Comments on: The Empire Is Smashed

By: Thomas L. Knaap

Thomas L. Knaap — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 03:54:52 +0000

Care if it falls?

Well, yes, actually.

By: Tom G

Tom G — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:51:03 +0000

Roderick, what about the Internet Archive AKA the Wayback Machine?
Your current blog address doesn’t register, but it takes at least 6 months to get in…what was your old blog website URL ?

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

By: Aster

Aster — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:23:19 +0000

Thank you.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 13:20:00 +0000

I do have a recent backup, and if all goes according to plan, I’ll have everything back to normal, with the possible exception of a few comments, today sometime.
If you run a WordPress site, do NOT use the utf-8 database converter plugin with WP 2.8 until the plugin is upgraded.

By: Joe

Joe — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:52:18 +0000

FWIW, Google’s cache still has what appears to be the full text of “Pale Nerd, Pale Rider”. Do you have raw access to what’s behind WordPress (presumably a MySQL database)?

By: Charles H.

Charles H. — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:45:46 +0000

A friend of mine just had a similar disaster, and we’ve found that Google Reader is your friend. As long as there was an RSS or Atom feed for your blog, it will keep the blog entries around indefinitely. (In fact, there’s some controversy over the service, because even posts deliberately deleted or edited by the authors are a matter of public record for all eternity.)

By: Aster

Aster — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 11:26:36 +0000

Oh goddess! I am so, so, deeply sorry to hear this. I’d noticed the site was wonky, but I had no idea.

There are few writers online I’d less like this to happen to. You are- no flattery attempted or implied- one of the best philosophic writers I’m aware of on the web. You see things a day or two before I do, and that’s on an ethereally good day.

Wayback machine? Is there anything that can be done?

By: Robert Paul

Robert Paul — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:34:09 +0000

I think I can access every post since Dec. 23rd, 2008, and probably a few more from before then. I really hope your host or someone has a full backup though.

By: Robert Paul

Robert Paul — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 08:28:26 +0000

Shit, I had just posted about my fear of that happening. Are there any backups at all? Maybe your hosting provider takes routine backups. Sometimes, even if you haven't signed up for any additional backup service, they will maintain backups and charge you to retrieve them. It's probably worth looking into. Worst case, I think I have a few posts saved, and I'm sure others do too. Let me know if I can be of any help.