Forum Posts prior to 2008

Seeking help to find 'Old Forum posts' , tried advanced search on this forum but it appears to only go back as far as 2008. I am looking for posts earlier, say 2006 or even earlier ! I am hoping they are archived somewhere ? Any thoughts ? Thank-you in advance ... DLR

The "great forum crash" occurred sometime around then, so those posts are lost.

Aye, the servers crashed and the backups were unreadable. Whatever wasn't cached by Google, et al, is lost.

Well, the great server crash occurred before I started using the forums, and I know that there is some number of threads that I've started, or contributed to, where the threads seem to have vanished into the Trainz bit bucket more recently.

Just checking, I see that the forums have been saved to the Wayback Machine of the internet archve 169 times since 2006. Unfortunately, none of these include the material before the big forum crash, either.

ns

These were great forums. So much is definitely lost there. There is so much history lost, so much by so many great people... When the forums crashed back in 2006, it was like the steam went out of the community. It took a very long time for people to return, but the feeling hasn't been the same. It's hard to describe the difference.

@mjolnir,

Many threads disappear, or so it seems. The best way to find them is to search outside of the forums using Bing or Google. We also had a crash again a bit more than a year ago last September, which caused a lot more lost data.

John

John

I think the difference is that, then, we were exploring something new, and because it was introduced as a model railway simulator it attracted older people who were tolerant of the problems. The advent of Gmax, one of the wisest moves that Auran made, also boosted the feeling that this was a hobby, not a game. Nowadays Trainz users expect perfection without accepting delays.


I don't like what the forum has become but I have no hope it will change.

Peter

Use Google or another search tool, adding site:forums.auran.com to restrict the search to the forum.

Peter

@ Peter-dehnert - handy tip, but sadly won't help find the 'lost' forums.

@ the other Peter and John - I hear you my old friends. So many other old friends gone.....

narrowgauge said:

John

I think the difference is that, then, we were exploring something new, and because it was introduced as a model railway simulator it attracted older people who were tolerant of the problems. The advent of Gmax, one of the wisest moves that Auran made, also boosted the feeling that this was a hobby, not a game. Nowadays Trainz users expect perfection without accepting delays.


I don't like what the forum has become but I have no hope it will change.

Peter

Click to expand...

This place can be annoying, most definitely, but so was that one towards the end. It was full of fighting over 2004 vs 2006 vs Kuju vs MSTS and what not. Sometimes I wonder if that "crash" was what it was said to be. Some great people have gone yes, but they have been replaces by new great people, just as old asshats have been replaced by new asshats.

I do think the internet in general has become a less civil place since then, perhaps I am just getting older and crankier.
This place could

Thank you fellow trainzers , it is what I thought , too bad they were not saved . But it is what it is !
Just my thoughts --- DLR

boc61 said:

This place can be annoying, most definitely, but so was that one towards the end. It was full of fighting over 2004 vs 2006 vs Kuju vs MSTS and what not. Sometimes I wonder if that "crash" was what it was said to be. Some great people have gone yes, but they have been replaces by new great people, just as old asshats have been replaced by new asshats.

I do think the internet in general has become a less civil place since then, perhaps I am just getting older and crankier.
This place could

Click to expand...

I remember that too, Boc61. There were some really nasty things happening then in the off-topic forums. I wondered about that too. A way to kill the forums and start over, but then again this was also about the time the transition took place to N3V from Auran so it makes me wonder if it was also a business move.

narrowgauge said:

John

I think the difference is that, then, we were exploring something new, and because it was introduced as a model railway simulator it attracted older people who were tolerant of the problems. The advent of Gmax, one of the wisest moves that Auran made, also boosted the feeling that this was a hobby, not a game. Nowadays Trainz users expect perfection without accepting delays.


I don't like what the forum has become but I have no hope it will change.

Peter

Click to expand...

I agree, Peter. The fun has been removed because of the perfectionism expected. This is the way with a lot of games, even with simple games people expect infinite details and perfection because they seem to lack imagination and the want instant gratification with everything. As we know the world doesn't move that way.

To me this is still a model railroad simulator more than a prototype simulator, or perhaps a combination of the two and this program has given me a chance to build a model railroad someone could only build in their dreams.

John

The Old forum, where I met great friends long gone.... where I had 13,000 posts, number 3 on the list ... massing waffling, war pf words. and friendly conversations.... where trainz on the road was the thing to do... where I lost myself, and never came back from the crash!

I also believe it was a business decision to scratch off the old forum due to the transition from Auran to N3V, but that's my x-file speculation! However, the old forum has, which I feel this new forum will never have, the building blocks of trainz... it's roots --- Hardcore prototypical guys roam the halls of that old forum! Information galore.... a treasure chest of trainz contents, drawings... simply raw trainz stuff -- It was a time when we had our incredible heart-pounding wars, but we also had great communication, and conversation, and discussions -- the old forum didn't has as many members as this new forum, but it had old-folk eager to built their dream layouts! Many of that era has passed-on, and/or simply left trainz forever! it is not the same today, as that of yesteryears, and perhaps I am cynical as I see the new forum today -- But these are the cards we are dealt with! --- I guess I keep myself on a rocking chair, drinking coffee, and thinking about the good old forum days!

Ish

Ish , Your post prompted one more by me. Very well said ! And, can anyone inform me of Ed(Euphod)'s status/whereabouts ?? Thanks in advance ---- DLR