Forums

[Martin]

Re: Forums

Here’s a tip for what it’s worth……

IF IT AIN’T BROKE DON’T MEND IT 😉

I’m with my mate the flying penguin on this….. 8)

[kwatt]

By that do you mean that we’ve not to try to improve anything and to stand still?

K.

[iadom]

Re: Forums

I have mentioned V bulletin on more than one occasion in the past to Ken, the ability to merge threads is a big advantage, you can also upload pictures and files direct from your PC without having to host them somewhere else which I also find very useful.

With regard to the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ brigade the fact is that both of those forums run without any of the glitches that have occurred all to often here, new server or not. User profile/account etc are all in one easy to access and understand place, you can access other posters profiles, previous posts etc with a single click on their avatar which reveals a ‘drop down ‘ list. The whole package is much more user friendly in almost every way. There is nothing on PHP that I would like to see on V Bulletin or Invisionboard.

IMHO of course. 🙂

Jim.

[Penguin45]

Re: Forums

Been poking round a couple of vB sites I post on. The thing that I really dislike about them is the Private Messaging system, which does my head in. None of them seem to have an obvious way of deleting them. The plus point is that you can send out multiple address messages, which would be useful in here sometimes.

Chris.

[iadom]

Re: Forums

Its easier than on here, at Cableforum you tick the PM and select ‘Delete’ from the drop down list on the right, couldn’t be simpler. 8)

I think the PM system on that board is superior to this one. All done from your user CP (Control Panel)

Jim.

[Goatboy]

Re: Forums

kwatt wrote:Some of the newer boards simply offer more features…thread merging…

:snigger:

Oh yeah, that the invalueable one!

[Martin]

kwatt wrote:By that do you mean that we’ve not to try to improve anything and to stand still?

Improve maybe but stand still, probably not a great option? A PHP-nuke up-grade may be the only option that would be easily enabled without the whole database collapsing into a big heap using some other new-fangled system?

The first course of action I would think is to ask yourself what are the problems? Are they unworkable using the current system? List them one by one, then see if any of the above mentioned lumps of software can solve it?

These all singing and dancing, bells and whistle alternatives could so very easily end in tears, so carefully consideration is the new watchword for 2007 8)

….Oh great, now my avatar has dissappeared…..can you smell burning……? 😕

[kwatt]

Re: Forums

It’s phpBB that the forums are based on. phpNuke is the core CMS system used for the entire site.

The only reason that phpBB is used is that it came bundled with phpNuke, otherwise I’d likely have chosen something else, what I don’t know but at the time the option wasn’t available.

Database errors are just as likely with either option as was proved way back late in 2004 (IIRC) when the forum collapsed after a security update was applied to phpBB. Then it got hacked a few days later.

There are no problems, does there have to be to justify the additional functionality on offer? 😉

Anyways a good friend of mine has already ported over exactly this, to exactly that and it all works, so it’s already proven. I just need some additional things done before being totally convinced to move.

K.

[kwatt]

Re: Forums

To resurrect this…

The initial testing is now done for porting over to vBulletin, which is of course the latest whiz bang release (’cause it’ll annoy Martin :lol:) and I am currently testing the permissions etc.

The upgrade is, so far, planned to happen on Sunday at 10pm. When that happens the forums will be down for at least 30 minutes, but possibly up to two hours to ensure no data loss.

All logins, passwords and group rights should be preserved as they have been on the test imports.

Now, here’s the thing…

There may be some issues with the usergroups as I have to basically manually reset them all and all the forum permissions at the same time. It is difficult, as I’ve found out, to do this quickly. Not because it’s hard to do at all, just because there’s over three years worth of my messing with phpBB to make it work the way I wanted. Thinking back on what I did two years ago is hard, especially when I can’t remember what I had for lunch. 😉

So if there are any issues after the upgrade just report them and I’ll sort it. I don’t expect many, any should be minor tweaking only, but it’s worth letting everyone know this.

I will also post a news item on it as well as doing a public announcement nearer the time when I know it’s all a go.

K.

[Penguin45]

Re: Forums

kwatt wrote:The upgrade is, so far, planned to happen on Sunday at 10pm. When that happens the forums will be down for at least 30 minutes, but possibly up to two hours to ensure no data loss.

We still on for this?

Chris.

[kwatt]

Re: Forums

Doesn’t look like it, for several reasons I felt it best to postpone. It could be done, but not exactly the way I’d like, so I cried off.

Apart from anything else I forgot that Dave was off this week so I don’t have a board admin bar myself.

I have been testing the new system with the imported data though and you’re gonna love it. I’ve tweaked it a bit with the groups and it turns out that there’s loads of advantages to be had using vBulletin, such as the public won’t see the trade forums at all, you don’t even see them until you login as a member of the trade group.

However the range of options and features is absolutely vast compared to the current phpBB system and I’m not fully conversant as yet, I doubt I will be until we actually start to use the system, but I need a little more time to get to grips with the basics of it.

There are also some bits of code that need doing or tidied up to ensure that the forum sits as it does now and doesn’t look like a standalone item as that’s the way that vBulletin is designed to be.

So, funnily enough, I’d literally just hit “send” on a mail to Li saying that it’s probably best that we don’t switch over tonight. At least for a change it’s me that delaying stuff and not a third party for a change. 😉

K.

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