BSN is shutting down; files there could be lost.

[hawkethority]

hi - I have an 8tb drive (that I got specifically for this, upon hearing the news) and am planning to use httrack to save as much of the BSN and forums as I can. I just messaged @Tarshana for her settings but didn't see this last post, so thank you @CreeperLava, I'm going to make use of those settings as soon as possible.

 

@Tarshana I'm totally willing to volunteer my help for the individual mod saving and/or to contact the mod authors. I care really strongly about preserving the old mods. is there anything I can do from here, other than backups?

[Tarshana]

Oh ha. Just realized this was here, too :) I just got your message before heading to the gym.

 

I do know that some of the BSN Project Groups have projects I can't see- I'm not part of any group/community there. If you are, snag a copy of those projects. Some of the contest content might be lost otherwise. I've just sent out a bunch of emails to people I know were part of those communities so hopefully we'll be able to hang onto those. Otherwise right now it's just a waiting game while we all download our chunks and see where the new home will be :)

I do know I'll be needing some testers who have Windows 10 and Toolset to make sure some code my husband wrote will allow Win 10 users to keep modding; but that's still another month away.

 

Okay now off to the gym before I go stir crazy :ohmy:

[Ninivekha]

A heads up: I was able to use HTtrack and a lot of configuration to save the entire Legacy website. It took some reading and trial and error but I figured it out. I configured it to download in English but I can translate several languages- There are Polish pages there so that won't be a problem. I can also translate Finnish, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, Irish and Spanish. I'm still learning Portuguese but I think that can be managed and one of my close friends is Chinese and can xlate into Mandarin and Simplified.

I can help with Portuguese, if needed.

 

Thank you all for trying to save the old BSN. :thumbsup:

[Tarshana]

Legal cara! I'll contact you in a few weeks when we have a mirror site set up so you can help with the translations when you have time. Muito abrigado/a :D

[Thandal]

Gentle Reminder: Let's respect mod authors' rights and their stated permissions (or lack thereof) people. Ok?

[Tarshana]

Absolutely :) Nothing will be posted until after the 26th and likely not on Nexus unless we're given an okay by the Admin who's been working with us :) Right now it's about preservation. Out of the mod authors I've contacted only 2 have failed to respond; CreeperLava is still waiting on one.

[Shadesofnight]

I'm going to quote some things just to provide reposts of the information.

 

Which part of the forums were you on? I've been downloading in chunks, so far I have http://www.mediafire.com/download/988ortjt3hcb37k/Bioware+Forums+-+Bioware.zip (bioware forum/bioware/BSN help, Mech, Legacy, Archived and Social groups) .

Edit: Yeah some of those projects are group read only. I'm hoping my request for opening messaging on the BSN legacy will be approved so I can go in there for projects. There are community contest content I can't see at all :sad:

 

I think mine mostly captured bits of Andromeda before failing. Ohh, it's good to know that you grabbed those bits! I was wondering if segmenting the downloads might work better so we could possibly pick different sections to work on.

In terms of the projects that are group read only I think we really need to get word out to those groups so they can allow us access or get one of their own members to backup the content for us. Same goes for the Social group content on the forums, we can't backup anything we can't access, so any groups that want stuff backed up need to allow us to access it or create their own backup of it.

 

Ok, if you want to help download forums.bioware.com with HTTrack, make sure you have a good bandwidth. There's no use in downloading the same thing multiple times if your download speed is slower than mine. My HTTrack is downloading at about 120 KB/s, Tarshana's 240 KB/s. Instructions to avoid the "too many links" error :
In Mirror > Modify Options
- Scan Rules : uncheck gif, jpg, jpeg...
- Limits : Max external depth :0
Site size limit : something really big like 9999999999999999. We don't want the download to stop randomly because it thinks the site is too big^^.
Same for max transfer rate and max number of links, just put many 9s.
- Flow Control : Number of connections : 10

Torrents : Follow this guide I made : http://i.imgur.com/2kmDlZJ.png
https://download.transmissionbt.com/files
Then open transmission > File > New.
In the window that opens, select a source folder ; add these trackers :
udp://tracker.coppersurfer.tk:6969
udp://open.demonii.com:1337
udp://tracker.leechers-paradise.org:6969
udp://tracker.openbittorrent.com:80
And click OK. Once it's done, click Open and send us the .torrent.

I can't really know which part HTTrack is downloading, the way it works isn't really linear. I set it to download everything in forums.bioware.com, but I don't think there's any particular order.

Oh and thank you CreeperLava for sharing your settings! <3 Mine was going at about 20 to 40KB most of the time I think :tongue: I'm guessing it's because my connection is used by multiple people, but does HTTrack have a set speed or anything that can be changed?

[Tarshana]

If you look under Mirror- Options there is a bandwith speed you can adjust :)

 

I just want to reiterate that while I am backing up the BSN Project Database to be preserved THEY WILL NOT BE HOSTED PUBLICLY WITHOUT PERMISSION. Until we can find the mod authors they will have to sit as a back up. If a mod author comes back and states we can host it, great. Or maybe they do not have a backup but I can give them a link.

 

THIS PROJECT IS FOR PRESERVATION ONLY. IT IS NOT MEANT AS A WAY TO STEAL OR HOST MODS!

 

I hope my capitol letters are okay. (loud noises!)

[Thandal]

In this case, CAPITAL LETTERS are fine. :cool:

[Tarshana]

:wub: I'll keep the English whoopsie for future giggles. Maybe my letters are British!?