FORUM MIGRATION SCHEDULED JAN 24th

  • moving the current user status to the new system

Sounds good.

  • adding the current messages as a subcategory just to have them searchable

That sounds like a much better way to have it.

  • checking the emoticons and maybe use the current ones (just to please you above all the other 36.999 users Smiley )

Hehe - I see what he means - can't remember what the SMF ones are like atm but perhaps that is a discussion to have on a thread when the new forum turns up.

We could make it so that that table would not be editable but by moderators. Then users could request to move some of those topics to the new boards.

  • letting a bunch of moderators access to a read-only archive to -upon request- move topics of importance to the new boards

Yes - something like that sounds like it could be an acceptable way to go - not sure how 'requests' would be best submitted. Perhaps we can have a 'request' button on the 'archive' forum section.

Any other thoughts?

Private messages? Can they be stored at least or some way of backing them up - I won't have the time to try and back them up individually before a forum switch (and that would be one hell of a copy/paste job).

Maximum dimensions on images (preferably with auto-resize) so we don't get people posting a few thousand px images slowing it all down and making the threads look a mess. Thumbnails for images over ~600px wide is possibly the best way to go here.

This is a lot of work, but if there are 15 volunteers, we could consider it.

Count me in for helping.

Mowcius

not to be blunt but if your thinking of a single sign on system why not use a single system (ie joomla) to handle it all instead of patchworking all these little systems together through bridges and hacks which makes even a simple future upgrade (ie security) a nightmare as you fight with rehacking stuff and opps bridge 1.2.1 doesnt work with front end 1.1.2 and etc

count me in on helping too (if that were not evident)

(and for the record I have had the smf converter working for yabb 2.2.3 for a few months now, whenever it was you put up that poll / test forum :wink: though its not perfect, its never perfect)

What about a preview of what the new forum is going to look like?

It is pretty clear everyone has hopes and wishes for whatever is coming next. Not everyone is going to be happy. But it would take a lot of guesswork (and apparently worrying) if the interested parties could see what the new forum looks like.

May I suggest more local boards, like USA/MN so we can organize local gatherings to share experience face to face. Helps to know who does what in your area, don't you think so?

I've seen "migration" attempts where one forum was left frozen as an archive. It's horrible.

First of all, the huge number of posts in an existing forum should be taken as MORE of an incentive to move that data into the new forum. The more posts you have, the greater the value of that data set. If you had only a few hundred posts then it wouldn't be a big deal when you delete the old forum.

Second, you'll eventually have to delete the old forum and that will cause major havoc. Since the old forum with its wealth of knowledge will be there, people in the new forum will be crosslinking to it like crazy. "Oh yeah your problem is just like this thread, check it out." In the meantime, the old forum become more and more dated, possibly exposing security issues. You might be forced to shut down the forum entirely...causing big problems in the new forum because all these links point nowhere.

The existence of two forums will be very confusing to new users. Anyone stumbling into the old forum from a search result will be struck by the tackiness of having a giant banner at the top directing them to the new forum. It the kind of stunt people don't do anymore, really.

I really hope the old forum data can be migrated into the new forum somehow...even an Archive section is much better than the alternative. Of course, when you choose another forum system in a couple years, you start having archives within archives...refactoring the old topics into the new structure is a better overall solution. And yeah, it will take more work than just putting an empty forum up.

I have zero time to contribute to migration beyond my above warnings from past experience, but I hope you guys can figure it out somehow.

I like SMF emoticons/smiley's, but just deleting everything.... ::slight_smile:

Nice to see some constructive discussion on this. Timing could be a bit better but hey, better late than never.

Jeroen

I really hope the old forum data can be migrated into the new forum somehow...even an Archive section is much better than the alternative.

Get it migrated into an archive and then let some people move threads over to the new topics. I'm sure that it would not take too long to get the threads moved manually. I'd say I could easily do 100 a day or so without too much trouble.

Mowcius

Wish i could help you people !
:frowning: i don't know anything related to converting things but
I could help you probably in the dumbest possible ways :wink:
i can just copy paste the members status and post count into a spread sheet ::slight_smile: :-[

i can just copy paste the members status and post count into a spread sheet

I think that would be rather a waste of time :smiley:

I think that would be rather a waste of time Cheesy

I know that ! :slight_smile: but just in case is they would find it helpful i would do it i guess at max a ten hours work ! i could do it for all the wonderful people out here ( including you :wink:

But.....but.....but.....,
SMF already provide a YABB converter!?!

But.....but.....but.....,
SMF already provide a YABB converter!?!

David Cuartielles

The converters existing for moving from Yabb to SMF are NOT working, sorry for the SMF developers, but it took me a week to hack it and make it work again.

REad through the posts :wink: :slight_smile:

From the SMF website -

In case there is no converter for the forum software you are using, you can request a converter.

If it hasn't already been done, it's got to be worth a try.

Good luck with the migration. I hope the new system isn't the same as the dreadful one Processing migrated too (slow, buggy on OSX, over-designed).

the converter for yabb 2.0 works fine (for a converter) it does require some tinkering to get it working with 2.2.x which is what is in use right now, and major tinkering to get it working with anything newer, but there is a mod that mostly works

you can request, but its not like the smf team is going to drop everything and get right on it, if there is someone else who knows how to do it and has a need to do it then they just might volunteer to do it, it may be tomorrow, it may be well over a year, it may be never as in the case of the yabb 2.4 converter where someone forked out money to an outside developer to make it

Just an FYI: vBulletin's free ImpEx tool (free if you buy a copy of vbulletin) can manage an import from YaBB2. If the cost of buying a VB license is the issue, I bet we could drum up the dough.

guys,

we are working on this, we might have to delay the launch a couple of days to get it to work, but believe me when I say we are working around the clock.

/d

and there goes the proof I am working with this right now

/d

man we have waited for a while now, it's not going to kill anyone to wait more, so don't go killing yourself over it