Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai - AHS Forum Status

Ayumi Hamasaki Sekai (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/index.php)

- Ayu Music News (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=2)

- - AHS Forum Status (http://www.ahsforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=125372)

AHS Forum Status

Hello everyone-

I wanted to update you all on the forum. As a lot of you already know, I don't have access to paying for the server, nor do I really have contact with Zef. As far as I'm aware, the server is paid for until October this year, but it's up to him whether he continues paying for it after that and I don't really have the means to reach out consistently to make sure.

I've been trying to back-up a few things, but it all has to be manual and I haven't realistically had the time to do it all. I want to ask for everyone to make sure to save what they find precious from the forum in the next few weeks to make sure they don't lose any old posts or downloads they want.

If anyone wants to repost downloads, old scans, or anything else as a back-up, I can offer this forum I have had hanging around - it has a few things on it already, but unfortunately most of what I've saved is still on my harddrive. Work has been incredibly busy for me and while I've had a few volunteers to help me test the other forum, I want to reach out here in case anyone also wants to take advantage of backing up their data. At the moment, I'm mostly worried about our Downloads forum and the magazine interviews in the Celebrity News area, as well as the TA posts from 2010 - everything prior to that should be backed up, including lyric translations. Also, nothing from the Other Artists forums has been backed up at all.

I'm sorry I don't have better news, and I do hope AHS lasts as it is past this October, but I don't want to take that for granted anymore.

The link for the very very rough back-up is here: https://ahsforum.flarum.cloud/. Any help or ideas for alternatives is very welcome. I'll also be cross-posting this in the downloads forum for visibility.

is there a way to pay for the server ourselves? or it has to be Zef who does the payment thing?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Evan Odinson (Post 3343131)

is there a way to pay for the server ourselves? or it has to be Zef who does the payment thing?

I've offered to pay a few times and have sent him money before in order for it to be paid, but he's the only one with the payment information. His name is on the account and I don't have access to that at all.

oh no if this site goes down for good it's definitely end of an era :weep

I've had someone reach out with a way for me to download a HTML copy of the forum, so I'm currently trying to do that so at least the text will be saved. In the meantime, I ask for anyone who hosts downloads on the forum prepares to move them over if you'd still like the links to be active in the future - I know it's a lot to ask, but it is likely what we're most at risk of losing.

thank you for letting us know koumori—I never knew I had to consider the possibility of AHS discontinuing. I've been here since 2005 so it's definitely been a constant in my life. I hope this site can be saved!

Hope we can do something, I cannot imagine AHS being closed for good :(

Do you have access to the vbulletin admin interface? If so, you should be able to backup the entire database and import it into a new instance of vbulletin (even if it's a newer version, since this is so outdated).

Quote:

Originally Posted by voltron (Post 3343141)

I don't, unfortunately. I can see the back-up area but my role doesn't have permissions to access that area of the admin interface. I will ask about this to the other admin I'm in contact with though to see if this is something we can work on - do you know anything more about this process and the interface itself?

Quote:

Originally Posted by koumori (Post 3343142)

It should be a pretty straightforward process, I think (unless the import runs into issues) - but I haven't worked with forum admins in a longgggg time.

https://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/...atabase_backup

https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...-8-11-to-5-4-4

This is one of the most active JPOP forum on the net so I hope this forum will continue for a long time!

Thank you for the update

Thanks for letting us know. <3 Whatever happens, I've had a lot of fun here and am grateful for this place and all your hard work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by koumori (Post 3343132)

Not sure if this has been discussed in the past, but if someone could manage to contact him, would it not be possible to transfer the server account ownership (or at least share the server payment information) so that this risk doesn't come up every year?

Also, just in case all of us need to communicate should the forum go down, can the Discord become public? (or if I could have an invite now :P)

I hope he chooses to continue it :(

It’s been such a regular part of my life for so long.
I’d also be more than happy to donate money if it came to that!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Connected (Post 3343160)

I've asked for access to the payment account many times and unfortunately nothing has come of it.

The Discord server is planned to open up to public access again on Monday.

Quote:

Originally Posted by voltron (Post 3343143)

Thank you for this comment, I just saw it - I'll see if this is something we can do with the permissions we have. Unfortunately neither of the forum owners are active right now and some of the control panel options are still locked to them, but I really hope a straightforward possibility can happen for a transfer.

Is there no way to at least have a change of ownership since it has always been like an uncertain kinda thing as to when the forum would be renewed? Anyways, if in case it does go down, I can at least share you guys some of the ripped tracks saved on my cloud drive as a link should there would be a need of a backup download links?

I think people should also join the AHS Facebook group so if the forum goes down, we can keep talking about Ayu and other j-artists/bands we like over there. :)

I hope we can find a way, this forum had been part of my life for so long now..

I'd be more than happy to contribute to maintain this server.