-=READ THIS=- Recent downtime, missing user accts, wrong episode counts, and more

[Drahken]

Many of you have been asking (understandably) about why the site was down, why your account no longer exists, why your episode counts are off, why some anime is missing from the database, etc. Here is the explanation as to what happened:

SHORT VERSION
==============
There was a glitch during an update, which caused the server to crash. Recent backups were lost or corrupted in the process, because they were on the same drive.
The site has been restored using an old backup from a month ago. As a result, all data from the last month has been lost. This includes about 30 anirec entries, many recommendations, all new user accts from that timeframe, and any changes made to anyone's accts during that time. There is a possibility that this data may be restored within the next couple days, but it is most likely gone for good.
The forums have been restored to a couple days ago.

LONG VERSION: http://allspark.net/cypherswipe/what-happened-to-AP.txt

Please confine further questions or discussion on this subject to this thread, or the one in general discussion ( Site Problems, Am i alone with this, can anyone help ) so that the forum doesn't get cluttered up with duplicate threads. Thank you.

[Ageold]

I'm seriously just glad the site is back up.

[Duis]

..somehow every site seems to go through this issue at least once in it's lifespan lol.

[DisturbedMind]

So mine was deleted would i be better off just remaking it, or waiting for it to possabily restored ?

[Drahken]

Personally, I would try waiting. It's really up to you though, there is no clear answer.

[vernanonix]

sothis disappears for a couple weeks to Italy and all hell breaks loose. xD

So anyway, if we mess with our episode counts and then data is restored, what happens?

[shortlex]

dear god in heaven, they sent a glitch to us.
WHAT EVER SHALL WE DO,
we must pray my comrades, that nothing else bad happens.
*runs to Drahken
*oh Drahken, hold me, I don't want to be left alone in the dark

[AverageShinigami]

Is it wise to make recs in the meantime, or will they be overwritten if the old stuff comes back? From what I understood, you wouldn't be just restoring the old site as it was, but bringing back the data "manually". I'm not sure, though...

[sothis]

so guys, this is really, really shitty... i'm very sorry for those of you who did anything in the last month. no one is more upset than i am - i left on vacation after the major stress of the server move again, and came back to this. :(

here's where we are at:

ongoing current site issues:

1. users homepage and review entries are totally messed up
2. forum sigs dont seem to work
3. login doesnt work - at least for me i t doesnt, but new members seem to be fine
4. js errors on every page (dropdowns dont work on anirec entries, etc)
5. probably more stuff

i unfortunately can't look into this until my developer comes back online, as i need him to change some things first before i have access to the files. i hope that happens soon.

the restoration
its honestly looking like it wont work... but we are trying. we lost a lot of things from this from the last month: recs, users, signature info (this one is complicated), tags, studios and episodes added in that time, any site reviews put up (this one stings), all of the link info for the anime discussion threads in the forum, any new entries i had put up (i worked through them like a mofo just before vacation), and all anime list changes made during that time.

sigs are complicated - while the images are stored on the server and were not touched (this is a database-only issue), the database stores info about your signature. for example, if ive created a default signature (no custom image), the db entry will say youve created a default sig and stores the default colors. likewise, if youve cerated a customone, it stores the custom colors youve chosen and some additional image info.

so, i might have a custom image stored that is more recent, but my month old db entry might say i still have a default, so it will show the default one here and in my profile. confusing eh?

i'm thinking what we might do is send out a mass email to the people (whose accounts still exist) where the images were created after the 2/20 or whatever date (this is if we can even do this, as it might show all the images were created when we installed the backup) and show them the image, and let them choose if they want it deleted or not. we might just need to delete all of these images and ask people to redo them, as itll cause some problems if the db and images are not consistent... tbc on that.

there is hope for the entries!!! as it turns out, google has cached the entries (screenshots were never a problem as they are files, it was just the synopses that i usually spent hours editing and didnt save the text that i was crushed about)... so we've been able to save the info on the entires. i'm waiting to see about the backup before putting them back up, but they will have the same IDs and URLs as before, so any external links wont be broken. i will also post what the recs were for them, so if you made recs and cant remember what you recced, i can at least give all of the series names that were given (i wont have accessto the reasons based on the cache)

in theory we'll know within a day or two if we can restore the tables. unless you are chomping at the bit, i'd suggest not redoing your stuff for a day... as the merging process of two databases would be a bitch (we'd merge, not delete any content youve done since the reinstall), so to make our lives easier i'd suggest waiting.

i am truly, truly sorry for the inconvenience this has caused... again, no one is more upset than i am, and i hope you choose to stay with AP - we have an awesome V3 of the site on the way.

moving forward
it's true that we didn't have sufficient backup stuff in place - anime planet has always been a hobby of mine and i just didn't get around to it, but we are moving forward as a business now after 7 years. things need to change.

we plan on having redundancy and backups out the yin yang coming soon - daily backups stored on several servers, cross checks before anything is done on the server (not file wise, but as far as making updates to programs etc), and easy "off" switchc for the site to point people to a page that says we are down, but go here for more info, and possibly more.

thanks for your patience and for using ap

your fearless leader,
sothis

[r2kordmaa]

it will be lot of work to restore it but it will be fine eventually, and once the backup policy is implemented we don't ever have to fear such things happening again