Unable to post (reply) in forum, 500 Internal Server Error

[curaga]

Yes, via the forum's admin interface.

Scraping would be a lot of work and still get only an imperfect copy.

[jazzbiker]

Hi!

Probably I missed something, but as I understood from the discussion, the forum is not being backed up? Please tell me that I am wrong.

[curaga]

That is correct. Our last backups are from 2019, we haven't had ssh access since.

[jazzbiker]

I copied the forum in the form of separate html pages with the help of curl. Hope it will remain useless. Raw size is 793M, gzipped is 85M.

[mocore]

I copied the forum in the form of separate html pages with the help of curl. Hope it will remain useless. Raw size is 793M, gzipped is 85M.

hi @jazzbiker
 is this backup including attachments !! ?? !!

[patrikg]

Could some one just install some package to the simple forum, to make a backup.

https://custom.simplemachines.org/index.php?mod=2664

By using the Upload or Download function in Package Manager.

https://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/SMF2.0:Package_manager#Download_a_package_by_URL

[curaga]

I believe that would run to the same PHP limits as the built-in pages.

[gadget42]

is there(or is there a way to offer) a bounty for successfully rescuing the COMPLETE forum database?

[curaga]

We don't have any organization or funding sources, so no.

[gadget42]

just saw this at slashdot:
https://developers.slashdot.org/story/21/11/27/0225217/addressing-bus-factor-php-gets-a-foundation

referencing:
https://thenewstack.io/php-gets-a-foundation-to-work-on-php-core/

wondering what the bus-factor is for tinycorelinux project itself as-well-as the forum we continue to build/contribute-to/expand/etc even though we can't administer and/or back-it-up?

would appreciate thoughts from most-active-members such as:
Rich - (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?action=profile;u=2311)
Juanito - (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?action=profile;u=4)
curaga - (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?action=profile;u=5)
bmarkus - (http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?action=profile;u=240)

no offense to anyone intended(don't shoot the messenger)!

[nomadbyte]

The db is too big for PHP. It times out.

If you have cPanel access (assuming that's how you get to phpAdmin), then the db can be backed up via cron job (with mysqldump, maybe piped to gzip), then downloaded from the File Manager or, well, uploaded to wherever from another cron job.

That's how I had to get it done when facing a similar case (no SSH acceess). Would be happy to help, if needed!

[curaga]

No, no cpanel access, so cron is not possible. Only forum admin access, I meant SMF's backup page.

@gadget42
The bus factor is low, and for the forum, arguably already happened.

[gadget42]

so the forum could disappear forever...at virtually any point...given the currently understood situation.

do we even know where the server(s) are located and who owns it/them?

[curaga]

It's a virtual host somewhere, and the owner is known.

[gadget42]

maybe this can help:
https://www.dreamhost.com/pro-services/management/hacked-site-repair/

can pay the fee if required.

tried to send a pm but it kept failing...sigh...