Moving the forum

[Numsgil]

I've done my reserach...

It will cost $20 to get a raw dump of all this forum's posts, etc.  I can then install a blank invision forum on the webspace and connect it to the raw dump of this forum.

Basically:

The forum would no longer be hosted by InvisionFree.  The advantages I see:

1.  We could set up the forum search function.  No weird google search, something real.

2.  No google ads (or if there are ads, the revenue goes into our pockets).

3.  Basically unlimited upload limits.  Our webspace is simply orders of magnitude larger than any forum could possibly grow into.  Other limits would also be eliminated.   Things like inbox space, etc.

4.  I could set up a user blog.  I believe anyone with a user name could set up their own blog.  I haven't played with it yet, so I don't know exactly how it would work.

5.  As a consequence of #3, image uploading could be more easily tied directly into how the forum is set up.

6.  It would complete the transfer of all our resources into a single webspace.

Cons:

1.  Attachments and uploads wouldn't be transfered over I don't think.  Settings might need to be reset for all the users.  This might mean things like avatars and signatures.

You'd also probably lose the text file download link for bots in the beastiary.

2.  It costs $20 (it's not going to break the bank, but...)

3.  Any posts made between when InvisionFree dumped the forum and when I could set up a new forum on the webspace would be here in the old forum and not in the new forum.  Basically there could potentially be a day or two gap, perhaps even longer, in posts.

What do people think?

[Numsgil]

One other things:

I think I'll be able to make a real time chat thing for the forum.  Again, not sure how it works exactly.

edit:
I've set up a blank Forum at www.darwinbots.com/Forum

it has both Blogs and an image gallery setup.  Feel free to join it and play around to see if you like it better or not.

[Griz]

One other things:

I think I'll be able to make a real time chat thing for the forum.  Again, not sure how it works exactly.

edit:
I've set up a blank Forum at www.darwinbots.com/Forum

it has both Blogs and an image gallery setup.  Feel free to join it and play around to see if you like it better or not.

will check it out.

hey ... give me a snail mail addy or PO box ...
I'll send you $20 ...
[never had a credit card in my life ...
if I can't buy it outright, I don't need it.] ;)
DB has been worth at least that much even as is.

[Endy]

Looks good B)

I personally would like to be able to set up some decent downloads of sims and settings. A blog too would be cool since we'd be able to share experiences on a more individual to group level.

[Numsgil]

I'll send them the request tonight or tomorrow.  They say it could be as little as a day to ge the forum dump.  We'll see.

[Old Henk]

I'm for it, as long as it's properly done (of which I think you are capable).

[PurpleYouko]

If you want to use a different type of forum (for example phpBB2), then you can use This converter to upload the data to the new forum.

You wouldn't believe some of the stuff you can do with this.

I have just installed a cash mod at Kuro-tejina
This gives users virtual cash or points for posting and stuff. By adding further mods like shops, users can buy cool goodies with their virtual money, to use on their posts or even play RPGs from inside the forum.

This phpBB stuff is fun.  :D

[Numsgil]

I've finally managed to send payment for the info dump of the forum.  I should be able to recieve this info dump sometime in the next week (with the next day or two the most likely).

[Griz]

I guess there will be a number of 'links' that will have to be redirected, eh?
like those to attachments that have been uploaded to the current forum.

[Numsgil]

Probably the attachments.  If you've been using the forum.darwinbots.com link to get to the forums, that will redirect to the new forum.

[PurpleYouko]

Uploads are most likely (can't say for sure without the source code of the forum) held as fields in the MySQL database on the server so a full dump of the forum followed by a reload into identical software at DarwinBots.com webspace should really keep everything intact.
If it all goes off without a hitch then the transition should be seemless.

You did say it was the same forum format right? If not then what type?

Avatars or their urls, are definitely stored in the database. Most forums allow upload of the avatar to their webspace then store the path in the database entry.

Let me know if you need help setting up the new forum. I have gotten pretty good at that kind of stuff lately. I would also love to get a good look at the php code that runs invision boards

[Numsgil]

It's the same software so there shouldn't be any issues.  Once they give it to me I can't imagine it taking more than 2 hours to get everything seemlessly transfered.  Probably less than that.

I'll keep everyone aprised.  They've been a little flakey considering I've been asking for 2 weeks.

[PurpleYouko]

Cool
It should be pretty straightforward providing both systems are using the same version of database.
The last time I transferred a forum it took about 2 minutes. You just need to run a simple query from "phpmyadmin" which I assume is on your webspace already as it is provided by the host. Of course you have to know the database password. You also need to make sure that the table names don't conflict with the ones used by the Wiki. Sometimes you might need a second MySQL database to do this but it should be OK on one.

[Numsgil]

We have 10 databases total, so I'm just going to move the forum onto one of those.

[PurpleYouko]

Nice.
That will certainly be the best way to go.