The domain transfer hasn't finished processing yet because it apparently takes a while, and I may be jumping the gun here, but I'm tentatively announcing that we now own the myApertureLabs.com domain! That's right, I talked to Nick the other day on a whim and it turns out that not only was he on, he was willing to give us the domain - and all the old site's content. He apparently had a backup of the old database, which he's uploading to our web server so that we preserve the efforts of 4 years of portal mappers.

So what does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means we no long have to be myApertureInnovations. Do we want to switch back? Put a little "Formerly mAL" in the site header? Discuss in the comments thread.

Secondly, it will take a little while to get all the old maps in the new system, but once I do our content will explode. None of it seems to have any associated data (title, description, publishing date) as of yet (it's not finished uploading, nick might have a metadata file at the end of it - I don't know). So, if it doesn't, I may need to put together a team of content-sifters to go through it all and put in the relevant information for all the files. If you're interested, post so in the thread.

Finally, I discovered recently that my well of pocket change does run dry, especially in the winter. Once again, any site donations are welcomed and will be put to use. We currently own 2 domains, so unless that changes the average yearly cost is going to be higher than before. I really don't want to have to put advertising on the site but it might come down to that, if this kind of thing happens again.

Anyway, happy new year and happy testing.

If you don't have a meta file, I can help sort out things. I don't know what to do with the new domain though...

(Also, who's Nick? The sysadmin?)

vanSulli wrote:
Nick was the administrator and also as far as I'm aware the founder of myApertureLABS.

Yep

FelixGriffin wrote:
Awesome! I'll help with content labelling. Does the old database still have the data somewhere, though? Or how do we know who to credit as the author for each mod?

(Also, who's Nick? The sysadmin?)

I'm honestly hoping that at the end of the file stream is some kind of database backup or something with all the metadata for the files, but in the event that is not the case then people will have to come up with new ones.

Pilchard123 wrote:
Can you get at the site files on the server? What server is it running on?

What do you mean? myApertureLabs is pointing to the same server that mAI is on. If you're asking about the old mAL files, Nick is uploading them in fits and starts, and he's told me since our original exchanges that he does have a database backup (though he says it's huge, and he'll have to filter out the useful information).

Kizzycocoa wrote:
personally, I'd prefer mAL. it rolled off much better than mAI. :U

I actually am the opposite.

p0rtalplayer wrote:

Pilchard123 wrote:
Can you get at the site files on the server? What server is it running on?>
What do you mean? myApertureLabs is pointing to the same server that mAI is on. If you're asking about the old mAL files, Nick is uploading them in fits and starts, and he's told me since our original exchanges that he does have a database backup (though he says it's huge, and he'll have to filter out the useful information).

What I mean is: Are you using an Apache webserver? If so, can you access and modify the site source files on the server? If so, is there a .htaccess file in the root (you may need to view hidden/system files)?

Pilchard123 wrote:

p0rtalplayer wrote:

Pilchard123 wrote:
Can you get at the site files on the server? What server is it running on?>>
What do you mean? myApertureLabs is pointing to the same server that mAI is on. If you're asking about the old mAL files, Nick is uploading them in fits and starts, and he's told me since our original exchanges that he does have a database backup (though he says it's huge, and he'll have to filter out the useful information).>

What I mean is: Are you using an Apache webserver? If so, can you access and modify the site source files on the server? If so, is there a .htaccess file in the root (you may need to view hidden/system files)?

I...actually don't know. I've been rather "protected" from the more complex bits of owning a website by having goDaddy as a middleman, so I probably know a lot less than I ought. I don't see a .htaccess in the root, though I wouldn't know how to go about showing hidden files. I know the web server is on linux, if that helps. The site is on a larger webserver that presumably also hosts several other sites, so what I see as the "root" is not actually the root of the server. I don't believe I have access to anything above my "root" though.