New Hometree

Some of the old users are concerned that the new forum won't have any of the old topics or anything. Say Swotu gets back on this(he's apparently pretty sick right now) and is willing to sell the site and everything. Would it be possible to recreate the old forum? Or at least restore the old topics and threads?

If we could revive NB that would be the best thing ever! But from what I've heard, Swotu have promised to bring back NB a few times without keeping his word... :|
Kinda miss my 8000 posts

I know Swotu used Kunena as his message board software. If he has a recent backup of the database, then technically we should be able to restore the database. That means we'll have to switch over to the Kunena software in order to easily do it. I don't know how Kunena works; I have never used it before.

That seems to be the main issue though, getting a hold of Swotu and getting a definite answer out of him on what he wants to do about NaviBlue.

Speaking of, does anyone know why exactly the site went down, and why Swotu hasn't said or done much about it?

If he hands over the backup (one way or another, doesn't matter), then I would look for the same version of kunena he was using most recently before the server went off. Then try to restore the entire content. If I succeed, well, it's simple. We have it all back. If I don't succeed, then there is a backup solution (still assuming that we have that backup). I would have to use the backup to create an SQL script that would, on my server, recreate the users with their registered e-mail addresses (they will maybe have to reset their passwords, depending on how kunena stores them). Then another script that would contain all posts, so after I run the first and the second script, we would have all users with their posts. A lot of work, but I would happily do that.

I am sorry to hear Swoty is sick, but if anyone is still in touch with him on a regular basis, it would be great to at least know his opinion regarding:

1. The backup

2. Is he willing to hand it over

3. Is he willing to hand over the domain name (all I need would be the EPP code). We need this particular answer on or before December 8th this year when the original domain is set to expire. We would then have to either try daily to register it (which I can easily do), or engage some sort of buy-back service which would buy it as soon as it becomes available (most likely 8th January or later).

4. Considering the nature of the naviblue site, it would be fair to hand it over as-is and without involving money. However, if he is willing to only sell it (the domain and the backup, if any), what would be the cost?

Another option, which doesn't involve Swotu, is to see if there is any site like www.webarchive.com that has cached content of million web sites, including naviblue.com... I could, theoretically, use it to restore posts as well.

Now, to answer people's concerns... I will do everything in my power to restore the content of the original site. There is huge number of posts, but it only increases the time required for the operation, not the complexity of it. Being a programmer, there is a lot I can do to make it simpler for me. If you want wikipedia to be added, it will be added. Chat as well... Anything that my hosting support can be and will be added as long as it is legal (by that, I mean no copyrighted material involved). Another thing... I don't intend to put adverts on the site for as long as I can financially support the hosting. If the cost become unbearable, we will discuss it in the open. There will MAYBE be a need for a VPS (about 5 times more expensive) or a fully dedicated server (6-10 times or more) some time in the future, but we will discuss that as well when and if the time comes.

Now let me continue

Assuming that I have a backup, it will take few days to bring the site back up in the original shape. That would require some cooperation on the side of my hosting company but that is my problem. If the backup exists but is not usable in it's existing format then, like I said in my previous post, I would find a way to transfer posts to this forum. It would require some serious brainstorming (lol), but I am sure it is possible as long as the original database content is not encrypted. Since the number of posts over there is huge, I would have to do it in steps, so that id doesn't upset my hosting company.

There is no need to go into technical details here, so let's get hold of Swotu first, even if that means he does nto have or does not want to hand over the backup. Same stands for the domain, as explained above.

As for the life of this forum... well, it's simple. I registered this domain (sirmium.net) nearly 9 years ago, and I have no intention whatsoever to close it, fail to extend, or sell. And as long as the domain (and the hosting) is there, there WILL be space for a forum like naviblue.

Now, we need some action, to find and reach swotu and/or to find some sort of online backup of at least some parts of the forum.