Thread: Site move

No, things won't evaporate, most everything should be here, but may be with different names, like what we know as 'private messages' they like to call 'conversations'. Since we already have a whole forum section called 'The Conversation', I'm thinking of overriding the terminology and stick with 'Private Messages', or maybe compromise with 'Private Conversations'. Or if someone comes up with something I like better, he can have 'Godfather of _______' under his username (in pink color if it's really, really good).

Though, even staying with the current software has the same problem between major releases - I still remember a decade ago for some people the change from 'usercp' to 'settings' was super hard. But then again, we've seen fights over a single letter - is it a strop or is it a strap. In fact, I have my suspicions that the US Civil War may have been about how to pronounce the 'o's and the 'a's.

We have always have at least two, sometimes more backups done in different formats on different systems, at different locations, so the data is generally fairly safe. It's just how painful is a recovery from that data, if we ever have to do it - staying with the legacy infrastructure means it'd be painful and may be take a week of downtime. On a current infrastructure it should be few hours to a day.

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Get it done!

Originally Posted by gugi

...like what we know as 'private messages' they like to call 'conversations'. Since we already have a whole forum section called 'The Conversation', I'm thinking of overriding the terminology and stick with 'Private Messages', or maybe compromise with 'Private Conversations'. Or if someone comes up with something I like better, ...

Well since you mentioned The Godfather maybe you should call them "sitdowns"

More or less.
A long long time ago when I was still an admin here I offered to help move this place to a different platform because what it runs on now is the software version of a carton of buttermilk left in the sun for a long, long time.
And then there was the thing and I was out. Anyway Ivan approached me recently to ask if I still wanted to help.

My own forum runs on Xenforo which is what Ivan is moving to so , I figured it would make a big enough difference that I should.
I mean Xenforo is not rocket science but when migrating the old mess it helps if you know why things were the way they were or why certain decisions were made. I configured most of the structure and permissions setup which, due to all the software legacy, has the elegance of a watermelon shot at a wall from an air cannon.

And yes, things will get a new feel and look familiar but different. This is not the late 2000s anymore and SRP doesn't have a host of graphic designers and web wizards like it used to, or my participation wouldn't have made much difference. In case this isn't obvious, modern social media has decimated forum participation on all forums, across all hobbies.

So we'll focus on preserving historical data, getting the software to work properly on a day to day basis without hickups, and that's it.
If we do have people with software experience or graphics experience, I'm sure Ivan would love another helping hand. I certainly won't be touching anything in that regard because I'm the type of admins / developer for whom a grey form with a square button is still the end of my capabilities.

Incidentally I'll still be over at my own place.

Originally Posted by Bruno

More or less.
A long long time ago when I was still an admin here I offered to help move this place to a different platform because what it runs on now is the software version of a carton of buttermilk left in the sun for a long, long time.
And then there was the thing and I was out. Anyway Ivan approached me recently to ask if I still wanted to help.

My own forum runs on Xenforo which is what Ivan is moving to so , I figured it would make a big enough difference that I should.
I mean Xenforo is not rocket science but when migrating the old mess it helps if you know why things were the way they were or why certain decisions were made. I configured most of the structure and permissions setup which, due to all the software legacy, has the elegance of a watermelon shot at a wall from an air cannon.

And yes, things will get a new feel and look familiar but different. This is not the late 2000s anymore and SRP doesn't have a host of graphic designers and web wizards like it used to, or my participation wouldn't have made much difference. In case this isn't obvious, modern social media has decimated forum participation on all forums, across all hobbies.

So we'll focus on preserving historical data, getting the software to work properly on a day to day basis without hickups, and that's it.
If we do have people with software experience or graphics experience, I'm sure Ivan would love another helping hand. I certainly won't be touching anything in that regard because I'm the type of admins / developer for whom a grey form with a square button is still the end of my capabilities.

Incidentally I'll still be over at my own place.

Thank you Bruno,
Are you allowed to post a link to your own forum?

i hope threads and pictures related to razors, shaving, and history can be saved.
Lord knows there is a huge pile of B.S. that can be omitted. Lots of irrelevant threads, pictures, non contributing, long absent members, spam, etc. (Guilty!)

Going through it all seems a herculean task. I suppose some sort of basic criteria or it's gone.

Don't take it as a reproach, but it's about time something was done.


While I won't commit to anything on the long term, I used to be an IT "House M.D.", if things go wrong and you don't know where to go or who to ask, I most probably will help.

Thanks to every involved and Bruno for coming back

Originally Posted by Aggelos

Don't take it as a reproach, but it's about time something was done.


While I won't commit to anything on the long term, I used to be an IT "House M.D.", if things go wrong and you don't know where to go or who to ask, I most probably will help.

Thanks to every involved and Bruno for coming back

Oh, we know. We knew it 5 years ago. But real life threw a spanner in the works, and then life happened and so on. Things have been long in the tooth for a long time. But now Ivan finally has the opportunity to invest the time. I understand perfectly not committing to anything long term. This project, once the first step is done, may require 'hands at the wheel' for specific tasks and we'll be certain to check back with you to see it you have some time to spare for specific actions.

As for me coming back, thanks.

Originally Posted by Aggelos

Don't take it as a reproach, but it's about time something was done.


While I won't commit to anything on the long term, I used to be an IT "House M.D.", if things go wrong and you don't know where to go or who to ask, I most probably will help.

Thanks to every involved and Bruno for coming back

Thanks, it's always good to have backup even if it doesn't get to having to use it

Believe me, I know better than anyone else how overdue this is - I'm somewhere on the records here around 2013 that I think it should be done, and I had been considering it for another couple of years before that, but it wasn't time yet

In many ways things are easier now, there are a lot of better tools, the test conversion went pretty smoothly because so many people have done this switch over the years that almost all kinks are ironed out.
Another issue back then would've been handling the system mail once we move from our IP address where we've built a stellar reputation as sending high quality mail only. Nowadays smtp relay services are plentiful and very good - I tested about a dozen and all were fine, so in choosing I can be very picky about the less important things.

It seems true to form that one of the harder things would be the same as in the last major upgrade - keeping the old links alive. It's because they're done with a 20-year old software that has been dead for over a dozen years.

As far as cost goes, altogether it's about few k/year, a small part is covered by the google ads that run here and there, plus some change from people buying on ebay after going there from a link from here, a larger part is from the subscriptions, and the largest is my tab. And recently there was a very generous donation by someone who'd rather stay anonymous!
We should be able to keep the costs the same or may even be lower - we'll see.
There's always the possibility of just getting it as a fully managed service from, for example, xenforo.com but I like the flexibility that comes with having full control - we can do custom things we couldn't otherwise. Basically I like to pay more money to be forced to do more work kind of deal

Oh, may be we should also carry over these old smileys - as a reminder that value does not necessitate NFT.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

i hope threads and pictures related to razors, shaving, and history can be saved.
Lord knows there is a huge pile of B.S. that can be omitted. Lots of irrelevant threads, pictures, non contributing, long absent members, spam, etc. (Guilty!)

Going through it all seems a herculean task. I suppose some sort of basic criteria or it's gone.

Ivan has tools o automatically import things. All public discussions will be migrated there is no big task there. The issue is more related to things like the library, Obie's interviews, etc. Those are kinda tacked on to the side and may require manual work or at the very least, editing work to make it look proper again after import. Where I come in is mostly double checking that all permisisons and access levels are correct, that permissions are assigned properly, etc. Because that can be complex.

Whie we are at it, Ivan and I will also be harmonizing various moderator tasks, the ability to delete spam, etc. Xenforo has the nice ability to decide on those things on an individual basis, whereas moderator status used to be a one size fits all approach.

The high level approach will be to migrate the data, going through the structure to make changes as needed, and then have users test things on a test forum. Basically try to poke at things and see if they work. Once we have that down, we go down for a day, do the final import of that day, do the required changes, and go up. At that point we will be live, but without the articles, interviews, etc. That will be step 1.
And then we decide on which things need to be migrated first in terms of articles etc.

We talked about this a couple of times, and our agreement was that if we tried to do everything in 1 go and then do it with a big bang, it would be so overwhelming that it would never get done.