As many of you have already noticed, sometime last month many attachments started to post 404 errors. After spending the weeks since tracking down the cause, fixing the software to prevent it happening again, and trying to locate backups I unfortunately have to report we apparently have no surviving back-ups of the site since 2009.

In 2009 our web host began an 'automatic' backup system, something we even used once to restore the site after a previous issue in a fraction of the time since we didn't need to re-upload the files. Unfortunately, sometime in the past year and a half they changed their policies regarding their backup system rather silently, limiting it to sites which have less than 1 GB of data. As a result of this covert change, no backups have been taken recently and as they do not keep any beyond a month they have no files to provide.

The last backup I took of the site, in early 2010, was lost in a hard drive crash over a year ago. I have reached out to individuals who also used to backup the site on occasion but unfortunately no one still has the files. Most deleted them when our host began their backup program.

So what does this mean exactly? To put it simply, the only way any files can be restored is if new copies can be provided. This means that unless creators kept copies, posted them elsewhere, or others saved them to their computer an affected attachment is likely unrecoverable.

The only good news is that only the Forum is affected. The Gallery is completely intact. So if a copy was uploaded there as well, it still exists.

Hopefully you're asking yourself how you can reupload missing content, and for that I have 2 answers:

Captioners can reupload attachments to the affected post by simply editing their post and following the normal attachment process. Just remember to uncheck the original, now missing attachment. As moderators of their own trading folder, anyone can also do this for attachments for trades given to them that they may have saved to their computer.

Anyone else, or any captioners unsure how to edit their posts and reupload missing attachments Can upload them to the following threads:

Missing Trade Attachments Restoration Thread
Missing Contest Attachments Restoration Thread
Missing Showcase Attachments Restoration Thread

Any post should include the following:

1. A link to where an image was originally posted.
2. The missing image attached OR a direct link to acquire it from. Links to blogs or the Gallery will work just fine.

As I said before, restoration of any file lost will not be possible without your help. Working together we can fill this hole a bug in our software dug for us.

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