[Alex Pepple]

Some of you who might have looked back then would have seen Jayne's report of the accidental wiping out of all the Non-Metrical threads. Well, that post is no more, and the wiped threads are back as the only way to recover the lost data was to restore the Sphere to an earlier problem-free state from the automatic database backups I'd set up.

The problem now, though, is that newer threads--just before the prune--are no longer there because the newest backup for the restore happened after the prune and thus would also not include the pruned threads; and the one just before that was eight hours earlier, and that's the state of the Sphere's threads, PMs, etc., now--i.e., we're now missing the newer posts, and PM, etc., from about the last eight hours before the pruning occurred.

Sorry to any of you who has lost important posts or PMs. If it's extremely important data, though, PM me as I might be still able to recover it for you (even though it would be a tricky and rather time-consuming process to achieve such a recovery!).

Cheers,
...Alex


Cheers,
...Alex

[Jayne Osborn]

Hi Alex and Mods,

What a strange carry on! I followed the pruning instructions to the letter - no problem - except that the whole of the Non-Met board got zapped; I noticed straight away but couldn't do anything about it, other than PM Alex to explain. The rest of the pruning went OK, so I'm still puzzled as to what went wrong. I'm also puzzled that Alex's PM reply to me has vanished as I write this on my laptop, yet it's still there on my phone.

Thank you for restoring things as much as you could, Alex. I now have to re-post the Oldie competition threads in Deep Drills, but we'll all have lost a certain amount of stuff, for which I can only profusely apologise.

When I do the pruning I have one final chance to check the thread titles before they disappear, but this problem has never occurred before so I just went ahead and pruned. I've been up most of the night trying to rectify things, messaging, and fretting about the situation!

I'll start a thread on each board to let the members know what has happened. If it's OK with you, Alex, I'll use part of your post, above, by way of explanation.

Happy New Year! I hope things can only get better (As Pete has to go back to work tomorrow I came downstairs to make cups of tea to take back to bed for us, and the milk had gone off, despite being still in date. The gremlins are out to get me!!!)

All the best,
Jayne

(Oops. I thought this was the Staff board! I'm so tired my brain is on slo-mo.
I suppose I don't need to post lots of other threads now everyone can see what I've written.)
Further sincere apologies, Sphereans.

[John Isbell]

Good morning Jayne, good morning Alex,

And thank you for your tireless work on our behalf. It is inspired and inspiring.

Now I get why we lost a brief exchange in Met. It was hardly important, though, especially when weighed against the Non-Met threads.
I will post here an Einstein comment we lost, on how he'd feel if observation did not support his prediction on Mercury's perihelion: "Then I would feel sorry for the dear Lord. The theory is correct."

Thanks again, and wishing all a happy 2019,
John

[Jayne Osborn]

Thank you very much for the kind words, John. I hope everyone else will be as charitable!

Glitches occur sometimes, despite our best intentions, and I feel awful about what happened, ...but still don't understand how it did. Luckily Alex has salvaged the situation as much as he could.

Happy New Year.

Jayne

[Matt Q]

Just to echo John:

Jayne and Alex, thank you both for all the time and effort you put into making this place run so smoothly. It's much appreciated!

-Matt

[Mark McDonnell]

Alex and Jayne, I'll echo those sentiments also:

Thanks to both of you for sterling behind the scenes work. It is massively appreciated.

Happy New Year to Spherians all!

[Jayne Osborn]

Thank you, thank you, Matt and Mark!

My day is improving by the minute, ...but I have to do the pruning all over again now.

I don't mind... except that I'm a wee bit scared (I'll leave it for a while, till I've recovered my nerve!)

Jayne

[F.F. Teague]

Hi Alex and Jayne,

I just wanted to echo John's words too. Unfortunately I haven't had time to log in to the 'sphere for a while, but I do like to lurk on occasion so I'm aware of all the efforts involved in keeping things going.

HNY!
Fliss

[Julie Steiner]

Well, I'm delighted. A particularly boneheaded post that required me to make backpedaling and clarifying edits several times has now NEVER HAPPENED AT ALL. Awesome!!!! If only my awkward conversations in real life worked out that way sometimes, too!

Seriously, we appreciate all your efforts, Jayne and Alex.

[Jayne Osborn]

Thank you, Fliss, it's good to hear from you. We've missed your delightful presence

Heehee, Julie, I'm glad the glitch worked to your advantage! But seriously, because it was New Year's Eve it didn't affect too many members, fortunately. Many people were busy revelling, I expect!

We lost around eight hours of posts and PMs... as if the Sphere was in a coma from which it emerged with a chunk of memory loss. It could have been worse, though I still regret that it happened and I'll make sure it doesn't happen again.

Everyone's been very kind, so I'll get some sleep tonight now. It's heart-warming, for Alex and me, to receive your appreciative remarks.

Cheers,
Jayne