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Eric Patterson

Eric Patterson

Moderator
Staff member
Alcon

Our ISP (Carbon 60) broke off the web hosting portion of their business and sold it to another company (Easy On Net). As of right now the site is still being hosted by Carbon 60 but that will end in the next few weeks. Since yesterday I've been talking to Easy On Net to work out a plan to move the site to their servers. This is not an easy move as the entire forum script and much of the support code, framework, and configuration was developed and maintained by Carbon 60 personnel. Those folks are not part of Easy On Net and I have learned from these discussions it will be largely on me to get the site running on their servers. This is a HUGE task and one that I never intended to do. We always paid Carbon 60 to take care of the code and keep it running in addition to upgrades and new user functions. I feel abandoned by them. I asked if Easy On Net had some reach-back to get support from Carbon 60 personnel and was told no.

At this point I don't know what I'm in for hours wise, but I'm very concerned about the task at hand and being able to pull it off, especially before our old provider yanks the plug. There are a lot of moving parts to this website and tens of thousands of lines of code with calls to who knows how many 3rd party libraries like MySQL and ImageMagic, to name a few. Moving to a new forum script isn't something I'll do because it would mean everything from day one on this forum would be lost and I place high value on the posts, pictures, and information that is still at our fingertips. It's pretty much a get it working or the end of us type of situation as I see it.

I wish I had some good news and definitive information, but this was all dropped in my lap as of yesterday morning and I'm supposed to be going on vacation from now until Jan 31 with only a few days in the office. I planned to hunt every chance possible with Thomas and friends.

Maybe my worries are unfounded, but I just don't know what it will take to get this place up and running elsewhere. I'd rather be upfront about the unknows than just vanish without warning.

I will keep everyone updated as I work through the issues and hope to have good news. But honestly, I'm very concerned.

Eric
 
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Wow, that is awful to hear.

Can services be purchased to help/do some of the work?

T
 
I asked the new ISP several times if they can get a hold of the folks that know the code and was told highly doubtful. I told him we'd pay a consulting fee if needed to have them work on the move. No indication they would do that. My gut is they bought the accounts with zero support from Carbon 60 and they are trying to transfer all the websites with no outside help. Why I don't know.

Eric
 
Wow. Hope it'll work out some way?

If there is another round of "pass the hat" needed I'm in for sure but sort of sounds like money isn't a fix for this.
 
Ouch. Boy does the timing suck. I'm way out of my area of knowledge but Carbon 60 lists themselves as a consulting firm. Can the site buy their services directly or someone's they recommend to help the transfer? Just hoping to keep this from being totally dumped on you.

Scott
 
Horrible timing for sure. If I had any level of understanding what you are talking about Eric I would help. I can and will contribute financially if needed.

Mark
 
Hi Eric-Can you find out who their other customers were for points of contact on what others are doing? I have to think there are others like yourself out there and a solution. Be great if you could find a contact inside your previous ISP that could help you out a little. You just need a name or a way to find out who else they were hosting and need the same thing done. There also might be people that worked in that division that are no longer working there but may be working somewhere else due to the sale, often co-workers will share that.
 
That really sucks Eric. I wish I had a clue about this kind of stuff and would help you. You might contact someone like Geek Squad and see if there are code people that they could recommend to help in this kind of situation.

The timing truly sucks.

If the geek squad has folk to recommend, i would be happy to kick in money to help pay for the services.
 
Yep, crappy timing and not much thought about preserving customers either!
Sounds like you need to go over to UAH and find a couple of college computer science geeks to intern for a few days???
 
I very much hope you can find a solution. It would be terrible to lose the community, as well as all the information on these forums. As others have said, if this can be contracted out I'm certain many would be willing to step up and help foot the bill.
 
They can't do that, I was just getting settled back in here!

Man that sucks. I hope you're able to get it figured out. I'd offer some sort of help, but that is all completely Greek to me, wish I could do more. If monetary assistance helps let us know. You know a lot of us will pitch in to save this site. There's too much good info on here to lose that can't be found anywhere else.
 
This would suck as nicely as I can put it. I have gained lots of knowledge of many things from people on this site as well as hopefully passed on some knowledge to others. I too can not help you as it is all Greek to me as well. Definitely dont want this site to disappear. It is the first site I check each morning. Good luck and please let us know if we can help in any way.
 


Hopefully a solution can be found. It would be very sad to loose this community a wealth of knowledge and advice. Seems like nothing is easy anymore.
 
Eric,

Wow, this stinks!

Sorry to hear this but depending on what the Contract/ServiceAgreement with Carbon 60 says (including Notice, etc) , there may be some opportunity to get Carbon 60 to step up to their original legal committment (i.e. it appears that Easy On Net has stated what Carbon60 could do (=nothing). But what does Carbon60 say in the context of their legal committment?):

"We always paid Carbon 60 to take care of the code and keep it running in addition to upgrades and new user functions. I feel abandoned by them. I asked if Easy On Net had some reach-back to get support from Carbon 60 personnel and was told no.

Another possibe solution is that if you can find the right "Old Timer" (or Not-so-Old-Timer) at Carbon 60 you might be able to get that person to support the migration (or at least keep a legacy/reference system up-and-running) for a reasonable ongoing consulting fee.

PM me if you want to discuss more.

Dave
 
All

I have reached out to Carbon 60 requesting their support. I will let you know what they say. I have tried to locate techs that worked on the website in the past but the only contact info I have is for Gossamer who was bought by Carbon 60 and those email addresses are no longer valid.

Eric
 
I am going to try and contact someone I sort of know that just migrated their website (same basic type as this) to a new format and see if they have any insight on where you could get support for that. I don't know if this person did it themselves or used a 3rd party, but they might have some insights on doing it. I'm taking a stab and thinking that your main task is migrating your data to a similar or different layout with a new ISP and keeping it functional and having a path forward while maintaining the historical stuff you have. Is that a correct assumption?
 
Greg

My objective is to migrate all data and scripts from the old server to the new and preserve the site just as it is today. In other words the user will never know anything was moved. It will look and operate exactly the same with no loss of any data.

Thanks.

Eric
 
Ditto comments above. (1) I have no relevant or useful IT skills and can be of no help to you. (2) Happy to donate if there is a solution that requires funding.

Two long-term fly fishing sites I was a member of went away due to similar transitions. One transitioned to a FB-only format that is way less useful and engaging. The other went away completely. In both cases all the old posts went away.


Hoping for a different outcome here. Let us know if donations would help.
 
Here is the company the other forum I mentioned just switched to. I looked at their web site, and I think if you poke around here it will give you an idea of where to start.

https://xenforo.com/
 
Greg

I am really trying to preserve all of our content and I know of no solution, other than me figuring out how to move this site to a new server that will accomplish that.

I've been putting in crazy hours since having this dropped in my lap and am struggling at every step. Carbon 60 forwarded my email plea for help to Easy On Net. A lot of good that did. Easy On Net has really been trying to facilitate the task to figure out how to make the move, but it is up to me to figure it out and I'm exhausted. I've not slept much. Worked on it until 2 am last night. I went on a quick hunt this morning and then came home and have been working more.

I wish I could be optimistic but don't even think there is a 50/50 chance I'll get this stupid thing working. I need one of the original developers but don't have any way to get a hold of one.

Exhausted.

Eric

Edit: Just got off the phone with Easy On Net. I must say they are really going the extra mile to help any way they can. I've got some fresh ideas as a result of their call and am going to take a little breather and get back on it.
 
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