Absolute Anime

On December 3, 2013 a server crash wiped out our database, destroying all forums, topics, posts, and user accounts. With no backups were available due to extremely unfortunate timing, we had to start over from scratch. It was a sad, said day.

Earlier this month I stumbled upon a local copy of the database prior to the crash that I had used for testing purposes. It was about a year out of date from when the crash happened, but that's still about 8 years of posts I could recover, dating from all the way back in 2004 when the forums were first started.

At the time of the crash we were using older versions of PHP, Apache, and phpBB, so I had to downgrade PHP and Apache and install phpBB 3.0.12, the version that we were using at that time in order get the restored forums up-to-date. Once that was done I had another decision to make, do I upload it as a simple archive or do I try merging it with the existing forums?

After doing some research, it seemed like merging the forums would be nearly impossible... but I wanted to do it anyway and was able to find someone else who was actually able to accomplish this with phpBB 3.0 and wrote some general instructions on how they did it. Someone else put those instructions into a PHP script which gave me a great starting point.

I took that script, made several modifications to fix bugs and make it compatible with phpBB 3.2 forums, and after a couple frustrating days was able to get a successful merge. I then spent several more days getting the merged forums all set up and ready for use. And so on August 31, 2013, we have restoration!

Note: To make the merging a bit easier, I deleted all user accounts registered after the database crash that had zero posts. User accounts that had the same name and email address as user accounts in the backup have been merged into single accounts.

w00t THis is amazing Webby :3 Thanks so much for the hard work!

I got excited when I found that old database backup, which wasn't actually a backup hence it not being in my backups folder. Apparently at some point I had downloaded the live database to import it into a local temporary phpBB I had set up to test some phpBB MODs.

I didn't know if anyone would care since the forums are like a ghost town now, but that didn't matter to me. There have been so many great topics and posts over the years that I couldn't let them disappear forever when I had the chance to restore them.

My only dilemma was deciding whether to make it an archived forum or somehow merging it into the active forums. An archive would have been way easier but I don't think it would have been as user friendly. Plus it would have meant maintaining two phpBB instances which I didn't want to do.

If you build it, they will come.

People care. This is their history.

Okay, so that explains the strange distribution of posts, with a cut-off date in 2011 and a couple of new posts in 2019. I'm glad you found a way to bring back the forum from the dead, I remember fondly lurking it back in 2006-2009, and I never registered back then because my English level was barely sufficient to understand what's happening, let alone post by myself!

Looks like your English has come a long way then! Congrats!

Thanks! But well, I've graduated in it (and German), I'd have been kicked out of university if I didn't! Although I'm experiencing such a nostalgia rush that I'm afraid my English level will collapse so that it will be more in line with the 2007 vibes I'm experiencing

Edit: I'm not saying this as a bad thing, it's a wave of comfy nostalgia, not a critic about how the forum looks or anything.

I'm really shocked. Spent the last hour or so reading old posts and I'm feeling many things. Thanks a lot, Ken. <3

You are so welcome! I'm really glad to see anyone appreciating the history we all had here.

I regained access to my account thanks to the help of Ken Innes! Thank you for your efforts in restoring the forum that helped me get through tough times. Looking at my old posts brings back great memories.
Now if only there was a way to contact everyone that would appreciate the restored forums.

I can maybe help with that Sesh, I still have a few people in contact from here so we’ll see.

But it’s good to be back and seeing AA like nothing’s changed, took me a while to remember my password but I got it eventually

scorpionwarrior wrote: ↑Feb 20, 2020 9:48pm I can maybe help with that Sesh, I still have a few people in contact from here so we’ll see.

But it’s good to be back and seeing AA like nothing’s changed, took me a while to remember my password but I got it eventually

That would be great thanks scorpion!

Sesshomaru-sama wrote: ↑Feb 21, 2020 7:48pm

scorpionwarrior wrote: ↑Feb 20, 2020 9:48pm I can maybe help with that Sesh, I still have a few people in contact from here so we’ll see.

But it’s good to be back and seeing AA like nothing’s changed, took me a while to remember my password but I got it eventually

That would be great thanks scorpion!

We have a Facebook group! https://www.facebook.com/groups/AAOldheads/
You should definitely join. Thanks to the efforts of a few people, we all still keep in contact via there every once in a while. Its kinda awesome.

That's great! I just requested to join.

Wow, great!

There are many parts of the website that were pretty cool to talk about but this was a significant event that wiped out a huge chunk of the website.