From:
https://shga.com/topic/what-happened-to-the-existing-old-forum-posts/On June 8, 2024, Doug Martens posted:
Doug Martens wrote:I came here to see old posts about the gliders that fought in the 80th anniversary of the D-day invasion and found those posts were deleted.
On June 13, 2024, Joe Faust posted:
Joe Faust wrote:Open letter to SHGA Board of Directors:
Has the SHGA board of directors decided about the challenge of preserving all the old forum messages?
Please save the message history and let it be available.
Please let me know.
Thank you,
Joe Faust
On June 22, 2024, Marshall Robin posted:
Marshall Robin wrote:We have the full site intact with all old messages, so they are not lost. I’d like to see the archive available as well, so I’ll be looking into doing that in the near future.
On June 23, 2024, Bob Kuczewski posted:
Bob Kuczewski wrote:Thanks. Will the private messages be available also? Some of us used private messages as an email tool, and now all of those messages are inaccessible.
On June 24, 2024, Marshall Robin posted:
Marshall Robin wrote:I think I have all of that as well. I don’t know if there’s a migration path for it, however.
On June 25, 2024, Bob Kuczewski posted:
Bob Kuczewski wrote:Thanks Marshall. The first step is to be sure you’ve got everything, and it sounds like you do.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s fortunate that your old and new forums have different URLs so they can both coexist. However, that possibility might depend on whether or not your current hosting package will allow either another content management system (phpBB) or raw HTML pages to be installed on your site. If they allow that, then you have viable alternatives to importing or re-integrating the old posts. Those alternatives include reinstalling the site as a phpBB or as static pages.
My first preference (not that I have any clout in the matter) would be to reinstall phpBB at the same URL. It could be active (accepting new posts) or static (all logins and posting disabled). This is my first choice because it is the least disruptive to the rest of the web. There are maybe thousands of links to SHGA forum content on the web. Those links are at Google, Yahoo, hanggliding.org, OzForum, USHawks.org, other hang gliding clubs, and other places that we don’t even know. All of those links are now broken. By restoring the old forum (even as read-only), all of those links will work again.
My second choice would be to build static HTML pages from the database. I’ve just done something similar with the hanggliding.org “Call for Leaders and Founders” topic that started the HGAA and eventually the U.S. Hawks. The restored static pages are here:
https://ushawks.org/HGAA/Call_for_Leaders_and_Founders/That would still result in broken external links because the static pages would use different URLs than the old PHP version. But the mapping might be predictable enough for sites to automate changing of links. You might also be able to use a rewrite rule to fix that on your site (depending on your hosting package).
My third preference would be merging them into the new CMS. I think this will be difficult for a number of reasons. First, the phpBB system allowed nesting of forums within forums. I don’t see any evidence of that in this new forum. The SHGA forum didn’t use deep nesting, but it still might be deeper than the new forum. Second, there may be other features of phpBB forums that don’t mesh easily with the new CMS. While an automated converter might appear to work, you might later find a number of things didn’t survive the merge.
Also, and independent of those choices, I would be happy to host the old forum on either the U.S. Hawks as a subforum (within U.S. Hawks) or as a separate forum. You should probably strip out the PM portion of the database in that case to protect people’s privacy.
Please let me know if I can help.
On July 7, 2024, Doug Martens posted:
Doug Martens wrote:]I attempted to post another one of my opinion posts but due to loss of the old forum I cannot.
If you google “Rome dodson shga” you will find the last flight of Rome has been deleted where he was in his mid 80s and flying with oxygen tank to his nose. I meant to provide contrast with Joe Biden who is also in his 80s. Rome had delt with asbestos in his profession yet he played life to its last moment. Sadly he too has been erased with cancel culture. Rome was able to complete his last flight without incident.
This is all google will give you “The Passing Of A Friend
Sylmar Hang Gliding Association
http://shga.com › … › SHGA Forum › General Discussion
Feb 14, 2021 — Board index SHGA Forum General Discussion · The Passing Of … Our dear friend and long time Sylmar pilot, Rome Dodson, succumbed to his illness last night.
On July 7, 2024, Bob Kuczewski posted:
Bob Kuczewski wrote:I started this topic back in May. It’s now July. Doug is correct. There’s more of Rome’s memory left in the fragments of faceless search engines than in the club that he loved and supported during a good portion of his life.
Who was responsible for sitting by silently while history was erased?
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