Guys, for those of you who found your way here, but didn't get an email from us, please see the message from Sledge below. Also, please forward this message to anyone you might remember from the site, or anyone you might think would like to join as we go forward. Thanks.
Hello losties!
Guess what? After being down for years, SWLS has been restored! I had an epiphany and remembered that webarchive.org captures and archives pretty much everything on the internet. I was able to go back to 2011, and see an active archive of the site that functioned! This allowed me to figure out the data I needed to rebuilt the corrupt tables by hand one at a time to reconstruct the forum. I still had all the content tables, but the relational tables were lost, and that's what I needed to construct. I also lost the members table, and was able to restore about 2,000 accounts only using information from other tables.
If you are receiving this, you will need to reset your password to access the site (well, if you want to log in). Just use the forgot password tool, and the email address you receive this message at.
I've backed up the databases now, and upgraded the forum software to the latest version. In doing this, my custom theme no longer works, and there are some other minor bugs, but I'll take care of those. Heck, I might even throw up a Game of Thrones or 24 or other area of discussion if people want to hang out and discuss new shows while they take a trip down memory lane looking over stuff from the good ole days.
I also want to take this opportunity again to thank everyone for a great community and such an awesome time on the site during the run of LOST. I have been very bummed that the site was down, as I really wanted it up for archive purposes and as a reminder and monument to all our good times together. I'm happy to be able to restore it for us all.
Lastly, I again want to let everyone know I'm raising funds for a short sci-fi film project called The Recursion Theorem. I'm asking you to view our Kickstarter page and help spread the word—we really, really need to raise enough funds to secure the location, equipment rental, and incentive rewards. It would mean a lot if you could make a contribution or help spread the word and encourage others to do so…we each and collectively know a LOT of people
If you have any suggestions for promotion, rewards, proposal presentation, or anything else, we are all ears! And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Our small, 6-person production team is working very hard to make this film project come to life—I really believe it can be a truly unique, thoughtful, and beautiful story…and I hope you can help us in this endeavor. Thank you in advance for any way you can help!
You can view my Kickstarter project here (and see Sledge in person!):
http://kck.st/1kbWkBGAlso, just fyi, for those that got an email from the mailing list, I apologize for any duplicates or problems and will remove that mailing list now that the forum is operational again.
Thank you and best regards,
Ben Sledge
The Sledgeweb's Lost ... Stuff Forum Team.
