[ebankole]

Putting this down here also so that everyone can read the message.


Greetings, brethren.

It was on Saturday 3rd/Sunday 4th March 2024 after we rounded up our ministration for the week. I woke to my surprise to find that the forum visibility online was messed up and everything was scattered as the picture quality was nothing to write home about anymore.


Well, we were hoping it was just one of these errors from the template provider of our domain, Mybb and, that they would fix the glitch in a matter of hours.

But to our utmost surprise and shock by evening the forum and its visible disappeared.

Image here

How/when the problem started ;



The moment we were blocked or about to ;



When it got even worse;



When we got logged out and the forum disappeared finally ;



And that when the problem started, a journey we never knew would take almost a month or more. Initially, we thought the disappearance of the forum was from the domain/hosting company or the Mybb platform. Hoping that in a matter of days, they would fix the problem so h fortunately, we waited and that took us almost a week before we figured that wasn't the case.

So, we reached out to a webmaster and paid him who was only able to temporarily fix the problem and that should be between 7/8th March 2024. But unfortunately, after the fix, his work couldn't last beyond or within 24 hours as we were back to square one and even, it got worst.


A day or two later he asked us to pay another money just to bring us back online or at least, get the forum fixed minimally. It was then we knew we were in for a long ride as each step we took seemed to draw us back to the former and even worse so, we knew our business with the webmaster was over as the Lord warned, with him, nothing meaningful will come out of it and we would only spend and waste more money.


The reason why we reached out to the new webmaster was because our usual webmaster wasn't reachable and all efforts to reach him failed woefully.


The following week or a few days later we were able to reach our usual webmaster ( I say God bless him) who despite his tight busy schedule was able to restore the order of the forum alignment and get us back online without asking for Kobo before service.



Brethren, for the past 3weeks, since the beginning of the unpleasant journey I have been up and running, with no rest as, some days, I have to be online from morning till dawn communicating, chatting with the webmaster, the hosting company to provide information and every day required.


According to the first webmaster, we noticed that there was an attempt to upgrade the forum at exactly 6:30 am between Saturday 3rd/Sunday 4th March. That wasn't me, I have no idea how to do that to start with.

Secondly, we noticed that the password to our Cpanel(the engine room of the forum) was being changed and each time we changed it, it was changed again by an unknown person.

It was then we thought or discovered the forum might be under hackers or spammers attack.

Brethren, we also later found that the interface/template provider of our forum had also been compromised and had internal issues within their software as a result, it would be unwise to stick with them or continue to use them and that's why, till this very moment, the forum, I can not say it is completely fixed or could ever be fixed or restored to its former glory in terms of flexibility, reliability, quality, maintenance, and materials. As you have observed, the like button is gone, and the switch between the full version and to mobile version is no longer available, you can no longer log to the forum using the mobile version unless you switch to the full version of the forum following the yesterdays instruction above you. Also, the colour application tools are no longer available, you can not access the login or log in using the full version except if you follow the instructions given above.



So, here we are brethren, we are stuck and here is our next move ;

We are already deliberating on moving the forum to a whole platform I mean, building a complete, own-from-scratch. A complete that is solely owned by us without relying on any provider platform in the likes of ' Mybb, Phpbb, or WordPress, etc and that starts now so if you desire to support or contribute do so at your free and own will.


Brethren, it costs to build a website from scratch and if successfully achieved or done it permanently saves us say, 99% of any future breakdown of the forum as there will be no unnecessary disappearance or breakdown anymore we we occasionally experienced since the past 9 years before it got to this even worst situation we've found ourselves in today.



Brethren, I have so much to say but I am not sure words can do justice to that keep in mind that, it's been a never before the struggle, battles, and discouragement from the devil and, if not for God's grace, we would have given up as the stress and discouragement was just overwhelming but we thank God, we have failed.


Why now, why is this happening, dragging us like never before then, In reality, our ministration online will clock a decade this very year.

It feels like giving up at some point but then, when I remember the goodness of the Lord and how far he's brought us, the lives and souls we've impacted, my hope and strength were rekindled by his grace.


No!

We would not give up and we would not stop; we are just getting started.


God bless you all in Jesus' name.