Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Is Rockedge the only one, that if something happened to him, this forum would die, be shutdown, no longer be payed for, etc.....?

I saw this post by rockedge and was wondering something.

rockedge wrote: ↑Mon Jun 10, 2024 2:07 pm

I "own" the domain name puppylinux.com as it is in my name and I am financially responsible for it.

I "own" and control the host server account that hosts forum.puppylinux.com, oldforum.puppylinux.com, wikka.puppylinux.com and f96.puppylinux.com which I maintain all of the web software and the html,css you name it I take care of it. This I am also financially responsible for.

We have the URL puppylinux.com resolve to pages on GitHub that generate the "main" Puppy Linux web site pages. This is accessed and controlled by those who have access to the GitHub Puppy Linux repo

When John Murga passed away and no one else was actually in charge of running, supporting the Old Puppy forum. (murga forum)

Luckily Rockedge had started this forum and Puppy Linux had both forums.

John Murga's family was able to keep the old forum active, long enough for Rackedge to completely take over.
they very well could have just pulled the plug on it and it would have been gone.
Lucky for Puppy Linux, they did not!

So, does the forum and Puppy Linux in general, have someone that could takeover control, if something did happen?

Sure seems to me, that more than one single individual, should have ability to totally control the different Puppy web sites.
Can pay the bills to keep the host server active, handle the legal stuff, oversee the different web sites, etc......
Someone else able to at least help Rockedge.

I am sure Rockedge, may at some time, want to take some time off from the forum,
Family matters, vacation trip, play with the dog, do something with the kids and wife, etc...........
.
.

hi bigpup

perhaps rockedge should name a small team
to keep things running if he wants/needs to take a break

wanderer

@bigpup

In the event of there being no Second In Charge

This is the response from an AI site (verbatum)

How to preserve a web site if Web Master can not
Sources
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Answer
If you no longer have access to your website because the webmaster is unresponsive or has left, there are a few steps you can take to preserve and regain control of your site:

Secure your domain name registration account. The domain registrar account contains critical information for transferring or updating your domain's DNS settings to point to a new hosting provider.

Ensure you have the login credentials for this account.
Purchase new web hosting. Sign up for a new hosting account with a reputable provider where you have full control over FTP, databases, and administrative access.
Transfer your domain's DNS to the new host. Update your domain's nameservers at your registrar to point to the new hosting provider. This will allow your domain to resolve to the new host.
Backup your existing site files/database. Use your browser to save copies of your public website pages and any images. If possible, request a backup of the site files and database from the previous host/webmaster.
Rebuild on the new host. Upload the backed up files/database to the new hosting account via FTP or their control panel. You may need to reinstall any CMS like WordPress.
Update site ownership records. For hosted platforms like Wix or Squarespace, follow their procedures to transfer ownership and billing to your account.

If you cannot obtain backups, you can use web archiving services like the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to retrieve older snapshots of your site's publicly accessible pages. While not ideal, this allows preserving at least the public content. The key is securing your domain registration account first, which grants control over where the domain points. With that and new hosting, you can rebuild the site independently.

John Murga's family was able to keep the old forum active

It ran on it's own pretty much as it broke down and the server itself needed major upgrade in OS and the software for the web server, mysql and so on. John's widow was able to find paperwork enough and with some help from Barry, initiate the ownership transfer of murga-linux.com to me and I was provided with the login credentials to the host server itself which was a rented virtual machine. We were able to get data dumps and create a backup of sorts of the Murga forum, which was running a very old version of phpBB2 and was broken. John's widow was a bit overwhelmed during that time and she had very little knowledge of the server operations.

There was quite a bit to it to recover access to John's server from the host company. Which we needed so I could login and turn off the broken site not to interfere with this new forum. Also look around for any thing to save and we grabbed the data that goes with the forum like images, avatars and attachments.

I managed to convert the database and make a gradual update then upgrade in little steps from phpBB2 to phpBB3. This process was complicated and tedious and because John had heavily customized the version of phpBB2 to include some of the features that the newer versions have, like having the ability to add attachments to posts, I had to use a special converter program, manual tricks, and some voodoo to get the Murga Forum to now run phpBB 3.3.12 and still almost look like the original Murga Forum. Had to search for a style theme that emulated the SUBSILVER2 default style of the phpBB2 series, which was the only one offered. phpBB2 did not have a mechanism in the User Control Panel to select style themes individually.

Now called the "oldforum" there are still some bugs in the database from the conversion process and then altering to UTF8 to have the languages all display fonts correctly. So once in awhile some topics are only able to display a portion of the posts, usually due to junk symbols that stumbled the converter and now interfere with parsing some posts in some topics.

I already have done most of what @Chelsea80 posted. Backups have been already transferred and I will be uploading a new complete backup and share the link soon. This happens periodically. I just did one so I could set up 2 or 3 different exact copies of this forum and it's contents on my home localhost web servers. I have had a lot of practice transfering this forum around. Tricky is the oldforum. The database is finicky and producing a dump or backup that works is about 50-50. The Wikkawiki package is a bit simpler to create backups for.

Main thing is the size of the database and storage. The oldforum has 1.2 million posts and this one isn't too large yet but moving these files around via FTP takes time and bandwidth. On a localhost working with the stuff is easier. Can use command line php to use the command line API and moving files is faster.

hi rockedge

what would happen if you needed/wanted to take a break

wanderer

you wouldn't notice. I just did take a break and visited family in Colorado. @wanderer you probably didn't even miss me

The hard part is keeping the sites online. Most of what knocks us out is external forces we have no control over. Often it's a matter of social engineering with host provider server admin's that solves the issues. Many times they say "you're on your own on this one" or " you'll need to talk the software's developers". Then it helps to know what your doing somewhat.

@rockedge

That’s a hell of a lot of work and dedication. ‘Blood sweat and tears’ comes to mind. I applaud you for all of your initial efforts and on-going loyalty.

Regarding being a sole owner. It might be prudent to consider the possibility of nominating a Second in Command (SiC) to cover the possible eventuality of, for whatever reason, being required to step in if needed. Belt and braces approach.

This Forum, in my opinion, offers a wealth of ideas, help, opportunities, opinions et al. It would be devastating to the community at large if all that, in an instant, became unavailable.

I use this Forum, and yes I admit it, without a thought of all the work that is done behind the scenes to keep it viable. This is, of course, all due to you.

The OP triggered me into thinking of the reality of the unexpected. The benefit of having an SiC would surely lesson your stress load and be a welcome asset to the community.

At some time in our lives we all have to ‘put aside’ something due to circumstances.

This is your Forum and is up to you what, if anything, you decide to do.

In my personal and work life I have always tried to have a Plan B in place.

Best regards

have always tried to have a Plan B in place

There is one. The important credentials have been shared. That is also for the domain name registrar's login(s). murga-linux.com is still owned by John Murga. Though we do have the credentials to login at the registrar service and once in, it doesn't matter who pays the registration fees.

We carry the murga-linux.com domain to continue servicing all those millions of links to the Murga Forum using the original URL by utilizing the Apache URL rewrite engine.

This makes it possible to still use this type of URL -> http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=529004#529004 by using rules executed on incoming page requests to convert to the actual URL -> https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=529004#529004

@rockedge

This topic is not about the murga old forum, but about this forum and the other web sites you have control of.

I started this topic, because I felt there should be more than just you that can have all this ability!

If something happened to you, could someone else just take over?

Be able to do exactly what you can do?

This idea:

Chelsea80 wrote:

It might be prudent to consider the possibility of nominating a Second in Command (SiC) to cover the possible eventuality of, for whatever reason, being required to step in if needed. Belt and braces approach.

@bigpup As I mentioned earlier there is a second in command that has all the needed addresses, keys and passwords to the Puppy Linux realm to be able to access and control it in case of emergency.

Once the reality of the difficulties recovering the Murga forum were clearly understood arrangements were made to share the information. We have a team with admin level powers for both forums and the passwords and credentials to access the 2 domain name registrars accounts and the main Host server are also shared.

@bigpup

Thank you for sharing that information.

As far as I'm concerned it appears that all bases are covered and it's just a case of "Don't Panic - Carry On (using the forum)".

Best wishes

@rockedge

After reading your last post.

I fully understand now, you have done the correct things to make sure this forum and others, about Puppy Linux, are safe!

I and I am sure others, thank you very, very, much for your support of Puppy Linux!

rockedge wrote:

We have a team with admin level powers for both forums and the passwords and credentials to access the 2 domain name registrars accounts and the main Host server are also shared.

The Puppy forum is well and safely under control:
.

.
We the members of the forum fully understand.
.

.
It now has a small team of people to assure it is safe:
.

Chelsea80 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 12, 2024 5:55 pm

@bigpup

Thank you for sharing that information.

As far as I'm concerned it appears that all bases are covered and it's just a case of "Don't Panic - Carry On (using the forum)".

Best wishes

EDIT
My apologies for my mistake

The above post was intended for @rockedge and not @bigpup as stated.

I think I've got it right now.

@bigpup :-

Heh. Ya surely don't think this new forum would blindly follow the same operational procedures as the old one.....hmm? I've always understood Erik to be a wee bit more "savvy" than that!

Of course, life has a habit of dealing you back-handers when least expected. Nobody knows in advance when they will die; any of us could be knocked down by a bus, or hit by a lightning strike tomorrow. Totally unpredictable.

It only makes sense to put contingency plans in place......and if you remember, this WAS one of the very first things taken care of as soon as all the "paperwork" associated with JM's demise had been taken care of & 'ownership' transferred. AFAIK, there's now always at least 2 completely separate, up-to-date copies of the forum software & associated database "off-site" at any given point in time. I believe this was all discussed in one of the early forum threads somewhere, though I can't find it at the moment....

.....and as @rockedge has indicated, all required credentials have also been "shared". I think it's fair to say that, in case of the unthinkable, we have the bases covered.

I doubt there's any need to worry TOO much.

Mike.

Since there is an extra version of our forum running on one of my machines using the latest XAMPP offering PHP 8.3+. I decided to try out upgrading our phpBB3 board to the yet not released (nor finished) version 4+ of phpBB.

With some luck, voodoo and sacrificial offerings we now have one of the only running production phpBB boards in the world sporting phpBB4.0.0-a1-dev.

Good test (and practice) using a copy of our forum that is only a few days behind in content. Pretty cool.