back up nightly since executing a backup takes a considerable amount of processor space..

Nice to know it is at least backed up weekly. And I know how much backups take to run....at work ours takes about 6 hours nightly for about 8 servers.

While this was a severe glitch - it doesn't stand up there with the kind of crash mandating a reset to backup. Remember that ENWorld, at peak times, gets a couple hundred posts an hour. Any reset would lose a lot of data.

Understand, I was not referring to a complete restore of the database back to before the qlitch, but a recovery of the lost table where the subscriptions are kept. But restoration, no matter how minor is a time consuming process in itself. Hopefully this isn't a sign of a more serious glitch isn't waiting to happen.

So what's the latest on the new server?


RD

 

[woodelf]

Looks like we've had a major glitch, folks. No idea what could have caused it, but everyone's subscribed threads have been deleted from the database.

Very odd. I'm glad it was the subscribed threads table that got zapped, though and not, say, the threads table, or the members table...

I don't think there's anything I can do about it; the data is gone. You'll have to re-add them manually.

If i could find them--most of them were long-since-dead threads. I think i'll stop using the subscriptions to bookmark interesting threads for future reference, and rely on Mozilla's bookmarks, instead. At least until you figure out what happened--if you don't know what happened, you can't know it won't happen again. Problem is, Mozilla doesn't always save new bookmarks until it quits, so if it crashes, i lose all new additions. Which wouldn't be so bad except that my system and Mozilla are generally stable enough that i can have the webbrowser open for days, or even weeks, at a time, and i forget that the bookmarks i've added in the last few hours can get lost. And it's really annoying to have to restart Mozilla periodically, just in case it might crash.

Anyway, chalk this up as another problem with web-based BBSes vs. a decent interface. Damn, i miss UseNet. Plus, Google and other off-site sources backup UseNet, so we're not dependent on one server. Oh well, i seem to be outvoted by the Internet-using public.

As for using the backup subscription table: i'm all for it. I'd much rather loose all my subscriptions of, say, the last week, than the older ones. The new ones can be trivially re-added, the old ones will be virtually impossible to resubscribe to (i'd first have to remember what they were on, before i could even usefully do a search).

 

[woodelf]

Any chance that the system could automatically remove subscriptions to threads that are more than X days without a reply?
Would that even help?

Ack! No! I [used to] use subscriptions to keep track of inactive threads--if it's still active, it'll pop up on the first page or two, and i can find it easily if my subscription evaporates. It's the ones that nobody has posted to in months, but that i either still haven't finished reading, or that had really cool stuff i'll want to reference again in the future, that i need the subscriptions for.

So, if i subscribe, does the search function include the ability to find all threads i've posted to? That'd probably re-locate at least half of my subscribed threads.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Morrus - suggest you change the default to "no e-mail notification", which will drastically cut down on pointless e-mail sends.

I can see that my suggestion was blissfully ignored. :\

 

[Joshua Randall]

So, if i subscribe, does the search function include the ability to find all threads i've posted to? That'd probably re-locate at least half of my subscribed threads.

Yes. You can use the Find posts by user aspect of the search function to, uhh, y'know, find all the posts by a certain user. Just put your own name in there and away you go.

 

[DaveStebbins]

Yes. You can use the Find posts by user aspect of the search function to, uhh, y'know, find all the posts by a certain user. Just put your own name in there and away you go.

Right. Or you can just click on their user name next to their post and a menu drops down which includes "Find more posts by" the user. I'm assuming that's also one of the community supporter benefits (unless it works for you without being one, in which case, you're welcome ).