Stepping down

[Chief]

As all of you know, we had a huge breach that resulted in the forums losing 2 years worth of data. As your former head administrator, I take the full weight of this breach and want to apologize to the membership for the loss. I have never had any training to be an administrator, the job was handed to me after we lost our admin many years ago. I have stumbled, researched, and through dumb luck kept this forum going for many years. After we grew too large for a shared server, the BOD decided we needed to upgrade to a Virtual Private Server. I picked a well respected managed VPS that originally was backing up their servers on a regular basis. At that time I stupidly stopped doing manual backups of the databases. The database that we are running on now is the last one that I did. Luckily I had that one, otherwise we would be running on a new fresh database with no info.

 

I am not going to rehash why the server was down for so long. I can only say that me and my team were putting in as many hours as we could to get the forums back up. We were met with issues that put us behind when trying to upload the database. When Micah was given access to the server we had finally gotten the database installed and the forums were running. It was ugly, but the info was there.

 

Micah did things that I could never do. I had no idea that our software was out of date. As I had said before, I picked our server because it was managed and not like a dedicated server that I would have to manage myself as it was out of my wheelhouse. He updated everything, made the server secure, and cleaned the database. He then got it all back up and made it look like it was before the crash. He did this at a speed that I could not match. He also is backing up the server at multiple locations and will have a "crash plan" and run drills to make sure that an outage like this will never happen again.

 

Two years ago, I asked the BOD for help as I work a lot of hours. We sent out a distress call for admin help that was answered by Dtech07 and Softy. I want to thank them for all that they have done. I was looking for a replacement. Micah can fill those shoes. I will miss being behind the scenes for you. I just wish that I had the knowledge to keep doing this. I didn't realize how much I didn't know until this crash happened. I was good at maintaining the site, not managing it.

 

I hope you all can forgive me someday for the loss of the data. I was too complacent.

 

Jay

[TheClark]

Thank you Jay for the years of service, so very appreciated.

 

This board rocketed me into reefing. I thought I would start with a nano, in just over a year there are 500 gallons of water in the office.

 

I have met allot of great people and learned so much.

 

It is a shame that this happened but you have done an admirable job moving things forward working with people.

 

I am confident that these problems are behind us now and looking forward to pressing on.

 

Do you still keep a reef tank?

[pledosophy]

Cheif,

 

You held this site and club together for many years. I am not sure we would even be here without you. Thank you for all the work you have done not just in restoring the site but for us over the years, and over the last several weeks in helping us noobs get everything where it should be. The work you have done here is admirable. You did your best, for a long time, and I hope that in retrospect your work here is something you are proud of.

 

I appreciate greatly what you have done for this site, this club, and this community.

 

I have nothing but respect for you.

 

I am sad to see you go, but I know you have been wanting to step back now for several years. You've been the stable rock for this club as long as I have been here. Thank you.

[Chief]

Yes, still have a 240 inwall with an old school closed loop. Maybe now I will have some time to devote to the tank. (whistle) I need to clean the coraline from the front and do a water change. I do 55 gallon water changes. (scary)

 

I'm not going anywhere. I am just glad that we have someone that knows what he is doing behind the scenes.

[matty]

Thank you Jay for all you have done and keeping us going all these years.

[jadams7]

Thanks for all you have done over the years Chief. I know its a thankless job, and takes up tons of time. Now you can sit back, relax and just worry about tank problems like the rest of us!

[Chief]

Thanks Kevin. Been a good run, but all good things must come to an end. I'm here if you need anything, but I think you and your team have things well in hand.

[markvo]

Thank you for all of your work over the years in keeping things going. I have nothing but appreciation for all of your contributions.

[Emerald525]

Jay it has been an honor and pleasure working with you. I have nothing but respect for you. You and I have had many conversations about how you needed help and being a nonprofit finding people with IT experience to help was always a challenge. You stuck it through and were with this place from the beginning and you are responsible for helping to build a great community.

 

No apologies needed Jay as this forum wouldn't be here and lasted as long without all your behind the scenes help.

 

In the end the fact that you even had a backup from 2 years ago kept us from losing so much more.

 

Take care and enjoy the free time you have now and actually enjoy your tank. I hope to see you around.

[rworegon]

I want to add my thanks to you Chief! As another south valley reefer, who got his start through the help of the folks on this board, I justwant you to know that we all appreciate the work you have done over the years. I hope that next time we have a south valley tank tour, that you will join us.

[LC Scott]

Chief, Thank you for all the work and time you have put in to keep all us addicts happy.