Bioran23

Since it's almost New Year's and it's pretty obvious we won't be done by the "end of December", I figure I should shed some light on the backup and restore process so far?From what I understand it's Cholie, Bionicleman and I are either importing all the backed up pages or re-uploading image files. I can't speak for the latter, since Bman is involved with that, but for page importing what Chols and I are finding is that we have reached the point where the backup files are starting to overlap each other, often several times in fact. This means quite a lot of pages (definitely the Characters section) have been imported already and are available for browsing.The main problem we're facing is the lack of parent pages. This means it's a pain to navigate the site right now, and it's a little bit of a challenge for us to figure out what haven't been added back to the site. If any of you are making good use of the site right now, perhaps you could give us some ideas of what areas are still by and large missing, so we can focus our attention on those? Just post them here.In terms of technicalities, we are facing two challenges which are not hard to overcome, but together makes for a very tedious process: 1) Some of the backup files, which are in XML format, are some hundreds of MBs in size, and 2) the upload limit right now is set to something ridiculously small, like 3MB, and for some reason the server starts timing out (aka unsuccessful import) by around 1.5MB. This means we have to go around manually splitting the XML files into very small chucks, and with some files being like a crazy 300MB, it has taken quite a while. Combined with finals, holidays and exam prep (for me) this process has also been prolonged further.But like I said, these are not difficult challenges to overcome. It's just a matter of finding some free time to dedicate to the process, and I think I can say confidently that we hope to have everything back up very soon. As for Tabber, it's rather silly making use of jQuery when one can customize MediaWiki directly. What's up with the scare around installing extensions and touching LocalSettings.php? It's even easier and foolproof than handling WordPress installations, (I can vouch for this having handled both WP and MW) and PHP files aren't taboos or touch-sensitive bombs. ~ Bioran

All Kanohi pages should be back up now. Onto the next huge batch of files! (Nice to see you too voxumo )UPDATE: EU-related pages should now be available as well.~ Bioran

Also, there's some restrictions which us importers have to face, which has added onto the time needed considerably. Because the restrictions need some technical skills as well, not everyone can participate in the process which has also caused delays.We are doing our best, however. ~ Bioran

It was a cool concept, but the pay model and target audience, as others have stated already, pretty much doomed it at the get-go. Honestly, in today's times it needs to be free AND appealing to a larger proportion of the internet population, i.e. teenagers and young adults, rather than predominantly pre-teens.

D: Well, I suppose it's time. It's been great working with ya - best of luck in what you move onto now!

Just finished watching the last episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures. My goodness, Sladen's acting was absolutely brilliant, the plot was light-hearted and family-based, and the ending was perfect. If only cancer hasn't taken her away. :'( It makes me wonder why Sarah Jane is being neglected by The Doctor back in Doctor Who. A lot of SJA episodes could be DW episodes, and that's definitely the case for this last episode. (It makes for a pretty good one, too.) You could switch Sarah Jane with The Doctor and back again and there probably wouldn't be much of a difference. - Bioran

Honestly, the PS has to be the most difficult part (though that final button-pressing is very nerve-wracking also. ). I went through around 10 drafts and pestered my counselor every twice a week or so, and now I gotta repeat that for my US apps.

Good luck to you two, Argentum and Malchior. Also applying to the UK here - my application got sent to UCAS sometime last week. Got an email soon after from one of my choices (Durham) saying they'll be giving me a decision soon. o_o Applying for biomedical science, BTW. Still got dreaded BMATs to prepare for.

College applications is in full force right now! Is anyone here on BZP applying for undergraduate or graduate studies this year? How's everyone feeling? For those of you applying next year (for 2013 entries), how are you planning to prepare? - Bioran

The finale, compared to the rest of the episode (minus the Pirates episode - that one was ugh.), was a bit disappointing. Overall though this season has to be the best one out of the revived series so far - all the gems with TGWW, TDW, Closing Time etc.

I am so glad the forums finally sport a modern design.