I have had several inquiries concerning GDC and the events leading to our return to the web.

First, I would like to explain the structure of GDC. GDC resides on two servers. The primary server supports our main page, www.germandaggers.com. This server contains our support software and email client, the forum graphics, and all the files and photos for the GDC Reference Gallery. The second server contains UBB.Threads, our forum software, and the associated user profiles, forum posts, and forum photos. This structure effectively doubles our bandwidth and provides much faster response times for both the forum and the Reference Gallery. To illustrate, during last November, the forum did 182,000 page views and the Reference Galleries did 628,000 page views. During January, while the forum was down, the Reference Gallery still did 524,000 page views. Having both functions on the same server would significantly impact response times. The only downside to using this configuration is that unless metrics are run against both servers, banner advertisers do not get a true count of the number of banner views they receive.

In late December, I was informed that our email client was generating a significant number of emails to the same email address. Scanning all our software, I found a virus attached to the forum login.php program that was trying to capture id and password information. I contacted our forum host ISP so they could scan all of their servers. The virus was found on several servers which ran UBB.Threads forums and they proceeded to isolate and delete the virus. They also cleared all of the UBB.Threads configuration and data set name files. They then spent the next 6 weeks trying to reconstruct the configuration files. They were able to get bits and pieces fixed but were not able to get everything to work at the same time. On February 7, they reported that the forums files were corrupted beyond their ability to repair and were ceasing recovery efforts. On February 8, I hired a UBB.Threads/data recovery expert to install the latest version of the software and attempt to recover our files. I contracted for a new host ISP for the forum on February 9, and a test version of the forum was up on February 11. After doing the initial data loads, we had all of the user profiles and posts, and approximately 60% of the photos. By February 15, we had performed 4 specialized extracts and recovered as many photos as possible, being at around 95-98% complete. The new host ISP has much stronger virus scanning procedures and firewall. And by upgrading UBB.Threads from version 7.5.5 to 7.6.1.1, we have eliminated the vulnerabilities in the forum software which allowed the virus to infect the forum initially.

Several new features are available in the new forum software. You can choose one of 16 display styles to control the color and format of the forum. You select the style from the window on the bottom of the forum page. The initial setting is "UBB.Threads - Dark". Click on the window to view the selections and click on your choice to use it. This setting will only effect your view of the forum. Just under that window you will see "show/hide columns on this page". Clicking here will toggle the GDC Reference Library column on and off. The "My Stuff" lick is missing from the top of the forum. You now access your profile, private messages and several other features by clicking on the arrow next to your login name at the upper right of the forum page. To make it easier to view the posts, thumbnail images are now automatically generated for photos over 640 pixels wide. You can click on the thumbnail to view the full size photo. The new forum software has a feature to automatically resize photos when they are uploaded but it is still being tested. The new software is mobile device friendly but I have not tested it yet. There are several additional features in the new software that are being tested for the future. Minor configuration and tuning are still ongoing. If you have any problems or comments, please let me know. Thanks again for your patience

Fantastic news! What a nightmare it must have been to get this mess sorted out, it's certainly made my day to see GDC back again I've missed my daily visits here. Thank you for the great job you've done for us all.
Cheers, Andy.

Massive thanks for sorting it all out Vern, i was getting withdrawal symptoms. Lol

As best I can tell, GDC is up and fully functional. The only problem I can find is that we have some missing or corrupted Avatar files. You can edit your profile (click the small arrow by your name in the upper right corner) and reload your Avatar. If you have problems, let me know and I'll provide instructions or load it for you. If you see any other problems with the forum, please let me know.

Thank you! I was worried it wasn't coming back.

Great News Vern ..Thankyou for your hard work here. I will be renewing my membership

Regards Larry

Avatar images seem to only want to work when added to the stock avatar file. If you want your old avatar back, send it to me and I'll load it to our stock avatar file. You can then edit your profile, click on "Stock Avatar", select it, and you're good. Still trying to figure out why the Avatar load process isn't working.

I'm glad it's back... I wasn't able to log in until one week ago.

Good Job Guys!!

How come I can't move from say page 1 to page 2 and back again like it was before. Settings?

Can you provide a bit more detail? I can flip back and forth on the long threads with no problems.

by thread yes. but on thread from page to page no

Tested on a Forum page using the page numbers at the top and bottom right. Flipped through with no problems. Then tested a thread, again using the page numbers on the top and bottom right. Everything looks to be working. Also tested using a combination of the page numbers and the browser back and forward buttons with no apparent problems. What browser are you using and are you on a pc or a smartphone?

Vern,

It depends on the GDC color scheme you select. In the original GDC Custom, that little box to select page number is hard to see. Change to GDC Dark

Dave

I did that didn't see where I could change page numbers then went back to GDC custom, now no numbers showing. It has to be in the settings somewhere lol. I know its me lol.

Mikee,

They are there but hard to see because of contrast.

Go to the very bottom of the page and select "UBB.Threads - Dark"

Dave

Ok thank you that seems to work but I like the custom one much better. Can't the colors be changed so the number page and arrows can be seen. Thanks for the help.

I'll take a look at it and see what I can do

Thank you Vern

Thank you Vern

Yours,
Ibrahim
Singapore

Just glad I could recover the threads and get the forum back up. We are slowly getting the activity up. Last month, the forum did 58,000 page views. The GDC Reference Library wasn't effected by the virus since it is on a separate server. The Reference Library did 685,000 page views last month. If you haven't looked at the various galleries, take a moment and check them out. They cover a wide range of collectibles and code tables. If you have questions or suggestions, please let me know. I'm always interested in ideas for improvements or additional galleries.

About the reference gallery.
The dagger ID guide used to have links giving a bit of basic information about each dagger. It was really handy to learn a little bit about more rare daggers.
Since the forum came back online I get the following error message:
403: Forbidden

This error message is generated when the web server is trying to access a file that does not exist or has been configured incorrectly

I thought I'd say something because I don't think it's a problem on my end.

That was a separate reference file that was corrupted during the virus attack. I'll see if I can find a copy but it may have to be redone. Thanks for the information.

HELLO---HELLO! Is there anybody out there?? Nod if you can hear me, is there anyone at home????? Kind of getting slow. Ed

Yes, it seems the more hits we get on the galleries, the slower the forum becomes. Everyone needs to make a couple of posts a day and things will pick up. There are a few of us who are always around

I am back after many months away.Looking forward to catching up :-) Seiler