Plan A was to clone the drive. The hard drive is apparently clicking away and won’t boot so that it out of the question. My April backup is good but my May backup was fucked up. And all this happened while doing my July. So at best I MIGHT be able to restore from April 20th, 2021. Maybe.
So on to Plan B…I was able to secure a “new to us server” today. She is pre-owned, but much newer than our old one. Old one was a 4 core/4 thread 2.6GHz, 4GB RAM and a SATA drive. New one is 4 core/8 thread 3.5GHz, 16GB RAM, and it’s an SSD. It is also $30/mo cheaper. So server is up and running. I did a test restore of http://www.fundp4tm.com from a backup and it seems to be working so the basic IP propagation and shit should be working. Feel free to give that site a real world test. I am going to need it if I can pull off step two below. =P
I appear to also have restored the P4TM account as well, I think. It is broke as fuck but I swear (I think, lol) everything is there as it was on 4/20. Database appears in tack at that point. But to be honest that all was the easy part. Now I have to find a person trustworthy and discreet enough for me to allow root level site and server access and is a server / vBulletin expert willing to get us running in exchange for legal tender. I will be honest, as much progress as this all is, it still might not work if we can’t find the right guy/gal that can do this….or if it can be done at all.
Plan C hurts bad. That would be, if enough wanted to, starting a new, updated and much simpler/condensed vBulletin. I think I should be able to at least import the “USER” table so it would be like a new forum but all your accounts would be there, I think. It sounds like it would work. lol I know. Proper fucked, but P4TMv2 would live.
Plan D would be to call it. After nearly 16 years it would be weird. =/
I know it’s a pain to create an account here but go ahead and chime in with a comment. Your comments will require approval before showing up but right now I am here checking often and will approve them. I want to know what y’all think on it all. If you have the means, hit fundp4tm please. I promise if don’t end up spending it on the site I will give it to charity or something. 😉 -Chef
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P4TM.org 
Hi all. I have to admit that I check p4tm daily so I’m hoping that plan d can be avoided. After all of this time, it would be weird to not have the site. I know the site has changed over the years and no longer focuses on passes but it’s so my virtual home away from home and I hope it can stay alive in some form.
I mean, if you can pull off Plan B, awesome, if not, I’m down with Plan C. Yes that would suck losing all of our history and everything, but losing this place entirely would be much worse. Jut my opinion. Thanks for trying Chef.
Regardless of your decision, I’ve always loved this website, its many contributors, and the many active and unique personalities I can remember through all the years it’s been up. If it’s back up again, you can count on me hitting the generals every single day to see what kind of dope ass gifs are posted in the gif thread, what kind of funny shit ends up in the jpeg thread, what’s bein talked about in breaking news, hit the movies/tv thread, and I’ll continue avoiding the politics thread like the plague.
Peek the celebs updates to see what’s goin on there, hit the season shows to see if there’s anything on TV I’ve been missing out on. Rinse and repeat for like 15+ years now. Passes has sat in the upper-leftmost corner of my bookmark bar on chrome since I swapped to it in like 2008, and it’s been on the daily rotation since I joined in 2005.
If you ultimately decide to end it here, that shit will be weird AF because of how it’s just been party of my daily routine for so long and I still get a huge kick out of the bullshit we fuck around about all the time, but I’d understand it too. We aint gettin any younger, boys. So I’ll just trust your judgement Chef, and won’t feel salty about things either way. And if things are back up again, it’ll go right back into my rotation as it has for a little under half my entire life. And if it goes down, I’ll be sad AF about it but surely I’ll think back on this whole community and the dudes who have been on it, both active and inactive, as a party of my life I really enjoyed
Was wondering and forgot how to get to here. I’m for all options except D. As a few have said, been here for awhile and its a daily thing, besides I wasn’t never good at uploading but the history of this place is deep as the web goes. But if the extreme happens, it will be a void that no other could fill thats for sure, Just wish I was more apart of it. Keep fighting that fight, all else fails, BFH it..
I know I’ve been only recently been contributing but short version is I would hate to see P4TM go away. It has been a part of my daily surfing for a long time. I agree with the others here, if you an bring it back in any form that’d be amazing but if you decide it’s time to hang it up no hard feelings at all even if it would feel strange AF to see it gone. 🙂
Maaaaan…my heart always sinks when there’s an issue with the site. But never fully imagined a world without p4tm. If anything can be done to save the site, I’d like to know I contributed something to help that. I’m expecting a baby in a month so I can’t do much but will hit the fund. Thank you for all that you do Chef.
Thanks brother.
I would surely hate to lose this place. Like many others, it has been a daily visit for me going over 15 years. I would love B, but C is more than fine, too. Thank you, Chef
Wow, such sad news to read. P4TM has been a staple for me for a long time now, it would feel like a death in the family if it were not to come back. I’m in for whatever plan brings it back in some form. I’m assuming due to the content, moving to the cloud is not an option so you won’t have to worry about hardware anymore. Thanks for everything you do to keep this boat afloat all these years, hopefully it keeps going.
Wow, I didn’t think not being able to check new posts on P4TM would weird me out so much. I’ve been hanging around since 2011 I believe. I hope a solution can be found to stay active. If things go south, well, thanks for everything! I wish everyone a happy life and much success.
All your efforts and updates are appreciated. I’m on board with plan B and C if necessary. Hoping for the best.
Better to lose some info/data than the forum itself. It would be VERY weird after 16 years. And sad. Let us know if you need anything.
Holy crap, I can’t imagine what it would be like to have NO P4TM. I was part of the initial invites from the Phun evacuation, check in every day, interject sarcasm here and there. THIS was my source for comics and porn, then less comics and less porn.
Of course I can’t begrudge whatever decision you make, will try to support $$ if I can, would happily migrate together somewhere.
I don’t know where else to go to help identify random half naked chicks on the internets.
Echo what others have stated here, anything but D lol, would be really sad if site went away permanently.
Good luck Chef!
The only thing I would be truly sad is losing all the porn posts for me lol. The last year has been filled with bickering and disagreement, but it’s still a great social community IMO. No love lost if a lot of stuff can’t be restored. But, a bunch of young dudes all wanting free porn back in the day, and look what it turned into. If something can be restored to a certain point, then do it. If not, I don’t want to lose this community. If we keep it going, we can overtake FB (created around the same time) finally maybe. Good luck Chef!
I kicked a lil dough-re-mi your way Chef. Hope it helps.
Yes you did! Thanks. It’s going to be tough to find the right person to do the job but I have always known that anything is fixable if you throw enough money at it.
Man the last couple of days has been WEIRD. I sure hope it can be revived in some capacity but if not I will accept it and move on. After all, what choice would I have? I will try to thrown in a bone or two as well.
Even with just the few folks responding here I think plan D is out the door. That makes me happy so in the end, P4TM will exist in some way.
Donation made Chef
Thanks sir.
I hope Plan B works (it’s saved my ass in the past, but that’s a whole different story) and if necessary, even Plan C. At this point, keeping the community we have left is just as important as salvaging the history of the site.
Just let us know if you find someone to do the work and I’ll gladly chip in to pay for their services.
I agree and glad many think the same. In the end I will do something.
Hardware doesn’t last forever unfortunately.
Curious to know how old that stuff was exactly. I just recently had to retire my Q45 setup (running as a simple file server) that I had upgraded the CPU at least twice on. 🙂 Hope the new setup works out. *fingers crossed*
I messed with VBulletin quite a bit 15ish years ago so I’m sure my info is very dated. Still, from what little I have kept up on, there might be some hope of an upgrade depending on how customized things are. I wouldn’t even consider the newest versions though as they are cost-prohibitive with regard to license fees. I really haven’t looked at it in any detail since high school unfortunately.
Restoration from a backup should be straightforward enough one would think. I think they had cpanel even back when I was messing around.
Please keep us informed as best you are able.
Many thanks!
M
Damn. I’ve been coming to P4TM for a long time, at least a decade I’d say. I wasn’t as active in recent years but would still come regularly to check for anything new. Hopefully this all gets worked out. I know it can’t be easy to just drop it after so long.
I too come to the site daily. I too do not like option D, but it’s your site/life, so if you decide to give it up, so be it.
I kicked some dough your way, hope it helps!
This is the last remaining forum that I’ve been with since the start and is still around. I’d hate to see the site go away. As even now I’ve been looking at the page out of habit. I’ll contribute to any funds that can help save the site or keep it going in a new way.
I wanna make a joke about how Joanna Krupa’s hands or Blake_Osage’s wife could raise us money but it doesn’t seem like the right time or place.
Oh