Forum Deleted

[Pete Cyr]

NOTE TO ALL - -Keith Sherwin Deleted the forum on 1 Mar 19.

Shortly after the Forum was deleted the Host Server automatic backup executed. I learned that evening the Host only retains the most current backup......so while I did have a backup, there was no data in the backup.

I will being working to recreate all the content I am able. Gene Uselman is piling on the hours trying capture and restore as much history and problem solving that was contained in the forum as am I.

We am slowly recreating the Forums, the only data that was not deleted was the users information.
As I re-create the Forums feel free to add data as you may see fit or have retrieved in days past
Slowly I hope to restore the usefulness of this Site
- Keith Sherwin's accounts have been deleted.
Sorry for any inconvenience and would certainly appreciate any help offered -

There is little or no data in any forum as of today - 2 Mar....but hopefully we restore enough to be of use to you and others.
--Pete Cyr--

[Guest]

www.web.archive.org still has same snap shots of content

June 8, 2017 has a good snap shot of the site. Haven't searched through all of the 50 + snap shots

[Anders Troberg]

Deleting his account is too kind, this seems more approriate:

[Mike Henry]

Can someone share why Keith felt it necessary to delete the forum? That seems rather malicious if it wasn't an honest mistake.

Kudos and many thanks for those working to restore as much of the archived info as they can.

Mike

[Pete Cyr]

Nope ...I have no idea. It was not an accident...it requires multiple steps to execute the process.
His reason is not important today. I am focused on fixing not fretting.

[Robert Damon]

How was the site backed up and how often? I would think that after this, regular backup of site needs to made and put in the hands of multiple people so this can't happen again.

I know when I was a Mod of yahoogroup I set the system to email me at a personnal email address every activity ( i.e. people joining, people quiting, every post) and I saved the files to a local hard drive. Not because I was concern about somebody messing with the group, but because I was concerned about Yahoo closing all the groups and not being able to access them anymore. That was 20 years ago and think I still have some of them still.
If Keith had a computer background I find it hard to beleive he did not have a backup of the site before deleting it. I have backup files that go back 30 years that I still have a hard time deleting them...it is a computer guy thing. Maybe in a week or two he will return to rational mind set and somebody that has actually met him can talk to him calmly and see if he did keep a backup.

Rob, Yorktown,Va

[Pete Cyr]

The server host backup daily but only keeps the most recent copy. I find that odd and was not aware that was there process. The nightly backup ran shortly after the site was deleted so the backup was useless.

[Gene Uselman]

I would like to say that Pete is on top of this and is taking the actions necessary.

I think I am one of the oldest [as well as earliest] members and probably know Keith as well as anyone on the board and have dealt with him for several years. I think the only thing we know is that, yes, it was malicious, and there may have been a reason but we do not know what it is. Keith had not been on the board for almost 6 months and had sold his laser and talking to him behind the scenes was done with the laser world.

As I have told my employees for many years... It does not have to make sense, but we do have to deal with the facts as they are, and move on.

And Rob- no backup system is foolproof. I had a signshop with teribytes of files for 20+ years and have spent a lot of time trying to eliminate all the possible issues. All you can do is your best and try to avoid the pitfalls you can see or imagine. Gene

[Robert Damon]

Like I posted above as a guest the web.archive.org site reference.

Could you simply post a sticky to this point in time which has a lot of the posts from the site from that date with all the links/pictures intact?

At least until you get things back to normal.

Also, who actually owns the posts in the forums? Can the thousands of post at WAOS just be copied back to this site without copyright issues?


http://web.archive.org/web/201706080026 ... kslab.com/

[Robert Damon]

Holy molely. Partially

It looks like the site was saved on Jan 14, 2019.

http://web.archive.org/web/201901142315 ... kslab.com/