The best laid plans of mice and men…

Yesterday, during an attempt to reduce the JBL forums database to a reasonable size (according to our hosting company) I inadvertently wiped out everything.  That’s right– the last nearly 7 years of the current forums were obliterated with a keystroke.

There’s good news, however.  The forums are back!  However, there’s a change.

They’re brand NEW forums.  The old data is gone and that means the old registrations are also gone.  To resume activity on the forums, you’re going to need to re-register.  So, stop on by and join in the rebuilding of the community!

https://joebattlelines.com/phpBB3/index.php

Now I can get back to working on reviews that will post next week!

Well, it wasn’t Cobra, the Dreadnoks, Serpentor’s Coil, or even the Fatal Furries that killed the JBL forums.  It wasn’t even an outside hacker or malicious attack.

Nope, it was a well-intended admin who had received a “database size exceeded” notice from his hosting company.

This morning about 11:00am CST while doing some maintenance I accidentally wiped out the database containing the JBL forums.  That’s right– the entire forums.  Every post, every poll, and every member from the last 7 years was erased in one quick keystroke.  There is no backup, there is no turning back.

What does this mean going forward for the individuals who still used the forums?  Well, it looks like I’ll be doing some rebuilding over the next few hours.  I can put the structure back as closely as I can but the content will be gone.  However, this is where you come in.

Let’s face it– the forums have been wiped out before.  When we left EZboard and merged with the now-defunct RingofCollectors.com, the forums were rebuilt.  When our database crashed after that, they were rebuilt.  From the ashes of the old can arise the new– but only if people want it to.  Once the new forums are rebuilt, stop on by.  Register an account and post something.  Start a topic, post a custom, create a poll– whatever you feel like.  This is a chance to build something new from the ashes of something that had become a bit of a dinosaur.

Keep your eyes peeled both here and on our Facebook page– that’s where the announcement that the new forums are LIVE will go up.  Until then, all I can say is “Sorry gang… I’ll fix it.”

“So, what’s the deal with the JBL forums, Mainframe?!!”

That’s a question that some of you might be asking after an earlier post teased that the forums were getting an update.  There is some news on that forums update– some good and some bad so I’ll break it down as follows:

• The forums are updated and functional for all registered users.
• Registration, however, isn’t quite working for new members.

In a nutshell, the current iteration of JBL’s forums is approaching its seventh birthday.  That’s right– there are nearly seven years worth of posts, registrations, uploads, attachments, etc cluttering the database.  Our hosting company, GoDaddy, has informed me that the database is a larger than it should be by nearly a factor of 150%!  This meant that the forums needed some serious attention– something that they’ve not seen in an administrative sense for a long time.

After a few hours work, the database has been pared down somewhat but there is still more work to do on the back end.  However, for anyone who has previously registered on the site, the old forums are back in business.  This means that anyone who has posted to JBL in the past 6+ years should be able to log in use the old site just like they used to.

It’s a fact that the forums traffic has dwindled in the past two years.  Much of that came from the hiatus of the site admin (namely me) from the hobby failing to generate new content to the site.  Further attrition is probably due to the ups and downs of the brand over the past few years as well as the rise of social media sites like Facebook.  Let’s face it– the advent of Facebook groups means that just about anyone can set up a group, invite their friends, and start posting.  Plus, the average net users spends over 10% of their daily time on the net on Facebook.

The point is– the JBL forums are still open for business.  If you’re so inclined to log back in, poke around, and discuss the world’s greatest toy line we’ve left the lights on for you.  So, why not stop on in and check them out once more?  You might just enjoy yourself.  (In the meantime, I’ve got to get the user registration settings fixed!)

https://joebattlelines.com/phpBB3/index.php