New old news?

[Peter1953]

Mark and Alan, I'm wondering whether it is possible to add a list of all the previously discussed topics?

I suppose many members of the new Forum also participated and / or read the many threads in the old Forums. This doesn't include myself, because I'm a newcomer and was enjoying the former Forum only for a few weeks, just before the awful hacking attacks.
I can still learn a lot. Many good suggestions resulted for me in new discoveries, and I bought CD's from Rufinatscha, Draeseke, Bortkiewicz, Gernsheim, Martucci and Reubke, just to name a few. And although I have a nice, almost complete collection of Raff discs, I enjoy reading opinions on our mutual unsung musical hero from Switzerland. And it gives me great pleasure to participate in several discussions.

The thought behind my request is that I have completely forgotten which topics already have been discussed thoroughly. I have some ideas for new threads in the near future, but that could be old news for many members. And I wonder how motivated (old) members are to restart or reply to an already previoulsly discussed topic again. An example: Jim mentions that the Rufinatscha thread was read over 10,000 times, and how many members have added interesting replies to the discussions? On our new Forum I have started a topic on Rufinatscha, because I promised to give my opinion after receiving two missing discs (ordered 10 May, not arrived yet. Slow post coach from Tirol to the Netherlands, I suppose). How many members want to add something, after such a long thread in the old Forum?

By the way, as expressed before, I'm very grateful to you that we now have the Unsung Composers Forum. It's a great place to be. Maybe just a list of the old topics is helpful? What is your opinion?

[Mark Thomas]

Thanks for the suggestion, Peter. I'll get back to you when I've thoought through the practicalities.

[Alan Howe]

I'll have to leave the practicalities to Mark; for myself I don't think it matters much whether old topics are repeated: there are often new recordings to discuss and, after all, opinions grow and change over time...

[Mark Thomas]

On reflection, I think that you are both right! Like Alan, I see no problem with repeating threads in this new setting and that's particularly valuable when you have new members like Peter, who can add valuable insights not present in the earlier thread.

On the other hand, there's no denying that the old Forums did represent a very significant archive of knowledge and opinion and I still intend, when time permits, to try and make them available in an archive format. They certainly won't be available as active threads here I'm afraid because of format incompatibilities.

The key phrase in that last paragraph, by the way, is when time permits. Don't go holding your breath, now!

[Yavar Moradi]

The thing I most miss about the old forums is all of Avrohom's amazing posts.

Yavar

[John H White]

The trouble with Avrohom was that, being so knowledgeable, his posts were so long winded and took such a long time to read. If only he'd learn to be brief and to the point, I feel he could make a valuable contribution to our present discussions.

[peter_conole]

Hi all

I know exactly where Peter1953 is coming from. And I am certain - in fact 100% sure - that Mark and Alan and all other Raff folk would agree. The earlier  materials - now closed off for further comment because of the wretched, scummy set of hackers - could be made a wonderful database for research poking and prodding.

Am I right in saying we can still read and delve into those archives, Mark and Alan? Possibly not yet, but in the end it would be a good and simple outcome if they were made into an immutable (unchangeable) archive/knowledge base. 

This new start - which will pick up speed, I am sure, as folk increase in confidence and and morale - will simply carry things along and evolve as issues emerge and change.

The point is, that nothing has been lost. So the accumulated discussions and research data and opinions, whatever happens, may well end up as a useful database and reference 'library'. An archive -  well, the term is in usage here. Am I right in assuming this is the desired eventual outcome?

regards
Peter

[Mark Thomas]

Yes, Peter, I have preserved a copy of the database which made up the old Forum. Of course, it also has preserved within it the hacked pages and posts which caused its demise. So, the job is to find a way of identifying and safely removing the malicious code whilst keeping the threads intact and searchable, if not capable of being added to.

I won't pretend that I am spending every waking hour on this. Indeed, after the problems of the last couple of months, which coincided with a very busy time domestically, I have taken a temporary step back from beavering away on the web. The eagle eyed may have noticed that I have not updated the Raff site for six weeks. It will be updated sometime towards the end of this month.

So, finding a way to preserve and publish the old threads remains a goal but it isn't an immediate prospect either.

[JimL]

I'm not sure you need to remove the hacked pages and posts if the database is in an archived format, i.e. isolated from the net, with all the links disabled.  Didn't you say that most of the malware was invisible anyway, Mark?

[Mark Thomas]

When I say archived, Jim, what I mean is that a copy of what was online now rests on my hard disk. To make it accessible to everyone, obviously it needs to be online again and to do that safely we have to remove the infection, otherwise anyone who accesses it runs the risk of getting infected. The malware links are invisible when you browse the infected pages yes, but that doesn't mean that they aren't there. What has to be done is remove all the links and then there's no longer any danger. But you have to find the links first....