Don making sure GD posts preserved; "fully supports" L19!

[Mivo]

So how do readers here access this archive?

I'm interested in the answer to this question as well. GD.com accumulated a wealth of information, photos and exchanges over the years that together make a great resource and reference.

[betterlife]

Any news about the archive? Are there plans to make godiscussions accessible in some way?

[Li Kao]

And what happened to the domain?

[Jordus]

Sorry for the lack of status updates. We had originally been waiting for the GIT stuff to be finished. Now that it has been done, it is being discussed about how to best implement the database. Rest assured that we have not forgotten about it.

[prokofiev]

Thanks for the update & all the effort that's going into this (and L19).

A comment/request: (forgive me if this has been mentioned above or is just blindingly obvious)

It would be great if this could be done in a way that e.g. The links from Sensei's Library to GoDiscussions still work. I guess keeping the domain would be expensive (?) so maybe this is something to coordinate with SL? Would it be easy to do an SL-wide edit changing all GD links to the archive you'll be setting up?

In any case, I'd like to suggest setting up the archive to make the above as easy as possible (i.e. if possible, have godiscussions.com/blah available at lifein19x19.com/wherever-the-archive-is/blah).

[hyperpape]

I believe that it's easy to find links to godiscussions from sensei's (http://www.google.com/search?q=link:god ... rt=10&sa=N), unless this search leaves things out.

How difficult it would be to change the links would depend on the details of how godiscussions was archived. It could be an hour of two of low-key work, or a huge pain in the butt.

[betterlife]

Sorry for the lack of status updates. We had originally been waiting for the GIT stuff to be finished. Now that it has been done, it is being discussed about how to best implement the database. Rest assured that we have not forgotten about it.

2 More monthes and no access to godiscussions.com!

Couldn't you give yourself a deadline? If you say it will be done in the next two months then i will check back in two monthes and if nothing is done i won't bother anymore.

Btw. is there a possiblity to get the db-dump? I could install it on my homeserver for private use ...

[kirkmc]

FWIW, I've just migrated a forum for a charity I help out. The old forum software couldn't be used any more, so I set up a phpBB forum. Someone I know with excellent database-fu managed to create a browsable and searchable access to the archives with just a few hours's work....

[Jordus]

We are in the implementing phase... We have a test server up and are working on getting it up and running... rest assured we haven't forgotten about it, and are pushing to get this done as soon as we can. You guys have been more than patient with us and we thank you for that.

And for anyone with computer experience, keep in mind this entire project is all done, non-profit, by people volunteering their time and effort. If you think you can help and would like to, please don't be shy and let us know...

[tchan001]

Please do not preserve my content from my previous GD books threads as I plan to put it on my blog.

[karaklis]

You guys have been more than patient with us and we thank you for that.

I suppose *we* should thank *you* for implementing this. Being patient is not a difficult job. I think as go player we all have learned this at least a little bit

[Jordus]

UPDATE:
Since we have hit New years and in a few short weeks, the one year anniversary of L19, I thought I should share the current status of this project.

We have had a couple different types of attempts at trying to get the database available to read. We have run into some issues, wither it be overwhelmingly busy schedules not allowing for time to work on the project, or just problems plain old stumping us.

After dabbling for many hours the past weeks myself (my experience with sql and php is not at the highest level), I have been unable to get the database implemented into a short list of other forums that can convert from a Vbulletin backup, or even a different version of Vbulletin that I had access to. The issue with trying to convert to another forum is that the database is corrupt (one reason GD had so many issues at the end) so the converters will not work. The Vbulletin software version I had did not work correctly either... Perhaps if someone had access to the version the database came from.. vbulletin 3.8.5 it might work?

Otherwise anyone who thinks they may be able to bypass the issues with the converters on other forum types or be able to extract the data into a read only format let me know.

There is a wealth of information there that I am sure many of us would like to go through. Hopefully we will be able to access it soon. I haven't yet quit my attempts either, but I am not sure if I will ever be able to surpass this wall I have run into anytime in the near future.

[topazg]

UPDATE:
Since we have hit New years and in a few short weeks, the one year anniversary of L19, I thought I should share the current status of this project.

We have had a couple different types of attempts at trying to get the database available to read. We have run into some issues, wither it be overwhelmingly busy schedules not allowing for time to work on the project, or just problems plain old stumping us.

After dabbling for many hours the past weeks myself (my experience with sql and php is not at the highest level), I have been unable to get the database implemented into a short list of other forums that can convert from a Vbulletin backup, or even a different version of Vbulletin that I had access to. The issue with trying to convert to another forum is that the database is corrupt (one reason GD had so many issues at the end) so the converters will not work. The Vbulletin software version I had did not work correctly either... Perhaps if someone had access to the version the database came from.. vbulletin 3.8.5 it might work?

Otherwise anyone who thinks they may be able to bypass the issues with the converters on other forum types or be able to extract the data into a read only format let me know.

There is a wealth of information there that I am sure many of us would like to go through. Hopefully we will be able to access it soon. I haven't yet quit my attempts either, but I am not sure if I will ever be able to surpass this wall I have run into anytime in the near future.

Is there any chance that the backup file(s) could be hosted somewhere. I am not guaranteeing anything in the slightest, but I'm likely to look at a backup file and see how much work it's likely to be ...

[Don]

I saw that the GD database still hasn't been implemented so I have turned on the archive feature of vBulletin to allow browsing of the old content.

Here's the link:
http://www.godiscussions.com/forum/archive/index.php

It's not perfect, but it's an option until the mods here can resolve the tech issues.

[SpongeBob]

Out of curiosity: How can the database be corrupt? Software error in VBulletin software? Hardware problem with database server?