O.K., back on topic …

For those who are familiar with phpBB forums (and most other forums), all of the text information is stored in a database (usually an SQL database). This includes all the posts, private messages, forum structure, user names, passwords, bans, etc. The only things not in that database are the attachments that people add to their posts and to their private messages. Those attachments are stored as separate files outside of the database (usually with a long unique encoded name to avoid conflicts).

So, to save and recreate a phpBB forum requires basically 4 things:

1. The phpBB software appropriate for that version of the forum
2. Any customized templates that might have been used
3. The SQL database containing users, posts, messages, etc.
4. All of the attachments that had been uploaded (pictures, PDFs, etc)

If you have those 4 things (and a bit of time), you can recreate an entire forum on a different computer and even with a different web site address.

So here’s the question for anyone in the know:

Does anyone (especially whoever created the current website) have backups of those 4 things from the old SHGA forum?

Thanks in advance.