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Question

Is there a service that will back up an entire forum?

Aug 30, 2011 3:58PM PDT

Long story short; a forum that I frequent seems to be in a phase of neglect/death due to admin from the forums disappearing and the wealth of information in the posts on the forums are something I really want to keep in case they decide to pull the plug on the whole thing in the near future.

I've attempted to back up the forum using programs such as HTTrack and Inspyder but due to living in a remote area my high speed internet is less than fast at the best of times and the size of the forum would take me a few months to download.

Ideally I'd like to find a service that would (probably for a fee) download the entirety of the forum and all the associated images and content in the postings and then send me a hard drive of the entire thing.

Anyone know of such a service?

Discussion is locked

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Answer
Re: backup a forum
Aug 30, 2011 5:01PM PDT

Why not ask the forum manager for a copy for your own personal use?

You'll have to ask him permission to copy the contents anyway. He's having the copyright (= right to copy), you don't have that currently, I assume. Did you check there TOS already?

Kees

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Ps.
Aug 30, 2011 5:13PM PDT

That copyright issue is the reason why no reputable third-party company having both the right software and the speedy Internet connection will do it for you.

Also, having just the data might not be enough. You would need their program also to link everything together.

So IMO your options are:
1. Forget it.
2. Buy that forum. If you're the owner you have full access to everything.
3. Contact them and see what they are willing to do for you.

Kees

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thanks
Sep 6, 2011 2:26AM PDT

Thanks Kees,

the forum has no terms of service or copyright agreement as part of the forum so it would appear that the information in the forum is public domain and I have full rights to back it up.

The owner of the forum wants $4000 for the domain & forum which is outside of my price range for something I consider my hobby.

I have found one online service that will back up a phpbb forum for $5/mo so perhaps I can get them to at least make me a remote copy and then I can host it on my own page.


Out of curiosity Kees, are you from Canada/SW Ontario?
I used to know a Kees Bradley from there.