Best method to preserve or copy old CBR forum threads?

[Tenebrae]

Thanks for the efforts, here, and please keep me posted! There are a few threads I am so sad to lose, and I'm afraid manually copying and pasting isn't plausible in 14 days. I will try the archive method unless anyone else knows a better way? I guess I could go page by page and save the HTML but what a hassle.

Yeah that's what I would do. In Chrome it's really easy to save pages as HTML but it may be a hassle to save a particularly big thread.

[General Nerditry]

Yeah, I just started saving the threads I care about page-by-page in full website format. I tried using the archives format, but you lose all of the quotes formatting. Considering the nature of a lot of those discussions, that's a deal breaker because the discussions would be nearly impossible to follow. Your sentences bleed right into who you're quoting, and you can't tell who said what. Setting it to show 40 posts per page helped, but some of those threads went on for YEARS. Even with the 40 thing the All Purpose Metal Thread still had 80 pages, for example. 80 pages! Suffice to say, I didn't get much sleep last night, and I have much more to do, but I got that one done.

Don't some forums have an easy way to download threads I thought? I wonder if that is a feature that can be turned on here? I'm glad the admins left the old forums active so people could archive, but I have to admit it's a bit scary worrying if I have enough time to save everything I want considering how manual the process seems to be. 14 days doesn't seem so long in this context. Anyway, I am thankful they weren't outright wiped!

So, then do you save each of those archived pages as HTML? Or copy and paste it into a document?

I use Chrome, and you can save as HTML only or as whole web page. If you save as just HTML you lose a lot of the formatting and images. The content is there, but it's a bit of a mess. If you save as a website you get the CSS, images, etc. I forget exactly what they call it, but it's super easy. Right-click, Save As, etc.

[effdot]

Polybags. Polybags and boards. That might be the best way to preserve the old threads with NM quality.

[Chris Lang]

I use Chrome, and you can save as HTML only or as whole web page. If you save as just HTML you lose a lot of the formatting and images. The content is there, but it's a bit of a mess. If you save as a website you get the CSS, images, etc. I forget exactly what they call it, but it's super easy. Right-click, Save As, etc.

I go to the Print View and save from there as HTML. It doesn't save the images, but it does keep the Image links and color tags.

[Rheged]

Awesome! Thanks for the info guys.

[Jeremi]

Only I don't think we're allowed to call them 'Discussion Threads' any more because the new rules say such things are redundant. We'd have to clear that with the mods.

I was thinking of creating a thread called 'Traitor Game Talk' that could include all of the ooc TG talk.

And considering the reboot some of us have been talking about the potential of giving the TGs a fresh start, but I'll let the ones that thought of it give more info.

[Anodyne]

Currently, I'm using Archive Mode and printing stuff as a PDF.

What and where is Archive Mode? I can't find it.

[Brandon Hanvey]

What and where is Archive Mode? I can't find it.

The link is near the bottom right of the forums.

Old forums
http://oldforums.comicbookresources....hive/index.php

New Community
http://community.comicbookresources....hive/index.php

[yet another]

Some tooling might help.

This one for example: http://www.httrack.com/

You should probably be careful with it so you don't accidentally download the whole forum (or more!), but only select threads.

[Brandon Hanvey]

Whoops wrong thread.

[Iron Maiden]

The link is near the bottom right of the forums.

Old forums
http://oldforums.comicbookresources....hive/index.php

New Community
http://community.comicbookresources....hive/index.php

I'm not seeing it at all in the old forum link there's nothing on the bottom right after the "Powered by VB" etc.

[Hazard]

I'm not seeing it at all in the old forum link there's nothing on the bottom right after the "Powered by VB" etc.

That's because he is already giving you a link to the Archive's archive mode.

In this board you can see it at the bottom. Right next to Contact Us and Comic Book Resources Community.

[Iron Maiden]

That's because he is already giving you a link to the Archive's archive mode.

In this board you can see it at the bottom. Right next to Contact Us and Comic Book Resources Community.

Thanks! Now I see what you mean. Now has anyone figured out what order it is sorted by? thread creation date? or last update? If you have a thread that was started 4 years ago where would it be sorted??

[Hazard]

Thanks! Now I see what you mean. Now has anyone figured out what order it is sorted by? thread creation date? or last update? If you have a thread that was started 4 years ago where would it be sorted??

Okay so a Guide Time:

I'm copy pasting this from another forum.

This is the Archive:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources.com/

This is Archive Mode:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources....hive/index.php

Finding threads in the Archive Mode is kind of difficult at least for me.

First, use Google Advanced Search on http://oldforums.comicbookresources.com/ to find the thread you want.

In this case, I'm going to use Utopia (and RPG I ran on the old CBR) as an example. This is the address:

http://oldforums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?472047-Utopia-Game-Thread

As you may notice I bolded a number. That's the thread number. Copy that.

Now go back to Archive Mode. You can also have it open as a separate tap.

You're going to use this address:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources....e/index.php/t-THREADNUMBER.html

Replace the big, bolded Thread Number for the number of the thread you're looking for. In this case: 472047.

The address will then look like this:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources..../t-472047.html

All of Utopia in 13 pages.

No images. Just plain text. Adapt the steps for the thread you want to save.

Save it however you want. I'm using Google Chrome to get it as PDF files. There are programs that can do the same, and some have been mentioned on this thread.

Good Luck.

Edit: This method is for big threads only.

If you want to save a smaller thread, then I recommend just setting your display to 40 posts (I think that's the maximum?) per page.

[Iron Maiden]

Okay so a Guide Time:

I'm copy pasting this from another forum.

This is the Archive:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources.com/

This is Archive Mode:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources....hive/index.php

Finding threads in the Archive Mode is kind of difficult at least for me.

First, use Google Advanced Search on http://oldforums.comicbookresources.com/ to find the thread you want.

In this case, I'm going to use Utopia (and RPG I ran on the old CBR) as an example. This is the address:

http://oldforums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?472047-Utopia-Game-Thread

As you may notice I bolded a number. That's the thread number. Copy that.

Now go back to Archive Mode. You can also have it open as a separate tap.

You're going to use this address:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources....e/index.php/t-THREADNUMBER.html

Replace the big, bolded Thread Number for the number of the thread you're looking for. In this case: 472047.

The address will then look like this:
http://oldforums.comicbookresources..../t-472047.html

All of Utopia in 13 pages.

No images. Just plain text. Adapt the steps for the thread you want to save.

Save it however you want. I'm using Google Chrome to get it as PDF files. There are programs that can do the same, and some have been mentioned on this thread.

Good Luck.

Edit: This method is for big threads only.

If you want to save a smaller thread, then I recommend just setting your display to 40 posts (I think that's the maximum?) per page.

this is great and thanks so much for your patience. Yeah, the thread I want had almost 5,000 posts and started in 2009. I can try this out sometime soon before it all goes away.