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Post by frenat on Feb 7, 2012 9:22:50 GMT -4
I got a response from Proboards Support today. Apparently Playdor requested that they remove his posts. I consider this yet another reason create a new forum hosted elsewhere. What a coward. Can't be bothered to make an intelligent argument here and then can't stand to let his ignorance stay visible. What's more is he'll probably try to come back as a sock-puppet. I have never liked the fact that some idiot troll could file a false "abuse" claim with Proboards and basically get this forum shut down. And now that I know that they don't seem to investigate such claims or even ask for my side of the story before acting I hate it even more. The ONLY reason I didn't move the forum to another service years ago is because I wouldn't be able to transfer the posts or user database. I don't like asking you all to re-register and start fresh. But... grrr... things like this make me reconsider it. If we're taking a vote, I say let's move out. Yes, I could (and would) do that. I'm just worried that Proboards will delete it if it become inactive for a certain length of time. But I think the time is coming where moving just makes more sense than staying. If the posts can't be easily copied to somewhere else, and you don't want the posts deleted if the board becomes inactive, could a script be written to write occasional posts to the board while we use a different place?
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Post by frenat on Feb 7, 2012 9:26:14 GMT -4
That they acted on an abuse claim without any investigation or even checking with the accused party is simply outrageous. You pay money to these people? youtube often (not always) does the same thing.
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Post by carpediem on Feb 7, 2012 10:43:51 GMT -4
I tried a Proboards to phpbb3 converter a few years ago but it didn't work very well. And now it appears the converter is no longer available because Proboards threatened legal action. I was thinking more in terms of scraping the messages directly out of the HTML.
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Post by echnaton on Feb 7, 2012 11:40:14 GMT -4
I tried a Proboards to phpbb3 converter a few years ago but it didn't work very well. And now it appears the converter is no longer available because Proboards threatened legal action. I was thinking more in terms of scraping the messages directly out of the HTML. Scraping the HTML code for each thread shouldn't be hard. I just don't know what to do with it once it is scraped.
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Post by stutefish on Feb 7, 2012 17:02:25 GMT -4
I was thinking more in terms of scraping the messages directly out of the HTML. Scraping the HTML code for each thread shouldn't be hard. I just don't know what to do with it once it is scraped. Probably the "simplest" thing to do, while still preserving a modicum of the narrative arc of the old board, would be to write a script that emulates the part of the Proboards functionality necessary to lay out each thread in threaded form, preserving the reference links for quoted material. Then you could deposit each preserved thread on another website, as a sort of Record of What Has Gone Before. Link the Record to the new forum, and let people start new threads picking up where the old ones left off. Awkward at first, but smoothing out over time, as more and more of the discussion shifts to the new forum threads. This would be essentially similar to how clavius.org is currently treated by this forum: Just as people discuss things here, and reference Jay's analysis on Clavius, they could similarly reference previous discussions in their new ones.
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raven
Jupiter
That ain't Earth, kiddies.
Posts: 509
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Post by raven on Feb 7, 2012 17:08:48 GMT -4
It would be sad to see this place go, I've got a lot of good memories here, but if the time must come to move, to pull up roots, well, then that time has come. Playdor, you are a dishonest coward and I hope it bites you in the ass one day. I love all humans, but sometimes, even the thing you love can make you sad and angry. You have done that.
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Post by gillianren on Feb 8, 2012 0:18:41 GMT -4
Yeah, I can't be helpful with the technical end of things, but the fact that Proboards did this means I think it's time to move.
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Post by Mr Gorsky on Feb 8, 2012 8:53:24 GMT -4
LO,
Is there no mileage in looking at hosting this yourself? The hosting package I use in the UK costs me less than £100 per year and allows me as many different websites, domains and databases as required, 100GB of space and 1TB of bandwidth per month.
There are also a couple of very good (and reasonably secure) bulletin board systems you could use without having to pay for them ... my current personal favourite being Simple Machines.
That would free you from the "tyranny" of having these boards hosted by someone else, whose rules and admin you have to deal with and, honestly, would take no more effort, hard work or knowledge on your part to administer.
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Post by LunarOrbit on Feb 8, 2012 9:05:50 GMT -4
Is there no mileage in looking at hosting this yourself? The hosting package I use in the UK costs me less than £100 per year and allows me as many different websites, domains and databases as required, 100GB of space and 1TB of bandwidth per month. That's what I intend to do. I'm hosting AH and my other site together on the same shared server and I was worried that between the two of them I might exceed my bandwidth, but I'm willing to take that risk now. Simple Machines is my favorite also. I've been using it for years with TheSpaceRace.com.
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Post by Glom on Feb 8, 2012 15:10:32 GMT -4
Proboards always annoyed me. I'm glad we're moving. We may lose our history hut we'll make a new one. Didn't that happen when the phpBB board went tits up?
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Post by stutefish on Feb 8, 2012 15:48:22 GMT -4
It'd be a shame to lose all of the fine schoolin' found in these threads...
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Post by trebor on Feb 8, 2012 16:18:42 GMT -4
Should be possible to keep a static html copy?
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Post by LunarOrbit on Feb 8, 2012 20:26:19 GMT -4
Should be possible to keep a static html copy? There are nearly 100,000 posts, so I'd have to find some way to automate it. But even if I could make copies of each page as just HTML, they wouldn't be a searchable part of the new forum. I think the posts will be safe here, but I will make a new post from time to time just to make sure if doesn't get classified as inactive. I don't know if Proboards even deletes inactive forums, but I don't want to take any chances.
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Post by PhantomWolf on Feb 9, 2012 0:53:20 GMT -4
LO, Is there no mileage in looking at hosting this yourself? The hosting package I use in the UK costs me less than £100 per year and allows me as many different websites, domains and databases as required, 100GB of space and 1TB of bandwidth per month. £100 per year???!!!?? I use 000webhost.com. 100 GB/month data transfer and 1500MB space for free, or you can pay US$58 a year and get unlimited in both!
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Post by LunarOrbit on Feb 9, 2012 1:00:30 GMT -4
I would be worried that a free service could disappear overnight because they went bankrupt. How do they pay their employees? Or pay for server maintenance and upgrades? Do they force advertising onto your site?
I could host my sites for free on my desktop computer, but the connection speed wouldn't be very good because I don't have a T1 line running into my home.
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