MKF is currently up and running, but of course, not like how it used to be. Of this, I am deeply sorry.

There are still some images that are missing which many of you will notice, but I think Heather has them, so I will wait until she returns from vacation to restore those images. I took the opportunity to upgrade to the latest vbulletin, so there are several new additions to the forums - such as tags, which you will see. The MKF blog, for those who check in on it once in a while will also be uploaded in the next few days.

I noticed that google has archived some of our old pages into cache - if anyone is utterly bored, and can grab some of those archived pages and send them to me, that would be nice to create an archive file of all of the posts lost since then.

You guys are free to complain in this thread. I know that much precious data has been lost. The one thing I am happy about is that none of Michelle’s posts have been lost. Knowing now that our web host does not back up plans that use VPS, I will be backing up much more consistently. Also, if any of you know of alternative, good affordable web hosts, please let me know. Also, if there is anything that is missing that you think MKF used to have (besides our data of course).. like missing images, plugins, strange behaviour, please let me know.

===

This is what I had posted on the front page yesterday, for those who may have missed it:

I apologize deeply for the problems that all of you are encountering today. It’s been quite frustrating having to deal with this while at work, but our web host, A Small Orange had some major issues yesterday evening.
I woke up this morning, as I’m sure all of you did, to find that mkforum.net was inaccessible.

I sent off an e-mail to ask them what was wrong. They told me they would run some scripts to get it up and running. I thought that meant it was a minor issue with the system. When it completed, they sent me an e-mail to tell me that it was complete and that I’d have to go through these steps to reconfigure it and have to re-upload the web site.

As some of you might have seen, for some time the front page read “Apache and Control Panel has been successfully configured.” I also had a heart attack when I saw this, because it means that nothing that was there exists anymore.

Anyway, long story short. This is what happened to the server that mkforum.net is on: http://forums.asmallorange.com/index…howtopic=11957
and when I flipped out, they responded with this:

“Hi Grace, I apologize for the inconvenience with this. The disk partition where all the VPSes were configured had to be reformatted. Since we don’t maintain individual backups of the VPSes, we don’t have any customer data to restore. The VPS itself is back online, so I can help you with any reconfiguration needed on the server However, if you have any backups of data that you’ve downloaded to your computer at home, I can help you restore that information.”

The good news is that I DO have a backup. The bad news is that it’s from February. I HAD made other backups, but they were on all onto the server itself. This means that a lot of data has been lost, from between February to now. I am very sorry that this has happened. I was not aware that our service did not back up the servers, and now that I do, I will be extremely diligent about backing up regularly. I am NOT at all happy with the current situation - half of it being my own fault, half of it our web hosts.
I will try my hardest to get some semblance of our forum working again, as soon as possible. This may take a while because I have to reconfigure the server, re-install vbulletin, and get it up to speed. But I will try to get all the basics down so members can at least post again.

Just so you may have an idea what data is gone, the following will be gone:
New posts made since February 6
New threads made since February 6
Forum changes or additions made since February 6
Private messages since February 6
If you signed up for a user account since February 6, you will have to sign up again.

I will try to recover some of the old blog posts.

Regards, ~Grace

Many have probably noticed the change in the banner when you enter MKF. All of you probably know that summer is over. I actually wanted to create this banner a long time ago, but only was able to start it a few weeks ago and finally get it up. So yes, I realize summer is almost over, but I still wanted a happy summer theme, so even if it only lasts until mid September, it will still have been up!

Also, I’m taking this opportunity to notify everyone that we are going to upgrade to vbulletin 3.6.0 in the next couple of weeks (starting next week). There are MANY changes in the new release (as noted below), some which are of great improvement. However, there may be a few glitches here and there, so please be patient during this time. Many thanks!

Part of an e-mail received from vbulletin:

—————- WHAT’S NEW IN 3.6.0? —————-

Many customers have been keeping track of the new features that have been added to 3.6 via the vBulletin Community Forums, but for those who have not, this is a brief summary of what’s new:

* Multi-Quote
* Linked Quotes
* Mark Forums Read With AJAX
* New Buddy / Ignore List Editor
* Options Backup And Restore
* Private Message Preview In Notification Emails
* Auto-Resize Oversized Image Attachments
* ‘Reason For Editing’ On Quick Edit
* Unique Unsubscribe Link In Emails
* Plugin Manager Sorted By Product
* Save Search Preferences With AJAX
* Infraction System (Warning system)
* Default Sorting Option Per Forum
* Rate Threads With AJAX
* IP Resolution With AJAX
* Improved Proxy Support In Session Handling
* More AJAX Auto-Completion
* Paid Subscription Permissions
* Show Threads Or Posts From Quick Search Popup
* Phrase Types Identified By Field Name Only
* LastPostID Column In User, Thread And Forum Tables
* Extensive Signature Permissions
* Uploadable Signature Image System
* Improved Image Verification (Captcha)
* Enforced Required Profile Fields
* ‘Find Updated Phrases’ System
* Pop-Up List Of Attachments In A Thread
* Validation Of Admin Options
* Product Dependencies Support
* Paid Subscription Logging And Statistics
* APC Support For Datastore
* Description Field For Scheduled Tasks
* RSS Poster Robot allows import of RSS feeds into forums
* Latest version check and product URL for products
* Receive private messages from Buddies only option
* Show private forum option per forum
* Give reputation using AJAX
* Error prevention in upgrades
* Option to disable scheduled tasks
* Parsed signature storage for performance boost
* CRON tasks, profile fields, subs, holidays now phrased
* Option to sort forums by thread creation time
* Super moderator permissions
* Welcome private message at registration
* WYSIWYG front-end editing for announcements
* Plugin execution order control
* Flexible username validation
* Private message quota warning system
* Private message admin quota override ability
* Plain-text BBcode parser
* Cache of syndication data (external.php) for improved speed
* Email logging for diagnostics
* Improved performance in datastore failure handling
* Instant view of deleted / ignored posts using AJAX
* Centralized area to view posts awaiting moderation / deleted
* Admin help, scheduled tasks, FAQ now include product support
* CCBill support for paid subscriptions
* Attachment permissions per usergroup
* List posts / threads selected for inline moderation
* Full BCC support in private messages
* Podcasting support
* Atomic flood checking
* Image verification (Captcha) for guest posting
* Thumbnail display options - border / dimensions etc.
* Copy posts using inline moderation
* Announcements show when viewing new posts
* New built-in option types
* Resume paused attachment downloads
* Better webserver logging for POST requests
* Automatically remove thread redirects after set time
* Announcement DataManager
* Persistent D.O.B cookie for COPPA
* Improved master / slave database support
* Improved RSS syndication system
__________________

July 28, 2006: Michelle made an appearance on the local Seattle Talk Show: Northwest Afternoon during Champions on Ice’s stop in Seattle. She was interviewed by Elisa Jaffe. A few MKFers were lucky enough to meet her

You can follow the discussion, reports and pictures with this thread on MKF: MKF: ‘Michelle to be on local talk show in Seattle’

August 3, 2006: A couple of lucky MKFers met Michelle at this VISA company signing event in Foster City, California. Michelle was gracious and always her shining self. The reports of zongwen and purplemkfan are a must-read, including the pictures included.

Read and discuss them here: MKF: ‘08/03: Reports of meeting Michelle at VISA in Foster City’

Michelle was interviewed July 20, 2006 on Denver’s show “Colorado & Company”, in support of Spencer Harrison’s foundation “Teen With a Dream”. She bought and signed skates to be auctioned off in which all the proceeds would go to supporting the foundation.

Pictures and Links to video can be found here.

Auction for the skates through Ebay: here