Saving pictures and threads from the old forum

[Martin Avis]

It appears that Lefora have finally sorted themselves out and are now displaying pictures that were previously 'Uploaded' to threads. They are doing it in a weird way though - the pictures are now links that you have to click on to see them one at a time.

If somebody has a LOT of time on their hands - and a computer with a lot of available space - it is possible to now copy those old pictures by opening them up, right clicking on the image and selecting 'Save Picture As'. Oddly, even though the pictures are in jpg format on the Lefora site, when you try to save them, they are converted to .png files (each called untitled). You will then need to change the name from untitled to something that relates to the post/thread. Png files are still fine though and can be used in graphics programs or on websites, so the conversion seems somewhat unnecessary.

In theory scraping the pictures should be possible by writing a spider scripts to trawl the site and extract all the images, but Lefora have effectively blocked that by only allowing access to the pictures if you are a logged in user - something an automated script can't be.

This is going to be a long, tedious manual job for someone! Any volunteers?

Now that Lefora know we have moved and have slapped Nick on the wrist for posting links to this new location on the old forum I would not be surprised if they decide to close the old forum down sooner rather than later. They will probably monitor usage and shut it after a certain period of inactivity. So extracting anything of value is possibly quite urgent.

As mentioned elsewhere I have a backup of some of the forum (up to mid June), with each thread saved as a csv file. Pictures that were posted from outside sources (ie Photobucket) are preserved but none of the ones uploaded to the old forum are. My original idea was to see if the old threads could somehow be imported into this new forum but having taken a look at the way the database is structured I now don't think that is possible, unfortunately.

What I propose instead is to create the old threads as static html pages which can be linked to from the relevant forums here. Not entirely ideal, but at least a lot of our archive will be saved that way.

A lot will depend on how much hosting space Nick has because there are thousands of threads! And if we do find a way to import the old pictures, the space requirement for the domain will be enormous!

Work in progress.

Martin

[matchboxuk]

Martin

Thanks for explaining that. I keep all my old photos so if any are lost I can relist

Nigel

[SMS88]

Static HTML pages with links to the specific model numbers that they cover is a lot better than nothing,perhaps in a sticky at the top of the relevant sub section?. Its a shame lefora wouldnt allow us to keep the old format and they must bemad if they think that their new format is more user friendly.....

[johnboy]

Not only mad, but the whole thing stinks, typical corporate rubbish. The way Lefora have treated Nick and loyal forum users, railroading through poorly conceived changes, a lack of consultation, not loading up the content properly, etc etc is worse than poor. I'd have thought other groups may well be heading off too. That said, I do hope we can preserve all those old valueable threads somehow.

[nickjones]

Hi Martin.
I'm sure I can upload them to my site as a simple text file, I have unlimited web space so size is not a problem and now the forum is on Hostgator it has unlimited web space too. Are you going to Windsor toyfair, (I think it is on the 28th sept) I'm going, maybe I could meet you there or if you could copy them to dvd I could call in at your house to collect them.

[Martin Avis]

Hi Martin.
I'm sure I can upload them to my site as a simple text file, I have unlimited web space so size is not a problem and now the forum is on Hostgator it has unlimited web space too. Are you going to Windsor toyfair, (I think it is on the 28th sept) I'm going, maybe I could meet you there or if you could copy them to dvd I could call in at your house to collect them.

Funnily enough I might be going to Windsor - if I do it will be my very first toy fair! it would be great to meet up.

I can quite easily write some software that will convert the CSV files into static web pages - and group together threads so they all appear in one place for each model. But that will probably take longer than the end of the month. In any case, the simplest way to get them all on your hosting would be for me to upload them to it directly. DVDs are SO last year!

Martin

[nickjones]

Hi Martin.
Whatever is the easiest way for you to do it would be fine.
I know Jason will be at Windsor and I think a few other members will be there too (YYBob?), who else is planning on going to Windsor ?

[Big Al]

So wait... we lost all the old Matchbox Calendar pics?! God damn you. God damn you all to hell!

[motorman]

Naji's model of the month for May a tribute to me!!.JPG (66.48 KiB) Viewed 2484 times

So wait... we lost all the old Matchbox Calendar pics?! God damn you. God damn you all to hell!

Not quite, here's the one Naji did for little old me just to help all you guys get a good sleep tonight.

[Big Al]

Thanks, motorman! Gives me that nostalgic feeling. At least I think that's what it is...