Accessing or Obtaining a Copy of the Old 2016 Forum

[DigitalDesignDude]

I saw the "UPCOMING... NEW FORUM / SITE LOCATION" announcement and it's encouraging to hear we could potentially have better forum stability!

But from looking at the old 2016 forum through Wayback Machine, I realize that there is still a lot of useful DSGM knowledge resources and topics that weren't archived by Wayback Machine and I'm wondering if there is anything more I can do to view a backup of the old forum.

I know Ruffsta already mentioned the following from a separate topic:

as far as the old forum goes - i do have some access to it's DB.. but nothing i can organize by any means - it's all broken up texts that have no start or end.. James would have to set up a temp site with it so i can grab the info i need and want. but that will never happen.. sorry.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=49&p=109&hilit=backup#p109


But if someone besides James was willing to set up a temp site either on their own computer or online, would it be possible/permitted to restore a backup of the old forum for knowledge resource purposes?

It would be totally separate from our current forum since I figure it would be best and easier.

I have some experience setting up websites both for online and offline personal viewing, so if it is preferred that the old forum isn't made public, I am wondering if I may still have a copy of the old forum to set up and view on my own computer.

If the backup is rather large, I would even be willing to provide an online drive or dropbox link for the backup to be uploaded to.

Thank you for any consideration.

[Ruffsta]

i'll leave this topic up to James.. like i said i just have some access to the old database.. the important files i don't have and when James gave me what he did he removed all private and personal stuff.. so what i have is totally useless to anyone else. it was basically for me to get old user names and email addresses so that i could invite some old members back. i don't feel comfortable giving out what i have because it does contain some private info.

as far the actual old forum james had.. i don't have it.. also, i don't think james really want to bother with it.. cause i would have it already... however, i can take a look at waybackmachine and see if i can bring some content here... but i make no promises.

[DigitalDesignDude]

Understandable, I totally overlooked the fact that the old forum would contain personal information of different people.

I was hoping I could just restore a backup to an offline phpBB forum and just look through it like I was a guest, not an administrator. Even just having access to .dsgm files that was uploaded to the forum would be helpful so that I could learn from them.

There's no need for you to go through Wayback Machine @Ruffsta, I already found what I could that was useful and posted it in the Resources section under the following post. That took a lot of time on its own so I don't want anyone to feel obligated to do the same.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=111

Thank you for your honesty and not outright denying my request. I'm looking forward to hearing how James feels about this when he has time and I understand now there could be issues with potentially having people's personal info that's embedded inside the old forum.

[Ruffsta]

I was hoping I could just restore a backup to an offline phpBB forum and just look through it like I was a guest,

honestly, i don't think that's gonna happen.. first because we would be using it and secondly James left all that behind him a long time ago... again, we have what we have because i wanted the software back and asked him for his cooperation.. he obliged, but he is not dedicated. so.. but yeah, i'll let him reply.. he's already been informed of this topic.

[imadedsgamemaker]

Hello - I can help you here. I can give you the backup I gave to Ruffsta. It doesn't contain private messages (and maybe more), so it won't import into an install of PHPBB. In other words you'll need to find another way to browse it. But if you know even a little bit of PHP you can write a few lines to print forum topics out, or get "PHP My Admin" working and use the search in that? It is just a big SQL file or set of SQL files; that's what you'd have from me to work with. I don't trust my own 'sanitisation' of those files so would only like to give them out on a 1:1 basis. If you email me ( j@jada.io ) I will reply back with what I sent to Ruffsta. Email is my to do list, so best to reach me there on simple things you want me to do!

[DigitalDesignDude]

@imadedsgamemaker Thank you greatly James for your response and being willing to share me a copy of the old forum's backup file. I will definitely follow-up with you via email about this topic and have posted my response here as well.

I do have some experience working with SQL files and PHP MyAdmin so I believe I will be able to view the backup's contents even if it means me doing more research on my own.

If you happen to have the PHP code handy for printing out forum topics I would greatly appreciate that as well if it's not too much trouble.

Thanks again and if there's anything more I can do to make this easier for you feel free to let me know.