# i can't access the archive forum (merged)



## rossik

i was looking for gary's Q&A, so i entered archive forum, gary's Q&A, but then, it redirectioned me to archive forum.
im looping!

thanks!


----------



## francisca

*Archive busted?*

When I click on the Archive Forum, I get this page:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/

All the links on that page link back to the same URL.

Tried doing a search, and all results link back to the same URL, despite looking something like this:  

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/193204-gary-gygax-q-part-xiii.html?highlight=Gygax

Did we lose the archive?


----------



## grodog

I agree, the links in Archive don't align properly:  http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv.html is the link for the Part IV EGG Q&A thread, but when you click on that URL it resolves to is the same URL I typed (http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/57832-gary-gygax-q-part-iv.html) but what is displayed in that URL is http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/.  Perhaps some regex redirect rules aren't working properly???

The original URL for it was www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=57832 per google.


----------



## rossik

so, any news about this?
i stil cant acess


----------



## Mark

To be clear, when I click on the link to the archive forum and it takes me to a printable list of all forums (which each link to printable version of those forums) but then the link for the archive forum in that list takes me to a list of the threads in the archive forum.  However, those links take me back to the printable list of all forums.


----------



## grodog

Any news?  Do you need further troubleshooting details??


----------



## Plane Sailing

This seems to be an unexpected side effect of the software which is providing 'search engine friendly' URLs for ENworld... We'll have to look further into the solution for this.


----------



## grodog

Thanks, Plane Sailing!  Do please keep us posted on your progress (several folks are currently using the Gygax Q&A archives for research for some Greyhawk projects).


----------



## grodog

Any updates on this??


----------



## Nikosandros

*Archives*

Is the archive sub-forum working properly? When I try to access it, I just get a poorly formatted page that links back to the main forums.

Also, on Dragonsfoot there is a list of links to the Q&A threads with Gary Gygax but they all end up on the same page that I described above.


----------



## Nikosandros

I'm curious if this issue seems to be solvable (once people have the time to look into it) or it's likely that nothing can be done. It would be a real pity to lose access to all that information... :-(


----------



## Gentlegamer

*Archive sub-forum*

I wanted to read through some archived threads in the Archive sub-forum, specifically the Gary Gygax Q&A threads. When I click on "Archive" I get a non-skinned forum tree instead of going into the Archive sub-forum. At some point I was able to see a list of archived threads, but clicking on any of them takes me back to the unskinned forum tree.

Any help?


----------



## rossik

*cant reach archive*

im trying to read gary's Q&A for a couple of months and still cant reach those topics. i mena, i can reach them, but when i try to open, im sent again to the archive menu.

is tehre any other way to read gary's Q&A?


----------



## Darkness

rossik said:


> im trying to read gary's Q&A for a couple of months and still cant reach those topics. i mena, i can reach them, but when i try to open, im sent again to the archive menu.
> 
> is tehre any other way to read gary's Q&A?



Merged. Your previous thread about this was still on the first page of Meta...


----------



## Nikosandros

Darkness said:


> Merged. Your previous thread about this was still on the first page of Meta...



The merging is all fine and well, but some kind of answer to the inquiries would be also appreciated...


----------



## rossik

Darkness said:


> Merged. Your previous thread about this was still on the first page of Meta...





oops, my bad, i shall be more careful in the future


----------



## Darkness

Nikosandros said:


> The merging is all fine and well, but some kind of answer to the inquiries would be also appreciated...



Well, I can't fix the archives; we'll need an admin.

I'll PM Plane Sailing.







rossik said:


> oops, my bad, i shall be more careful in the future



It's cool.


----------



## Gentlegamer

Regardless of the problem with the Archive forum, could a separate forum be created for the Gary Gygax Q&A threads? Considering how valuable they are for research, I think it would be a good idea.


----------



## grodog

Gentlegamer said:


> Regardless of the problem with the Archive forum, could a separate forum be created for the Gary Gygax Q&A threads? Considering how valuable they are for research, I think it would be a good idea.




I'll second that.


----------



## Plane Sailing

Still no news on this issue I'm afraid


----------



## Knight Otu

Plane Sailing said:


> This seems to be an unexpected side effect of the software which is providing 'search engine friendly' URLs for ENworld... We'll have to look further into the solution for this.




Core of the problem is that the Archive forum has the same name, and thus the same adress, as the internal VBulletin archives, right?

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/

and

http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/

since, as I recall, an index.php file is automatically used in such a case. You probably already tried this, but how much would renaming the Archive forum help?


----------



## Mark

Maybe a new forum called the forum-archive could be created and a test thread or two from the general forum and from the current archive forum could be moved to it?  I guess duplicates of those test threads could first be made and the dupes could be moved.


----------



## Saracenus

It seems that all the Gary Gygax Q&As got put into the *Meta - Forums About Forums > Archive* section where threads go to die. Every link in there seems to be broken. Shouldn't the Q&As be in the General RPG forum archive?


----------



## grodog

Thanks Plane Sailing.  

Do you have any idea on the likelihood of this being fixable at all?---i.e., is it a issue that can't be fixed, or it is one that just requires some time to work on and therefore isn't on the table to fix at the moment, etc.?

I ask because if the archive isn't likely to be fixable at all or sooner vs. later, would it be feasible to host the Q&A content on Canonfire!, for example, from files saved off of the site already??


----------



## Darkness

Mark said:


> Maybe a new forum called the forum-archive could be created and a test thread or two from the general forum and from the current archive forum could be moved to it?  I guess duplicates of those test threads could first be made and the dupes could be moved.



Hm, we could mass-move the threads (maybe one at a time, for extra safety), but that particular function has no copy option AFAIK. (I can't use the normal move function because I can't open the threads or the forum they're in.)
Now, it _should_ be safe; we haven't lost a thread to a failed move since many years and software upgrades ago.


----------



## grodog

So, Darkness:  are you saying that moving the Q&A threads manually (singly or in bulk) is feasible/possible to do??  Are you also hinting that such a move could be risky in some way (because copy won't work)??


----------



## Plane Sailing

Knight Otu said:


> Core of the problem is that the Archive forum has the same name, and thus the same adress, as the internal VBulletin archives, right?
> 
> http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/
> 
> and
> 
> http://www.enworld.org/forum/archive/index.php/
> 
> since, as I recall, an index.php file is automatically used in such a case. You probably already tried this, but how much would renaming the Archive forum help?




As it turns out, renaming the Archive forum solves the problem!

I've renamed it to "archive-threads" and I can now access everything properly.

Cheers


----------



## grodog

Awesome, thanks Plane Sailing!


----------



## rossik

thank you very much!


----------



## Nikosandros

Many thanks for taking care of this!


----------



## Plane Sailing

Hey, just throw xp!

(kidding!)

Merry Christmas


----------



## Nikosandros

Plane Sailing said:


> Hey, just throw xp!
> 
> (kidding!)
> 
> Merry Christmas



Done! (I often forget about the XP here...)

And merry Christmas!


----------

