Has The Magic Cafe Vanished?

[Guest]

"What gives me the impression that you are "worried" about it is that you started this nonsensical thread in the first place!"

Bill.............you may think this is a nonsensical thread, which is fine. Nobody is asking you to participate. However, it is apparant that many are finding it quite interesting. We may all learn something from this fiasco! JR

[John McDonald]

I think the Cafe is going to turn up soon at the back of the theatre in a minute under a spotlight blowing a whistle ....

[Guest]

It's shown back up, just nine months in the past.

Jeff

[Guest]

The Buskers Cafe disappeared too. They're both hosted by the same ISP, and they both have reverted back to January of this year. Given enough time I hope that both of them are restored back to their current condition.

[Rick Ruhl]

Originally posted by Bill Palmer:

Rick:

The expense of having your own server is probably more than you realize. You not only need a server, but you need a T 1 connection to keep the bandwidth moving.

I do have my own server and my own T1. I do know the costs ;) . It's cheaper and better for me in the long run to host it on my own servers, than trust someone at an ISP to do it.

The servers sit next to me here, and the Cisco is right over there, next to it is the CSU/DSU ;)

T1's are running about $525 a month here in the south, including the local loop.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Jim Maloney:

Originally posted by magicalaurie:
[b]
Could I get the rest in english, too, please? ;)

"This call can not be completed as dialed."

-Jim [/b]

Hey, thanks, Jim.

[Richard Kaufman]

Our website is hosted by a company that does frequent backups. It's never a problem.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Bill Palmer:
For someone who was banned from the caf, you seem to be worried an awful lot about it.

Actually he's probably not banned anymore.
Since the Caf thinks it's January 2007 he can probably log in, unless of course he was banned before that date.

[Larry Barnowsky]

The Cafe is partially back up. It appears they are rebuilding the site. There are posts and advertisement banners from January 2007. My coin book banner (21st Century Coin Mechanics)is now running instead of my new book (KOTR). Anyway, they should be be up and running soon.

Larry :genii:

[Guest]

"Actually he's probably not banned anymore.
Since the Caf thinks it's January 2007 he can probably log in, unless of course he was banned before that date."

Unfortunately, Payne, I believe I was banned in December 2006. I am therefore unable to post over there! How are you, my friend? JR

[Guest]

I am with Bill on this one. As soon as I saw Jolly Roger beeing the poster on the cafe issue I had a mental image of a blood hungry vulture circling above a death body.

Thankfully the cafe is not dead although it has been hit pretty badly. I spoke with Steve today and it seems that aside from the server crash the company that took money for mirroring the cafe had mistakes in their back-up software and the back-ups were not done correctly after January of this year (or not at all).

I think this would be a good time to thank Steve Brooks for providing the board free of charge for 32000 magicians and wish him speedy recovery for the site that many of us enjoy. I can only imagine the workload he has cut out for him.

As to the vultures: Go back to your caves.... :whack:

[Guest]

"I am with Bill on this one. As soon as I saw Jolly Roger beeing the poster on the cafe issue I had a mental image of a blood hungry vulture circling above a death body."

Please enlighten me as to what on earth you are referring, or of what I am being accused? Thanks! JR

[Guest]

I believe The Magic Cafe has a topic section entitled ... "Everything old is new again"

Apparently, this applies to the forum too :D
Jim

[Guest]

Sure I will elaborate:

Here is where I agree with Bill....
Bill Palmer wrote "...For someone who was banned from the cafe, you seem to be worried an awful lot about it. ...."

You beeing the first poster on this topic might have gone thru as a real question but then adding the spitefull remark
"Maybe this is a good time to lure everyone over to Genii!! JR " showed your real motives....

Back in Germany we had a saying that went somewhere along the lines "that you should not kick somebody who is down for the count"

You have been banned from the cafe (which I can not comment on as I do not know the reasons and do not care either way} and now you are gloating that they are having trouble... just does not look good to me.

[Roger M.]

They've now stated on the Cafe that January it is. There were no more back-ups run after that date. (although this information may be lacking in accuracy because it doesn't look like they know what's really going on yet).

Information posted after January 2007 is gone for good. The Cafe is still running at half speed with no ability for new posts, PM's, or password changes you may have requested since January.

All of the pending magic deals (I hope you remember who you bought or sold from this past month!) are gone with the rest of the information.

The only thing missing is some sort of post from Steve Brooks speaking to the 30,000 Cafe users who are probably wondering why he hasn't said anything yet. This is when you've got to say something to your loyal users.....it's pretty standard for the Boss to get up on the podium and say something after a disaster.

The story being told by the Cafe is that the backups were being paid for, but they weren't being run. How accurate this is remains to be seen. It seems a very simple explanation that in this day and age represents either gross negligence on the part of whoever was supposed to back data up, or simple misinformation.

To call this a devastating situation for the Cafe and Steve Brooks would be an understatement although one might safely guess that the "Green Machine" will rise from the ashes.

Whether it will be the same cocky 10,000 pound gorilla again only time will tell, but I suspect it will begin to look as it used to within a month or two.

[Guest]

Did anyone save Steve Dusheck's posts after some folks decided to start selling his copper silver transposition without getting his permission... as if it were a new item?

[Guest]

Unfortunately, log in doesn't seem to be working for me (it generates a "You entered the wrong password. Please go back and try again." message). It's happening to be both me and my son (on his account)... although I notice that a few people seem to have been able to post there today. Is this happening to anyone else?

[Roger M.]

I'm guessing, but if your account was created after January 2007, you're likely not in the system as it was backed up, and you may not have an account.

If you've changed your password since January 2007 you may be able to log in under your old password. Your new one doesn't exist yet.

If you're logged in, DON'T log out!

[Guest]

If you know where to look, you will find this post from the Chief of Staff:

"Unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, back ups were not being run. The last one was in January. Consequently, the Caf can only be restored from that point back. We understand that this means many of your posts have vanished reducing you post count. More importantly, a lot of valuable information has been lost."

Personally, I enjoy both The Genii Forum and the Magic Cafe. Two different types of forms. I'm saddened to think that some good info has been lost.

Terry

[Todd Lassen]

U3F2 banner has vanished, and why do I have this Muck Fayne T-shirt on?

[Rick Ruhl]

Originally posted by Terry Holley:
If you know where to look, you will find this post from the Chief of Staff:

"Unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, back ups were not being run. The last one was in January. Consequently, "

Now I can say it for sure, this hosting company has the dumbest morons on the planet working for it. For gods sake, when I owned the 2nd biggest ISP here, we backed up every few hours and that was in 1996.

I seems to be Steve and company should be compensated big time for the loss of content. This is as bad as all the content that was lost from many of the older online services. Thank goodness for Deja.com that still have some of my posts from 1985.

Those that know me know that I don't let myself normally act like this online, but it's absurb in this day and time for a major hosting company not only not have daily backups, but not even running a RAID mirror of the drive.

[Guest]

"You beeing the first poster on this topic might have gone thru as a real question but then adding the spitefull remark
"Maybe this is a good time to lure everyone over to Genii!! JR " showed your real motives...."

I think you really need to lighten up a bit, Wolfgang. There was nothing spiteful in that remark. It was said tongue in cheek, and I feel it was appropriate. I personally think that Richard has a much more professional forum than Steve in many ways, and I would say that regardless of whether I was banned. My banning from the green place is irrelevent to this topic. Like Richard says, both the Magic Cafe and this forum have their place in cyberspace. I wish Steve Brooks all the best, and I hope his operation will soon be restored to full strength. JR

[Guest]

Originally posted by Blair Morris:

I'm guessing, but if your account was created after January 2007, you're likely not in the system as it was backed up, and you may not have an account.

If you've changed your password since January 2007 you may be able to log in under your old password. Your new one doesn't exist yet.

Actually both of our accounts predated 2007.

I notice that the "Register" link now seems to be missing from the Magic Cafe forum page as well. Oh well, it'll sort itself out in time...

[Guest]

The good thing is, my post count no longer accurately describes how bad my social life is!

[Guest]

This afternoon the following was posted by the Chief Of Staff:

===============================

From the number of posts that are being made pointing out that multitudes of information has been lost, I'm assuming that none of our members have ever worked on a project.

We are well aware of the problem and continually posting \"me too\" comments in regards to lost post counts, missing forums and user ID reverts isn't going to help anything.

The Caf does frequent back ups. Just bear with us for awhile.

Currently, many of the Caf functions are inoperative, such as search and PM's.

=====================

[Guest]

Just letting everybody know that the Magic Cafe is back up, but severely handicapped. The Server was supposed to be backed up nightly, but hadn't been, unknown to us. The system crashed and when the most recent backup was recovered and installed, it took us to January of 2007. EVERYTHING that has happened since then has been lost, gone, vanished into thin air.

In addition, several features (e.g., searching, posting a new topic, PMing, and others) are non-functioning for now. Be assured we are working to get the Cafe back up and running ASAP, but for the information (including memberships) that has been lost, we are truly sorry for any inconvenience.

The Staff of the Magic Cafe

[Jim Maloney_dup1]

Originally posted by Steven Steele:
Just letting everybody know that the Magic Cafe is back up, but severely handicapped.

...

The Staff of the Magic Cafe

Thanks for the update Steven, but isn't this the kind of thing that should be posted over on the Cafe, rather than here? In fact, the only posts that addressed the situation from any of the staff members (as noted by posters in this thread) have apparently been deleted (as were the posts wondering what was going on). There's currently no information at all provided to the members of the Cafe about why the site was down for more than a day and why it reverted back to January.

That's my biggest concern here -- why hasn't anyone said anything to the members of the Cafe?

-Jim

[Guest]

Thanks for the update, Steven. This is all, indeed, a great shame. I imagine this will be the same story with The Buskers, which is run by Danny Hustle and has the same server. On a positive note, it is actually rather interesting to go in to these forums and see what everyone was talking about in January!! JR

[Guest]

Jim,

When I posted an update, the PM system was down, it is now back up and I think a message will be forthcoming once we come up for air. I placed a post here just as a courtesy to all the people here wondering what was going on. And as a reminder a broadcast message will miss about 3,000 members that were lost as a result of the crash.

Steven

[Guest]

I forgot to add, that we haven't been able to post new topics either. That has been fixed in the last few hours. Without the PMs or the ability to post new topics, our ability to notify the membership was not available. Slowly, the Cafe is coming back.

[Guest]

The question comes as to what's been learned.

Or is this hiccup a good chance to forget what's been learned recently?

Much confidence and trust may have been lost in this digital dissolve.

[Guest]

Much confidence and trust may have been lost in this digital dissolve.

LOL ;)

[Kevin Connolly]

It will probably not cause that much loss in traffic and posts. With over million posts and 10,000+ members(doing this on memory), things will get back to speed.

I even thought I saw some new posts today.

[Guest]

Originally posted by Rick Ruhl:
I went to it by it's IP address and it doesnt look good.

http://216.240.159.226

All you get is their Cpanel for the Apache web server..

That is Normal, since the apache configuration is most likely set to a different directory then just the straight IP address, at least it should be.

[Guest]

I know Roger says a lot tongue in cheek, and knowing him as well as I do I know he means no ill-will. It's simply an example of email/forum typed responses that could be read in any way, and often not the right way. I'm sure if Roger was in front of us with his great gift for expression we'd be laughing and knowing he's simply jesting...hence the name "Jolly Roger"!
It's sad the cafe lost so much info. However, after reading the "PM" sent by Steve (Brooks) I also agree with him. People love to talk magic and I'm sure they'll have no problem getting up to speed.
I also am growing to like this forum. A bit more formal but that can be a good thing. Seems the posters here are great people and I look forward to hanging out here more and talking about relevant issues.
Best to All,
Chris

[Guest]

The cafe is back but what has been learned or lost?

Anyone save out Steve's comments about that coin trick?

Anyone find those nice posts from Justin Style about the Dlite product video?

[Guest]

"I'm sure if Roger was in front of us with his great gift for expression we'd be laughing and knowing he's simply jesting...hence the name "Jolly Roger"!"

Well....thank you so much for that compliment, Chris! It is good to have you on board. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Chris, he is the number one School Assembly worker in the mid west United States. He is also a talented artist and raconteer, and I am sure he will make a great contibution to this forum.

It is interesting about my name. My real name is Roger Blakiston, and years ago I decided to dress as a pirate, and call myself "Jolly Roger." Then I discovered that not everyone liked pirates! So, as I am a very Jolly individual, I decided to stick with the name, and shed the pirate outfit. I now use the name "Jolly Roger" for both kid and adult shows!!

Back to topic. I am now delighted to see that the cafe is slowly getting back to normal. I just wish they would have a section for professionals only. It is not that there is anything wrong with being an amateur. It is just that there are two very different worlds when you are performing magic for friends down at the local pub or bar, and you are actually making a living out of this wonderful art! JR

[Guest]

I just noticed that too...
and that my avatar was different
and my number of posts have dwindled.
And worse of all!

My magic twittering thread is gone.

:(

[Guest]

Jon, i have some comments saved in email that steve sent to me. most of it is lost. i don;t think im gonna make much of a appearence back on the cafe, as it kinda feels like going home after its burnt down

[Guest]

Joshua, that's a good analogy. Got a strange feeling when I viisted there. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. But your analogy brought into to focus.