So at the moment the website is working as it should and as far as I can see all images are loading. I've removed all legacy links to Google Maps so everything looks way cleaner than previously.
It's taken me a couple of months to get to this stage so I'm not ready (yet) to let anyone else edit it (sorry Jules) but just give me time and once I'm more chill I'll remove some restrictions. A lot of the problems with the database and the reason it crashed were quite specific to the User table and in the end I had to reassign some edits and image uploads to myself in order to proceed. If you know anything about MediaWiki this was quite specific to version 1.35. No problems before, everything gone afterwards! There were over 400 missing photos and lots of page links broken. This does mean that if you've contributed to the editing of the website then some of your work is no longer attributed to yourself but to me. I promise it's not an ego thing, I just couldn't proceed any other way.
Going forwards. I plan on uploading some outstanding stuff I have on my hard drive. I've not actually taken too many photos of the railways around Bristol in the intervening years because the website disappearing sent me into a spiral of not caring anymore, even when they were building a new station right on my doorstep! Plus, so much changed so quickly it all felt like too much to try to keep up. I'm in a good place now though, so camera at the ready I will slowly work my way around the system updating stuff. I still work 6 day weeks and I'm in my 60s now though, so the website will grow slowly rather than a mad dash.
There are a lot of pages on the website which make perfect sense when making a 'journey' from one place to another but are currently 'pages needing images'. This is particularly noticeable in the Somerset area. Shepton/Radstock/Glastonbury etc. My plan is to keep these pages, but will drop them from the journey so that only pages that either have images, or are of high importance (stations, junctions etc) are visible. I can't remember who added the pages, but hopefully if they read this they will understand. It's just a way of tightening up the user experience. It will save clicking on page after page of pretty well blank pages.
Pete
Going Forward
Re: Going Forward
Well done Pete and quite understood on your keeping it locked down for a while longer.
I myself and I'm sure many others, would like to thank you personally for getting things here back up together again. I don't think people appreciate quite just how much time, effort and skill running a site like this can require. (And sometimes heartache - though hopefully not too soon ever again!)
Well done mate!
- Jules
I myself and I'm sure many others, would like to thank you personally for getting things here back up together again. I don't think people appreciate quite just how much time, effort and skill running a site like this can require. (And sometimes heartache - though hopefully not too soon ever again!)
Well done mate!
- Jules
Re: Going Forward
Thank you, it has actually been quite the slog! Discovering how to use xampp in a local environment certainly saved the day, but the upgrade between versions 1.31 and 1.35 of MediaWiki in particular was a struggle because it took -hours- on each attempt! And each time I tried it just lost loads of photos and links. I reckon I redid that bit over and over at least six times before figuring out the exact cause of the trouble. So glad that it all worked. I was determined in the end not to give up.
Re: Going Forward
xampp is a great tool. I use it all the time - both local and remote. No experience of Media Wiki though. I take it you are now on MariaDB?