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What happened to the file manager?

Chuck(G)

25k Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
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Location
Pacific Northwest, USA
The old VCFED forum software included a file manager for each user, so that one could point to files previously uploaded, or even remove old files no longer needed.
What happened to it? Where can I find the files that I've uploaded to the forum over the years?

Forgive me for being dense, but I can't find my old uploaded files any more. :(
 
+1 on this question. I’ve looked at the urls for some of the files I have linked to old posts and they leave me with this suspicion that the “ownership” of those files have been nullified and all the old data is just sitting in a big shared “incoming” directory forever, but I’d love to be wrong about that.
 
Try this:
Go into "Search" > "Everything" > enter your user name exactly as it appears under your avatar.
 
Tried searching for a couple of tiles "Everywhere" and nothing but mentions of the files.

So I guess the stuff I uploaded over the years has been bit-bucket fodder? Is any of the old vcfed content fully archived where I might find the stuff?

Is this how information gets preserved on the web? Really?
 
Is this how information gets preserved on the web? Really?

Pretty much, unfortunately. I guess this forum software doesn't have a concept of "private" file stores so the migration fix was to just process everything as if it was an one-time image embedding because that was the closest fit available?

Didn't the old forum also have a "blog" function that this one doesn't have? I never used it, but I remember occasionally seeing updates from other users. What happened to that stuff?
 
It would be a favor to many if the file section from the old vcf could be preserved. Given what's happened to the old one, I'm not inclined to upload anything here if it will simply vanish.
 
Chuck, I don't know if the login for an old stored copy of the forums would work, but did you try using The Wayback Machine to get at your old stuff? I know the old forums for 2021 and earlier are there.
 
Didn't the old forum also have a "blog" function that this one doesn't have? I never used it, but I remember occasionally seeing updates from other users. What happened to that stuff?
It did. I still use our replacement for a dedicated Blog section because I'm too stupid to figure out how to host a site myself. IT seems all of that transferred over fine.
 
Chuck,

It's tedious but it works. I was able to pull up my first thread from September 23, 2008, the same day I joined the forum.

1. Open: "Search"
2. Upper right: "Everywhere"
3. By Member: "your handle"
4. "Search: "Enter"
5. Bottom left hit the last box and "Enter"
6. Keep repeating the process
 
All I want to see is the files that I've uploaded in the old "Files" section. Going through nearly 40K posts one by one will probably take me well into next year...and still not get me to the "files" section that I want.
 
Chuck, I don't know if the login for an old stored copy of the forums would work, but did you try using The Wayback Machine to get at your old stuff? I know the old forums for 2021 and earlier are there.
Tried that--it doesn't permit logins. Even tried the old vintage-computer.com site from 2009. No soap. It's not clear if archive.org even saved the files linked to. However, I can still find some of my blog, complete with attached files back in 2013.
 
It did. I still use our replacement for a dedicated Blog section because I'm too stupid to figure out how to host a site myself. IT seems all of that transferred over fine.

I was really confused for a minute because I was, like, where the heck is the "blog" button, but... it looks like all the existing blogs were just converted into sub-forums? I guess that precludes anyone else from starting one...
 
All I want to see is the files that I've uploaded in the old "Files" section. Going through nearly 40K posts one by one will probably take me well into next year...and still not get me to the "files" section that I want.
Yeah, I thought that would be a major problem for you. I haven't tried it, but I'm quite certain you can boogie the search mechanism to get what you want. On another site, which uses this platform, only in a different format, I can do that. Good Luck.
 
Okay, I see it as an attachment, but I have a couple of questions:

1. How do I see my entire list of files uploaded--and how do I manage them?
2. From the attachment URL, it's not clear that the file has me as the uploader. If someone uploads an attachment by the same name, will it override the currently displayed version?

If the answer to (1) is "you can't any more" or the answer to (2) is "uploaded files are no longer tied to a specific user", I'll just link to offsite storage where I can manage my files.
 
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Okay, I see it as an attachment, but I have a couple of questions:

1. How do I see my entire list of files uploaded--and how do I manage them?
2. From the attachment URL, it's not clear that the file has me as the uploader. If someone uploads an attachment by the same name, will it override the currently displayed version?

If the answer to (1) is "you can't any more" or the answer to (2) is "uploaded files are no longer tied to a specific user", I'll just link to offsite storage where I can manage my files.
Judging from the URL I'd say the answer to 2 at least is no. The file has a unique numeric identifier appended to it, most likely correlated to the post ID.
 
Okay, I see it as an attachment, but I have a couple of questions:

1. How do I see my entire list of files uploaded--and how do I manage them?
2. From the attachment URL, it's not clear that the file has me as the uploader. If someone uploads an attachment by the same name, will it override the currently displayed version?
Judging from the URL I'd say the answer to 2 at least is no. The file has a unique numeric identifier appended to it, most likely correlated to the post ID.

According to the Xenforo admin manual, the "attached files" do have an owner connected to them, and I agree with max that they have unique ID's and won't get clobbered with new uploads.

https://xenforo.com/docs/xf2/content/ (Scoll down to "Attachments")

There is an "attachment manager," (which looks like it's only available to Admins) that allows filtering by user, showing all attachments at once, etc. So, maybe an admin more versed in the Xenforo system can either show us how to use/turn on access to a user version of the attachment manager, or at least generate a list of attachments (html?) for a user who makes a DM request for it.
 
Google hasn't indexed the entire forum and it's unlikely that they ever will so I would recommend using a different search engine. I never thought it would come to this but I've started to use Bing instead. Yeah, you know Google has turned into a pathetic joke when you turn to Microsoft for your web searches, the core functionality that made Google into what it is today.
 
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