audiofic archive update

[general_jinjur]

hello everyone!

so this is your audiofic archive status update.

in april, we were moving to a new dedicated server, which we thought would take us offline very briefly (minutes). as you may have guessed, that isn't how it went down. in the process of moving, the data was mishandled, corrupted, and in some cases, destroyed. that's why we have backups! however, there was also an undetected failure in the backup process, so we are missing some files. I wish I could be more precise about which and how many, but I haven't had time to really dig yet.

We will be restoring from backup in the next few days, and then going through to see what's either missing or not connected properly to the archive interface. At that point, we will be reaching out to restore whatever is missing, and we'll be temporarily unpublishing the archive entries that don't connect to files. They will be back up once they are connected.

we are dumping the service that led to this problem, and are also getting ready to move to a new service. In the process, I'm reviewing the backup processes we had, automating and tweaking to those processes, and adding at least one additional full repository.

so yes. the news is bad. however, it's also repairable.

thank you for all the support over the years, and stay tuned for information on what files we'll be looking for.


allison morris

Comments

[greedy_dancer]

Pfew! Thanks for the update! I'm sorry things are complicated for you and your archivists, and I hope the archive gets back on its feet with as little addtional grief as possible. Thank you so much for everything you guys are doing! *hugs*

[sylvaine]

Augh, what an immensely frustrating situation! Thank you to you and all the archivists for doing this, and for the update! <3

[prophetic]

This sounds like quite the headache, but thank you for all that you do--have done, are continuing to do--for the archive. It's simply an incomparable service in fandom for all of us to be part of! Thank you.

[b7_kerravon]

Holy Cow! That's a lot of work - thank you for the update...
While I unfortunately can't contribute time (what I suspect you really need), is there someplace we can make Paypal donations or similar? To help defray the cost of the new service/server?

[cloudlake]

bless your heart for working so hard to preserve the precious podfic!

[chestnut_pod]

Oh, how awful! I'm glad to hear that it's fixable but so sorry to hear what a pain it'll be for you and the wonderful volunteers. Thank you so much for putting so much time and effort into this.

[lazulus]

Thank you so much for the update, I was wondering what had happened. It's sounds a total nightmare and I hope it gets resolved soon without causing you and the other archivists more stress and hassle thank you've already had!

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much for the update, and for the gigantic amount of work you've been doing to save all the podfic! Being offline for a few weeks has really made me realize how much I depend on the audiofic archive. Definitely let us know where to paypal our support dollars, and thank you, thank you!!

[chibinecco]

Thank you SO much for everything you guys do. I only recently got into podfic, and it's been a GODSEND. I love listening to fanworks while knitting, and having it all in one place is such a blessing. Thank you, and thank you for the update.

If I may suggest, (I don't know how difficult this would be to do, depending how you have things set up currently) perhaps collecting a listing of what works have been lost/damaged? so fans who have downloaded the missing files can send them to be reuploaded? and/or notifying the original submitter so they, if they have a backup, may have their submissions preserved? Again, if there's no easy way to automate that, posting and then maintaining such a list as things come in is.... daunting at best.

It just occurred to me that I, personally, recently downloaded almost the entire listing of American Idol S8 podfic, some of which was very old, if any of those files are missing, I'd gladly send them in to be restored.

[ann_ciudad]

well, this is incredibly awful! Thanks for keeping us updated, and please sing out if there's a good way to help or support you.

[(Anonymous)]

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work! Thank you so much for putting so much time and effort into this! I think I'm speaking for a lot of us when I'm saying that we are really REALLY appreciating what you are doing very much!

[saharra_shadow]

Thank you for all your hard work. I'd be glad to help however I can.

[chasingriver]

I apologize if this has been answered in a newer post somewhere else. Is there any more news on the status of the archive?
Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Thanks for all your hard work.