Announcement DPF "State of The Forum" - April 2021
- Messages
- 4,202
- Location
- California
Hey there DPF'ers —
As many may know, the site was hacked early on 4/1/2021; this isn't the first time it has happened; in ~2015(?) the site was the target of Syrian hacktivists, which — fun story — earned me a visit by the FBI for questioning. In that instance the hackers merely defaced the site and it was restored fairly quickly. In this most recent hack, it seems like we may have lost about a few months' worth of posts in certain forums, and I do not have any current backups of the forum database. The backups provided by our host didn't seem to do any good. My apologies for the inconvenience, but as of now, I don't know when or if the posts will be restored — but we will rebuild!
You might notice the forum looks and feels different — I did spend some significant time and some extra money to update the forum software to the newest version, and the license will last through 2022. Many functions and modifications from the previous "version" of DPF will need to be restored, or alternatives will need to be found, so bear with me during the rebuild.
(Report any issues in this thread: https://www.disneypinforum.com/threads/dpf-3-0-issues-thread.75157/#post-1071741 or report them to the mod team, and I will try to fix any issues from the upgrade as soon as possible.)
I’d like to thank the remaining members that are still active here, as many trading activities have moved to social media platforms over the years. The posts you’ve all made here contain useful information for people new (or even veterans) to the hobby, and your knowledge no doubt contributes greatly to the community. I encourage everyone to continue sharing their knowledge.
This forum started in 2009 (wow; that long ago?) as a fun personal project — with DizPins going away, we saw the need for another message board for that community to migrate to — many forums popped up during that time, but I’d like to think our community simmered to the top as the best at the time, due to the efforts of our members and their suggestions in making the place their new “home”.
So while we’re essentially starting from (not quite) scratch, it gives us an opportunity to rebuild our home — only better. So I’d like to solicit everyone’s opinion(s) on the state of the forum in the last few years (use this thread as a soapbox if need be) — sort of a virtual (public) comment box. Some ideas:
Finally, a VERY special thank you to @dancecats and @starry_solo for keeping the day to day here in line; I no longer collect or trade any pins (and have not in many years), so i really only hear and take care of the technical issues nowadays.
Donations:
If you'd like to donate and help us get some more additions to the forum, we will gladly continue to accept donations for supporting the forum
— We do very much still need help with the ongoing server costs, as those are to the tune of $100-200 monthly depending on activity, and sometimes it can be difficult to maintain the cost(s).
You can use this url for direct paypal donations: PayPal.Me
You can also support me and the forum by updating your Amazon homepage link to point to my affiliate link, or by purchasing by using any Amazon links people post around DPF. Using my links cost you nothing extra, and helps support the forum!
As many may know, the site was hacked early on 4/1/2021; this isn't the first time it has happened; in ~2015(?) the site was the target of Syrian hacktivists, which — fun story — earned me a visit by the FBI for questioning. In that instance the hackers merely defaced the site and it was restored fairly quickly. In this most recent hack, it seems like we may have lost about a few months' worth of posts in certain forums, and I do not have any current backups of the forum database. The backups provided by our host didn't seem to do any good. My apologies for the inconvenience, but as of now, I don't know when or if the posts will be restored — but we will rebuild!
You might notice the forum looks and feels different — I did spend some significant time and some extra money to update the forum software to the newest version, and the license will last through 2022. Many functions and modifications from the previous "version" of DPF will need to be restored, or alternatives will need to be found, so bear with me during the rebuild.
(Report any issues in this thread: https://www.disneypinforum.com/threads/dpf-3-0-issues-thread.75157/#post-1071741 or report them to the mod team, and I will try to fix any issues from the upgrade as soon as possible.)
I’d like to thank the remaining members that are still active here, as many trading activities have moved to social media platforms over the years. The posts you’ve all made here contain useful information for people new (or even veterans) to the hobby, and your knowledge no doubt contributes greatly to the community. I encourage everyone to continue sharing their knowledge.
This forum started in 2009 (wow; that long ago?) as a fun personal project — with DizPins going away, we saw the need for another message board for that community to migrate to — many forums popped up during that time, but I’d like to think our community simmered to the top as the best at the time, due to the efforts of our members and their suggestions in making the place their new “home”.
So while we’re essentially starting from (not quite) scratch, it gives us an opportunity to rebuild our home — only better. So I’d like to solicit everyone’s opinion(s) on the state of the forum in the last few years (use this thread as a soapbox if need be) — sort of a virtual (public) comment box. Some ideas:
- what are your suggestions for making the forum better? (More mods? The addition of some specific forums? etc..)
- Any features you’d like to see added?
- What features did you like/dislike in previous iterations of DPF?
- What does DPF need? Can we grow it or increase activity?
Finally, a VERY special thank you to @dancecats and @starry_solo for keeping the day to day here in line; I no longer collect or trade any pins (and have not in many years), so i really only hear and take care of the technical issues nowadays.
Donations:
If you'd like to donate and help us get some more additions to the forum, we will gladly continue to accept donations for supporting the forum
— We do very much still need help with the ongoing server costs, as those are to the tune of $100-200 monthly depending on activity, and sometimes it can be difficult to maintain the cost(s).You can use this url for direct paypal donations: PayPal.Me
You can also support me and the forum by updating your Amazon homepage link to point to my affiliate link, or by purchasing by using any Amazon links people post around DPF. Using my links cost you nothing extra, and helps support the forum!
but glad to see that the disney emoji's survived 