Missing pictures. [Archive]

Robson Valley

11th May 2016, 09:51 AM

First, a software change at Wood Carving Illustrated wiped out all the years of everybody's pictures. Next, a software/server change at WoorWorkingChat wiped out everybody's pictures.
Just now, I've searched back to find a thread called "Star's Sharpening Journey" that STAR/Pete started. I posted dozens of pictures and lots of text there and the pix are all gone.

What we're interested in here is a very visual activity. This is not "theoretical wood working/carving" at all.
In fact, the loss makes the archives essentially useless to anyone searching for information.

Is it possible that pictures don't come along in a search?
Is it possible that if I waded through several years of threads that the pictures might be intact?

Robson Valley

11th May 2016, 01:35 PM

If you are keeping score, this is the third time this has happened.
I believed that I could make a positive contribution to wood carving.
This the third time I have had a MAJOR insult as the reward for my efforts.

Do you all understand the rules of baseball? Three strikes and you're out.
Maybe there's a message to reward me for my efforts.

ubeaut

11th May 2016, 02:52 PM

The disappearance of photo's hasn't been something we have any control over.

It may have been as a result of deleting a Search Engine Optimisation program supplied by vBulletin with the forums (and pretty much useless), or it may have happened when we did one of the upgrades to the forums for security purposes. Whatever it was it wasn't something that was done by us as all precautions are always taken to safeguard things like pics, pdf files and the like before and during upgrades etc.

As we don't go through all the files after an upgrade it is impossible for us to know if there has been any loss of pics etc unless someone tells us of it.

If posters find that the photo's are in their Albums (which they should be if uploaded properly) or still have a links to them on photobucket or other external site or they are still on your computer please contact me and I will give them special dispensation to edit the posts where those pics are missing from.

If you don't have them anywhere then there is nothing we can do to help you out.

Can those reporting missing photo's in this thread please add a link to the thread or better still the post that they are missing from and this may help to shed a little more light on the problem for us.

If you are keeping score, this is the third time this has happened.
I believed that I could make a positive contribution to wood carving.
This the third time I have had a MAJOR insult as the reward for my efforts.

Do you all understand the rules of baseball? Three strikes and you're out.
Maybe there's a message to reward me for my efforts.

Not sure what you are getting at here but nothing is aimed at you and definitely not as bluntly as the deleted part of your post.

As per above this was something we had no control over and definitely not something done on purpose. I'm sure this was also the case with Wood Carving Illustrated and WoodWorkingChat who both had similar problems. Believe you me this is definitely something we like to see happen nor is it something we take lightly and unfortunately it isn't something that the mods or admins can fix for you but it may be something that you can fix yourself. We are more than happy to work with you to resolve it if there is a resolution available.

I'm sure that members appreciate all the time you have put into posting and all the pics.

Neil

Robson Valley

11th May 2016, 03:42 PM

Thank you, Neil. Your reply is comforting. I do not know what the hell it is with VBulliten.
Nothing personal, whatsoever. Every VBulliten site has had the illustrations killed off. I'm quite frustrated.
In a process called "woodworking", the visual part of it is so important as we all try to share
experience and move on. They need to comprehend (don't care?) the value of visuals.

Look. In response to the missing pictures thread title, I went looking for a long ago thread that STAR/Pete started (we have some history).
Anyway, the piece was called "Star's Sharpening Journey." We must have crapped on for 7-8 pages, lush with illustrations, might have been 2012 or earlier.
Dry as dust text. That's all that's left of it.

Woodworkforums.com is the biggest and most diverse and useful wood site on the internet.
Woodcarving Illustrated had a tight focus. So be it.

I'm a wood carving club of "one" in my village. These sites are my club and my family.
It's discouraging to see them come down, one by one, from what they once were.

If this is a rant, I'm afraid that I can't apologize for invective directed at the VBulliten people.

Robson Valley

11th May 2016, 03:48 PM

Oh yeah, thanks for the music, I quit.

BobL

11th May 2016, 04:07 PM

I'm sorry to hear about the issue Neil.

RE: inserting images back into posts.

I did a calculation on the number of images that are missing and I am astounded.
From today back to November 2012 (~1300 days) when things seem to go pear shaped, I posted some 1500 images, or just over 1 image per day.
Pre Nov 2012 there are so many images missing (I use the Attachments button in the My Settings menu) its not worth counting them.
I joined in Feb 2006 and up until Nov 2012 (~2400 days) I would have at least posted 1 image per day.

This means some 2400 pictures are gone.
I have all of the images on my laptop (except a couple of months worth in mid-2012) but sorry, there's no way that I am reinserting them individually back into their respective posts.

What is weird is that even in the same post some images are there and others are gone
eg http://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/husky-3120-stihl-880-positives-negatives-143931#post1404298

Because I have always found the Search function so limited I have been using the Attachments pages to find the links to old posts and direct members to them this way.
The way I used to do it was find on my laptop the date image associated with the post in question (my images are classified by year and topic) and thus find the date I posted that image on
Open up the WWF and Attachment section and scroll through to the date and there is the link to the post.
Unfortunately it looks like this is now all lost

A Duke

11th May 2016, 05:08 PM

Hi,
I was refereed to the following post by a fellow member in a PM http://www.woodworkforums.com/f19/fun-withe-scroll-128268 and found all the pictures missing, hence my OP.
It makes quite a laugh because all the replies refer to to the pictures and make no sense with out them.
Regards

NCArcher

11th May 2016, 10:29 PM

After reading this thread I did a check of some of my longer posts, bench build etc, and there are quite a few photos gone missing. Strangely it has removed only some of the photos from individual posts. Where I describe 3 or 4 photos in the text there is only one left. :shrug:

I'm unsure of the forum etiquette here. Am I supposed to quit the forum in a huff now? Vowing never to return.

Nah, I'll hang around.
Just checked and the photos have been deleted from my album as well. I would probably have them on a hard drive somewhere but I doubt I will take the time to load them all back on.
It now falls to those of you who have a shed to load more photos and WIPs. Get to it. :whip:

fletty

11th May 2016, 10:55 PM

Just in case it helps to trace the cause, Wheelinround posted a link to this old thread of mine on 1st May, 2016......

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f140/rare-opportunity-111303?highlight=leadlight

... and the pictures were there then but, by yesterday 10th May, 2016, the pics have disappeared.
Unfortunately (for me), I have been using the forum to find my old pics rather than delve into my own chaotic library.
I likewise won't be quitting but I had better improve my own library discipline or, more accurately, start a library discipline?
fletty

steven

12th May 2016, 09:29 PM

Hi there,

This looks like an old issue that was identified in 2013 or there abouts. We're seeing if there have been any fixes released since. Thanks

Steve

Dry Water

13th May 2016, 09:08 AM

Unfortunately I've lost 4 1/2 years worth of pics in my Boat building thread Tom Cat. The amount of work it would take to attempt the rematch routine is not worth it. Feb 2008 > Sep 2012,
Pages 1 to 10 up to post #150 have been wiped out. Am I upset? You betcha!!!!!!!!!! I apologise to those following my thread but as above there is nothing one can do short of spending hours putting the stuff back and I'm not on that page .....yet. Perhaps when I finally retire.

Justin

13th May 2016, 02:46 PM

Wow this really is a disaster for all concerned, a lot of the how-to's and WIP's are basically useless without pics. I sincerely hope that a solution can be found and implemented. Good luck luck Admin, it's a crappy position to be put into.....

Sturdee

13th May 2016, 07:45 PM

I lost nine and a half year of posting photos, I'm upset as well as all the photos were uploaded to the forum as requested.

I know it was not done on purpose but in my humble opinion it was a case of programming incompetence by the backroom gurus.

Peter.

NCArcher

13th May 2016, 08:29 PM

in my humble opinion it was a case of programming incompetence by the backroom gurus.

Peter.

Really? Perhaps you could pop down there and show them how to do it properly.
I'd like to sincerely thank the 'back room gurus' for all the time and effort they put into these forums. It is, apparently, a thankless and unappreciated task to maintain these forums and make them available, free of charge, to everyone.
Still a magnificent resource. Thanks Neil and support team.

BobL

13th May 2016, 09:13 PM

A Duke

13th May 2016, 10:40 PM

Those that contributed financially to the operation of the forums can complain there rest of us are just there for a free ride.

Think about all that useful info you got for free - OK for the advertising exposure.

I still have all my photos cataloged, backed up and readily accessible.

If anyone really wants the photos for one of my posts I am happy to provide them for a small fee ;-)

Hi,
I appreciate these forums but I have to disagree that the members are along for a free ride, where does all that free info come from? It is donated by members. Have you your self Bob thought how much the time, expertise and effort you your sell have contributed would be worth in $ terms. Members come from all disciplines and contribute their expertise, some would charge mega $ if you consulted them at their place of work. I think it is a reasonable shared effort from all who contribute and even some of the lurkers will chip in when they realize they have the bit of info some one needs.
Regards

BobL

13th May 2016, 11:39 PM

Hi,
I appreciate these forums but I have to disagree that the members are along for a free ride, where does all that free info come from? It is donated by members. Have you your self Bob thought how much the time, expertise and effort you your sell have contributed would be worth in $ terms.

Hmm . . . . I'm perhaps a touch more cynical about most posts on forums.
After sex, I believe a man's jollies comes from telling another bloke how to do whatever he's doing.
"He" can be the "man", or the "other bloke".
I guess when its done at no charge, that is a kind of donation, although some call it politics, or religion, or . . . . . .maybe just being a smart ?

Most of what I know comes from taxpayer funded training, travel, research opportunities etc so when its not the above, I think of my posts as a kind of community payback.
That's why I don't charge men's sheds or wood work clubs/organizations etc for any advice.

Fuzzie

15th May 2016, 02:31 PM

I guess the question should be asked whether or not there is a backup of the forums in the backroom vaults somewhere that predates the image vapourisation.

If there is, would it be possible to recover the images and restitch them to the current forum? Never having looked into the vBulletin software, I assume it would not be a simple task, but if the backup exists the possibility must be there.......

Anyone up for a bit of forensic programming? Is vBulletin open source software?

joe greiner

15th May 2016, 03:57 PM

Backup would probably be the only avenue. Restitching no; the few of mine I checked didn't even have placeholders for the AWOLs.

I'm pretty sure VBulletin isn't open source. There's a VBulletin forum about VBulletin itself, but I haven't visited it in years.

Joe

FenceFurniture

15th May 2016, 06:12 PM

There's a VBulletin forum about VBulletin itself, but I haven't visited it in years.Maybe VBulletin should use another forum type for their own forum - lest their pics go MIA.......

FenceFurniture

15th May 2016, 06:20 PM

I just spot checked my albums and they seem to be ok. The last thread I put up with loads of pics (http://www.woodworkforums.com/f245/shed-extensions-commmence-197223) seems to be ok too. I was one of the people affected the last time this happened which IIRC was Jan 2013, and I had stacks of pics go missing then.

bueller

15th May 2016, 06:26 PM

Yeah it seems like this is a pretty huge problem, I've been encountering way more missing pictures while doing research on some machines lately.

Surely there is a backup they can roll back to for the old posts?

Cliff Rogers

15th May 2016, 06:49 PM

Every pic I have attached since before 2009 is gone & there are only 2 photos from 2009 left as well.

Arron

15th May 2016, 07:35 PM

Just want you to know I share your pain IT backroom guys and Neil.

If you can get the pictures back from backups or whatever then great.

If not, well I've enjoyed this forum for 13 years and am not going to let this bother me.

Sure, there was a lot of effort involved in taking and uploading some of those photos but I felt I was fully compensated for it at the time just by being able to learn and discuss - otherwise I wouldn't have kept on doing it.

Cheers
Arron

ubeaut

17th May 2016, 10:46 AM

Been on this problem for a few days now and it looks like what is missing will stay missing.

I've nailed down the problem. It was to do with vBSEO which changed link addresses for attachments. We found out about this just after vBSEO it was deleted. Steven and I spent many days trying to sort that one out, I actually went through and manually restored somewhere around 50 odd attachments for a couple of threads and gave OP's the option of restoring their missing attachments themselves as it would have taken years for one person working 24 hrs a day to do. I don't recall anyone taking me up on that offer back then.

Explanation of problem:

vBSEO was deleted around 2013 because it was no longer supported, worked poorly and had vulnerabilities that could have caused major security problems.
When it was taken off a lot of images disappeared.
There were still links to them but they went nowhere.
The upgrade to vB4.2.3 (latest version of vBulletin) had a bug in it and caused the loss of all unused images ie anything that wasn't in a post or an album was deleted.
Because of the vBSEO link change, all of those attachments were seen by the program as not in use. Hence the deletions.
This was an automatic thing done by vB and that is why most of the threads have no empty attachment box or link to show what was there or even if there was ever an attachment at all.

Any post that still has a link to a graphic, .pdf or similar may still be able to be restored if the poster has it in their album.

All threads, posts that have no empty box or link will not be able to be restored as there is nothing to restore.

This is a bad situation and has destroyed many threads as well as upset members who spent countless hours working on these threads to make them great with their photos, plans etc. It is regrettable that this has happened but there is nothing that we can do about it other than move on.

It's no consolation but there are many vBulletin Forums that have had the same problem and none to my knowledge have been able to recover.

We are currently for cached versions of old posts and some still have pics in them these may be able to be copied saved then uploaded to old threads. But would need to be done by the original poster.

If there is any more on this I will post it here.

Cheers - Neil :U

PS This is what happens when you try to keep everything up to date with current versions, etc. I sometimes wonder why we bother. No I don't, its to make sure the bad guys can't get in and bugger the forums up for everyone. You don't expect the sabotage to come from within the supposedly bug free and safe program you are installing from those who recommended it to fix other vulnerabilities in their programming.

FenceFurniture

17th May 2016, 11:26 AM

...gave OP's the option of restoring their missing attachments themselves .... I don't recall anyone taking me up on that offer back then. In my case I didn't take up the offer because in some of the more important cases it was very difficult to know which was the pic to put in (mainly in the Saw Files 101 thread - which also had many pics in it from other posters).

However, in retrospect even if I had it seems it would have been time wasted as they would have again been deleted in the recent purge, as near as I can tell.

So the question is, if the effort to put them back now is undertaken by the OPs, what guarantee is there that it can't happen again? I would be prepared to spend some time restoring at least some of the important threads as long as I knew they were would be safe from vBulletin running riot again.

It seems a shame that the vast amount of info on the forum would be wasted by not having the pics available, as they tell much of the story - sometimes all the story.

Christos

17th May 2016, 06:39 PM

I can related to a lot of what you guys are feeling. I have looked at one of my old threads as an example to see if photos were missing which they are. The next thing that I needed to do was locate the photos and these are not available. I think I might have deleted the original photos. Not much I can do about that thread. :no::saddest:

BobL

17th May 2016, 09:41 PM

Uploading a photo takes
379579

20 seconds, . . . . . . so with with some 2400 of my photos missing, thats 48000 seconds = 800 hours
I'll get onto it right away.

FenceFurniture

17th May 2016, 09:48 PM

48000 seconds = 800 hoursAre you sure about that Bob? :wink:

BobL

17th May 2016, 10:06 PM

Are you sure about that Bob? :wink:

Hopes - OK Only 800 minutes - half a day I'll have it finished by tomorrow.

Actually thats just the loading process - finding each picture i.e. deciphering the post and working out which picture it is - now that might take 800 hours

ubeaut

19th May 2016, 02:30 AM

However, in retrospect even if I had it seems it would have been time wasted as they would have again been deleted in the recent purge, as near as I can tell.

I'm not sure there has been a recent purge. It looks to me that some people have only just found that there were pics missing which have been gone for some time and that all stems back to the the above explanation of mine.

For what it's worth we currently hold 132,393 attachments using almost 20 GB of storage space so there are still a whole heap of pictures that haven't disappeared.

If anyone knows where their pics are missing form and have them stored either in their Album or computer etc, and want to replace them for themselves, please let me know and I will give you access to the forums so you can edit them back into the posts. But unfortunately that's the best I can offer you.

It 's not the fault of any of the forum moderators or admins that this has happened, we all bust our guts to keep these forums running and up to date and when something like this happens it is as devastating to us as it is to you. We all empathise with you for the loss of the hard work put in to the forums by members with photos, etc. But what's done is done and there isn't any way to reverse it other than doing it for yourself.

Cheers - Neil

FenceFurniture

19th May 2016, 09:02 AM

I'm not sure there has been a recent purge. It looks to me that some people have only just found that there were pics missing which have been gone for some time and that all stems back to the the above explanation of mine.Ah, I see. That's good news then

It 's not the fault of any of the forum moderators or admins that this has happenedYes, that's understood Neil.

Fuzzie

19th May 2016, 09:24 AM

Sturdee

19th May 2016, 10:45 AM

I'm not sure there has been a recent purge. It looks to me that some people have only just found that there were pics missing which have been gone for some time and that all stems back to the the above explanation of mine.

I"m not sure either.

I only realized that the photos are missing when I went to reply to a post pointing out that I had turned a lot of Corian and was going to quote the posts but found that most of the photos had disappeared.

I then found that only 2 photos posted in 2007, 2 in 2008 and 5 in 2012 remain and then recommenced in early 2013. This means that nine and a half years of me posting threads with photos is now unintelligible and useless.

Not surprising that I'm upset and when I voiced my views I was castigated by Archer and my posting efforts was insulted by the "Dust professor" who thinks we're all along for a free ride. :~

Disappointing to me and I wonder why I still post.

Peter.

ubeaut

19th May 2016, 05:11 PM

Try being an Admin or moderator then you'll really know what upset means. We cop it from all sides both in public and behind the scenes and believe you me some of the behind the scenes stuff is absolutely disgusting and often from people who seem outwardly rational. It sometimes makes me wonder why on earth we admins & mods bother at all..... Then we realise that we're doing good things and helping others to do, and accomplish, good things.

And yes every now and then something absolutely devastating happens and we all feel like it's the end of the world. But then we realise it's only a little glitch and if that's the worst thing that's ever going to happen to us then life will be a breeze, the forums will go on, maybe with a few holes in some threads but worse things could and have happen like the loss of almost 6 mths worth of posts around 12 or 13 years ago, twitter, Donald Trump, selfies, Justin Bieber, online pictures of cats, Donald Trump, automated phone answering, Justin Bieber, spam phone callers, scam phone callers, lifestyle TV shows, Donald Trump, the list just goes on.

Simplicity

19th May 2016, 06:32 PM

Big Shed

19th May 2016, 09:07 PM

May I put to rest the conspiracy theory of a "purge" by the Admins and Mods?

This Mod has lost a lot of pictures from threads that he put a lot of time in to and had lots of very positive feedback on.

So yes I know how hard that is from personal experience.

FenceFurniture

19th May 2016, 09:29 PM

However, in retrospect even if I had it seems it would have been time wasted as they would have again been deleted in the recent purge, as near as I can tell.If that is a reference to this, then that is not what was implied. It was a reference to what was suspected as a vBulletin purge.

Dry Water

21st May 2016, 11:54 PM

Hi Neil
I would very much like to replace my pics but it will need to be over time as it will take some research and sussing out what is missing. I keep a separate external file with all my pics so it's a matter of reading the each post and reinserting them I guess. My thread is 'Boat Building/Repairing > Tom Cat'. Is there anything else I need to do?

BTW - thanks for the Forum, I sometimes get tempted to move on to the US site, as in this case, but the AU site doesn't get much input so I stick around, keep the Aussie spirit and hope people are looking.
Rgds - Laurie

ubeaut

22nd May 2016, 11:59 PM

Hi Laurie

Good on you for having a go.
To date you are the only on who has stepped up to try and fix a bad problem. Bravo. :brava

Won't be easy and could take a long time to sort out and do, but I really admire you for having a go.

Private message sent earlier today with info that should allow you to edit your posts.
Cheers - Neil :2tsup:

PS. If you have any problems please PM or email me.

:missing:

Bob38S

27th May 2016, 05:59 PM

Just checked my attachments in the settings area.

My oldest attachment is December 27,2012, between then and now the others appear to be intact. Prior to December 2012 they all appear to be gone.

I can remember some of them but not all, perhaps the best at this stage I can suggest is that anyone who comes across any of my posts where pix are missing, if they pm me I'll see what I can do.

I became a member in 2005 so there appears to be some 7 years worth lost in cyberspace.

Just as a thought, perhaps a general note tagged onto the earlier threads stating that some pix are missing and if the reader wishes to see them to contact the poster rather than have them wondering what has gone or trying to interpret a post with missing pix.

BobL

27th May 2016, 08:36 PM

My initial estimate of lost images was 2400, but I recently realised that I could check even more closely how many images are missing because I store all my Forum images by year in separate directories so all I had to do was look at how many I had posted each year.

All up between 2006 and when I first joined and 2011 I posted 2935 images of which there are about 80 remaining on the forum for the period between 2010 and 2006, so around 2855 are gone.

Cliff Rogers

28th May 2016, 08:51 AM

I have added a note to my signature.

A Duke

28th May 2016, 11:56 AM

Hi,
It would seem to me, at least in my case, that the couple of pictures that have not gone AWOL in my posts and 'manage attachments' file, are the ones that have been posted in more than one post. I have not checked if the subsequent posts have been out of the black hole period.

I thought that no one gave a rat's when it took so long for responses to my OP but some of the dummy spits since have shown how wrong I was. They must have been getting over the shock. I wonder how long they were missing before we woke up, I had a clue, which I missed, when a new member asked for more details on an early post as the pictures were gone.
Regards

woodPixel

28th May 2016, 12:04 PM

If you were to buy a magazine prior to 2012 and every image referred to were deleted (even the placeholders deleted), the value would be less than zero. It's just a lump of text.

Why not delete all the posts prior to 2012?

No doubt the same issue/topic/idea will be discussed 17 times in short order.

chambezio

28th May 2016, 12:11 PM

As distressing and annoying the loss of these pictures has been, it highlights to me, just how tentative electronic storage is. It seems that no matter how "secure" the storage is the loss of pics is a real problem. Not only on this Forum but our own storage at home could be facing a similar problem. When we took photos and stored them on slides or photographic paper, storage could be attacked by silverfish or mould, so now we have the electronic equivalent.

I am sorry for those who have taken the losses personally and taken their bat and ball home never to return. It seems its no one person's fault but just "how it is".

I think if we adopt Cliff Rogers statement that if someone needs some pics we should make them available.

Bob38S

28th May 2016, 04:00 PM

Exactly.

I was, at first, unaware of the anxiety this has caused some of our members, it is what it is, we all need to deal with it. Am I thrilled - no way, it has simply happened so let's fix what we can, move on and enjoy the forum.

BobL

28th May 2016, 08:52 PM

Here's a few compilations of mine that might amuse.
Each photo represents a few from each year of the missing images.
Don't worry I didn't do these especially for this event - I used to do them at the end of every year to remind me what I actually did in the shed.

381408

381409

381410

381411

woodPixel

30th May 2016, 02:56 PM

BobL

30th May 2016, 03:18 PM

BobL's picture compilation was incredibly interesting.

A new feature to have a daily preview of somebody's photos and have them clickable going to the related thread?

Show 100 or 200 photos at a time... It would be excellent!

Any linking made on those images above will lead to a bunch of threads without any images in them.

woodPixel

30th May 2016, 03:29 PM

:)

As a software developer you'd think of that and write the program only to show threads that had images ;)

After all, how would one display an image if it weren't present? If it weren't present, it wouldn't display, therefore nothing to click... ;)

chode

2nd June 2016, 08:55 AM

As a reasonably new member this is absolutely devastating. There are so many old threads I was looking forward to reading but I'm struggling to make any sense of most. The "Challenge to make the homemade router" thread from 03 for example.

As the loss of your data was caused by a 3rd party, can no action be taken against them?

deg-from-melb

15th November 2016, 02:31 PM

I'll go along with the previous comments, having been a system
administrator (AKA backroom guru) We used to say that doing
a good job as a SysAdmin is like wetting yourself in a dark suit
-- you get a warm feeling, but nobody notices.:U

But if anything goes wrong, the proverbial impacts the air
impeller.

I still work as a webmaster for a group that I belong to, the
above rules apply there, with the addition of major changes
coming by surprise a day or two before they need to "go live".

So, the back room guys have my sympathy, particularly since
it is most likely that the problem was with software that
someone else developed and not with their deployment of
the package. One of the reasons that the website that I
work with is all programmed by me. (Note: I am definitely
not suggesting that this should be the case here. The
sort of forums running here are a common solution and
re-inventing the wheel is not worth the effort, particularly
since I suspect that many of the "support" people would
rather have their hands on a bit of timber instead of a
keyboard.

It would have been nice to see the photos I was looking for,
but I'll live. :sad1:

-Don

Dry Water

15th November 2016, 03:33 PM

Just letting everyone know - I have replaced all my missing pics!! Big job but done and am sticking with this Forum

Robson Valley

17th November 2016, 11:48 AM

I've long since forgotten how many and which pictures I included in a bunch of threads, mostly in the Wood Carving or Sharpening Forums.
Same thing happened in two other wood carving web sites. In Wood Carving Illustrated, I'll guess that 10's of thousands of pictures, many TB, evaporated.

I lay the blame solely at the feet of the software developers = they can't find their butts with both hands in a brightly lit room.
Because of these 3 site failures, I'm not willing to shoot the piano players.

But since woodworking is such a visual activity, I really hope that site sponsors pay very close attention to what they get for the money.
Just the other day, I read that VBulliten is getting rusty. Huh? If it ain't busted, don't fix it until it is. Instead, some sites have found
something new and shiny, OOOOOOOOOOHHH! Visual support? I have not enjoyed these tests.

ubeaut

17th November 2016, 04:45 PM

Just letting everyone know - I have replaced all my missing pics!! Big job but done and am sticking with this Forum

Well done Laurie. :2tsup: I'm proud of you for being one of the only members with the getup and go to actually have a go.

It's a bit disappointing a few more who lost pics haven't tried to at least have a go at replace some of them, instead of throwing their hands up in the air and giving up.

I would love to be able to restore all the alost pics but it just can't be done by anyone other than the original poster.

Cheers - Neil :U

woodPixel

17th November 2016, 07:40 PM

....but worse things could and have happen like the loss of almost 6 mths worth of posts around 12 or 13 years ago, twitter, Donald Trump, selfies, Justin Bieber, online pictures of cats, Donald Trump, automated phone answering, Justin Bieber, spam phone callers, scam phone callers, lifestyle TV shows, Donald Trump, the list just goes on.

The awefulness of this post has come to be true! Glorious Leader is psychic!

Reaaallly dumb question: are the images deleted, or has the forum software simply deleted the reference to it? I.e are there orphaned unreferenced images?

I ask as I was (am?) a dev for 15 years (PHP, java, perl, .Net) and could write up a script to find unreferenced/orphaned images, get their date time and try to match those to posts. I could do this at night, gratis, for fun. If that is fruitful, then write a module to admin all the fixes to trusted individuals.

Edit: just found post 28. Sorry :(

NCArcher

17th November 2016, 07:44 PM

The photos were also deleted from my WWF album so yes, gone.

Sturdee

17th November 2016, 09:45 PM

It's a bit disappointing a few more who lost pics haven't tried to at least have a go at replace some of them, instead of throwing their hands up in the air and giving up.

Cheers - Neil :U

It may not be a simple case of throwing hands up in the air and giving up as suggested as not everyone may have kept a perfectly indexed backup set of the photos posted to the forum.

I have always relied on the assurance that the photos posted direct to the forums would be available forever and with upgrading computers over the years a lot of them I have lost myself. This never worried me as I expected the forum's copies to be there.

I still have some that may be I could put back but at my age my remaining time has become too precious to sit at the computer for days to do this.

Peter.

BobL

17th November 2016, 09:56 PM

Just letting everyone know - I have replaced all my missing pics!! Big job but done and am sticking with this Forum

Well done, but how many photos were involved?

Also noticed 90+% of your posts are into one thread which would make it a bit easier.
It's not quite so easy when the photos are spread across many forums.

fletty

17th November 2016, 11:38 PM

I have always relied on the assurance that the photos posted direct to the forums would be available forever and with upgrading computers over the years a lot of them I have lost myself. This never worried me as I expected the forum's copies to be there.
Peter.

:whs:

Im in the same boat as Peter except I had no expectation of "assurance". However, because of my computer naivety, I had slipped into the bad habit of presuming that the forum pictures would be permanent. I even used the forum as an easy way to locate my own pictures relating to a particular subject or project because the forums filing 'system' was infinitely better than my own! To me, the computer is a tool to help me learn and share my woodworking successes and failures. I've had to learn HOW to use it to get, and give, the most from my woodwork. My very enjoyable time on the forum has even overlapped my conversion from film to digital! It has now overlapped my conversion from no 'system' to a rudimentary library BUT, what drives me is my love of woodwork, NOT an enjoyment of binary logic? I have no intention of taking my bat and ball and going home BUT I have had to develop a filing system, I have become sceptical of things that I had previously taken for granted and I am willing to find a picture that someone MIGHT need, but I'd rather do woodwork than research and search for pictures to re-insert into an old thread that no-one may never read again?
The forum, and the people I have met through the forum, have given me great enjoyment and I hope will continue to do so. If anyone wants me to find a particular picture, I am very happy to do it but, in the one instance where this has already happened, I actually did a 're-enactment' and re-photographed it!
LONG LIVE THE FORUM and, once again Neil, thank you.

fletty

Cliff Rogers

18th November 2016, 08:32 AM

I reckon I'd still have most of my photos but I don't have the time to dig through almost 14,000 posts to fix them.

If there is anything that anybody wants a copy of, let me know & I'll go & find it.

Lappa

18th November 2016, 03:11 PM

What I do is place my photos in a folder named for each of my projects.
However, I haven't been on the forum long and have not posted near as many pictures as others and my posts were not affected by the recent loss.

ubeaut

19th November 2016, 09:49 AM

Reaaallly dumb question: are the images deleted, or has the forum software simply deleted the reference to it? I.e are there orphaned unreferenced images?

I ask as I was (am?) a dev for 15 years (PHP, java, perl, .Net) and could write up a script to find unreferenced/orphaned images, get their date time and try to match those to posts. I could do this at night, gratis, for fun. If that is fruitful, then write a module to admin all the fixes to trusted individuals.

Thanks for the offer woodPixel

Unfortunately it was a major brain fart by vBulletin that did the deletions. The rough story goes something like this: They included a script or something similar in an update, which in rough words deleted photo's that it deemed to unused ie had not been viewed for so many weeks or something along those lines.

Big problem is that they didn't tell anyone about this and it took some 3 - 4 mths for it to be noticed and by this time the damage had been done, not just to WWf but to all forums around the world who installed that particular upgrade. The photos were deleted completely and in some instances completely destroyed some forums who relied almost entirely on photos.

Had vBulletin let their users know up front or early enough the problem may well have been able to be averted, but they didn't, so it wasn't.

We do keep photos on a separate secure site. If we could have restored them we would have done. I'll have a talk to Steven and see if they are all still on the other server but he was pretty adamant that it wasn't possible to restore them even with a specially written script.

Cheers-Neil :U

PS When we found out about the problem we gave the members a headsup and allowed them access to their posts to replace missing pics but most didn't realise they had lost them until much much later when they had been physically removed by the program. I replaced a number of photos in a couple of forums but without any assistance from posters it was almost impossible. To add to the woes there was a change in the way SEO links were written which compounded the problems even further. :C

woodPixel

19th November 2016, 10:44 AM

I saw the earlier post about how the vBulletin did the "unmatched and therefore delete" after I posted. This is pretty typical of how programmers think... but a really good one would think "unmatched, therefore move to another archive directory".

It happens. A lot.

If I can be of assistance... just ask. I'm an uncannily crafty IT guy.

Bob38S

21st November 2016, 09:28 PM

Well, I've had a bit of a go which "took a little while ".

Ploughing through 2 computers and heaps of pix I have isolated 196 which, as far as I can remember are forum related.

My dilemma is.....

1. If I took 6 shots of a project/jig I possibly only loaded up 4 to the forum, I can't recall which 4.

2. How would it be possible to upload this many pix?

3. If uploaded, how could they be put into the correct threads?

4. Due to storage on backup hard drives which have undergone quite a few software upgrades, it appears that the original dates of the pix have changed to a few different common dates, so my scheme of trying to match posting dates to threads doesn't work.

I'm happy to make them available but am open to suggestions as to how.