Waterloo - loss of service

[whole diary]

[grahame]

The topic concerning major disruption into Waterloo on 30th April has been accidentally deleted.  I've extracted the relevant posts from the backups (I think I have them all) and will attempt to restore them in the middle of the night when (if I make a complete bodge up!) I can bring the forum down and undo the bodge.  Being careful as this is the first time this has happened; being doubly careful because I'm on a poor hotel connection again.  Sorry about the lack of Waterloo service - SWT^▸ (South West Trains) posts are being accepted on the London - Reading  line in the meantime!

[JayMac]

This was probably my fault. My most humble apologies. 

When accessing the forum on a smartphone it is all to easy to hit the moderator/admin only 'Remove Topic' button at the foot of the page when scrolling up or down pages.

Not just that button. I've accidentally 'stickied' and 'locked' topics in the past as well.

There is an 'Are you sure? check box that pops up when the 'Remove Topic' button is hit, but with fat fingers, a small screen and the need to pinch and expand, it seems I may have hit 'Okay' rather than 'Cancel'.

Sorry. Sorry. Oh, and sorry again. I'll try to be more careful in future when accessing the forum from my smartphone. Seems the phone may be smart, but I... less so.

[Electric train]

The coffee shop apologises for the disruption to services this due to a signalling problem in the Either area     

[bobm]

When accessing the forum on a smartphone it is all to easy to hit the moderator/admin only 'Remove Topic' button at the foot of the page when scrolling up or down pages.

Not just that button. I've accidentally 'stickied' and 'locked' topics in the past as well.

Given that you can't easily get smaller fingers, you need a bigger screen! 

However it goes to show what can be done if you have a skilled person in the engine room who can come to the rescue even if they are thousands of miles away.  I can think of a fair few boards where a topic deleted would be lost for good.

[grahame]

OK ... I think the services are back - http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=15686

As this has never happened before, we can put it down as just "one of those things" - a fluke of an accident and a reminder to our moderator / admin team of the power we wield.    I'm also aware that the site ain't very mobile friendly (as are many members) - visited on other threads; apologies given, but we're still good value for what you pay  .

As Bobm has pointed out, this has been fixed via an "International" operative, from a place where they speak with strange accents and sometimes misunderstand the British Idiom.  And the fix had to wait until there was an assurance of continuous service rather than (in GW^▸ (Great Western) terms) trying to fix it from the 19:30 off Paddington (not a train I use much these days, preferring to pay off-peak rather than super off-peak so I can get home on the last train to Melksham).

Please let me know of any follow up problems you see from this.

[TaplowGreen]

....I think some later posts may still be missing?

[grahame]

....I think some later posts may still be missing?

I'm afraid that's possible, TaplowGreen - we work on a regular backup rather than a transaction logging system, and the best I was able to do was to go to what was (I thought) the latest backup prior to the problem.  The problem wa s reported to me as occurring in the hour or so up to 5 p.m. and I have rolled the topic back to 15:15 - it is possible I could roll back to 16:15 instead, but  I don't know if that was before or after the fateful keystrokes, nor whether it would be complete. 

As significant time has to be invested in each restore, involving setting up a mirror database, unpacking the whole database backup, cutting new partial tables from the old then merging them back into the running system, its not something I wanted to do several times over ... I went for the restore I knew would bring (almost) all of it back.  Sorry if I have lost your (?) post; the process of putting it back isn't helped by the fact that I'm travelling and the internet access I have is appalling at times - weighting up the risks of messing already had me delay until the middle of the night (which it is now where I am at the moment) , and puts me off further action unless it's a matter of life and death.  Best safe than sorry.

[stuving]

The topic concerning major disruption into Waterloo on 30th April has been accidentally deleted.  I've extracted the relevant posts from the backups (I think I have them all) and will attempt to restore them in the middle of the night when (if I make a complete bodge up!) I can bring the forum down and undo the bodge.  Being careful as this is the first time this has happened; being doubly careful because I'm on a poor hotel connection again.  Sorry about the lack of Waterloo service - SWT^▸ (South West Trains) posts are being accepted on the London - Reading  line in the meantime!

For the record - not Waterloo, and not SWT. That was three days earlier, remember?

[TaplowGreen]

Understood Grahame and well done for recovering as much as you did! 

[grahame]

For the record - not Waterloo, and not SWT^▸ (South West Trains). That was three days earlier, remember?

Indeed - my bad.   I'm a long way away at the moment, and got my terminals crossed!



Anyone place the picture?

[ChrisB]

On another board that I frequent powered by SMF^▸ (Simple Machines Forum - The software we use on this site) on which I am an Admin, The Board Admin can retrieve the topic from the refuse board - or isn't there one on this site?

[grahame]

On another board that I frequent powered by SMF^▸ (Simple Machines Forum - The software we use on this site) on which I am an Admin, The Board Admin can retrieve the topic from the refuse board - or isn't there one on this site?

There are two ways that privileged users can delete topics on the coffee shop. One is to move the topics to a "deleted topics" board which leaves them available to be pulled back later, and the other is to truly delete them - that latter's the point of no return except from backups.  It's exceptionally rare for any thread to be deleted either way here, and where that's intentionally done it's been by moving the topic - at least initially prior to a final delete - to that "refuse board" as you call in.   In this case it was an accident, and didn't get put to refuse.

[ChrisB]

Ahhhh. That facility on my other board is only available to the highest authority...which wiuld be you here.

[grahame]

Ahhhh. That facility on my other board is only available to the highest authority...which wiuld be you here.

It's actually switchable in the configuration - hence the difference.   The general policy here is to give the moderators a pretty full hand - after all, they're here to help run the board and are trusted, sure pairs of hands.   But where things change (for example, mobile devices make the settings more prone to accident) there's no reason they can't be changed - especially if any of the moderators would prefer the protection of having some of the more dangerous tools that could be accidentally selected removed from their armoury.