Old GZ Forum – Data Update
As many of you are aware, over the past 9 weeks I have been trying to retrieve some of the old Galaxy Zoo Forum data that was lost at the beginning of June. A massive outage at ThePlanet.com TX, USA, where the Forum was previoulsy hosted, caused damage to the web server HDD and has resulted in us trying to restore the missing forum backup content using Data Recovery Services in California. Unforunately the chances of restoring this data would now appear to be remote.
I have been in constant contact with ThePlanet.com and their most recent report stated that “despite strenuous efforts to recover the data from the damaged HDD, so far very little has been salvaged. They are continuing to extract what they can, but realistically there is very little chance of finding anything usable.”
It is pretty disappointing news, especially since the data loss was outside our control, but hopefully it has resulted in only minimal inconvenience for our amazing army of forum zooites!. I will keep you updated via the Galaxy Zoo Blog as soon as more information is available. Thankfully, Edd managed to get the Galaxy Zoo Forum back running again a few weeks ago and it seems to be continuing to to grow ever bigger.
Philip Murray
Galaxy Zoo Team & Fingerprint Digital Media
Galaxy Zoo 
To what extent do you feel we are safe from another (or similar) such massive failure?
Does this mean that most of the posts ( including images and discussions on them ) in the more important sticky threads are irrecoverable ? If so, that would be a real pity ! Can we find some other ways to replace these important data ? For example, each of us repost them from our own records ?
Thanks very much for all your efforts, Phil. I really appreciate how hard you’ve been working. Anyway, we recovered almost everything – it is a shame about those few days lost, but they weren’t very many. Nothing can stop our beloved Zoo – we’re made of sterner stuff than that! 😀
Thank you, Phil for all of your efforts to restore the forum. This is only my opinion, but I haven’t noticed anything critical missing in the forum. I think we have everything we need. And besides, our greatest database is inside our heads. 😉 Thanks, again. 😀
I’m using intensively the forum after resurrection and I think that, more or less, all the major threads are in perfect conditions. I don’t believe we lost very much.
It looks like the USS Enterprise spaceship!
Very cool web site. I am enjoying classifying galaxies and look forward to an “upgraded” Zoo information page were futher observations can be posted.