What was the "April 2013 Forum Massacre"?

[michaelsteele3]

I sometimes hear it mentioned in posts. But I don't know what it is. Can someone tell me?

[Tex_NL]

If you bothered to do a proper search on the forum I am absolutely sure you could have found it yourself. And I am too tired right now to do the search for you.

In April last year something went horribly wrong during a forum software update. Multiple back-ups got corrupted and were rendered unusable. The latest still usable back-up was, if I remember correctly, from November. Everything from between the back-up and the crash was lost. Hundreds of accounts, thousands of post. All gone.

[Voidryder]

Here ya go.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57389-April-2013-Kraken-Massacre?p=766775#post766775

[Vanamonde]

If you bothered to do a proper search on the forum I am absolutely sure you could have found it yourself.

Or, he could ask his friendly fellow forum members, and they could tell him.

[Captain Sierra]

There was also another incident much more recently in 2014 where the forums came down for maintenance. This maintenance ended up taking longer than expected and kept the site down for over 24 hours IIRC. Within an hour or two of the site coming back up, it was hacked by some amateur hack-tivists and redirected to their website. Squad pulled the forums back down for several more days while they rectified the issue.

We were forumless for 3-4 days IIRC. It was definitely a few. The loss of content, however, was only a week or two, if at all. There was not a catastrophic content loss but I do believe a few very new people lost accounts in that, perhaps as a safety measure by Squad to ensure that nobody's account data was compromised.

[astropapi1]

The latest still usable back-up was, if I remember correctly, from November. Everything from between the back-up and the crash was lost. Hundreds of accounts, thousands of post. All gone.

October, actually. I lost my original account (created mid-october iirc), hundreds of posts, and some forum friends who didn't bother to register after the 'massacre'. It was a quick recovery, though. I've seen forums go dead after events like this.

[stupid_chris]

There was also another incident much more recently in 2014 where the forums came down for maintenance. This maintenance ended up taking longer than expected and kept the site down for over 24 hours IIRC. Within an hour or two of the site coming back up, it was hacked by some amateur hack-tivists and redirected to their website. Squad pulled the forums back down for several more days while they rectified the issue.

We were forumless for 3-4 days IIRC. It was definitely a few. The loss of content, however, was only a week or two, if at all. There was not a catastrophic content loss but I do believe a few very new people lost accounts in that, perhaps as a safety measure by Squad to ensure that nobody's account data was compromised.

That was in September 2013, during the crisis in Syria

[Ziff]

October, actually. I lost my original account (created mid-october iirc), hundreds of posts, and some forum friends who didn't bother to register after the 'massacre'. It was a quick recovery, though. I've seen forums go dead after events like this.

I lost a bunch of threads I started, some with my own crazy rockets. I lost about a thousands posts and tons of Rep that I had gained from several special moderators who aren't around anymore, Rep from Nova himself, and a bunch of others. I stopped posting after that and I started lurking instead. I never stopped playing, I just lost the desire to rebuild my threads and posts. So now I pop up from time to time and shake the tree a bit then I disappear again. I'll probably be gone hang around another week or so and then disappear again until 0.91. comes along.

[astropapi1]

I lost a bunch of threads I started, some with my own crazy rockets. I lost about a thousands posts and tons of Rep that I had gained from several special moderators who aren't around anymore, Rep from Nova himself, and a bunch of others. I stopped posting after that and I started lurking instead. I never stopped playing, I just lost the desire to rebuild my threads and posts. So now I pop up from time to time and shake the tree a bit then I disappear again. I'll probably be gone hang around another week or so and then disappear again until 0.91. comes along.

That's what I'm saying. There were many users who never bothered to come back. I've never seen you before, for example. Luckily new users came in to fill the blank spots left by old ones.

[Ziff]

That's what I'm saying. There were many users who never bothered to come back. I've never seen you before, for example. Luckily new users came in to fill the blank spots left by old ones.

Yeah. Look at my Join Date. I had started playing KSP around March 2012, just a few months before I joined the forums.. I joined to ask a few questions and then I was kind of quiet until the releases that popped up before the forum crash. That's when I became really active, so it was really poor timing and it's what drove me away.

[RocketPilot573]

There was also another incident much more recently in 2014 where the forums came down for maintenance. This maintenance ended up taking longer than expected and kept the site down for over 24 hours IIRC. Within an hour or two of the site coming back up, it was hacked by some amateur hack-tivists and redirected to their website. Squad pulled the forums back down for several more days while they rectified the issue.

We were forumless for 3-4 days IIRC. It was definitely a few. The loss of content, however, was only a week or two, if at all. There was not a catastrophic content loss but I do believe a few very new people lost accounts in that, perhaps as a safety measure by Squad to ensure that nobody's account data was compromised.

That was in September 2013, during the crisis in Syria

I remember the forums getting hacked, but I cant recall losing any data... Either nothing happened or the forums somehow reverted to the instant before the attack.

[stupid_chris]

I remember the forums getting hacked, but I cant recall losing any data... Either nothing happened or the forums somehow reverted to the instant before the attack.

It was actually when the forums changed host, and began being hosted on Multiplay. The transfer was supposed to take between 24 and 48 hours, but ended up lasting a whole week. When the forums finally came back, they ended up getting hacked within a few hours, and they went down for another four or five hours until they were secured again. Don't remember any data being lost at all.

[HafCoJoe]

If you bothered to do a proper search on the forum I am absolutely sure you could have found it yourself. And I am too tired right now to do the search for you.

In April last year something went horribly wrong during a forum software update. Multiple back-ups got corrupted and were rendered unusable. The latest still usable back-up was, if I remember correctly, from November. Everything from between the back-up and the crash was lost. Hundreds of accounts, thousands of post. All gone.

So it did break some accounts. Huh! I made a forum account between November and April of 2013 when I just started playing the demo (version v0.13 if my memory serves). When I re-joined again with the full game last year my old account had vanished and I guess that was why. I am a victim and I never even knew it! Funny how that happens.

It was actually when the forums changed host, and began being hosted on Multiplay. The transfer was supposed to take between 24 and 48 hours, but ended up lasting a whole week. When the forums finally came back, they ended up getting hacked within a few hours, and they went down for another four or five hours until they were secured again. Don't remember any data being lost at all.

Unless what you say is true and from my past experiences with you, you aren't stupid (despite your name XD). In which case there is still an account of mine floating around somewhere...

Never mind about my first comment. I first made my account sometime in 2011 or 2012. I had the game when the massacre happened. I've been here for a while!

Edited December 24, 2014 by Avera9eJoe

[Voidryder]

As I recall when Squad did the restore they only had a good back-up to a certain date. Sometime in October 2012 I believe was the date. I believe if you joined by that date your account, posts, rep etc was restored fully. If not, you lost all that. I missed the date and lost reps, post count and my original join date. (I use to post a lot more back then.) But missing that date is what I get from being a long-time lurker and not a joiner. (Now I join every forum on the internet I come across -- by the way I can get people great discounts on leather masks, whips and chains (guess people use them for Halloween?? )

The biggest headache (other then forum withdrawal) was the info that had been posted in the various threads after that date was lost too. (I still have shortcuts to those non-existent threads. I really need to clean-up my desktop one of these days.) Luckily this community is a solid one and we recovered. Plus Squad went to a more robust back-up system and security software.

On a different note, it has become part of KSP lore like the early Kracken, the Magic Boulder (one does not taunt the magic boulder), Capt'n Skunky's comics (really miss those), freakin' invisible giant birds. It's why Kerbals live underground and build rockets to escape Kerbin. The birds eat them. (Ok, I made the last part up, but you have to admit those are some very loud invisible birds.)