Big Bang Bar

BBB94 · Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 407 Location: WI, USA

It would be nice to have the contents of the old forums available to us all again. I emailed the Bearcave guys asking if they wouldn't consider making the old forums available for someone else to host (hoping that their anger was directed solely at Gene/IPB/PMI and not us too). I have not received a response. Maybe there are some legal issues? Maybe they will be more open once some time has passed.

I'd chip in some money if it'll help us get the contents of the old forums back online. I'd also contribute if Robert wants better/different software - hey maybe Bearcave is looking to unload some fairly new forum software?

It never occured to me that the old forums would go bye-bye like that. I guess I should have found a way to archive them for personal use.

robertwinter · Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 11:07 am Post subject:

I had emailed Bearcave immediately about archiving the old forum here but have not heard back. I'm hoping they will allow temporary access at some time to allow this.

As for different forum software, I'm not sure that's necessary. phpBB is very stable, and is PHP/MySQL based just like vBulletin. About the only feature I can see that vBulletin had was the Calendar, which I don't foresee using. phpBB is also highly modifiable.
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Robert
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http://www.robertwinter.com
BBB #74

BBB94 · Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 407 Location: WI, USA

I was recently told that the old forums might be on a IPB/PMI computer. I'm trying to find out before harddrives crash or machines get excessed. Personally I think they are on a Bearcave computer. Robert (and other that would know) what kind of files should one be looking for? Is there an EXE or other file name name that would be a give-away for either of the old forums? Was the 2nd old forum the same package as you are using now?

Is there anyone that was or is on good terms with them that could ask about the location of the files and any passwords etc that would be necessary too access and/or extract the information. They ignored my emails back in the day. BBB93 didn't you meet with them - maybe they would talk to you?

BBB93 · Joined: 06 Aug 2005 Posts: 142

Yes, I met them back when the playfields and cabinet art were first finished. They invited me to their home to come take a look and do a mini review. Steve, Bob and I all live in the St. Louis area, but I really don't know them except for that meeting at their house and a couple of times at some other local pinball events, one time at an auction and one time at another local collectors party. Don't know if I would have any better luck than anybody else, but it is probably worth a try. I'll give it a shot and let you know if I have any luck. I did save some of the photos from the old forum, but having some of the content available would be great.
Bob S
BBB#93
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Belly-Up To The Big Bang Bar ©

unigroove · Joined: 08 Aug 2005 Posts: 118

as many internet pages get archived by big archive websites, did anyone already attempt to see if the old forum topics can be found that way? With some old urls I might be able to retrieve some...

BigBangJoe · Joined: 02 Aug 2005 Posts: 134 Location: Gent, Belgium