We’re happy to announce that data recovery is complete and we’re ready to move forward. Iwara.tv will be returning to service as soon as possible, but first – we need a break for the weekend.
What we recovered:
- Critical data: User data, video data and Wura balances
- Followers, playlists, comments, friends, and most everything else
- Likes data is recovered from 2023 forward. Older likes are not lost and will be recovered later.
What won’t be recovered:
- Image files and video thumbnails
Thumbnails will be regenerated later once we create the script needed to regenerate thumbs for previous uploads
Image post files are not expected to be recovered, but we may be able to get some of them back. Results will vary.
Next steps:
- Setting up our test site with the recovered data to check everything
- Making development changes to prevent this from happening again
- Moving the primary website to our new hosting services
Later:
- New premium voucher codes for people who were affected by the downtime while having premium active. Exact details will be announced later.
- Additional changes will be announced when finalized.
Please continue to be patient with us. We believe data recovery had to take priority over bringing the website back online right away as a fresh start. That would have caused too much distress among our users, and created new issues if we tried to import critical user data back into the database later.
Recovery path
The only correct option is to recover as much data as possible.
Ideally, we’ll be granted access to our backups. In case this does not happen, we’re thinking about approaches that could find ways to incorporate older data back into the website. The goal is to save as much of our legacy as we can.
These are still concepts we’re reviewing, and none of them are confirmed viable yet. There are challenges to work through that must be considered before any decisions can be made.
I’ll share more concrete details as soon as we have clarity on what’s actually possible with our older data backups. Starting fresh again is the last thing we want to do.
Current Goals
All hands are on deck, and our team is each working on different tasks:
Data recovery. This is the most important task we are doing. Without essential data, a great deal is lost, and nobody wants to lose out here. We are currently using unconventional methods in case our current hosting is unwilling to provide our data in full. Using these methods, we won’t be able to recover everything but instead will focus on the most critical data: user accounts and video information. While we can’t guarantee anything here, we are doing our best to make sure we can get as much as possible.
Development. Second most important task. If we were to re-launch the website without being prepared, this is only going to happen again. We’ll announce the changes later in a separate community update.
Hosting solutions. We are not only reaching out to potential services but are also listening to offers coming in from other providers. This is a tricky situation due to our circumstances, so we need a service that will listen to what our requirements are, and respect that we will have complaints coming in. We must find out how they handle these kinds of reports and what chances, if any, we are given to make corrects before they turn off access to our website. Every provider is different, and some will tolerate more than others. This process cannot be rushed.
Agreements must be made on both content moderation as well as requirements and pricing for our infrastructure servers. Only then can new web servers be deployed.
Rules and Content updates. Some of this depends on what our final hosting provider tolerates, but we have already drafted up a list of changes that will come starting with the relaunching of the website. These changes will not be announced until they are finalized.
This is a tough moment, but we’ve overcome many challenges before, and we’re not going to give up easily. More updates will come as soon as there is progress. We don’t expect to be able to bring the website back within the next few weeks, but it isn’t impossible.
In the meantime, feel free to check out our ongoing broadcast posts as a bit of entertainment while we continue doing things in the background. Thankfully we just recently had a writer join our team as a volunteer which is why this is possible now. We wanted to wait another few months before introducing the twins, but here we are.
Thank you for being part of this community. We’ll find a way forward.
