[admincs1]

On Monday May 5th, the website and forum database was corrupted with bogus data (not sure how). The database as unrecoverable, and therefore we had to restore the database from May 4th Sunday. All posts after 4:00 AM (EDT) May 5th were lost. Any new users that registered were also lost.

Sorry about any inconvenience this may have caused you in any way.

Thanks,

Mukesh

[MaMa PeGaSuS]

thats weird…

an a lil confusing…

[admincs1]

It is definately weird. Basically all posts/users/profiles were corrupted and so we couldn't really fix it. Everyday we take backups of the database at 4:00AM so its like taking a snapshot of the database at 4AM. So the backup taken at 4AM on Monday was the one we restored with so the site lost all posts/users/profiles that were created after 4AM Monday.

Hope that makes it clear.

-Mukesh

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

Hello Mukesh…

So what do we do now? Just wait for it to go back to the way it was? Please tell me it's gonna go back to the way it was.

Thank you.

[admincs1]

Hello Everyone,

As you noticed, the forum has gone through some changes. It is now at the latest version of the forum software “Community Server 2008”. Why we upgraded? For those of you that aren't aware, past couple of weeks our site was hit by the SQL Injection worm. You can read about it here. Also if you search for Google on sql injection worm you will find many hits. Basically the worm attacked websites that were built on Microsoft platform and once it found a hole it would insert garbage into our database and corrupt it. I tried to restore the data from our backups but just within hours the worm would attack again.

So, I made some emergency updates to our codebase for the main site.

– first I removed the Music reviews off our home page. It wasn't a popular section and so it had to go.

– second, the Top Ten section from the homepage is also gone. I have a feeling the worm may have been using that functionality to get to some of the data.

– third, our forum, which you are probably most interested in. I upgraded this to the latest version that was released by the developers. It is called Community Server 2008. Community Server if you are not aware, is actually more than just a forum, it is supposed to be a place to blog, post to the forum, use its private message functionality, share files and much more. We just use it for the Forums and some what blogs and don't use the rest of it (although we can look at ways to using the other features if we can get some good suggestions.). But the developers say that this should help with any security holes there may be in the previous version.

As part of upgrading, there are new features and some changes to old features. Private messages are now conversations and can be accessed from your own dashboard home page (the Your Converstations link). You see this dashboard when you log in. The page provides a quick view into your conversations, forums posts, blog comments and your Friends (this is something new). Friends is something I'm not sure right now as I'm exploring it as well, but seems like you can add other users has your friends and create a friends lists that you can… I guess.. mingle with. You can insert Youtube video and audio in your posts now (I think. I haven't tried it)!!

Please note all avatars are now stored in a different way (this is a backend thing) and so as part of upgrading, some users' avatars maybe messed up or lost. Please re-upload your avatars if your avatar is messed up.

Also, obviously there are more changes and new features, so if you find anything new and interesting, please share it with everyone on this post. Just reply to this post and add your findings and how the new features work so others can use it. *Thanks Rani for the comments feature post.

Well, I hope this will fix the main issue and the security holes are addressed, but lets see. Please use the forum as you normally do. Email me any problems you experience or need help with anything.

Oh.. the most important thing– the look and feel will keep changing as I try to make it closer to the old forum and our traditional green. I wanted to get it up and running quickly for everyone so I just quickly put something together. Again if you have suggestions/ideas feel free to email me and I'll try to incorporate it. Let me know what needs to change to make it back to the way it was.

I want to thank everyone, especially our Loyal and regular members, for your patience through this. Hope it did not cause too much inconvenience.

[Yemenilicious]

Thank you, Mukesh!

I miss the green! I hope you get it back as soon as possible!

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

Thank you Mukesh! You rock!

I just wanted to say that I like the “comments” part. Where you can basically leave a comment on a users page. If you can, please leave that up? It's pimp.

And yes, we want the green back, please. Also, I don't like the way we have to access our PMs, please make that as it was before? Where we can go into our inbox and access our pms from there.

I just wanted to thank you for all your hard work. Keep it up.

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

Also, I like the fact that we can upload files into our account.

I have a request… I have noticed how our avatars are really small (the size). Other forums have bigger sized avatars. If we can have a medium sized avatar, it'll be cool. So if there is a way you could do that, please do it?

Once again, thank you so much for your hard work and patience! We really do appreciate it.

[admincs1]

Thanks for the comments Rani. I'll try to make the avatars bigger. The conversations link is on your home page for easy access, but if the Inbox link is still preferred I'll see about putting it up there.

I do see that we can upload files, but I'm not sure what the reason or what we do with those files. I guess we'll find out soon.

[boo]

Mukesh ji,

First of all… thank you so much for all your hard work with the forum. It is honestly very much appreciated! I'm so glad it is up and running again (*touchwood*…)!

I would like to second what Rani has said about the PM section – is it possible to have it like a thread thing, instead of as conversations? It is hard to load the PMs if the conversations are too long!

I would also like to ask… are the blogs that are currently in the blogs section really popular? Because I have noticed they are from other websites, and I was wondering if there is much point in them being on the site, as people can just go to the other websites if they want to read the latest news. I am only saying this because there seem to be very few comments on them, and they would also – I am guessing here – take up storage space (especially with the back-ups)…? I don't know… just a thought…

Again – thank you so much for all your hard work… I will post up any more ideas and thoughts on here, if they come to me…

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

Thank you Mukesh! In case you are wondering what size you should use for the avatars, around the size that the Display Pictures are on MSN would be great!

About inserting youtube videos in our posts, I tried doing it, but it doesn't work. Maybe there is another way? I don't know. But if we upload audio files or any other video files, we can insert that into our posts. But I had trouble uploading any files besides pictures.

I also have another request… I liked the way the old forum was, the very first one. The way we had the orange as the background color for posts and also another color ( I don't remember which one). If you look at someone's “comments” you'll see how the background for the posts are orange. If no one else minds that, can we please have the format like that again?

Also, is there any way we can put a password on our pms? Because sometimes the forum doesn't sign me out, or it takes too long to load and I'm worried the whole day that it still hasn't signed me out. It would be nice if we had a password feature for that so we won't have to worry about someone opening our inbox and reading our pms if the forum hasn't signed us out.

Thank you.

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

One more thing, I like the way we upload our signatures now, can we keep it that way please?

Sorry and thank you!

[boo]

The avatar size seems too big to me – the pictures are too blurred… is anyone else finding that, or is it just my laptop?

[admincs1]

The size of the avatar is 100×100 currently. Originally it was 60×60. What do you think the right size is? Shall I try 80×80? Perhaps try re-uploading the avatar to see if the blurring goes away.

-Mukesh

[p u r n i m a]

I think current size 100X100 pixel is fine with me.

Now it is up to you, Sir, do as u like.

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

I like the size of the avatars now. But some of the avatars (like mine) is still the same, it isn't as big as the other avatars, is it just me or will it get bigger later? And no, it doesn't seem blurry to me.

[Yemenilicious]

My avatar is still small too. and a lot of the other members' too…

I see boo's changed… and Mukesh's, and Purnima's.

[Yemenilicious]

I don't know why… but I like them small actually.. hmmm..

[boo]

Try re-uploading your avatars… that's what I did, and that's probably why mine isn't so blurred any more…

I don't mind any size of the avatars, to be honest.

[Yemenilicious]

Hey Mukesh,

You know how we can upload files? I was wondering if you can make it possible for us to leave comments on each other's files (pictures).

Thank you very much for your hard work!

[admincs1]

Ok great! Looks like 100×100 is a good option for most of you. I will keep it at that.

I'll look into the Youtube or posting videos and let you all know what is available.

Also, I can't really change the way the conversations (or private messaging) works. It supposedly is a feature and follows along the way Instant Messaging works. Sorry.

[admincs1]

I think you can upload files from your dashboard page. And I'm not sure what you mean by leaving comments on each other's files, can you explain? You can post a comment on the profile page.

-Mukesh

[Yemenilicious]

I know we can comment on each other's profiles. But I noticed that some members uploaded pictures in the files section. And when I click on their pictures it has the “download” option and all. I was just wondering if it would be possible to actually comment on each other's pictures… just like we comment on each other's profiles…

Thank you.

[admincs1]

Ah, I see now, I'll look into it for the uploaded files. I do know that the Community Server 2008 has Galleries – like forums, users can create photo galleries and upload pictures/slideshows etc (kind of like Flickr but not as good) and as like the forums, other members can post comments. I can look into that and see how it can be used in our forums. I would like it to be Bollywood oriented so as to keep the theme of the site.

[RaNi iS ThE BeS]

Hello Mukesh. I just wanted to thank you for changing the size of the avatars, it looks great!

[Yemenilicious]

Quote:

Ah, I see now, I'll look into it for the uploaded files. I do know that the Community Server 2008 has Galleries – like forums, users can create photo galleries and upload pictures/slideshows etc (kind of like Flickr but not as good) and as like the forums, other members can post comments. I can look into that and see how it can be used in our forums. I would like it to be Bollywood oriented so as to keep the theme of the site.

Alright!

I appreciate it so much, thank you again

[MaMa PeGaSuS]

Hello Mukesh, trust you are well 🙂

See the avatars were not affected in the change..

I cant seem to log off the forum???

can u assist here..

thanks

Alishia

[admincs1]

Hi Alishia,

That is wierd. What error message do you get, if any? Have you tried closing your browser and clearing the cache?

Also you might want to re-upload the avatar as the size has changed. The new avatar size is 100×100.

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