klatremus on 8/3/2020 at 04:47
I finally got a more solid response from Square Enix. Sadly, it is as I feared. :(
"Greetings,
We thank you for contacting us today. Unfortunately, those forums are no longer available and cannot be accessed. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Thank you,
Paz
SQUARE ENIX Customer Support"
:tsktsk:
Honestly, I think they formatted the server by accident, or something to that nature. Regardless, years of thief discussions by loyal and devoted fans, all gone...
klatremus on 12/3/2020 at 03:25
This is awesome!! Thank you so much, Darkness_Falls! I managed to find 8 more of the lost pages from your first link. I have searched for forums.eidosgames.com on Wayback Machine several times before, and I have found the threads, but none of the posts have ever been available. Well, now things were different!
The following pages are now missing:
Part 3 - Page 3
Part 5 - Pages 7 and 8
Part 6 - Pages 2, 4 and 7
Part 7 - Pages 3, 6, 8, 10 and 11
Edit: I only did a quick search, so if anyone wants to have a deeper dig, please do. Some of the missing pages might be in there somewhere.
klatremus on 13/3/2020 at 05:47
Hey, i didnt see your post when i did my last one, Darkness_Falls. Let me explain the system. The ghost reports over time has been divided up into threads called 'FMs - Ghost/Perfect Thief Results (Part X)', where X=1 to 8. The Eidos archive linked to (
https://web.archive.org/web/20150526093317/http://forums.eidosgames.com/forumdisplay.php?f=95) HERE contained parts 3-7 of this series. These are the threads that got lost when Square Enix removed their forum website. Each part has anywhere from 4 to 12 pages, depending on how big the moderator at the time wanted the thread to be before stopping it and creating the next part.
The link you call * "Part 7: Part 3" is actually Part 3: Page 1. See the thread title for what part it is in parenthesis, and then for the page you can see in the top right corner, above the thread tools and display modes that number 1 is bolded, out of a total of 4 pages for that part.
The one you call "Part 7: Part 6" is Part 6: Page 1, although its incomplete, and includes a few posts from a later page in the same part. Part 6 overall seems heavily butchered on Wayback Machine.
However, thank you for attempting, and please do continue!
Edit: Its important because it was the only place hundreds of ghost reports were saved for many fan missions from eager ghosters (such as myself) between 2002 and 2012. We have (or had) a complete list of those reports in the current part 8 (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146197&p=2307625&viewfull=1#post2307625) HERE. All the reports in red in that list are those that have been lost, but that I'm trying to salvage as best i can.
klatremus on 15/3/2020 at 22:39
Very good news!!! I decided to get to know Wayback Machine a bit more and learned how to nagivate the URLs better. I managed to search for specific pages within threads and found loads more of the missing pages. Some are still incomplete and there are 1 or 2 pages that are still tough to find, but we might just get this one back to a complete status soon. YAY!!
As you probably can tell, this project is becoming my 4th child...:p
Darkness_Falls on 16/3/2020 at 00:01
Good job, Klatremus! And thanks for explaining the issue and significance :) I understand better now.
Since you've done so well in this endeavor, is there anything maybe from the
Ion Storm Austin forums you wish to bring back? Ha! Could be a 5th child for you, though? ;)
Granted, I just did a couple searches (i.e., "http://forums.ionstorm.com/")and the Wayback Machine isn't finding any forum pages except the main page so far. I wonder what secrets lie within...
(
https://web.archive.org/web/20041119015310/http://forums.ionstorm.com/)