New Webserver, disappearing archives

[Admin]

OK, folks...an update.

1. Bad news: I haven't heard back from that migration script author yet, although I do have a line on reaching him via email now.

2. Worse news: I tried running the migration script myself, and despite my best efforts I've only encountered parsing errors that halt it.

3. Great news: I found some documentation, and after 3 more hours of work I finally got the old forum script to work on the new server! It may now be viewed at http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/

I'm going to keep trying to get a hold of the migration script author. If he can get it to work for a reasonable fee, we'll have the archives fully integrated into the current forum software.

[Tony Crocker]

If I read correctly, the crisis is over. We're in the same situation as before the new server. The archives exist in the old format.

The migration script would do what?
Change the archive cosmetics to resemble the new boards?
Archive posts would actually be included in the new boards under the broad topic headings? Thus searches would reference relevant files from all posts going back to 1999?

Like riverc0il I can appreciate the work that goes into FTO. It's a considerable multiple of what I do to support my little niche in the ski world. I'd appreciate the potential enhancements of the migration script, but I'm grateful to have the archives in any form.

We have discussed on previous threads the maintenance of personal ski data. While mine are not as detailed as Frankontour's or as aesthetically pleasing to the outside viewer as riverc0il's or JSpin's, they are somewhat unique in that they date back to the inception of my ski career. Unfortunately they are handwritten in tiny print, with a limited amount of quantifiable data computerized, in complex APL programs that I wrote in 1993. It has occurred to me that I should put all of this into Excel , and that Excel pivot tables can produce all the breakdowns and more that I have now. For each day (since about 2001) having a URL to my FTO post would be a nice feature to include.

But it's still going to take awhile to type in 823 days worth of info. And it's a higher priority (and fortunately smaller job) to get my snowfall stats out of APL and completely in Excel. The APL is a DOS version circa 1990, and every time Windows is updated there is a question whether it will work any more.

So much for the extended summer ramble. Congrats to Marc for solving the problem of the day!

[Admin]

If I read correctly, the crisis is over. We're in the same situation as before the new server. The archives exist in the old format.

The migration script would do what?
...
Archive posts would actually be included in the new boards under the broad topic headings? Thus searches would reference relevant files from all posts going back to 1999?

That.

[Patrick]

While it is a noble effort to save the historical data, I will shed any tears if the achieves are lost. The cost to Marc and FTO is certainly not worth information that only a handful of users probably access. Then again, having all my personal trip reports, pictures, and historical season data dating back to 2000 saved on my own PC and my web page certainly makes me biased. Ski VT-L has a TON of first hand reports dating back well into the 90s if historical data is important (granted you will need to dig through tons of OT topics!). The full download of all the data is a super solution to meet the needs of a few dedicated history buffs. Just my opinion.

I'm not only thinking about myself (as I stated to Admin on or offline, not sure), but about others down the line. One of the reason I participate in ski forums, is for sharing information, gains knowledge from others and the common good. It might sound corny, but sharing informations makes this forum one of the best. I've seen some forum (which will remain nameless) which disregarded saving previous post way to easily. What is the used to answer a whole bunch of questions when the topic is eventually trashed and you have to reply the same thing over again. The great ski forums have amazing archives and the wealth of information is sometimes mind-boggling. FTO is one of those and that's why I do most of my writing here. As I was evaluating my crazy offer to help, I discovered an old TR on Skiing in Ireland....

http://216.250.243.13/discus2/messages/ ... ?978489461

How many times while someone post something like this???

For all the people that post, there are many more that just look and search for information. I know I do it elsewhere when I can't find it here. This can be seen with Zoneski new format, you can actually see which topic the different users (registered or not) are looking at. I was surprised at how so many old topic were being by non-registered member.

That.

WOW if you can make it happen.

Thanks again Marc for all your hardwork.

[Tony Crocker]

That Ireland heather sounds like the New Zealand tussocks at Coronet Peak. It can make off-piste skiing viable on 50cms or so where the subsurface is soft grass instead of rock and gravel.

I was spurred to go through the archives and construct the "History of Vermont Snow Conditions" spreadsheet last night, staring with the 1999-2000 season, the first of the FTO boards. I've been doing my own season progress reports since 1996-97, but only recording the percent of terrain open twice a month since 2003-04. Given the day-to-day variability of eastern conditions, the FTO reports are indispensable in constructing an accurate table.

[Admin]

Well, I give up on the migration of the old archived posts into the new forum format. After many hours yesterday and today working on it, the migration didn't quite produce the results that I wanted. HTML code didn't migrate, so the HTML code for images published instead of the images themselves. Also, if someone wasn't logged in when they posted to the old boards the poster's name simply was registered as "Unregistered User." Neither of these outcomes was acceptable to me, so I'm leaving the archives running on the old BBS system: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2 .

[Patrick]

so I'm leaving the archives running on the old BBS system: http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2 .

As long as this can be access in the future then it's okay with me.

Thanks for all the hard work now go and enjoy the weekend.

PS. Was it possible that what you did today affected the board? I posted something around lunch in the Down Under section, that post is now gone. No prob, I'll repost it.

[Admin]

Yeah, that was the one post I lost as you posted it as I was backing up the database.

[J.Spin]

People are constantly drawing rash conclusions based on recent or the current season's weather/conditions. The more past info we have to look up and compare, the clearer picture we get. Throwing out those 5 seasons of reports would be a big loss.

Tony nicely summed up some of the reasons that I enjoy archiving my ski trip reports and weather data. Certainly a lot of it is for my own personal use, but contributing to the available information on past ski and winter weather experiences will hopefully be useful to everyone down the line. I'm glad the crisis of losing the data has been averted, and should the need still arise for manual data entry, I'm happy to throw my hat into the ring as a one of the volunteer team.

J.Spin

[Admin]

Well, after beaucoup effort on the part of two people, and a bit o'cash paid by yours truly, it's a fait accompli - the archives are now integrated into these forums, and have their own topics at the main Liftlines index. (Moving those posts to their current-forum counterpart categories places them at the top of the category as the "newest post," so I'm leaving the archives as separate categories.)

They're now included in this forum's search engine as well.

[Patrick]

Well, after beaucoup effort on the part of two people, and a bit o'cash paid by yours truly, it's a fait accompli - the archives are now integrated into these forums, and have their own topics at the main Liftlines index. (Moving those posts to their current-forum counterpart categories places them at the top of the category as the "newest post," so I'm leaving the archives as separate categories.)

They're now included in this forum's search engine as well.

IT'S GREAT MARC ... THANKS FOR ALL YOU GUYS HAVE DONE...

The fact that the old archives mentioned will now more easily accessible for the newbies to forum. All these posts are really a gold mine.

(Standing ovation)

[Admin]

Thank you, Patrick.

Well, after beaucoup effort on the part of two people, and a bit o'cash paid by yours truly, it's a fait accompli - the archives are now integrated into these forums, and have their own topics at the main Liftlines index. (Moving those posts to their current-forum counterpart categories places them at the top of the category as the "newest post," so I'm leaving the archives as separate categories.)

Well, the good news continues: the archive posts are now included in their current-forum counterpart categories. I've just got one more known bug to figure out.

[Tony Crocker]

While you're at it, I have a modest request.

There are now 32 pages in the western section and 65 in the eastern section. When I want to find some reports from, say January 2005, I have to start at page 3 (because of the ...'s) load each page in sequence until I reach the one I want. When I get to a particular post faster via the search function, I still can't directly view other posts from the same time frame other than via the above tedious sequential loading process.

This was already an issue, but will be more so searching the older archives, which were previously broken down into time periods. My recommendation would be to replace the ...'s with a box where you could type in a page number. Then you could zero in quickly on the timeframe you want to see.

[Admin]

While you're at it, I have a modest request.

There are now 32 pages in the western section and 65 in the eastern section. When I want to find some reports from, say January 2005, I have to start at page 3 (because of the ...'s) load each page in sequence until I reach the one I want. When I get to a particular post faster via the search function, I still can't directly view other posts from the same time frame other than via the above tedious sequential loading process.

This was already an issue, but will be more so searching the older archives, which were previously broken down into time periods. My recommendation would be to replace the ...'s with a box where you could type in a page number. Then you could zero in quickly on the timeframe you want to see.

That's admittedly PHP coding beyond my abilities. As a workaround, you can just change the start number in the address bar of your browser.

[Tony Crocker]

Yes, you can trial and error the post number to get to a general time frame. But:
1) You're still viewing one post (as with using the search function), never a page containing multiple posts for the same time frame.
2) The post numbers don't assure you of being in the section you want. For any given post number you have 90% chance (before admin's move to SLC) of getting an eastern report.

Maybe another way to look at this is to create a method to move from any post to the page it's on, even if you arrived at that post via search or post number.