New Forums + Theme

[Exterminator]

Hate to break it to you guys but moving a new Vanilla SMF forum and moving a 10 year old, heavily modified and partially corrupted forum are two entirely different things. One can be done with a command line and a cup of coffee, the other is a hair-pulling mess of a shitstorm that could take weeks to untangle.

At this point, it's not gonna be easy to move the entire Argonath RPG forum and we need to respect that both Brian and Gandalf probably can't afford to spend over a hundred hours on moving the forum. Usually when moving forums at this scale, the old forum is archived and a new one is set up. But that'd mean we lose all old posts and post histories.

[Chase]

In all seriousness, Exterminator is right. Converting to a more "premium" forum would be a bit of a task. vBulletin, IPB, xenforo, etc cost around a few hundred dollars for a license. Then Gandalf would have to pay a database migration company around the same money if not more to convert the SMF database to the new format.

I think at this point it's best to wait for SMF 2.1, which has some interesting new features, such as 2 factor authentication support.

[Zig]

In all seriousness, Exterminator is right. Converting to a more "premium" forum would be a bit of a task. vBulletin, IPB, xenforo, etc cost around a few hundred dollars for a license. Then Gandalf would have to pay a database migration company around the same money if not more to convert the SMF database to the new format.

I think at this point it's best to wait for SMF 2.1, which has some interesting new features, such as 2 factor authentication support.

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

[Zig]

@Exterminator Nobody ever said it would be "easy", but you don't need to hire an entire company to save some information from a forum. It isn't that hard, I've seen it quite done before even in this state. It's not like anything from 2007 is still remotely useful on here, besides a few posts. I think in my fullest opinion the hard work wouldn't go un-noticed.

[William Carter]

Forums is good, no any changes needed.

[Exterminator]

@Exterminator Nobody ever said it would be "easy", but you don't need to hire an entire company to save some information from a forum. It isn't that hard, I've seen it quite done before even in this state. It's not like anything from 2007 is still remotely useful on here, besides a few posts. I think in my fullest opinion the hard work wouldn't go un-noticed.

I don't think you know what you're talking about.

lol.

Alright, so what strategy would you recommend to port the forums? Also, what strategy would you say is needed to "save some information" from the forum?

This is not Excel where you can just click 'save as'. If you know what you're talking about, feel free to explain in detail how you'd go about extracting "data" from a forum storing data in a MySQL database in various customized formats, many of which were modified by deprecated plugins over the years. Then when you're done with that, let me know how you'd process all of that customized and partially corrupted data to an entirely different format for another forum.

[Nathan]

Forums is good, no any changes needed.

[Poli Pantev]

When I discovered this community, the first thing I noticed was how bad looking the website was. However I agree with what Philip said above, moving the forum is not an easy task, you can't just ask a few people to spend days of their life doing something for you without getting anything in return.

[Zig]

lol.

Alright, so what strategy would you recommend to port the forums? Also, what strategy would you say is needed to "save some information" from the forum?

This is not Excel where you can just click 'save as'. If you know what you're talking about, feel free to explain in detail how you'd go about extracting "data" from a forum storing data in a MySQL database in various customized formats, many of which were modified by deprecated plugins over the years. Then when you're done with that, let me know how you'd process all of that customized and partially corrupted data to an entirely different format for another forum.

But for some forum software, it is. There's such thing as importers, nobody hires a "database company" implying that's even a valid thing, to transfer major files off of tables and information in the database. Based on videos I've seen, I'm guessing you guys use PhpMyAdmin, which is an alright tool, but really it'd be simpler to do it all through a command. If you're going to move to a new forum, in my eyes, all you would need to save is relevant posts and users. Considering most of the plugins running on SMF are not compatible nor up to date with anything past 2014, what would be the point of keeping any information from them anyways? What's partially corrupted here?

[Kessu]

all you would need to save is relevant posts and users

All users are relevant to the community and each and every single post made on the forums is one piece of the community's long history. I personally would not want to see any posts removed. This is the point you're not seeing when you present your arguments. We care about the history of this community, the history is what made the community to what it is today. And quite frankly I feel right at home in this forum, even if it does look a little clunky

[Zig]

All users are relevant to the community and each and every single post made on the forums is one piece of the community's long history. I personally would not want to see any posts removed. This is the point you're not seeing when you present your arguments. We care about the history of this community, the history is what made the community to what it is today. And quite frankly I feel right at home in this forum, even if it does look a little clunky

you ever hear of an archive

[Zig]

When I discovered this community, the first thing I noticed was how bad looking the website was. However I agree with what Philip said above, moving the forum is not an easy task, you can't just ask a few people to spend days of their life doing something for you without getting anything in return.

Nah, but if the people are as passionate as they say they are, and have signed up for an administrative rank, I'm sure they could expect some maintenance after using the same forum for a decade.

[Exterminator]

I'm guessing you guys use PhpMyAdmin, which is an alright tool, but really it'd be simpler to do it all through a command.

I have never cringed this hard in my entire life.

[Roman]

The community wouldn't have to be dying if he just gave it to someone that actually had time for it and wasn't a day-time drinker or Brian.

You're so wrong.

This community is having set backs because of negative behaviors like yours, judgements where you have no business in, and lack of role-play on the server, where we're implementing new ideas to get it going.


As for the topic, I honestly like SMF and migration could be brutal, but as everyone knows, it has to be tested first, approved by the chain of command and then implemented. Won't happen any time soon as it is something that is not urgently necessary.

For those who say that Gandalf, Carbon, Brian, Trane, and others don't care or something on that note, you're wrong. When server was getting attacked, just in case you did not know, the following happened -

• Gandalf had purchased a new hosting
• The rest of the team has moved the databases and files
• Remaining people / admins tested the server
• Furthermore, scripters updated security.

All of this within 2 weeks, which is not bad at all.

[Zig]

I have never cringed this hard in my entire life.

What's there to cringe about? Feel free to fill me on what you use to manage MySQL for these forums. If you don't use a panel, my bad. I assumed incorrectly.