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Downtime and lost data

Posted by Kim on December 5, 2018, 9:55pm

Tonight was a hard night. The site was down for several hours for maintenance after our database went kerfluey. The issues we experienced were non-malicious (This was not an attack. No data was stolen.)

Most things came through the crisis just fine; so far, it looks like I was able to recover all groups, forum posts, private messages, kudos, accolades, custom templates, and purchase records.

Character and user pages DID take a hit, though. We have had to roll back character pages and users as much as ten days. If you created a character or account, or made changes in that time span, it's likely gone now. I can't tell you how upset I am that this has happened to our community, and how sorry I am.

I can say I'll move heaven and Earth to make sure this storm can NEVER happen again. I can also say I'll do everything I can to reunite people with lost data wherever it's possible - oddly, with your help, it may be possible re-link you to any RPs you were engaged in if you were doing them with an account or character fresher than the rollback. Read on for more details about that.

A LOT of data has been moved around to get us back up. There may be some unexpected results. PLEASE submit bug reports about anything that looks off to you to, no matter how small - you are never bothering me by bringing my attention to something that might be wrong, even if it turns out not to be a bug or problem! And you may well be helping me to help not just you, but many others, if you turn out to have spotted a clue to an issue. I really need your help to make sure everything is okay going forward!

Since user accounts were rolled back 10 days, I'm going through the purchase records and re-applying any Epicness or other perks you may have applied to your account in that time. This will take a few hours to sift through, and even so, you're still welcome to submit a bug report to me about it right away if you're worried!

If you lost a character or your user account in this awfulness, I could not be more sorry and upset on your behalf. The RPR is supposed to be here to support and celebrate your creations, not to hurt them. I want to do everything I can to at least re-unite you with the RPs you may have had.

If you have an email notification about a RP you were doing, whether in PMs or on the forums, please forward it to me at admin@rprepository.com with the name of your new account and and/or your re-created character and I will re-link that RP to your new account, and throw in some free stuff to try and make it up to you.


Don't have any emails about your RPs from us, but still know you had a RP that you want to be reunited with? Still email me with as many details as you can and I'll see what I can do. Include:
  • Your username
  • If applicable, your re-created character's page (link me!)
  • Any details you can remember about the RP you were doing. What forum was it on? What was the title of the PM conversation? What date did it start? That sort of thing!

I understand if you are feeling anger or sadness or even grief in this moment. I am feeling these things as well. It's an awful thing to happen and I am certain we all feel awful about it.

I want to thank everyone who sent me SO much support while I was working on this issue. You got me through it!

I will continue to update this space with any critical updates, as well as put out notices on our Facebook and Twitter feeds.

UPDATE 12:30am PST: I've restored hundreds of thousands of missing character pages. If you're still missing something more than 10 days old, definitely make sure you hit me up with those bug reports!

UPDATE 12:52am PST: If your account just adopted a character named "Zombie character," this is a placeholder for a lost profile. It is intended to give you back access into your private messages and groups you were participating in with that character. You may choose to delete the character, or to rename it and rebuild the profile on it.

UPDATE 1:30am PST: If you activated an item in the last ten days, the benefits should now be re-applied to your account. That is to say, your Epicness and character slots should be back.

Comments

Claine

December 6, 2018
12:21am

Thank you so much! This must've been such a stressful and exhausting situation for you. Thank you for all your hard work and dedication to the site!

Carebear

December 6, 2018
12:21am

What little I lost was restored.
Kim, thank you so much for communicating with us through this and restoring all you could. Hats off to you!
<3

ForeverDreamer

December 6, 2018
12:07am

The only thing I lost was the recent update on my profile, telling my current and/or new partners that I now have a full-time, four day, job. It's just a small warning, so it's no big deal having to retype it, and I even still remember the GMT of my EST.

Funnily enough since I'm now posting this here, if my partners can see this and now knows about what I'm going through now, then that's actually icing on the cake as the saying goes. XD

Decollates

December 6, 2018
12:01am

<3

Shane

December 5, 2018
11:55pm

I was missing some things, but it appears that everything's back in working order (not that I've checked everything yet). Even if there was something still missing, starting over is not the end of the world.

You do amazing work, Kim. I don't know if I would've been able to keep myself together handling what you do.

Xpoint_MetaPulse

December 5, 2018
11:39pm

While my units are being streamlined, I am happy to report that they returned to being filled with data. Clearly you've done a lot of good this day.

Some charas lost some info, but it's alright--I'm also reworking some of them, anyway.

Draken901

December 5, 2018
11:31pm

Slap my hat and call me jenkins, that was the fastest fix I've ever seen. Alright, I'm good now.

Draken901

December 5, 2018
11:29pm

Welp, there goes my paragraphs upon paragraphs of info on my characters, except for the oldest and unchanged. Most of my characters are now blank slates, and I fear for my keyboard that I might have to rewrite all of it. What even happened? Does anyone know what could of caused this?

Lucretire

December 5, 2018
11:25pm

Sadly, looking through my profile and character data, some vital information was rolled back for my character Merrin, and parts of my user profile were rolled back as well. If you ever do find out how to recover that data, it would be truly appreciated!

((Though I'll admit this is also my fault for not thinking to back up my own updates as they happen...))

Other than that, I haven't lost anything too bad, so I should be fine outside that missing data. But do take your time and rest, okay? It must've been rough on you to try and bring everyone's data back, so don't work too hard.

LakotaSiouxWarrior

December 5, 2018
11:24pm

All my characters are back. Thank you so much❤❤. You truly are a superstar Kim. Bless you.

Sin-fonie

December 5, 2018
11:11pm

Amazing work saving what can be saved! I just was about to send a message about a missing character but hey, there he already is again - thank you very much!

natjust

December 5, 2018
11:09pm

There they are, thank you so much! Appreciate the quick response!

-Danny-

December 5, 2018
11:06pm

All character restored. Thank you so very much! =)

WaitingForSomething

December 5, 2018
11:06pm

Thank you so much for your hard work ❤️ We'll get through this ❤️

ArcticTabby

December 5, 2018
11:01pm

Logged back in after the downtime and saw only one of my characters completely gone, while the others lost some pages. But that was almost instantly resolved (save the missing character) but I'll continue to have faith it will be restored to me <3

Thank you for all the hard work in saving our beloved characters!
We appreciate everything that you do for us~! <3

LarryBandzIV

December 5, 2018
11:00pm

I want to thank you for your hard work I may not have lost any of my characters or anything but I did lose an rp partner which is sad

ClockworkMouse

December 5, 2018
10:51pm

My children are back <3 Thank you so much for your hard work

LakotaSiouxWarrior

December 5, 2018
10:51pm

I only lost 3 characters and got the rest of my characters back. You are superstars❤❤.

Blurryface

December 5, 2018
10:50pm

I lost a couple of characters but that's okay, I'll be able to redo them. Sadly, I lost an RP partner along the way, I believe since their account is not 10 days old. I'm hoping to get reconnected with them at some point. ://
But, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for all the hard work you're doing!

Kytsora

December 5, 2018
10:50pm

Thank you for keeping us updated! Luckily, most of my work was in a group I am trying to rekindle with my friend and husband, and the two characters I had made were barely worked on. Besides removing the Tumblr link from my profile, I got very lucky with the amount of character slots I have filled.

Again, thank you for your work. I was worried, but I had hope you would pull through!