Are there archives for this site or anything? I see Google search links from 2017, but the old threads always fail to load.
​​​​​Examples
​​​​ of page I can't load:
yamaha-enduros.com/index.php/forum/maint...replace-carb-springs
Thanks!

You might try contacting Mako...  that thread you linked is "partially deleted"...  as a moderator I can still see it.  Mako might be making adjustments to reduce the site size as it's gotten too big. 

Can do. Thanks!

There are so many threads missing, every thread ive ever made it seems is gone? what happened to the site?

I think it just got too big.  I'm pretty sure the information is saved, just not readily available right now.

Why not get rid of people that haven't logged in after 2-3 years?
I'm sure there is a bunch. Maybe then the pictures would come back too.
Free up that space.

I can offer to host the website myself as I have a lot of resources. Is there any way to get the old posts back or has Mako gone MIA?

I think the problem is with the hosting service.  The site has probably exceeded its allocated storage volume on the server.
It must be a tough decision deciding to host a new site.  Do you pay a lot for possibly very low footfall and waste your own money, or do you waste less of your money and have the site be so successful it outgrows its space?

I never heard anyone mention mako owning a crystal ball.

 

I don't know the exact nature of the challenges with this forum except for Mako saying something to everyone to the effect of "we are a victim of our own success" and hints along the lines of the site just got too big.

I'm pretty sure more server space can be bought fairly easily so I'm not sure it's that simple.  My best guess is the forum software is the problem and can't handle the size?  Or maybe the software is just too "buggy" as the site gets bigger?  Or the software could just be too old?

In any case, migrating all the information here successfully to a new platform accurately and completely sounds like a HUGE undertaking if that's what's needed. 

Tinkicker made a good point...  back in the early days of PC's, Intel developed a new processor which could handle 640K of memory when 64k was the previous maximum...  at the time Bill Gates is quoted in a magazine article as saying this:

When we set the upper limit of PC-DOS at 640K, we thought nobody would ever need that much memory.  — William Gates, chairman of Microsoft

Gates denies he meant "forever" but has said he thought it would be many, many years before the tenfold increase in available RAM to 640k would be a bottleneck... Apple was running on only 48k at the time... Gates was wrong because it only took a few years to outgrow 640k.  

This site was never expected to get this big or become this popular...  so it's plausible the software is overwhelmed?

There have also been assertions that posts have been "lost".  I can't say for sure that every post ever written here is still around but there are many, many thousands of posts that are still there but not "live".  If anyone knows of a thread they need access to, please post a link and I will see if I can get it brought back "live". 

And with regards to that...  I'm not sure it's much of a detriment?  Why?  Because even before the site had issues with size, the same questions and same answers get posted over and over and over.  It seemed very few people tried to search and sometimes there were even multiple topics on the exact same question asked and immediately answered within days or even hours...  I remember 3 separate threads started by different people all within a couple days asking and getting the same answers about where to get a headlight...  I can understand if the questions hadn't been asked for years...  but in this case all three threads were in the top 10 of "recent posts". 

I like to search for answers, it seems I'm in the minority though.  It sometimes seems this site could have a "snapchat" format? 

The other thing is the threads tend to go way off original topic...  someone posts a thread on a carb issue and buried within it is a ton of information on air leaks, ignitions, and who knows what else...  it's not easy to find posts by thread title or search...  it's a lot easier to just post a new question. 

Last comment is I am NOT one of the original founders of this site.  I joined soon after it was started.  And to compare this forum to the old Yamaha forum is not quite accurate in my experience.  The owner of that site would not allow foreign IP addresses to access and dozens of times myself and others in the USA I know were blocked from the site because the owner was really concerned about getting hacked.  I once spent two hours with the site owner trying to get access again...  he saw something "suspicious" when my connection was routed through a server in Colorado on the way to Florida.  It eventually turned out to be a new ATT server he didn't know about and he allowed it I could connect again.  There was also editing done without any notification or reason and other issues.  (That site also eventually had a "read only" archive which might have been because of the size?)   I remember  you had to use a 3rd party to host photos on the old site as well...  which really sucked when some of the hosting services started holding photos "hostage" and most of the photos disappeared from threads.  that's probably the biggest factor that killed the old forum.. 

This site was and is 1000x better in many respects.  I wish we could get the photo hosting back and some of the bugs fixed but for now this forum is still the best...  mostly because we have the best members!

I am also looking forward to Devin and Enduronut's new venture...  they might have the largest collection of documents and information on these bikes...  possibly even more than Yamaha themselves!  I'm pretty sure much of it has never been shared so I'm definitely excited about seeing what they're going to do...  and maybe they have some ideas on how to deal with dozens and dozens and dozens of topics with the exact same questions being asked and answered or how to organize topics and make finding previous answers easier... 
 

>>I remember you had to use a 3rd party to host photos on the old site as well... which really sucked when some of the hosting services started holding photos "hostage" and most of the photos disappeared from threads.<<

Some guitar forums I'm in had that problem when Photobucket began trying to extort us to pay ridiculous fees, for what was free. For a while the pics disappeared, then some came back with watermarks, and eventually I think most vanished again. I had 2 PB accounts and refused to pay, mainly because of how they handled it, and eventually they both closed down. A couple of the bigger guitar sites decided to host pics, and still do, and a very large RV site I'm in does as well. However, they all have many members that donate, as well as product sponsors, and one guitar forum holds annual prize contests, that rake in tons of money from it's MANY members. I think most of the prizes are donated by companies like Fender.