Whats going on here ?!!

[[ThePact]]

the forum is acting weird? isnt it ?!!

threads from long ago r on top now, without having any replies !

the dates for when the posts were submitted r wrong also,

i came across this whole thing when i went to "off-Topic" section, then realized couple of the threads r not there anymore ! then i came here, and it was worse !

[kalme]

I loooooooooove this forum *kisses DC*

[[ThePact]]

do u think its hacked again ?!
well based on previous experience in DC forums, its likely i think...

[kalme]

No, I think (hope?) it's some kind of maintenance. They have learned from previous mistakes and are keeping the forum software up-to-date now. I don't know of any hacks for version 3.0.7.

On the other hand, I don't know that much about these things, and it seems a bit odd to me that we didn't even get a short warning from DC about that (if it was intended)...?

[[ThePact]]

yeah its kind of unusuall to go through this kinda stuff without posting a notice first,

God, what if its some kind of unplanned wreckage thats happening ?

[Kev Boy]

Oh well, atleast it's different :p

[kalme]

Someone told someone I know that some suggestions some forum member made regarding the forums have been forwarded to some guys over at DC by someone with some good relations... Maybe now the time has come and some things are going to change?

[[ThePact]]

yeah i hope thats whats taking place now !
but it sure isnt a good start. lol

btw kalme, same things going on over at German forum too ?

[CHFlagg]

My husband thinks this may be a shell to keep the forums up while working on it.

[kalme]

Yes, I think all of the forums are affected by this. Seems like similar talk is going on in the other forums at the moment :).

[[ThePact]]

now THAT is something "Messy" and "Chaotic" ;)

[Frag Maniac]

Now there aren't scads of threads to search through!:D

Thuink I'll hang out at PPK for a while.:rolleyes:

[[ThePact]]

yeah Frag,
its now just buncha crap from before, way before, like late 2004 !
afterall i recognized my "Well..." thread ;)

lol

[kalme]

']now THAT is something "Messy" and "Chaotic" ;)
I got that! :D

[[ThePact]]

I got that! :D

lol, thats for sure kalme :)

btw guys, i just reliazed something funny, logg-out and there will be only my thread (this one) in the list and nothing else (except for the sticky ones)...

[kalme]

Reminds of the time when they imported the old usernames. Then it was the other way round. Once you were logged-in you couldn't see any thread...

[[ThePact]]

Then it was the other way round. Once you were logged-in you couldn't see any thread...



OMG LOL - about how long ago?

good one ! ;) :D :D :D

[kalme]

Must have been around the time you joined... January I think...? Anyone?

[[ThePact]]

oh so u r talking about the last time this whole maintanance was happening, i got it,
but i joined in late 2004, november i think, and im glad u talked about it,
because i wanted to ask someone like u, how to fix this problem (bug lol)?
because i beleive the people who joined in late 2004 as me, r shown to have joined in 2005 by mistake (when the new forum was started)...

so do u think theres anyway i can get the info bar up right, to show the real join date? like urs for example (july 2004)


thanx

[kalme]

Sorry, didn't know that. I don't think there's a way you can change that date. Of course it wouldn't be a problem for someone (admin) who has direct access to the database... that would be the only possibility I think (contacting an admin).

[Frag Maniac]

"its now just buncha crap from before, way before, like late 2004!"

...but all I see is this one thread, besdies the usual stickies. Is that what you mean?:confused:

[[ThePact]]

Kalme,


oh ok, well thanx then,
i'll c what i can do, but inorder to contact an admin, should i just go to the DC technical support or help desk in the forums or what?


[Parental Advisory]

but i was thinking maybe u could do that for me through hacking or something :D
or maybe u can hack an admin's system and make ur way through the whole database according to u rdescribtion ?! ;)

[kalme]

LOL, sure :) Wait, here's my Paypal account... I'll take $200 for something like that :D

Contacting an admin... well honestly I don't know how to do that. I tried about five or six times using the contact link at the bottom and other possibilities, but never got a single answer :( Once I indirectly got a reaction which showed me someone at least reads what people are sending in, but obviously they don't bother answering.

[[ThePact]]

...but all I see is this one thread, besdies the usual stickies


really?!
well thats how it looked when i looged out, like i said in the other post.
but when u r logged back in, u can c the whole messy forum,
but consisting of old threads and nothing form the period of when the forum was changed to its new style (jan2005) till now (yesterday for example).

i guess it would appear different people have different views of forum...

[[ThePact]]

$200

i think for that, u'd need to hack someone's bank account for me first, so i COULD have 200 dollars at first place to give to u. lol but thats cool really ;)


thanx for the info @ these lazy admins :D ,
i've seen couple of DC people taking part in the forum, but mainly for technical issues, not forum questions, and i think i remember seeing alot of people complaining about how ignored they were when they contacted the admins!
its really bad that no one even answers u !

[Frag Maniac]

....a new thread, if anyone's interested.:)

[Georgi_avramov]

So old threads are lost forever or what.....................

[SYS]

...a voice from the darkness.....

WOW, this is something amazing, Guys. :( It seems that DC wants to show us, how inactive and unhelpful we were so far: since there are many unanswered threads what ought to be answered. :P Well, should I begin with the "the 3 missing object in factory" (http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=14849) one from the 2nd page? I like to give answers to that problem... :D

[Varus77]

It's seems that we've found the real secret of PK...

The Forum

[[ThePact]]

So old threads are lost forever or what
Hopefully not Georgi, as went on between me and kalme yesterday, it seems like a maintainance to us, except that there was no notice or something to inform us first !
so lets just hope its nothing serious and in a day or two things will be back up again as usuall, who knows? maybe they r loading the old templates (yeah right!) lol





It's seems that we've found the real secret of PK...

The Forum



HA HA HA...
very nice varus http://dreamcatcherinteractive.com/forums/images/smilies/wink.gif thats probably the main and yet, the easiest secret in the game

[kalme]

']thats probably the main and yet, the easiest secret in the game

You think? It's the most obvious secret, and yet it's incredible hard to master ;) Vicious indeed!

Maybe Varus should make a video "unknown shortcuts to the German forums". I'm also thinking of something like "mastering the pitfalls of posting new threads without losing them after two weeks".

[[ThePact]]

on seccond thought, u r right,
its not really easy to master lol
afterall, we've been here for so long and now they r having us twisted, its not easy to take !!!

but its the main, since everyone is "on" it at the same time LOL ;)

Plus: yeah thats a good idea that varus makes a video of it, u know y?
well because i cant find the way to any other forums (languages) in here, all i remmeber was posted about that, was a thread from i think darkinfinity, and he had gathered all the links to different languages of forums...
i think having a helicopter (chopper) in the vid would make it look cool :D

[kalme]

']afterall, we've been here for so long and now they r having us twisted, its not easy to take !!!
"Playing" with this forum always may result in total confusion. For example, I may be the only forum member that reached 1000 postings three times. After the first time some forum maintenance happened, some posts were deleted, and I was kicked back to <1000. After I left behind that mark again, the forums were hacked, and again I had less than 1000 after the backup had been restored. :D


well because i cant find the way to any other forums (languages) in here, all i remmeber was posted about that, was a thread from i think darkinfinity, and he had gathered all the links to different languages of forums...
Yes, after the new forums were set up I found my way to the German forums only by trial and error too.


i think having a helicopter (chopper) in the vid would make it look cool :D
I want that dragon! ;)

[[ThePact]]

I may be the only forum member that reached 1000 postings three times

thats really funny to hear !
well as u know, i almost had the same problem,
but not in "Post" department, in "join Date" lol


about the other languages of forum,
how could someone find them other than going through Dark's thread really ?!!

[kalme]

']about the other languages of forum,
how could someone find them other than going through Dark's thread really ?!!
Look at the links to the different forums, for example this one:

http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13

Now the technical forum:

http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=14

Off-topic:

http://www.dreamcatchergames.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=22

I think now you already got the idea of how to find out which forums are available that are not listed in the overview, even if you're no programmer ;)

[[ThePact]]

I think now you already got the idea of how to find out which forums are available that are not listed in the overview



unfortunatly, no ! :(
i didnt get that,
i mainly want to know which page should i navigate to, inorder to find all the different language options (different forums)

[kalme]

Ah, ok. Well, I don't think there's a page where those forums are listed. At least I couldn't find one, which may of course be an indication of me going gaga. But since there are a lot of people who for instance couldn't find the German forums as well, chances are high there actually is no overview or it is hidden really well.

Anyway, back on topic... if you look at the links then you'll realize that they all are the same except the number at the end of the link. If you click at one of the links, a script called forumdisplay.php is executed. This script decides which forum to show on the given number at the end of the link. So if you want to see which forums are available, you'll take that link, paste it into the address bar of your browser, and then start to check every possible number (you're allowed to stop at 100, or maybe you've got a little sister that could try 100 through 2^32 - 1 ;)).

"forumdisplay.php?f=3" is the first valid number, it leads to the "general dreamcatcher discussions" overview. With raising numbers, you'll eventually find your way to foreign forums like Italian, French, German etc.

[kalme]

Wanna hear something nice? One of the biggest German hardware sites converted their forums yesterday night to vBulletin version 3.0.7 (same software like used here). In fact, they merged two older forums (vBulletin 2 and YaBB) into the new one. Besides the new layout, you can also select both of the (converted) old ones as alternatives. All threads and posts have been converted, preserving full searching capabilites. Of course, all usernames have been converted too.
These forums have almost 25,000 registered users, a total of more than 2,000,000 posts and more than 2,000 new posts every day. The conversion process took less than 10 hours.

[[ThePact]]

thanx for the info kalme.

i think i have a better understanding of it now,
but what i am wondering is that how the (for example) german forum was discovered in the first place?! by pasting the link and trying different numbers? doesnt sound really logic, but either way it sucks that theres no official page linked to all the different languages, hope they'll take care of it, because i beleive there r people in here who'd rather be in the section (forum) of their desired language and yet, they might not even have any clue about what other language formats r there in DC forums !!


about the German hardware site,
i think u better send this post to admins over at DC HQ, so they might learn how to get things done in less time than they spend (waste) here. ;)
remember the phrase i used "Germany the king of industry" ?
its another example lol

[kalme]

']what i am wondering is that how the (for example) german forum was discovered in the first place?! by pasting the link and trying different numbers?
At least that's what I did, and Varus and me were the first ones posting in the new German forums.

But you know what? I didn't check for some time now and just tried again to find an "official" way to the forums and I just found a link to the German version. If you go to www.painkillergame.com and look at the German version of the site, the links to the forums actually lead to the German forums. Sounds logic :).

And another amusing thing. If you go to the official German Dreamcatcher page (here: http://www.dcegames.com/DCE/DCE_de/dce_de.htm), there's a ticker to the right that offers links to the German forum too. Unfortunately, they point to the old forums, which of course aren't available anymore. So you just get a "No forum specified" error message if you follow them. But well, it's been only three months since the software update... :D

Btw. what I also didn't know is that Dreamcatcher provides their own mirrors of the patches: http://www.dcegames.com/support/int/support_patch.php3?id=75

[Varus77]

...But you know what? I didn't check for some time now and just tried again to find an "official" way to the forums and I just found a link to the German version. If you go to www.painkillergame.com and look at the German version of the site, the links to the forums actually lead to the German forums. Sounds logic :).


That was the way I've found the German Forum, at the first and after hacked the second time.
..and I found the Germans before this here but I joined because of the questions in the english forum... :) and one day I thought: 'Hey - you have to post in the german forum too, maybe someday another user will find this forum too and he'll know that he is not alone in the H ell!' :D

[Killerpain]

Wanna hear something nice? One of the biggest German hardware sites converted their forums yesterday night to vBulletin version 3.0.7 (same software like used here). In fact, they merged two older forums (vBulletin 2 and YaBB) into the new one. Besides the new layout, you can also select both of the (converted) old ones as alternatives. All threads and posts have been converted, preserving full searching capabilites. Of course, all usernames have been converted too.
These forums have almost 25,000 registered users, a total of more than 2,000,000 posts and more than 2,000 new posts every day. The conversion process took less than 10 hours.

It seems that, much like the letter `O', there are no competent administrators in Canada.

[[ThePact]]

Kalme,

whos work was PK website? www.PainKillerGame.com (http://www.painkillergame.com/)
DC or PCF ?
if its DC, then welldone in thinking about visitors with different languages and enabling them the chance to connect to their desired forum (language), but how poor in orgnizing the actual forum itself !
but if its PCF's, then Long live PCF, and i dont know what to say about these guys !

either way, very nice flash jobs and sountracks in there, i always wanted to say that since when i saw the site for the first time.

*guys u know*,
im really wanting to c what they have in store for us, is it really woth having no home for a while and all this waiting ???
lol
but in the other hand, y isnt everything going back to normal ? its taking long, isnt it ?!
i dont know if we should compare it to the longest previously "upgrade" experience everytime ??!!!!
last time it was 2 days if im correct, so its still ok !




or is it ?

[kalme]

Today, the most unbelievable thing happened to me. I got response from Dreamcatcher Tech Support! I wrote to them asking about what's going on with the forums, telling them that a lot of threads from the last weeks/months (depending on the forum) are deleted and the older ones still available don't have answers anymore (the mail I sent to the admin still is unanswered btw.).

Here's what I got as an answer:


About which game? English or German forum?
Cool, eh?
By taking a single look at the forums they could have figured out that this affects all forums and all languages :o. Also, that answer kind of shows that they may not even have a clue about that something's wrong with the forums at all :(.

[kalme]

Ok, it turned out I somehow contacted the tech support of the French distributor. These guys are sending out answers really fast, and the French forum is up-to-date, with a lot of stickies regarding current problems, and -- woohoow -- actually searching works in the French forums! Unfortunately, they can't help with the current problems going on here, they just gave me the contact options for DC Canada I already knew and tried.

[Varus77]

That would mean that the admins of the german and english forums are not doing their jobs right...only the french admin!

[Karthik@KANE]

There's a German and French forum?!
By the way.............they deleted my HAEGEMONIA FANFIC THREAD........ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH... ....!

[kalme]

These French support guys are really kind. Here's another e-mail I received an hour ago:


I contacted a manager in charge of the forums at DCNA.

The database is too big (critically) and some threads must be removed.
But now, only threads that are older than 2 months with no reply will be
removed.
About Search issue, it was fixed for some forums and it is mainly a setting
that needs to be changed forum by forum, not for the whole forum. But this
issue will be fixed for all forums (German, etc.).

There will be certainly other improvements for the forums.

[Varus77]

unbelievable ! There is one ... There's room for hope. :)

[T'krau]

The database is too big (critically) and some threads must be removed.
But now, only threads that are older than 2 months with no reply will be
removed.
About Search issue, it was fixed for some forums and it is mainly a setting
that needs to be changed forum by forum, not for the whole forum. But this
issue will be fixed for all forums (German, etc.).
So this means that the recent-yet-lost threads are gone for good?

And can we all move to the French forum? :D

[[ThePact]]

About which game? English or German forum?


now i could say i have something to laugh and cheer about,
whenever im feeling down !

but i dont get the part that says "database is critically too big and some threads have to be removed" !
well is it that bad? ok,
but i think it would make more sense to delete the threads from the other end of the forum (oldest ones) not the recent ones that we were just in the middle of !
besides,
the forum was getting to be so active again, unlike any other time period during the last couple of months (new people joining in and all)
but now, its all ruined ?!http://dreamcatcherinteractive.com/forums/images/smilies/frown.gif

[kalme]

only threads that are older than 2 months with no reply will be
removed.
Maybe they got that requirement wrong. Maybe they understood something like "remove threads that are no older than 2 months and leave all the others with no replies". Judging from previous experience, that could be true, right?

/sarcasm

[[ThePact]]

do u remember before the forums got their "new look",
maybe only a week before that, there was a notice regarding a simple maintainance going to take place, i remember everything came back to normal after that, but when that whole breakdown happened (only a few days later) i left and came back the next month ! so im not really sure about that time...

but do u think they would really come up with something like "threads no older than 2 months" ?
or would they make a mistake like that ? (if its a mistake DC)

now its taking days and its still not clear whether new threads will be back up again or not.

[kalme]

Well, I don't know anything about that recent incident. All I'm saying is pure speculation of course. But executing a wrong, twisted SQL statement could produce results like this. That of course could happen to everyone... missing some parenthesis or confusing two commands etc. can result in horrible results (= current state?). But usually you would make a backup beforehand or double-check before committing or something like that. On the other hand, maybe it's intended the way it is now? Would be weird, but at least that way they definately freed some space in their database :p.

What I did observe is that there were some changes in the number of posts/threads in the technical forum. Just after the deletion happened two days ago, there still were a lot of posts in that forum, way more than in this one. If you look at it now, there are only half the posts than here now.

[[ThePact]]

yeah, from how it looks, im starting to get a feeling that this whole thing is a mistake that has happened unplanned, and thats probably y we didnt get a notice at first,

what makes this whole process interesting is the facts that kalme revealed about how maintainance is done in forums (having a back up first, mistakes while typing the commands etc...)

[T'krau]

Face it, people - the place is haunted! :eek:

[[ThePact]]

does this mean there is no way for us to escape this madness ?! :eek:

but seriously,
its really bothering me to face this fact that new threads r gone for good, just imagine for a seccond, and if its true, it surely reflects how unorganized these guys r...

but can someone please enlighten me alittle bit ?
if its all about that storage freeing as kalme let us know form that tech support, then y messing it up like that? it has to be a mistake they have made !

and if its simply a mess that we will be having as long as the forums r being maintained (if there is still any maintanance going on ofcourse !!!) then i think its taking way longer than what it should !