Hi,
I have just been looking at some 2010 posts and the pictures are gone, is this supposed to be or is it a fault.
It is my own post and the pictures were loaded according to regulations.
Yours
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Hi,
I have just been looking at some 2010 posts and the pictures are gone, is this supposed to be or is it a fault.
It is my own post and the pictures were loaded according to regulations.
Yours
I noticed that as wellQuote:
Originally Posted by A Duke
The first big gaps I notice are all pics between
March 19 and Sept 2 2012
21 Nov 2011 and March 6 2012
21 Nov and 26 Jine 2011
And from then on there are heaps of gaps?
Almost all of the 206/7/8/9/10 photos have gone?
I can get you some replacements, I have some good ones saved up. :D
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?
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.
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.
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.Quote:
Originally Posted by Robson Valley
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
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.
Oh yeah, thanks for the music, I quit.
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 https://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/h...31#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
Hi,
I was refereed to the following post by a fellow member in a PM https://www.woodworkforums.com/f19/fu...-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
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:
Just in case it helps to trace the cause, Wheelinround posted a link to this old thread of mine on 1st May, 2016......
https://www.woodworkforums.com/f140/r...ight=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
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
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.
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.....
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.
Really? Perhaps you could pop down there and show them how to do it properly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sturdee
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.
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,Quote:
Originally Posted by BobL
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
Hmm . . . . I'm perhaps a touch more cynical about most posts on forums.Quote:
Originally Posted by A Duke
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.
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?
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
Maybe VBulletin should use another forum type for their own forum - lest their pics go MIA.......Quote:
Originally Posted by joe greiner
I just spot checked my albums and they seem to be ok. The last thread I put up with loads of pics 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.
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?
Every pic I have attached since before 2009 is gone & there are only 2 photos from 2009 left as well.
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
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.
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).Quote:
Originally Posted by ubeaut
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.
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:
Uploading a photo takes
Attachment 379579
20 seconds, . . . . . . so with with some 2400 of my photos missing, thats 48000 seconds = 800 hours
I'll get onto it right away.
Are you sure about that Bob? :wink:Quote:
Originally Posted by BobL
Hopes - OK Only 800 minutes - half a day I'll have it finished by tomorrow.Quote:
Originally Posted by FenceFurniture
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
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.Quote:
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.
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
Ah, I see. That's good news thenQuote:
Originally Posted by ubeaut
Yes, that's understood Neil.Quote:
Originally Posted by ubeaut
Neil, as per Fletty's post #12, it looks like a lot more went missing around the beginning of this month.Quote:
Originally Posted by ubeaut
I"m not sure either.Quote:
Originally Posted by ubeaut
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.
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.
NeilQuote:
Originally Posted by ubeaut
Thanks for organising and running and taking care of all the stuff we take for granted.
It's a top forum if not the best it's not perfect because perfect is a delusion.
Thank you Matt.
It's a glass half full in my opinion.
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.