Forum seems to have problems
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guest
Forum seems to have problems
I tried to attach some (relatively small) images to a post but it seemed to confuse the forum software quite badly: it deleted all but one of them without me asking and then wouldn't let me delete the remaining one! I eventually had to abandon the post. This makes me worry that the SQL database may have become corrupted, and since it is completely unprotected against such an eventuality (as far as I am aware there are no backups) do not be too surprised if the entire forum goes down.
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guest
Re: Forum seems to have problems
The big advantage of professionally-hosted (and funded) forums such as Conforums, as was, or Proboards is that somebody else has the responsibility of carrying out regular maintenance such as backups. I would imagine that they probably do backups on a daily basis, so if something goes seriously wrong the worse that can happen is to lose a day's worth of posts or new members.
With a 'do it yourself' forum such as this there's no such support, and backups (if any) are entirely the responsibility of the forum's administrator. I know that I never did any backups, on the basis that nobody would care very much if the forum (including all its posts and membership records) suddenly disappeared. I'm assuming (perhaps wrongly) that you don't do any backups on the same basis.
If somebody does care about the potential loss of the forum, then at the moment it is extremely vulnerable. But whether anybody would be prepared to contribute something practical (whether it be time, money or storage space) towards forum upkeep is I suspect rather doubtful.
At least my worst fears haven't been borne out because some hours after the problems I was having everything is (seemingly) still running. I had earlier attached exactly the same set of images to a post to the StarDot forum (running phpBB as this one does) and that worked faultlessly.