Hi all. It's been a long time since I've posted an update--too long. I apologize. Unfortunately, I don't have a huge update, but do have a path forward. The remaining pressing issues divide into a few buckets: 1) permissions, 2) missing data, 3) pending updates, 4) other
1) Permissions
As mentioned quite a while back, these need to be sorted out to help lay a foundation for other things. So much so they block progress on some of the other issues. I've been picking at them bit-by-bit, but obviously not anywhere near fast enough. Japes has figured and addressed some too. It can be tedious, detail oriented work, so I like to do it in blocks of time where I can concentrate. I haven't devoted many of those to the cause, sorry. (On the plus side, I've already worked out the thorniest ones). I'm going to shift gears and during the next week create some documentation for my fellow admins (some of which have been very eager to help in this area) on how to fix these. With that in place, and the extra help that provides, hopefully this area that needs to happen first-ish can get crossed off the list.
2) Missing data
Primarily some missing blogs but also a missing smaller forum. To accomplish this, I've outsourced this and it and in hands of a paid third party. However, #1 needs to happen first. It turns out that some of the restoration problems in the past involved the system rejecting imported data because of faulty permissions (e.g., system falsely thinks you can't have a blog so it won't import it.)
3) Pending updates
Since this other stuff has drug out so long, we're due to do another software update (changing from v2.2 to v2.3 of our software). #2 is a blocker for this to be able to happen and this needs to happen before some of the other fixes and enhancements. This update isn't anywhere near as big of a deal as our last one, where we moved to a whole new software platform, but every update has the potential for new (small) issues.
4) Other
Everything else! No time to go through all of these right now--this is a higher level overview of getting back on track--but some of these will get fixed here and there before #2 and #3 get accomplished. Not a ton, but some. (And there are also some that can't before then.)
Timeline
The new plan should get the logjam caused by me moving again. We can think of the upcoming week as the "empowering the other admins" week. Hopefully with their help, the following week can be "permissions finally sorted out" week. After that I can prod the 3rd party to re-import missing data. I'm guessing it may take up to a week for them to get us in the schedule, but once we're in the schedule, the import happens quickly. So now, two weeks out, we can do the next update (I'm penciling in Feb 9th for this, but we need also need to confirm before that that all missing data is accounted for). After that's done, it's time to re-evaluate and go through the rest of the big list of issues (#4 stuff). I think that following week will be just triaging, making a mega-list and timeline. A general theme I'm going to start reaching for is empowering others to help. They've been very willing! (Thank you all!!!)
So progress, of a sort...