A new start for the forums

Post by **admin2** » 19 Jun 2005, 20:54

It is with much disappointment that we have been unable to restore any of the data of the forums as a result of the hacker attack on 17th June 2005. After many hours of effort and re-attempts, none of our backups have successfully worked although we do have the database with all the previous posts. It is difficult to express our annoyance that this has occured just as we were really getting into our stride with the forums.

It is our hope that this upgraded version of phpbb will prevent further attacks, but certainly we will backup with consistency and hope that if there is a next time, we will be able to restore quickly. As with everything, including peak oil, we must look at this problem as an opportunity to create something better, and indeed there are features of the phpBB upgrade that are improvements, and we have discovered further improvements that we can make for the Powerswitch site.

In the meantime please re-register, recreate your account and get posting! We will be recreating all the forums and catergories.

We have had a setback, but we continue forward.

Best wishes
Admin

fishertrop · Post by **fishertrop** » 19 Jun 2005, 21:42

Proving that the shallow whims that so debase modern society also reach into the Powerswitch site....

Does the updated version of the site provide similar signature-pictures that accompany your post and also the "rating" catagories based on how much post/how long you've been a member, much as Peakoil.com has?

Of all the things you guys will be doing at P/S right now, this kind of valueless trivia will be just what you need

LOL !

PS: I'll be doing my bit to contribute some value also!

SherryMayo · Post by **SherryMayo** » 20 Jun 2005, 01:45

Welcome back guys - I missed you!

I for one am glad we don't have the quantity rating (coal, light sweet etc) and star rating of Peakoil.com - quality over quantity any day!

Bootstrapper · Post by **Bootstrapper** » 20 Jun 2005, 02:42

I had to re-create my user account. Geez! Someone doesn't want PO discussed, badly.

I wonder which post rubbed the raw nerve?

isenhand · Post by **isenhand** » 20 Jun 2005, 07:06

<<Someone doesn't want PO discussed, badly. I wonder which post rubbed the raw nerve?>>

Don?t think they were that clever. Its always been easy to destroy than to create and clever people don?t really both with such destruction.

But on a more positive note, such people are in the minority there are more people who are intelligent and creative as this site shows. We have the intelligence, creativity and willingness to be able to build a better future for ourselves.

Post by **mikepepler** » 20 Jun 2005, 09:00

I don't think the hack was personal - just someone looking for a susceptible phpBB server to put their nasty little piece of code into. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing? The hacker appeared to come from Russia, as far as we could tell. Still, they could be in the pay of MI6 if we wnat to make a conspiracy theory?

Anyway, some time tonight I should be able to post an archive of the previous discussions on each forum. It may not be very neatly formatted, but at least all the text content is there. As a result of this I now know more about MySQL server and databases than I wanted to!

Post by **admin2** » 20 Jun 2005, 10:10

SherryMayo wrote:Welcome back guys - I missed you!

I for one am glad we don't have the quantity rating (coal, light sweet etc) and star rating of Peakoil.com - quality over quantity any day!

Actually, I'm giving it a go, putting a rank by countries with most official oil reserves. And you need exponential growth in posts to change ranking. So you need 1 post to be China but 512 to be Saudi Arabia!

marknorthfield · Post by **marknorthfield** » 20 Jun 2005, 10:39

Well I'm all for a new start seeing as I've only recently become aware of the issue. Having spent a couple of months reading everything and anything I could on the subject, it'd be nice to actually talk to people who know a bit more about it than me... Not that I mind trying to explain the issue to people for the first time - it's absolutely essential after all - but it can be a bit of a lonely task.

Have just read about the meeting on Wed - the one day I work late. Oh well!

mark

Adam Porter · Post by **Adam Porter** » 20 Jun 2005, 11:39

Bad luck everyone. Good to see you got back up so fast though.

best
adam

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 20 Jun 2005, 23:23

Glad you are back!

Very sad for all previous info to be lost. It was a very important resource of information and I am deeply disappointed to lose it.

We will just have to build it up again bigger and better.

Well done guys for getting back on-line. I know how upsetting this can be.......

bigjim · Post by **bigjim** » 20 Jun 2005, 23:23

Oh well, it's nice to be back but I'd like to have seen a few replies to the last message I wrote last week.

Let's get my China!

fishertrop · Post by **fishertrop** » 21 Jun 2005, 09:33

bigjim wrote:...but I'd like to have seen a few replies to the last message I wrote last week.

repost your message? ...people will re-reply

Bandidoz · Post by **Bandidoz** » 21 Jun 2005, 19:36

Oh well, shit happens.

BTW the search facility doesn't work at the moment.

Happy Hunter · Post by **Happy Hunter** » 21 Jun 2005, 21:41

Never mind guys, give it a few months and your regulars will soon have the forums buzzing again.

good luck for keeping those pesky hackers away

peaky · Post by **peaky** » 22 Jun 2005, 13:46

I'd like to add my commiserations for having to deal with such a crappy hack thing and big bouquets for getting it all up and running again so quickly. With all these fantastic people on here, we'll have it full of useful stuff in no time at all I'm sure.

I'd also like to apologise to James for me being a plonker and only reading about the first line of anything he posted up about this and so not realising things were broken and then not realising what I had to do to fix it. It's not as though the guy doesn't have anything better to do

Anyway, I still blame it on the heat