Please feedback your comments. I may be removing them very soon
.<Update :: This closure of the old forums will be delayed for a week or so at least>
Full Version: removing archive forums from website
Just an FYI. Unless there is terrible objections I am considering removing the archived forums from the website. That is posts older than January of 2006. Chances are people here no longer even use them. The old forums is a security risk as the software is outdated and impossible to upkeep because of that.
Please feedback your comments. I may be removing them very soon.
<Update :: This closure of the old forums will be delayed for a week or so at least>
Please feedback your comments. I may be removing them very soon
.<Update :: This closure of the old forums will be delayed for a week or so at least>
I don't know why, but that depresses me. There's so much in those posts, especially from my own visa journey. Oh well, do what you gotta do
Oh no.........please don't.......at least not yet.....
Are you running low on disk space?
Can we convert the old post database to the new format?
If you absolutely have to remove it, can you give us a week or so to make copies of some of the old posts? Please?
Are you running low on disk space?
Can we convert the old post database to the new format?
If you absolutely have to remove it, can you give us a week or so to make copies of some of the old posts? Please?
I say cut it off asap. Sure a lot of infor could be culled from a lot those threads, but really who goes back that far? A lot of useful info is already documented in the FAQs. Plus current members have the "latest" going ons to share with newbies.
Daniel
Daniel
The old database was partially corrupted ages ago (which was why we upgraded and did not carry the posts). I actually today had the old database become corrupted again and am restoring it, again.
My plans if you guys want, are to possibly write a custom script that may spit out all the old topics into html files. I don;t know if this is easily done so it may not happen. If it does, then you can search old posts that are in html files and not from the database. Either way it is good that I take the old forums off line asap for security which is more important. I will no mattter what keep a copy of all the posts offline if anyone wants something (and to keep all the old posts for 'historical' sake). You never know when the old posts will be important to have .
My plans if you guys want, are to possibly write a custom script that may spit out all the old topics into html files. I don;t know if this is easily done so it may not happen. If it does, then you can search old posts that are in html files and not from the database. Either way it is good that I take the old forums off line asap for security which is more important
. I will no mattter what keep a copy of all the posts offline if anyone wants something (and to keep all the old posts for 'historical' sake). You never know when the old posts will be important to have .
QUOTE(AnaAndDaniel @ Jul 19 2006, 07:32 PM) 
I say cut it off asap. Sure a lot of infor could be culled from a lot those threads, but really who goes back that far?
Obviously not you.......
Please give us until the end of the week, Captain, will you?
Also the old info is dated and my not always apply to this day and age. I can see though reasons to keep it around so I probably will in some form (if even offline). Right now the old forums is not working as the database is corrupted again and is being restored 
. There are somethign like 700k posts on the old forums.
. There are somethign like 700k posts on the old forums.
QUOTE(Captain Ewok @ Jul 19 2006, 07:34 PM)
My plans if you guys want, are to possibly write a custom script that may spit out all the old topics into html files. I don;t know if this is easily done so it may not happen. If it does, then you can search old posts that are in html files and not from the database.
Sounds great - can you do that please??
Let me know if you need any help, SQL-wise.
Gupt - are you good with SQL?
Can you just import the old tables as in
CREATE TABLE NEW_TABLE_NAME AS
SELECT [ *|COLUMN1, COLUMN2 ]
FROM OLD_TABLE_NAME
or is it not that simple?
The old forums dB is about 1.5GB. Pretty big. Running an OPTIMIZE TABLE on the posts table totally corrupted it as it was too big. That is why I am restoring it. . I was planning on doing the same command on the new forums posts table but decided to test it on the old one first. Glad I did .
. I was planning on doing the same command on the new forums posts table but decided to test it on the old one first. Glad I did .
QUOTE(mawilson @ Jul 19 2006, 04:36 PM)
QUOTE(AnaAndDaniel @ Jul 19 2006, 07:32 PM)
I say cut it off asap. Sure a lot of infor could be culled from a lot those threads, but really who goes back that far?
Obviously not you.......
Please give us until the end of the week, Captain, will you?
that is very true. i recall when i first came here.. i did try to go back as far as possible reading ppl's personal journeys tryuibg to lear as much as possible. i am really apreciative of that. but, if it is causing major headacheds for the site admins and causiong the site to bog down, then it is best that it go. like ai said earlier, critical info has been posted on faqs and the tacked on permanently threads. more current info can be culled from more recent threads or current members.
Can you cite specific cases/examples of threads that are 'critical'? Maybe if we made such a list the admins could concentrate on keeping thst info somehow.
Daniel
QUOTE(mawilson @ Jul 19 2006, 04:43 PM)
QUOTE(Captain Ewok @ Jul 19 2006, 07:34 PM)
My plans if you guys want, are to possibly write a custom script that may spit out all the old topics into html files. I don;t know if this is easily done so it may not happen. If it does, then you can search old posts that are in html files and not from the database.
Sounds great - can you do that please??
Let me know if you need any help, SQL-wise.
Gupt - are you good with SQL?
Can you just import the old tables as in
CREATE TABLE NEW_TABLE_NAME AS
SELECT [ *|COLUMN1, COLUMN2 ]
FROM OLD_TABLE_NAME
or is it not that simple?
I am not sure where you are going with that... the old tables on the old forums are for different version of IPB. They are in a different format (table wise). What might be nice is to find a script to output all the threads there into html files. Then we can get a search engine here to search them. I would periodically do the same for this forums thus keeping the database smaller and faster. Right now all I can do is prune topics (i.e. delete them).
QUOTE(AnaAndDaniel @ Jul 19 2006, 04:44 PM)
QUOTE(mawilson @ Jul 19 2006, 04:36 PM)
QUOTE(AnaAndDaniel @ Jul 19 2006, 07:32 PM)
I say cut it off asap. Sure a lot of infor could be culled from a lot those threads, but really who goes back that far?
Obviously not you.......
Please give us until the end of the week, Captain, will you?
that is very true. i recall when i first came here.. i did try to go back as far as possible reading ppl's personal journeys tryuibg to lear as much as possible. i am really apreciative of that. but, if it is causing major headacheds for the site admins and causiong the site to bog down, then it is best that it go. like ai said earlier, critical info has been posted on faqs and the tacked on permanently threads. more current info can be culled from more recent threads or current members.
Can you cite specific cases/examples of threads that are 'critical'? Maybe if we made such a list the admins could concentrate on keeping thst info somehow.
Daniel
Great idea. If you can identify info to keep from the old site I will make sure to get that.
Oh nooooooooo!
My wedding vows are in the old archives somewhere and I wanted to get them! We'd had our wedding vows on a Word doc. on my hubby's computer but lightning fried the hard drive and we lost everything. I wasn't too worried cuz I knew I'd copied our wedding vows into a thread where someone was asking about having written your own vows. I was going to do a search and get them in the archives! Are they lost now too, Captain?
*It was in the Off Topic Forum - a thread about wedding vows...
My wedding vows are in the old archives somewhere and I wanted to get them! We'd had our wedding vows on a Word doc. on my hubby's computer but lightning fried the hard drive and we lost everything. I wasn't too worried cuz I knew I'd copied our wedding vows into a thread where someone was asking about having written your own vows. I was going to do a search and get them in the archives! Are they lost now too, Captain?
*It was in the Off Topic Forum - a thread about wedding vows...
Converting MySQL to HTML:
http://www.dbput.com/tutorial/mysql-to-html.htm
Failing that, you could download the MySQL file as a tab-delimited text file and use a Perl script to output it in logical order.
I say delete if it makes your job easier. I cannot imagine managing this site!
Rebecca
Rebecca
Converting MySQL to HTML:
http://www.dbput.com/tutorial/mysql-to-html.htm
Failing that, you could download the MySQL file as a tab-delimited text file and use a Perl script to output it in logical order.
QUOTE(Bosco @ Jul 19 2006, 05:31 PM)
I say delete if it makes your job easier. I cannot imagine managing this site!
Rebecca
I can not imagine it either..... I have to live it
. wanna trade?! 
I agree delete it . I dont want my old dirty, laundry aired again.
hahahhahahahha - thank god for small favors.. lol
hahahhahahahha - thank god for small favors.. lol
I just copied my K-1 Interview experience from the old archieve coz I realized I didn't have any copy of them.
Thanks Capt!
Thanks Capt!
Sometime this weekend I will be taking the old forums offline . Run like crazy to save your stuff from the impending fire!
. Run like crazy to save your stuff from the impending fire!
So the Thanks for being on VJ junk mail spam you sent out to all the VJ members was a way to placate us to accept your determined death sentence on the Classic VJ Experience. Man so much for nostalgia.
.Anyhow, I am primarily trying to get the site speed working again. That is my major focus.
I don't really have any posts from back then, so obviously don't have any sentimental attachment to it, but for those who have a sentimental attachment, there's always this:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.visajourney.com
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.visajourney.com
Could you dump the old forum into a single PDF download or something such.
QUOTE(Artegal @ Jul 19 2006, 09:40 PM)
Could you dump the old forum into a single PDF download or something such.
ROFLMFAO!!!!!
Do you have 5 dedicated T1 lines to your house? The old database was 1-2GB. That would work out to about a 5GB PDF or maybe more. If Acrobat didn't just die from the size of it. Not to mention the time involved with opening every single page, converting it to a PDF, then adding them all to one big PDF. True, there ARE programs out there that would automatically convert it to a PDF (I think), but then there's still the massive size issue. 5GB on a T1 line.....that would be what? 3 days of downloading?
QUOTE(luvaLimey @ Jul 19 2006, 09:39 PM)
I don't really have any posts from back then, so obviously don't have any sentimental attachment to it, but for those who have a sentimental attachment, there's always this:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.visajourney.com
I have a love-hate relationship with the Wayback Machine..... I love it for being able to find stuff I thought I'd lost. I hate it for OTHER people being able to find the original versions of my site when I was still learning HTML, Flash, and PHP. ie: Stuff better off lost. ROFL!
How do we search on the old forum? I'm in forums2 but I can't search, I too have something that's only there, thinking I could always go back to it.
what ya looking for?
QUOTE(Captain Ewok @ Jul 19 2006, 09:06 PM)
what ya looking for?
One of my old posts, it was a silly poem we wrote to each other, I can't remember which section I posted it in but it was one of the ones in the bottom section (OT, Intro, etc).
It had something along the lines of "I'll be the Bonnie to your Clyde"
You have been rescued:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums2/index.p...mp;#entry630991
http://www.visajourney.com/forums2/index.p...mp;#entry630991
QUOTE
Online - I sent the first PM asking him about either his bagpipe playing or his recent attempts at quitting smoking. We sent a few PMs a day and somehow started this poem (He wrote a bit, I wrote a bit, he wrote a bit etc...)
Partners in crime
Might make for a good time
I'll be Bonnie you can be Clyde
Don't let us get caught or they'll have our hide
You give me the wheel
Then you get the cash
I'll put the pedal to the steel
We'll make off with the stash
Down the dirt roads
Across a farmers field
Nothing will stop us
Not even their brass shield
With a bang and a shout
Our tires blow out
Don’t panic you say
It will all be ok
you grab the shotgun
I'll load the tommy
we'll fill the coppers full of lead
till they're cryin' for their mommy
and with that I was definitely intrigued. I went away for my birthday and he started flirting a bit when I got back, the next weekend I had some friends up for the weekend and was again, incommunicado and he started flirting more, that was the beginning.
Talk, type, visit, talk, type, visit.
The engagement - On my last visit we had gone to Walmart to see how much Passport pics were and saw these porch swings outside. We sat in one, it was really comfy and we bought it, took it back to his house and put it in the back yard. The next day we were wandering around the mall for something and there was a booth that sold silver rings, I tried one on that I liked and he got it for me but wouldn't let me wear it. Later that night out on the porch swing he took the ring from his pocket and popped the question.
Partners in crime
Might make for a good time
I'll be Bonnie you can be Clyde
Don't let us get caught or they'll have our hide
You give me the wheel
Then you get the cash
I'll put the pedal to the steel
We'll make off with the stash
Down the dirt roads
Across a farmers field
Nothing will stop us
Not even their brass shield
With a bang and a shout
Our tires blow out
Don’t panic you say
It will all be ok
you grab the shotgun
I'll load the tommy
we'll fill the coppers full of lead
till they're cryin' for their mommy
and with that I was definitely intrigued. I went away for my birthday and he started flirting a bit when I got back, the next weekend I had some friends up for the weekend and was again, incommunicado and he started flirting more, that was the beginning.
Talk, type, visit, talk, type, visit.
The engagement - On my last visit we had gone to Walmart to see how much Passport pics were and saw these porch swings outside. We sat in one, it was really comfy and we bought it, took it back to his house and put it in the back yard. The next day we were wandering around the mall for something and there was a booth that sold silver rings, I tried one on that I liked and he got it for me but wouldn't let me wear it. Later that night out on the porch swing he took the ring from his pocket and popped the question.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
awwwwwww 
Oh man..I need to copy onto my computer Sujeet's visa interview experience, AOS experience, etc...
QUOTE(Sharon @ Jul 19 2006, 04:55 PM)
Oh nooooooooo!
My wedding vows are in the old archives somewhere and I wanted to get them! We'd had our wedding vows on a Word doc. on my hubby's computer but lightning fried the hard drive and we lost everything. I wasn't too worried cuz I knew I'd copied our wedding vows into a thread where someone was asking about having written your own vows. I was going to do a search and get them in the archives! Are they lost now too, Captain?
*It was in the Off Topic Forum - a thread about wedding vows...
check your PM box, Sharon
anybody else have anything they want me to find and save??
You know this reminds me of my closets.... I am such a pack rat... lately, I've been trying to cut down on it.... if you haven't used it for longer than 6 months, you probably don't need it
OK OK poems and wedding vows I understand
OK OK poems and wedding vows I understand
I had a thread in the Canada regional forum that pertained to pensions. It was very detailed and the information is still highly relevant.
I just went to the old forums and I don't see it there (the Canada regional has only the 2 pinned threads). If anyone saved it in any other format, that would be good.
I had a thread in the Canada regional forum that pertained to pensions. It was very detailed and the information is still highly relevant.
I just went to the old forums and I don't see it there (the Canada regional has only the 2 pinned threads). If anyone saved it in any other format, that would be good.
I've found it and reposted here. *salute*
I just went to the old forums and I don't see it there (the Canada regional has only the 2 pinned threads). If anyone saved it in any other format, that would be good.
QUOTE(ceriserose @ Jul 19 2006, 09:00 PM)
I had a thread in the Canada regional forum that pertained to pensions. It was very detailed and the information is still highly relevant.
I just went to the old forums and I don't see it there (the Canada regional has only the 2 pinned threads). If anyone saved it in any other format, that would be good.
I've found it and reposted here. *salute*
QUOTE(ceriserose @ Jul 20 2006, 02:00 PM)
I had a thread in the Canada regional forum that pertained to pensions. It was very detailed and the information is still highly relevant.
I just went to the old forums and I don't see it there (the Canada regional has only the 2 pinned threads). If anyone saved it in any other format, that would be good.
I'll see if I can find it and save it in PDF.
I saved the Manila, Australian threads in PDF before we started this site so they have just been sitting on my comp.
I also have Moniques pinned tax thread,
A very good thread on travelling to the US whilst petition in process with posts by imiak. A thread that is linked to a lot.
And a couple of others that I cant remember off hand.
Captain Ewok,
A lot of good stuff from Andy (Andrew?) in thearchives. It would be a shame to lose it, but it doesn't seem like anyone does searches anyway.
And a lot of pure rubbish.
Tough call. But let it go.
And move this thread to Site Related Discussion.
Yodrak
A lot of good stuff from Andy (Andrew?) in thearchives. It would be a shame to lose it, but it doesn't seem like anyone does searches anyway.
And a lot of pure rubbish.
Tough call. But let it go.
And move this thread to Site Related Discussion.
Yodrak
QUOTE(Captain Ewok @ Jul 19 2006, 08:19 PM)
Just an FYI. Unless there is terrible objections I am considering removing the archived forums from the website. That is posts older than January of 2006. Chances are people here no longer even use them. The old forums is a security risk as the software is outdated and impossible to upkeep because of that.
Please feedback your comments. I may be removing them very soon .
Please feedback your comments. I may be removing them very soon
.
I may keep the archives around a bit longer based on the response from you guys...
QUOTE(Captain Ewok @ Jul 20 2006, 02:56 PM)
I may keep the archives around a bit longer based on the response from you guys...
Thanks Capt'n.... at least that will also give us time to save any important information that is still relevant.
THANK YOU, MARILYN!!!
You saved my vowssssssssssssss!
I'm sure you can understand just how special they are to me, thank you SO much!
When I tried to search the archives before I went to bed last night, the search function wasn't working and I was so worried....
THIS started my day with a smile!
You saved my vowssssssssssssss!
I'm sure you can understand just how special they are to me, thank you SO much!
When I tried to search the archives before I went to bed last night, the search function wasn't working and I was so worried....
THIS started my day with a smile!
Now make a hard copy of them so you won't loose them again
QUOTE(MarilynP @ Jul 20 2006, 04:47 AM)
Now make a hard copy of them so you won't loose them again
Or have them tattooed on Hubby's back.
save it allll!!!!
QUOTE(MarilynP @ Jul 20 2006, 07:47 AM)
Now make a hard copy of them so you won't loose them again
Done! 3 times over even hehe.
and I plan on getting a copy LAMINATED this weekend hahaha
Hard enough?
dang.
Hate to lose the archives, but no time this week to go retrieving.
Ah well.
Hate to lose the archives, but no time this week to go retrieving.
Ah well.
I have NEVER gone back to the old archives to look for anything... I know that somewhere in there are my interview experience posts etc and it might be nice to have them, but it's all old news really... everything important has been reduplicated here afaik. I don't even know how to get 'back there' to look!
QUOTE(Kajikit @ Jul 21 2006, 12:28 PM)
I have NEVER gone back to the old archives to look for anything... I know that somewhere in there are my interview experience posts etc and it might be nice to have them, but it's all old news really... everything important has been reduplicated here afaik. I don't even know how to get 'back there' to look!
Late to the party again
Don't know if it is too late, but why not streamline the data from the old archives, removing all the Off Topic and Site related and see how that changes the size?I agree that some threads could be archaic, but then there were a number of very well-informed people that used to post who don't do so as much now, and that will all be lost. Ellis-island, Andy come immediately to mind. Also mdyoung's threads on SSA, were like a "Dummies' Guide to the Social Security Admin" for us as well!
I vote save most, and dump the OT.
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