Terrible experience with Kansas City Host aka The Forum Heroes

[MQK8]

Probably to sell backup services that are never good.

I have nothing to do with them but I’ve been using CodeGuard. For a rookie like me who breaks his website on a regular basis it’s been a lifesaver for me. Just have to be sure you put the correct path info that you want backed up. I think they are owned by Sectigo.

 

[MapleOne]

Just to chime in on this old topic

Use Xenforo cloud, it's super fast, super reliable and if I make a change that breaks anything I can restore that change.

Quite honestly, there is no longer a need to look for a host when the company that makes the software now hosts it in an ideal environment.

 

[MadFlava]

Just to chime in on this old topic

Use Xenforo cloud, it's super fast, super reliable and if I make a change that breaks anything I can restore that change.

Quite honestly, there is no longer a need to look for a host when the company that makes the software now hosts it in an ideal environment.

Good suggestion! I wish that had been an option before Mike but you live and learn.

 

[Cooking Ketogenic]

We lost 20 years of attachments, avatars, etc,

This thread popped up in new posts, so decided to give it a read. Did you host with this guy for 20 years? The entire time locked out as you give your reason for never having your own backups? I noticed in this thread you like to brag on being a well polished "SysAdmin", yet you never kept your own backups over the years in an external drive you can store in your desk draw? I ran my site for six years, three years using xenForo and I have a back up zip file of every month of those 6 years saved in flash drives. If you never did this, unless you were locked out for 20 years, you can't put full blame for 20 years loss on this guy, you are guilty of the back up negligence as well. You should had some sort of back up, even if 5 years ago to restore from saved at home. I know to do this as a kindergarten teacher.

The site is still in a pretty broken state as we move hosters but Im hoping most of it can be patched back together. I happened to have a partial file backup I made several months ago when my FTP credentials were working. I know I dont have it all but I do have some of it.

Why didn't you make a database backup then? There are addons in Resource Manager that allow you to make database backups without having to use PHP My Admin.

We also completely lost a smaller board that we had for about 10 years.

Same again, in 10 years you never made and saved a backup yourself? I can start to see now why your site partner put his trust in the host over you to handle site side things. Maybe this guy was told to lock you out by your partner whom you said was the one paying for the service as he didn't feel you were a very confident SysAdmin? I'm confused if host was so bad, why you hosted with them for so long and if no issues until near the end, why you didn't keep any of the backups while things were good with the host.

 

[Sheldon]

LooooooooL

 

[MadFlava]

This thread popped up in new posts, so decided to give it a read. Did you host with this guy for 20 years? The entire time locked out as you give your reason for never having your own backups? I noticed in this thread you like to brag on being a well polished "SysAdmin", yet you never kept your own backups over the years in an external drive you can store in your desk draw? I ran my site for six years, three years using xenForo and I have a back up zip file of every month of those 6 years saved in flash drives. If you never did this, unless you were locked out for 20 years, you can't put full blame for 20 years loss on this guy, you are guilty of the back up negligence as well. You should had some sort of back up, even if 5 years ago to restore from saved at home. I know to do this as a kindergarten teacher.

Why didn't you make a database backup then? There are addons in Resource Manager that allow you to make database backups without having to use PHP My Admin.


Same again, in 10 years you never made and saved a backup yourself? I can start to see now why your site partner put his trust in the host over you to handle site side things. Maybe this guy was told to lock you out by your partner whom you said was the one paying for the service as he didn't feel you were a very confident SysAdmin? I'm confused if host was so bad, why you hosted with them for so long and if no issues until near the end, why you didn't keep any of the backups while things were good with the host.

Im not even going to bother going through this. Its like trying to explain geopolitical politics to a 5 year old and Im in NO WAY insulting you like you did me. This story has so many twists and turns that I can see why you would think what you think and its just a lot. The stuff Ive posted here is like maybe 1/10th of Mike's shenanigans. I think anyone else here who has dealt with Mike has a ton of stories that haven't been posted yet.

We bought the board from someone else. It was VB when we bought it. Before that, I was running about 20 board for another guy. We ran it for a while self hosting and then XF came around and Mike came into the picture shortly after so we had been in business with Mike for probably 7 or 8 years before we finally were able to get out.

Things didnt start off bad with Mike but the last 3 or 4 years, I was frozen out completely and Mike did the XF1 to XF2 upgrade in that time so any backups I had were 1 - Old and 2 - For the old platform. I asked questions that were relayed to Mike, sometimes I would get answers, sometimes I wouldnt. But he assured us that backups were running and we were fine. Mike was constantly changing things, telling my partner who would tell me at some point way down the road and the stuff he was doing made no sense like changing DNS every weekend because he kept moving between hosters.

I see you mentioned that partial backup I was able to get. My transfer mysteriously disconnected in the middle of that and my credentials stopped working. Weird, huh? So yea, I wasnt able to get a full backup of anything. Pretty sure this was the last tiem I ever had working credentials until the very end.

So yea, I probably shouldnt have trusted someone else with my data but I felt like things were in order and by the time I figured out they werent, I was pretty much on the outside looking in. I'm going to end this post like I started it. If youve never dealt with anyone like Mike in a situation like this, you dont klnow what its like. So you can insult me all you want. The only thing Im guilty of is thinking someone we were paying for a service was actually doing it.

 

[Sheldon]

You don't have to explain as if you are telling the person above about Mike.

Usually the simplest explanation about why someone came into a thread being so defensive is the answer.

 

[MadFlava]

You don't have to explain as if you are telling the person above about Mike.

Usually the simplest explanation about why someone came into a thread being so defensive is the answer.

I didnt want to say that so thank you.

 

[tajhay]

Waiting for @Amaury to come back into the thread and say how great mike's hosting is even though his site has been down to a server issue for a few months/years...

There were many threads/posts on mike's shenanigans but just like fahad ashraf there were a bunch of new joinee cheerleaders who drowned out legitimate concerns and reviews of users.

It would be nice if people selling their services are first vetted by the xf team but can't see it happening. They won't be the last.

 

[MadFlava]

Waiting for @Amaury to come back into the thread and say how great mike's hosting is even though his site has been down to a server issue for a few months/years...

There were many threads/posts on mike's shenanigans but just like fahad ashraf there were a bunch of new joinee cheerleaders who drowned out legitimate concerns and reviews of users.

It would be nice if people selling their services are first vetted by the xf team but can't see it happening. They won't be the last.

That would really be great for the community overall.

If you're dealing with Mike, get out now. You'll thank me later or maybe you wont and then one day you'll be looking at a total loss of 2 sites and a partial loss of one other site.

 

[MapleOne]

Guys, the answer is so simple, if you have a host that uses cPanel or something similar you have the option at any time to download...

1. A file Directory
2. A full site backup
3. An SQL backup

Before I used Xenforo cloud I made it a point to open my cPanel daily and download a full site backup.

When I switched hosts I simply uploaded the backup via cPanel and waited for the propagation of the url and bingo I was up and running.

Anyone working without backups cannot lay blame, in todays times it is super easy to be in control of your own data and complicity is no excuse.

Use the tools, you'll never be sorry.

 

[MadFlava]

Guys, the answer is so simple, if you have a host that uses cPanel or something similar you have the option at any time to download...

1. A file Directory
2. A full site backup
3. An SQL backup

Before I used Xenforo cloud I made it a point to open my cPanel daily and download a full site backup.

When I switched hosts I simply uploaded the backup via cPanel and waited for the propagation of the url and bingo I was up and running.

Anyone working without backups cannot lay blame, in todays times it is super easy to be in control of your own data and complicity is no excuse.

Use the tools, you'll never be sorry.

You mean the tools I didnt have? I didnt have cPanel access or even FTP access for YEARS.

Its really easy to sit back and arm chair quarterback what "should have been done" but when you have a master manipulator and liar on the other end, its not that easy.