deep breaths, now . . .

[lolmac]

LJ migrated my Scrapbook yesterday.

I’ve been holding my breath for almost 7 weeks, waiting for the axe to fall. It’s happened now, and, well, it’s even worse than anything I had imagined.


I had over 1500 images in Scrapbook, all tagged and organized and carefully maintained. Effectively, it’s as if the landlord broke into my office last night, dumped out and removed all the filing cabinets, and ran the contents through a wind tunnel. Also, no more file cabinets will ever be available in this location, although the landlord may eventually allow cardboard boxes, when he has time, if ever.

Not to mention the migration report with the long list of lost items – about a 3% failure rate.

I haven’t had the energy to check the LOLMac posts – the archives and the backlinks. I haven’t had the energy to do anything (including scream at LJ, which would be a waste of time anyway, or research alternate photo hosting sites, which might not be a waste). The loss of almost 5 years of work has triggered one of my (fortunately) rare depressive episodes, and I’m having trouble remembering why I’ve been doing this at all.

A bright spot: no actual images have been lost. The originals are all on my own computer, and they’re more redundantly backed up than anything else I own. I still have the master spreadsheet with every record in it of every LOL: source, details, when it was posted, what it links to. I’m not actually wiped out. I just feel as if I am.

I also know I’m overreacting and that this isn’t really all that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but that knowledge isn’t helping either.

I had used the scheduled post feature to queue up the LOLs for this week, but after today, well, I’m kind of sitting in the middle of the devastation looking stunned and numb. I could really use some help and encouragement, if anyone has the inclination. Just remind me why this was a good idea, and reassure me that it’s worth picking up the pieces and going on. (One note: any version of “I told you so” or “You should have known LJ would f*ck you over” will do me serious damage. Just don’t. Please.)

If you’re feeling truly motivated or fond of pixels: it would really help if someone (or more than one) would page back through the archives, check the backlinks, and generally look to see if the images are still there in the posts. If you feel inclined to leave comments on any of the older stuff, that will definitely provide warm fuzzies (and also prove that they’re there). For that matter, if individual posts have been corrupted but it’s only an occasional item, commenting on the affected posts will both make it much easier for me to fix the damage and also motivate me to fix it.

I’d also be interested in any recommendations for another photo hosting service to use in the future, assuming there is one. (A future, I mean.) I’d prefer a paid one (a hosting service, I mean), to reduce the odds of this happening again. I need the ability to tag, to have galleries based on tagging, to place images in multiple galleries, to view image galleries in thumbnail, and most of all to set images in a specific order and have them stay in that order. I don’t know if the paid version of Photobucket will do this, but I’m not optimistic, since the free version is far short of the mark.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go curl up under a rock and snivel. Gah.

Comments

[thothmes.livejournal.com]

I sent you a message yesterday to let you know how unfair it is that such a nasty thing is happening to such a nice person. And you know what, you are not overreacting. You spent hours maintaining things, and doing it right. At their convenience, in a way that you had no control over, it was largely undone. You deserve to feel angry, shocked, and depressed. There's nothing wrong with your feelings. Where the character rubber meets the road, however, is in how you cope with them, and you have character. You will find a way to turn disaster into triumph, because you have a track record of turning it into either knowledge that helps yourself and others, or a triumphant win.

You do this because you have learned, with hard-fought experience, that life gives us a choice when we are faced with hard times: we can cry, or we can laugh, and laughter is better when it is shared. It spreads, and multiplies. Take a look at your statistics, and see the number of hits, and compare that to the comments. There is a vast quiet mass out there whose day you have improved that you never even hear from. You help them get through their day with a smile on their face, and you, of all people, know what a precious thing that is.

I have no good info as to an alternate hosting solution, but pm not_a_zatarc, because I seem to remember that a while ago she was asking if we out here knew of a good place to host, because she'd reached her limit on the free version of Photobucket. I may have been wrong that it was her, so be sure to mention me as the culprit who sent you in case he she was not the person asking, and my memory was mistaken.

I will promise to start going through Lolmacs starting tonight, but it might help if you did a separate post for people to sign up to do a given block (maybe in 1/2 year or 1/4 year chunks) so that we can all be going through a separate section, and not duplicating someone else's work?

I'm so sorry this happened to you, and I suspect that you may find that you have earned enormous good will out there, and that there will be plenty of people who want to pitch in.

You have given me much joy. Point me at a section, and I'll try to give you some.

-Love,

Thothmes

[http://users.livejournal.com/idlewild_/]

This!

it might help if you did a separate post for people to sign up to do a given block (maybe in 1/2 year or 1/4 year chunks) so that we can all be going through a separate section, and not duplicating someone else's work?

When you're ready, Beth. I'll sign on.

[perkyandproud.livejournal.com]

I'd be willing to sign up!

[studyofrunning.livejournal.com]

but it might help if you did a separate post for people to sign up to do a given block (maybe in 1/2 year or 1/4 year chunks) so that we can all be going through a separate section, and not duplicating someone else's work?

This is what I was thinking.