Lea ReOpening announcement...

[Sadiki]

Ok, so I the forum is ready to be opened again. I will explain in greater detail what happened and why it took so long to get things back up and running and all that, but as it's past midnight I think I rather do that in the morning.

Also I'm aware of the problems with themes which will be fixed slowly as I will be rather busy with work for next month or so... in example no days off until Christmas besides Thanksgiving...

[nathalie]

Great to see it up and running again!

[KanuTGL]

How wonderful to see Lea rise out of the ashes once again :P Thanks for bringing it back, guys :)

[Kirauni]

Hey there, Kanu! Whow that feels strange... I mean writing that name and not addressing my husband "Kanu Sukutu". But I think I already told you that when we met on Impressive title a few...years ago. I'm not sure. Anyhow back to the topic:

Yes, Lea has become quite the phoenix burning and rising again and I don't deny it. While preparing for the great task that lay ahead, I've also read your concerns abot having to start all over again and I can really relate to how you and others must feel. I'm so glad you didn't turn your back on the forum out of frustration. For me, saving postings, threads and a board's history has always been a top priority. One, where I put all my heart in. "The Savannah" is my home and I'd feel terrible if all it stands for went lost. So I tried my best to keep it alive over the past 10 years. Once Lea went down again, s-tlk asked me if I could help out. After carefully thinking things through, I talked to Nathalie and Sadiki and stared to work. Sadiki will explain everything more detailed later.

As he said, we're working on the "small problems" right now, like the styles etc. and I hope we're done soon. At least no topics or postings have been lost this time thanks to a working backup.

So yeah... Lea is back again. Hmm do you think we should call it "Lea 4" now? ;)

[nathalie]

Nah, Lea 3.2 (beta) :p

[cleargreenwater]

So IDK if it was me, but just in case anyone is momentarily thrown off, when you first log in the forum comes up looking like a basic Vbulletin, to get it looking normal, go down to the bottom page and click.....crap, I forgot the exact words already! "To Forum", "View Forum" or something. The middle option. That gets you back to a regular Lea.

Edit: And thank you for hosting Lea Redux, Kirauni!

[Kirauni]

I assume you were using a smartphone, cleargreenwater? That might have been our mobile style and by clicking on that link you turn that mobilestyle off. Unfortunately we can't simply replace that one with our own style, at least not without hours of work. Another question if that style is really needed, since this version also supports forumrunner and eventually tapatalk for smartphones. Something to think about... but first things first. Thanks for pointing that out! :)

[nathalie]

Don't quite understand that ... but just hoping the regular mobile version won't go anywhere, as I love that version for when I'm on my phone.

[Kirauni]

So somebody actually uses that mobile style... all right. But it looks like a default vB, doesn't it? Right now I'm working on the Chatbox-Issue.

[nathalie]

Haha, yes, I've been using it ever since it came available for this forum. I have a tiny smartphone, and I like this mobile version much better then tapatalk (also doesn't give you that annoying phrase: posted with my Ericsson via tapatalk, etc ...).

It is indeed just a plain white background.
Added picture ...

[KanuTGL]

Hey there, Kanu! Whow that feels strange... I mean writing that name and not addressing my husband "Kanu Sukutu". But I think I already told you that when we met on Impressive title a few...years ago. I'm not sure.
Haha, yes, I remember :) I should still have the screenshots somewhere too... Good times!

[Sadiki]

Ok, where to begin...

Well what happened was that when Lea got hacked last time, they were able to access to the server in root level. This allowed them to cause all kind of mayhem on the server ultimately breaking the server completely. They were mostly destroying backups and index files by what I heard, though I haven't had chance to talk with Brad much since then so I don't know everything in detail. So after the server went down Brad provided me with backup of the database that was up to date and that was last time I talked with him. I was first waiting to see if Lea was coming back once he got his server running, but once his other sites came on, but I still didn't have access to Cpanel or anywhere else in that matter and also couldn't get hold of him I started to look in to other options. I was checking a few hosting sites that were Vbulletin capable and at the same time not too costly as our forum is really small. I was not aware of what was going on with Kirauni at the moment until Nathalie mentioned it on FB and even then I was a bit skeptical due to the fact what happened on second Lea and also wasn't really sure what people wanted to do as there has been talk about proboards and all that. As Lea always been community to be driven by members rather than led by dictatorship, I didn't feel right just saying that is how it's going to be, though I said I do not want to be the one building it on proboards.

After talking with Nathalie for few times and after she told me Kirauni have had forum working for over 10 years and it being Vbulletin and all I started feeling a little better about the idea and by that time the forum had been down for almost 2 weeks already making me pretty convinced we can't stay on the server Lea was on and I wasn't really hearing too much talk about proboards at that point anymore, I thought it would be probably just the best to get the forum back up and running for now. So I contacted Kirauni after Nathalie provided me with her contact information and started talking with her about it. Unfortunately I did not have backups of files that were more current than June, but at least Brad had provided me with current database which meant that only some of the attachments wont be working right as well as signatures and such. So we messaged back and fourth a few times and she pretty much started working on it right away after I provided her with data and files. Of course the timezones weren't working in our favor so it took a bit longer to get things running, but I think Kirauni did outstanding job getting the site back up and running and used the free time she had to get Lea back up and running as fast as she did.

Unfortunately, knowing Lea's history inside out I can't say for sure this is it, we are finally stable, but with quite confidence I can finally say that at least our poor forum has at least a chance to merge. Kirauni seems quite a bit more knowledgeable about how to change things and I'm sure she is easier to get hold of than Brad was which was main problem we were having and I'm very grateful for the opportunity she has provided us. :hugs:

So yeah that is long story short... I hope I have time to look into the styles sometime this week, but I can't make any promises as I know it's a mad house in my job and even I only worked 2 days this week I'm already tired and also thanksgiving is right around the corner. But I try to fix at least a few things that I have noticed around. :cheese:

[Kasei]

Yaaaay Lea's back! Thank you both for your hard work and for teaming up to get Lea back online. Though I haven't been here as long as most every other member, I still feel really attached to this place already and am glad to see it alive and kicking. :)

[HasiraKali]

Yay! I'm glad it's back up.

[Nit]

Yay! Lea's back, for good, I hope. :3
BTW. There's something wrong with the stylesheet:
1) avatars aren't scaled (I'm using chrome): http://www.leahalalela.net/activity.php
2) Font color in the search bar is black, while background is dark - can't see what I'm typing. ;P

[cleargreenwater]

Thank you Kirauni, thank you Sadiki!

Edit 2: Now it just looks like the avatars lining up on "recent posts" thread is the only problem.
EDIT: No, I wasn't using it on a mobile platform. It hasn't done it since that first time I logged in this morning though so don't worry about it.

[Kirauni]

Haha, yes, I've been using it ever since it came available for this forum. I have a tiny smartphone, and I like this mobile version much better then tapatalk (also doesn't give you that annoying phrase: posted with my Ericsson via tapatalk, etc ...).

It is indeed just a plain white background.
Added picture ...

All right so let's keep it. Do you also use that style on pride-lands.org?

I love the forumrunner app but that's not free unfortunately :( I never liked Tapatalk much but since some members use it, I'll try to support it :) I guess everyone has their favourite browsing method ;)




Haha, yes, I remember :) I should still have the screenshots somewhere too... Good times!

Those were the days! Geee I feel old now ;)


[...] and also wasn't really sure what people wanted to do as there has been talk about proboards and all that. As Lea always been community to be driven by members rather than led by dictatorship, I didn't feel right just saying that is how it's going to be, though I said I do not want to be the one building it on proboards.

As said, you're welcome. Thank God the move went rather smoothly and I found time to do it. Iread about the proboards-suggestion in you thread. But as s-tlk has already written there, I don't think that would be a wise decision. Of course you wouldn't have to take care of the technical aspects but as there is no support of converters you would have to start all over again and you wouldn't be able to access either the database nor the files. Judt like The Savannah back at Ezboatf. For me that's a big "no-go". VBulletin might have its flaws and in the future we'll eventually have to think about moving to a new system at some point (I hope that won't be too soon) and since it's a commonly-used software, there will be importers for it so we could transfer the postings when it's time.

But for now we've other things to care about. So thank you for your trust and providing me with all the needed details :) That was a big help.


Yaaaay Lea's back! Thank you both for your hard work and for teaming up to get Lea back online.

You're welcome :)


Yay! I'm glad it's back up.
I'm glad you're back and welcome home ;)


Yay! Lea's back, for good, I hope. :3
BTW. There's something wrong with the stylesheet.

So do I :)
Yes, there are some minor style issues like Sadiki has written above. We'll take care of it soon and also include the other styles. Thank you for describing the problems in detail, that makes things easier later on. Just hang in there a bit, we'll try to fix it as soon as we can.


Thank you Kirauni, thank you Sadiki!

You're welcome :)
About your style issue, I don't know what haüpend but I'm glad it works now. Please keep your exes open and report if it happens again. Thanks!

[nathalie]

All right so let's keep it. Do you also use that style on pride-lands.org?

No, I haven't, I don't think I ever had a look yet if it's there o_O

[Sadiki]

Yay! Lea's back, for good, I hope. :3
BTW. There's something wrong with the stylesheet:
1) avatars aren't scaled (I'm using chrome): http://www.leahalalela.net/activity.php
2) Font color in the search bar is black, while background is dark - can't see what I'm typing. ;P

These both should be fixed now. Let us know if you keep having problems with that.

[Azerane]

Great work guys, and thanks Kirauni for hosting us :D