There isn't any point in ignoring the catastrophe that deleted 13 months of posts from our little community here. So instead of worrying about getting them back, I'd like to get everyone together to talk about what we should do next. For the most part, I believe that everyone looks to me as the leader here, but that doesn't mean that I own everything and that this forum is special to everyone else too. Please write down and post your thoughts about what happened. No idea or feeling is too small or without meaning. Above all else we need to stick together and the best way to do that would just to let out all of our feelings about this event and try to support each other. If there is anything that should be done to try to improve the feeling of peace and safety here I would like to hear any ideas that you might have.

So I think that I'll go first.



The MKR forum is something that I created mostly because I had difficulty finding a good place where I could discuss the Magic Knight Rayearth series with other fans like myself. At first I was the only one here and that lasted quite a while because the forum wasn't affiliated with any big sites. I don't believe in "spamvertising" either so it was slow to find anyone that would come here. After a while people did come though and slowly a warm and friendly society blossomed here and became one of the most pleasant and peaceful groups of people that I've ever known. So when the hackers came and ruined so much of it, I was just sick over it for the first day or so. The distressed avatar I have now really reflects how I felt at the time: sad, defeated, violated, failure, and a great deal of guilt because I felt responsible for what everyone had lost. Somehow I wasn't able to protect anything and I don't know if I've lost everyone's trust or not or if anyone still believes in me as a leader. v_v



I like would very much for things to not end here, not this way. Even if we have to start over from the beginning, I still want to keep going, whether we want to stay with Ezboard or not. Seeing all of the old topics popped up again constantly reminds me of what happened, so as soon as the restore efforts are finished, I'd like to archive all of the old stuff (except for the character forums) so that we can start over clean again. But those are just my thoughts ...

Edited by: Shiidou Hikaru at: 6/4/05 3:37 pm

We haven't lost faith in anything, Hikaru-san. There wasn't anything anyone could do against the hacking. If we get a new forum (And honestly, I think it'd be interesting to move to an Invisionboard or something), we'll migrate over there and keep on being active. Don't worry about us thinking lower of you, though - the first night I came to this place, the main reason I decided to sign up is because I thought it had a really cool admin.

Wow, that's a very nice thing to say Casey-san. Thankies. *Hugs* ^_^ Switching to Invision would be a possibility. There is one that I set up for one of my friends here - Organized Randomness

Frankly speaking...I don't care where the board is as long as I can still converse with the people I've become friends with here. *huggle*

*Huggles* I would like to stay here myself for the time being, but even so, I'm starting to become really discouraged with Ezboard, so I guess that's why I feel like I'm at a crossroads right now. If we move, it would be better to do so after some thoughtful discussion instead of being a response to a crisis situation.

I have to agree w/Docs-san. And like I said before, you did everything you could in your power to help. Well now it's our turn to do the same. The first time I came here was that it completely caught my attention & plus...I loved watching different anime series, especially MKR.



Second...considering that I've met so many here, & that I sometimes hang around here w/Shiro-kun...I've really been used to being here, all thanks to the others, & especially you, Hikaru-san.



Your positive attitude has been like an inspiration for me...so...I'm sure all of us will be able to figure this out...somehow. We just have to keep working on it & not giving up, ne? *pats her on the back* *huggles*.

*Huggles back* Thank you so much Yuki-san. ^_^ It's true that we still have a place to hang out together. As long as the forum still works we can post and chat and share our feelings the way we always have. I'm sorry if I haven't been very cheerful or positive lately which is something that I should change because it can easily rub off on others. The last thing that I want to do is make everyone else sad too ... erm, I'll need to do something about that dreadfully sad avatar ...

Dou itashimashite, Hikaru-san. Yokatta...that you understand. Let's just hope things turn out for the better. ^_^.

Well, I took care of the avatar, and now Hikaru looks cheerful again. ^_^ However, I brought some bad news from Ezboard that we're not going to get any more posts back. Tomorrow, I think that I may do some house cleaning and restart some of the game threads that have all been messed up. Also, I'd like to restart the rpg thread Yuki-san. ^_^

For whatever decisons are made, I told Hikaru-chan that I would just go with the flow ^-^ I'll still be here in the end =)



By the way Hikaru-chan, it's good to see your happy avatar ^.^

I'm glad you're alright, Hikaru-chan. ^_^ I was slightly worried when you told me what happened yesterday. But it's good to know everyone's feeling fine and moving on. =D

*Huggles Yume-chan and Yuzuki-chan.* ^_^ The avatar was actually depressing for me to look at which wasn't helping any eh-heh ... ^_^;; It's good to see both of you will stay together with me too since you've been here the longest. *Huggles again* ^_^



Some of the old stuff in the games section and general discussion I'm going to send to the archives and start up new versions of the old topics. The "Who's online game" got up to over 5000 posts before it was messed up. Let's see if we can do it again. ^_^



On a side note, I believe that I still have all of the files that I need to set up an Invision Power Board forum. I'll set up another one for testing so that everyone can have a chance to play with it and maybe a few weeks/months from now we can revisit the board move subject again.

Yokatta...that you're back to your happy self, Hikaru-san. Luckily for me...I still have the beginning part of my RPG. (thinks: Whew...at least I didn't delete that). Too bad that most of our posts are gone though. (thinks: Mou.)



By the way...your avatar is totemo kirei, Hikaru-san... & totemo kawaii as well. ^_^

Awww, thankies Yuki-san. *Huggles* ^__^ That's wonderful if you still have your rpg setup saved someplace, we could start over again at any time, if we weren't too close to the end of the story. Or we could make up a new story but still use the same characters, either way would work. ^_^



BTW, mee likes your new new Kero-chan avatar too! *Huggles* Kero-chan.* ^_^

^_^. Arigatou. I don't mind if we start anew, but I have to make a few quick changes on my 2 OC bios first & then I can cont. I can still play Lantis, ne?

And with that...meaning?

I've thought about sending an e-mail to all of the members that have spent time with us. The automatic titles like "Mashin Master" do allow me to sort the member list by post count. So I was thinking about sending a message to those with 100 posts or more with a short explanation of what happened and ask them to please come and help us to rebuild our community. Maybe a few other things could be included if anyone has something to add?

I have a little suggestion about the RPG board. For the whole choosing characters part...we should create another ver. for it. As for me...I might create a 2nd ver. considering that my 1st one is lost for good. But at least for the intro part...I have a back up.

Hmm, all of the rpg's have been inactive for so long that it might be a good idea to wipe the slate clean and start over. Many of the players don't even come around amymore, so I could free up their characters for others to sign up. A lot of the threads a so old that the hackers might not even have touched them.

Ah. Sou ne. There aren't very many that come around on that section of the board anymore. So...yeah. I'll probably post my RPG back up when you've taken care of cleaning the slate on the RPG section.

Hacker?... talking abou that makes me fell like I?m not part of it! C?mon, I was not even here when that happens! And you?re still talking about it like if the world?s about to end.



I?ve been in that kind of situation (risking the safe of the whole C?phiro) and belive me, you need to have courage for it, I want to be part of it, I want to feel like a member of this board, everyone here seem to know each other so well, like a family... but not me.



My sugestion is:

Fist, forget about this, I know everyone here were important, but if you keep looking at the past you?ll never reache the future (I?m not catolic, but even in Bible says... in some chapter, this guy?s father recently died, and he wanted to join Jesus, then Jesus said "C?mon and join me" "But... I need to bury my father" and Jesus answered "Leave the death with the death")



Second, Instead of looking for the old members you can also think in the new ones, some of us can feel a little lost in this place, I?m not saying that this place is not good (that?s why I?m still here), You?re doing a great job, but think about the newbies and soon this place will grow up again as a huge community



And for the last: You?re acting like Hikaru when she has the guilt for killing Emeraud and she was like carryng the whole responsability even if she had nothing else to do. Now, Zagato was not there to tell her something, but guess what? I?m here, so I should say "On your feet Warrioir, you?re a Magic Knight and your will have been tested, so go to recover that sword and hurry, cause we still have a war to fight for!

Thanks for the uplifting word...the real reason we were ( and some of us still are) so upset is because we lost many conversations and postes that some of us charished. It just kind of sucks to lose all of that stuff ya'know?

Yes, we did lose a lot posts, but not each other and that's what is really important. *Huggles everyone* I think that's kind of what Zagato-san was trying to say with that Gospel quote. Essentially it means that if you spend all of your time worrying about the past, you'll lose your future too. Even though we never got any of our posts back, we've probably already replaced half of what was deleted. So everyone is on the right track to make a bright future for our little community here. ^_^



Among the many posts that were deleted was an explanation of why I chose the title "Pillar of Cephiro" for myself. It is exactly how I view my relationship to the forum. Yes, I'm the Admin and founder of the forum, but I see my primary responsibility as that of a caregiver. Just like Princess Emeraude devoted herself to providing for the welfare of Cephiro, I try as much as I can to make the MKR forum a peaceful and enjoyable place to visit. This community is something that I care for very much, and that's why I was so hurt to see it get ruined by the hack attack. I know that ultimately I wasn't the one to blame for what happened, but I was willing to accept responsibility for the sake of everyone that I've come to love here. And it's something that I don't regret doing either. Ezboard Inc completely fell on their faces in their handling of the catastrophe, and if I had told everyone to look to them for responsibility, we all would have come away empty handed.

Things seem to working okay now, but the dreadful slowness two days this week and some scary reports of Ezboard downloading trojans and worms onto people's comps has me accelerating the move to IPB. The first stage works - I was able to convert parts of this forum to phpBB, but I've run into a snag converting from phpBB to IPB. If I am able to come up with a solution for that, the plan is to go full speed ahead and convert everything asap. Before I start that, I'll make sure to warn everyone though because I'll have to lock the forum from posting during the conversion process.

Ah okay Hikaru-chan... good luck trying to figure out the phpBB to IPB ne.



Thanks for keeping us updated with what you are doing ^^

Sou desu. Gambatte, Hikaru-san.



Hope things are going well.

eh......it seems I am unlucky tonight. I am sorry to hear of your loss. You all are such good people. I would hate to see this family die. For that is what you all are. A family. I had hopes in time to become a part of that....but from what I am reading now it seems as though that has little chance of happening. I have already posted a possible solution in the "possbile new domain" thread.....and I hope I do not come too late. It saddens me to see that such a beautiful thing can be destroyed by just one single person. for no other reason that they can.

"Im all for removing dangerous weapons from the hands of fools. Let's start with Typewriters"~solomon short

Yes, everyone that comes here has become pretty close and it will take more than Ezboard's foolishness to ruin our friendships. Actually, school starting up again has probably done more to pull people away than the Ezpocalypse did. The plan to move the forum to IPB has become more of a hassle than I had anticipated, so it's been delayed for a bit.

Hai. I am happy to see that the bonds between the members here are strong. *chuckles* School has a habit of doing that.

"Im all for removing dangerous weapons from the hands of fools. Let's start with Typewriters"~solomon short

Ah...sou ne. Esp. w/the hmwk. & other stuff & what not.

Thankfully, I have little in the way of homework or social arrangements. I'm glad Christmas Break's coming up, though, because I'm entering the "getting really f'ing tired of school" phase that each year has.

By the way, whatever happened to that guy who destroyed all the posts on the ezBoard system? Did they ever apprehend him or what? I wonder if it was an adult or some 15-year old brat...

Erm, as far as I know, no one has ever been held responsible for the Ezboard disaster. My own suspicions have been from the start that Ezboard themselves mishandled their own data and caused the loss through their own incompetence. Their backup system never worked as far as I could tell. A couple of months before that disaster I knew of another Ezboard forum that was hacked when one of their moderators was stupid enough to give out his password. Large parts of that forum got wiped out and Ezboard was not able to fix that mess either. So I was not at all surprised that the Ezpocalypse data loss was permanent. >_>