PDA

View Full Version : Question about saving a CGI message board.


Aaron P
October 30th, 2002, 20:54
A message board where I moderate has just updgraded. Unfortunately, there are thousands of posts on the old board that cannot be transferred because the new msg board uses php.

We dont' have enough space to hold both messages boards and many members of the communty still want access to the thousands of posts they've made over the last year. We'd like to save it onto CD, so they could access all their old posts if there's a way.

Does anyone have any advice for us, or alternatives to what I described? Ultimately, we want to make the old posts available to anyone in the community for reference or whatever their personal reasons are. So far, the main request is to have it in CD form.
Canuckkev
October 30th, 2002, 22:52
Well, it might be possible to find a conversion program from that old CGI board to the new PHP one. But it would still take up the space. I think buying more space makes more sense than storing the posts on a CD...?
Aaron P
October 31st, 2002, 00:28
Well, we've discussed just maintaining the database, but it only has sentimental value to the old timers on the board. There's really not enough traffic to the old threads to justify the expense.

I suppose if the database could be uploaded to a free server for indefinite storage, that would be great, but I can't see how any host would permit it.

Personally, I'd loved to have immediate access to some things I've posted in the last year, just as a novelty and most others feel the same way. We all would hate to lose it, but the admin of the board can't afford to host it when it's not even being used.

Thank you for your suggestion though. I'll keep coming back to see if something comes up and to stay updated.
Aaron P
November 1st, 2002, 19:19
Does anyone know how to save the data from the cgi board?
Who?
November 1st, 2002, 21:11
you just download the data files for it
Aaron P
November 1st, 2002, 21:26
Well, we tried that but the directories don't change. We're trying to to have it behave as a read only msg board, but offline medium.
Aaron P
November 6th, 2002, 23:13
Are there any free servers that will host our files? Just for a read only reference?
GregT
November 9th, 2002, 20:21
about how much space and bw does it take up ?