Nothing is ever truely lost (C4AG Archive)

[SidekickChuck]

Looks like there was a wayback archive created on December 7th, 2012. Links work and content preserved:

http://web.archive.org/web/201204181304 ... ub4ag.com/


Great tool for reference and content scraping. Just thought I would pass it on.

[carbd7age]

Man. Just man, thanks. Not every link is live, but pics, info, so much is there. I think you saved the world right there.

[SidekickChuck]

Yeah, its probably not 100%, but most of the old content should be preserved.

[claricAE86]

Dude I cannot thank you enough for posting this.

Mr. Johns "how to swap a f20/f22" thread is the best info on the conversion and I was trying like hell to maybe find it on another site. So glad I can use it now. Thanks again man, this made my night.

[Turtle]

you should prolly copy and save it. Can't find Lola's Adventures intact, I think I only saved like 5 chapters & it was up to 7 or 8 on C4ag.

R

[kiosk]

you should prolly copy and save it. Can't find Lola's Adventures intact, I think I only saved like 5 chapters & it was up to 7 or 8 on C4ag.

R

Turtle Adventures Ch.6-8

oh Shelly! *ba-dump**ba-dump*

[gilly]

omg thanks so much man!!!

[SidekickChuck]

[Turtle]

Huzzah. Thanks,

Oh, Shelly. please be gentle with whatever you're gonna do with those two fingers.

R

[Red]

i tried a web site snatcher last week, stopped it at 10GB of downloads as it grabs the archive site plus every ad link that appeared on every page. Ugh.

But Moto is aware the archive exists. The problem is, trying to go into the archive (the archive.org folks will not participate at all) and finding the threads and stickies, and then extracting them, is a HUGE job. If the entire forum had a "network party" one night...it would still take days to sort through and organize.

Folks should be aware that it takes a long time for the wayback machine to load the site, it loads about 47,000 URLS when it loads a saved copy of the forum.

Once the new forum is up, once accounts are flagged, once Moto has time to sleep or eat <G> I think we could all conspire to form a salvage team, break up the task into sections, and post the old archives and stickies in a section here. And then make another longer pass, recovering the threads that are valuable but didn't get to be stickied.

No matter how you slice it, a HUGE task. Unless anyone here has really great web skills and can somehow automate the job of salvaging and merging?

[SidekickChuck]

If they are not cooperating, it could be tough. But if there is a way to use wget on their server, it could automate grabbing files.

[Red]

It isn't a question of co-operating. they just don't render any help, because they don't really want to know who or how the archives are being used. Their reply was that the files are there, have a good time, goodbye.

I would have thought they could help out a bit, i.e. just clarifying a good download tool, or how to download xx levels but not the entire thing (with every ad link and everything on every sponsor's web site all the way down) but, they just say "good luck and goodbye".

Which I thought was foolish, since "Wayback machine helps lost web site" is the kind of news that would help justify their existance, help counter the claims that they are evil, and get them great PR from someplace like WIRED. That's their call.

Figuring out how to download just enough, and how to split up the task...Once Moto gets caught up with everything else and re-established moderator accounts and has time to co-ordinate a salvage task force....Big job. Many hands will be needed, I'm sure.

[truenoboy]

Thank! I only wish I could get all the stuff I saved in my profile notepad.

[SidekickChuck]

They only archive what's on the site, not what's contained in the database

[Red]

What database? The only part of the forum that would only be in a database, would be the membership database AFAIK.
The actual content, the messages and the FAQ pages, are all web pages and should all be on the wayback machine. Of course that means there are no "messages" any more, there are only "pages".
Recovering things in a useful manner is easy, just like making a chicken from chicken soup. What, if you can turn a chicken into soup, you can't turn soup back into a chicken? Yeah, that's the size of the task that would be involved.

Hopefully the members are smart enough to figure out "Dude, the forum's down, try again next week" and by now they've come back, and figured out how to sign up again. Or they'll have some other means to contact other members, and get the word around.

[SidekickChuck]

I was responding to the post above claiming they couldn't get private profile messages from the archive.

[Autonerd]

[Red]

Ah, good point, the messages & message profiles also would be lost that way.

[hoffguy]

http://pdfcrowd.com/

If a Wayback machine snapshot of a page exists, you can put the wayback url into this and out pops an easily saveable, searchable pdf with functioning links and intact pictures. Although the links try to take you to a wayback archive of the page in question linked to, you can just delete the wayback url in your browser bar to get the real page. Annoying, yeah, but it's better than nothing if you can find a thread with every page archived that's full of information you'd like to reference later.

I've saved the Mr John "The How To 16V Water Pump Conversion On 20V Engine" thread, and am racking my brain to try and remember all the useful threads I've mentally archived for later reference. Unfortunately, only the first and last 5 pages of the "Megasquirt for Dummies: 20v 4age" thread are archived, and so far trying to find the rest through google searches caching feature has proven fruitless. I'll try to edit any thread I can find complete into a single PDF and upload it somewhere for those who don't want to fool with the wayback machine every time you want to reference something, so long as that's a thing that you guys think will be useful?

Edit: None of the pages of the Ignition options for carbed 4age enthusiast pages are archived, damn.

[Red]

Yes, despite the OP
s mention of 12/2012, the last snapshot seems to be 4/17/2012 so anything after that is lost. When I looked into that it came back with something like 47,000 URLs saved, many for advertiser links, and obviously I didn't explore very deep. The problem with that pdf link is, of course, 47,000 URLs to look at.<G> I can make PDFs here, so personally I'm not sure it would accomplish anything for me, or anyone using any of the free or paid PDF generators.

[hoffguy]

I've started to do it anyways. I'm going through and saving a fair bit of information, it only makes sense to share the already PDF'd files so not everyone has to sit down for a lengthly period of time to explore and individually check, convert, save and organize each page. I've done most if not all of the 20v stickies and a few extra ones I know that I've found useful before. A few are incomplete, but still contain a lot of useful information.

Write-up/How-to: AE86 SR-5 to GT-S Swap
http://rapidshare.com/files/4045817775/Write-Up%20How%20to%20AE86%20SR-5%20to%20GT-S%20Swap.rar

20v BT to GTS wiring cheat sheet
http://rapidshare.com/files/789652674/20v%20BT%20to%20GTS%20wiring%20cheat%20sheet.rar

4AGE Silvertop Technical Details Needed
http://rapidshare.com/files/3257337106/4AGE%20Silverop%20Technical%20Details%20Needed.rar

BT 20V cam timing FSM incorrect
http://rapidshare.com/files/2517108647/BT%2020V%20cam%20timing%20-%20FSM%20incorrect.rar

DIY: 20v water lines in an ae86
http://rapidshare.com/files/758282629/DIY%2020v%20water%20lines%20in%20an%20ae86.rar

DIY: 20v to ae86 wiring
http://rapidshare.com/files/3898669454/DIY%20BT%2020v%20to%20ae86%20wiring.rar

DIY: 20v valve seal replacement step-by-step instructions
http://rapidshare.com/files/1395742212/DIY_20v%20valve%20seal%20replacement%20step-by-step%20instructions.rar

DIY: How-to E-brake adjustment for GT-S rear ends
http://rapidshare.com/files/821803789/DIY_How-to%20E-brake%20adjustment%20for%20GT-S%20rear%20ends.rar

HELP: Need a picture of under the ITBS
http://rapidshare.com/files/2512282874/HELP_Need%20a%20picture%20of%20under%20the%20ITBs_%20VACUUM%2020v.rar

How to get DLI on Stock 20v ECU - Incomplete but mostly there
http://rapidshare.com/files/1335576048/How%20to%20get%20DLI%20on%20Stock%2020v%20ECU_Incomplete.rar

Megasquirt for Dummies 20v 4age - Very Incomplete but some useful information
http://rapidshare.com/files/594045319/Megasquirt%20for%20Dummies%2020v%204age_VeryIncomplete.rar

my 20v ae86 swap write-up
http://rapidshare.com/files/4284928490/my%2020v%20ae86%20swap%20write-up.rar

The 7age thread Info Wanted - Incomplete
http://rapidshare.com/files/2028019973/The%207age%20thread%20Info%20Wanted_Incomplete.rar

The How to 16v Water Pump Conversion on 20v - Mr John method
http://rapidshare.com/files/1059857785/The%20How%20to%2016v%20Water%20Pump%20Conversion%20On%2020v%20Engine.rar

Toyota Part Numbers for 20v's
http://rapidshare.com/files/1911598355/Toyota%20Part%20Numbers%20for%2020vs.rar

Useful 20v References
http://rapidshare.com/files/2489697146/Useful%2020v%20References.rar

[SqueakyP]

Google also has a cache that I've been using. If you find something from club4ag in google just click the double arrows next to the result and it has a link for cached. That's been working well for me when I find things in google and can't load them.

[Red]

Great idea, squeaky!

[choi0706]

so what happened to the old site?

[Red]

Apparently the actual hosts were abducted by UFOs, or Honda fans, and literally everything including any backups went away. I don't have the details but understand Warner Bros. has optioned the movie rights. (Kidding. About the movie rights.)

I suspect a very large amount of good booze and Moto might be convinced to tell us more. But then, we'd probably wake up late on the next day with no memory of the details anyway.<G>

[SidekickChuck]

yeah it is odd that the host service did not perform routine weekly or monthly incremental backups. When I owned hidplanet.com I performed them monthly on top of the hosting sites backup.

[Red]

Who said the host did not perform backups? Backups aren't any help if, literally, they went away along with the actual server and the live files. Went away, got wiped, got lost, whatever. There apparently WERE backups. They just couldn't be accessed.

[SidekickChuck]

Thats too bad on both ends. The host should have maintained copies to archive off site, or at least off the local server, and the main user could have kept local copies to FTP off the server to archive on a external disk or wherever. Thats what I did, the archives were large since it was an entire site backup, including databases and live files, but I had one bad crash that I learned from and never wanted to go through that level of loss and rebuilding ever again. Live and learn as most do.

[Red]

Off site still wouldn't help. Even if the backups were in Iron Mountain, if the folks running the service disappear, no one else has access to them. It would take private detectives, court orders, warrants...a bloody fortune to track them down. Exactly what happened, I don't know. But UFO Abduction or Honda-fan sabotage are only slightly less unlikely, and way easier to understand.

That's the great thing about "cloud computing" and "cloud storage". Some guy on the internet has all your stuff, and if they don't come in to work one day...You got nothing. Even Google has lost contact information they kept in the cloud for users.

[84ae86]

Woohoo! I found my old for sale thread.