Garys Site

[GaryTX]

Well if you are here you know I created this in hopes to help Gary recover his site and to get things back the way he would like them. For now, this will give us a place to talk and throw ideas at each other. I will gladly give Gary this domain name if he wants it. Anyhow, heres to hope fellas.

By the way, the intention of this site was just a temp. fix so we can help Gary fix his problem. I'm in no way at all trying to start this forum on my own to steal Garys hard work.    

Chris

[GaryTX]

Ok, All of the forums that Gary created have been inserted on this site. I was able to find them all on the cache link below.

http://cc.msnscache.com/cache.aspx?q=3758388230731&lang=en-US&mkt=en-US&FORM=CVRE4

[saratogaWX]

Excellent!  It does look a bit lonely though with all the empty areas to remind us of what we're missing.

If you talk with Gary, see if he'll give you access to his snapshot of the weatherforum.net, then we could start with a user list/site contents from his last snapshot.  It could save him time for restarting

Best regards,
Ken

[NoQuitters]

Yes it does look a little lonely. But it is nice to be back!

[capeweather]

Yes, it is nice to have a forum to chat again for sure. You guys probably got the latest word from Gary and he seems pretty optimistic about getting weatherforum.net back in his hands. I hope he does. For now, this will work. Should we try to get a hold of some of the other members to let them know about this forum? I would hate for members to think that weatherforum.net fell off the planet and have them never show up again. Just an idea.  

I'm gonna be gone for a week (7/22-7/29) and will give all of you admin privileges to make any changes needed to the site.

I'll be in the Florida Keys and am hoping for great weather.  

[capeweather]

By the way, I think there is a thread up on Ambients site. Maybe we can get the attention of some of the members over there.

[saratogaWX]

My only hesitation about advertizing the site is what to do about the merge of the saved-copy of the site with posts that may happen in the meantime.  Also, what about restore of the original member's list/profiles -- it will be an interesting programming challenge to get the prior stuff inserted along with the new into the mySQL DB driving the forum.

I'd recommend we wait until one of us can get the saved copy from Gary, then upload it here (merged), then advertize it's back.  Gary can get weatherforum.net out of DNS limbo, temporarily point it here, and get a new setup where he'd like to host, the port both DNS entries there.

Kinda complicated, but that way, the richness of weatherforum.net could be preserved, and Gary would end up controlling the destiny of the forum (as we all want him to).

Just my thoughts,
Ken

[GaryTX]

Good idea Ken. We can wait, no biggy to me. As far as inserting the SQL database into here with all the members, that hopefully shouldnt be a big deal. I recently had to that when I switched hosts and could not restore my database due to the compression type. I had to manually insert each row but it finally took. Now all the forum posts might be a different story. They should be able to be salvaged as well but it could get sticky and a little complicated. I'm up for the challenge though. Ken, you now have admin privileges.

[saratogaWX]

Thanks Chris!  I'm glad to hear you've 'been there, done that' with the mySQL inserts .. I can do PHP, but never ventured far into the database realm, so it's great you've got that part under your belt.

Now... we just need to get Gary to point to the snapshot, and the work can begin

Ken

[capeweather]

Yes but it was a pain in the rear, lol. But now that I've got a little experience with it, it shouldn't be that bad. If the compression type is the same then doing a restore through the forum administration should do the trick. I'd hate to have to go back into phpmyadmin again. Can get messy in there.  

Whats your thoughts on this theme? To bland? I might download some more later tonight and play around with it. PHPbb is pretty easy when it comes to installing themes.

[NoQuitters]

I'll throw in my 2 cents, or actually votes, on a theme.

This one or this one

Either would be fine with me. Looked for something green that wasn't too hard on the eyes but no luck.

[capeweather]

Like the 2nd one. Where can I download at?

[NoQuitters]

http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/catdb.php?cat=13

Third one down.

[SLOweather]

Chris from SLOweather here. I just spoke with kenmtrue about this on the phone (hence how I found out and registered).

I think it needs to be announced (on Ambient, Weather Display, Weather Matrix and wherever else)  with the inclusion, as has been eloquently stated, that this is supposed to be a temporary forum. If it can't be merged, there shouldn't be that much lost content.

And, not that long ago, the Ambient forum was started over from scratch because (apparently) boardnation hosed up the old one so bad no one wanted to (or couldn't) attempt the move. So they just left it up for a while so any important content could get copied over. Do the same with this one.

Not telling anyone for (potentially) 2 more weeks or more, is a long time in Internet time. Tell 'em and they'll understand, and be glad to know that Gary's interests are being looked after.

My 2 centidollars...

My only hesitation about advertizing the site is what to do about the merge of the saved-copy of the site with posts that may happen in the meantime.  Also, what about restore of the original member's list/profiles -- it will be an interesting programming challenge to get the prior stuff inserted along with the new into the mySQL DB driving the forum.

I'd recommend we wait until one of us can get the saved copy from Gary, then upload it here (merged), then advertize it's back.  Gary can get weatherforum.net out of DNS limbo, temporarily point it here, and get a new setup where he'd like to host, the port both DNS entries there.

Kinda complicated, but that way, the richness of weatherforum.net could be preserved, and Gary would end up controlling the destiny of the forum (as we all want him to).

Just my thoughts,
Ken

[saratogaWX]

Chris (SLOweather) has a good point.. we don't want to extinguish the interest.

How about I post the following on Ambient, Weather-Watch and weather-matrix:

Gary Oldham's weatherforum.net is now in DNS limbo after the hosting organization (simple-web.net) appears to have gone belly-up while Gary was in the process of moving the registration.

Weatherforum.net is now stuck for 30 days from July-14-2006 in the status of 'REDEMPTIONPERIOD' where only the original registrar (simple-web.net) can make a restore of the domain.. that seems very unlikely, so we have to wait it out.

Meanwhile, the group of admins from the forum (anole, noquitters, katscanman, kenmtrue) are helping Gary try to get a snapshot version running on a new temporary website while the rest of the DNS mess gets cleared up.  We hope to do this shortly after August 1, 2006 when Gary has finished his move to Texas and his new job.  

(question about posting this) If you're interested in joining in the conversations with some of the weatherforum regulars, you're welcome to register at the temporary/prototype home at http://wxforum.net/ -- keep in mind that new postings may not be saved when the original forum is merged.

Best regards,
Ken

[NoQuitters]

I agree, we announce it and move forward. We are now, at best, 2 weeks from even attempting to restore the old forum here and 2 weeks is a long time. We are not even sure at this point that we can restore everything.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is to move forward with this forum by telling as many of the members from the 'old' forum we can find. If and when we do get the backup data, we restore it on a temp forum to make sure it will work, and reference back to it. Sometimes a fresh start is a good thing. Kind of like changing jobs and moving to Texas.

[capeweather]

Ok guys, I'm heading out on vacation for 7 days. I should be back next Sunday (7/30). I just wanted to give everybody the heads up. I might pop in while I'm down in the keys to say hi. Take care.

Chris

[SLOweather]

You all know where I stand on this. Spread the word.

And, have a great time Chris.

(the other) Chris SLOweather.com

[saratogaWX]

I heard from Larry over the weekend (but he hasn't signed up for the forum yet):

I'm ok with it as long as Gary is. Like I siad, this is his baby.

L.

But Gary is still incommunicado (Isn't that a small town in Texas?).
I've left a voice mail, and many mail messages to no avail.. Drew, can you call him??

I'd like his blessing before we post.

Ken

[NoQuitters]

I called him yesterday and got his voicemail. I did leave him a message to try and reply with a yes or no to the emails and also to call me. He should be in Texas for the next few days then home to pack up the wife and pets, then it's off for good.
I will try again but am pretty sure that he is rather preoccupied with other things at the moment.

My honest opinion is that he would want us to go ahead with this. I can't see any reason why he wouldn't.
I would be very surprised if he somehow got his domain name back and even if he does he'd have to start all over somewhere, might as well be here.

After all the hard work and effort that he and everyone else put into making it a success, I'd like for him to have something to come back to when his life returns to normal.

As always, just my 2 cents.

Drew

[SLOweather]

But Gary is still incommunicado (Isn't that a small town in Texas?).

Ken

It's a Jimmy Buffet song...

[Anole]

A little late to the fray but I made it.

On the theme: I like it.

On announcing: At this point I think we have to go for it. Gary's pretty swamped with real life things at the moment so I know his time is very limited. I think that everyone including Gary knows this isn't an attempt to take over the site.

[saratogaWX]

Welcome Larry!  Into what your avatar we should read? Dark it is. (he says, Yoda like)  

I've made you Administrator too, to match your weatherforum.net status.

Drew had left a voice mail for Gary, as had I, but no returns yet.  I say give it till tomorrow, and if Gary hasn't been reached, I'll post the invite on multiple forums.  It appears the consensus is to announce and then do backfill/porting when Gary's snapshot is available.

Best regards,
Ken

[Anole]

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to reproduce a forum is insignificant next to the power of the Force.

(now if I could only figure out how to do the breathing in text).

 And now that I've changed my avatar that's not going to make any sense to anyone.  

[NoQuitters]

Drew had left a voice mail for Gary, as had I, but no returns yet. I say give it till tomorrow, and if Gary hasn't been reached, I'll post the invite on multiple forums.

Left him another voice mail last night and text messaged him as well. Still haven't heard anything. I say it's time to move forward.