Darwinbots Forum

General => Off Topic => Topic started by: Numsgil on March 11, 2006, 12:04:20 AM

Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 11, 2006, 12:04:20 AM
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?
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 11, 2006, 12:23:46 AM
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 (http://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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Griz on March 11, 2006, 10:23:04 AM
Quote
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 (http://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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Endy on March 11, 2006, 10:20:26 PM
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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 11, 2006, 10:21:33 PM
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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Old Henk on March 13, 2006, 02:01:06 PM
I'm for it, as long as it's properly done (of which I think you are capable).
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: PurpleYouko on March 16, 2006, 01:41:16 PM
If you want to use a different type of forum (for example phpBB2), then you can use  This (http://www.phpbb-mods.net/dload.php?action=file&file_id=795) 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 (http://kuro-tejina.shroom.net/Forums/phpBB2/index.php)
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
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 30, 2006, 02:15:11 PM
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).
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Griz on March 30, 2006, 03:53:45 PM
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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 31, 2006, 06:24:11 AM
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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: PurpleYouko on March 31, 2006, 08:50:20 AM
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
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 31, 2006, 08:52:38 AM
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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: PurpleYouko on March 31, 2006, 09:05:47 AM
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.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on March 31, 2006, 09:22:04 AM
We have 10 databases total, so I'm just going to move the forum onto one of those.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: PurpleYouko on March 31, 2006, 09:25:36 AM
Nice.
That will certainly be the best way to go.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Zelos on April 08, 2006, 12:37:33 PM
MY EYES ARE BURNING  
its horrible can someone please for god sake change the skin back?
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on April 08, 2006, 12:41:58 PM
Uh, nice to see you too.

To what skin are you referring?  There is a large drop down menu at the bottom of every screen in the forum that let you pick from several recently uploaded skins.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Elite on April 08, 2006, 01:58:55 PM
They're even worse    

Is there any way that we can get our old skin back?
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on April 08, 2006, 02:27:38 PM
What skins are you seeing?  And what skin is set to default for you guys?

For me, IPB 2.1 Default is the original skin, and it's also the one set as IPB Default skin.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Elite on April 08, 2006, 04:56:25 PM
The new board skin that I'm seeing (IPB 2.1 Default)

The old board's skin (google cache)
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on April 08, 2006, 08:20:47 PM
Oh, yeah, that old skin was a custom one made by my sister.  I'm not sure how much of it I can import since the old board was version 1.3, and we're running 2.1.  I can try.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Elite on April 09, 2006, 07:04:44 AM
Aaaaaaaaaaargh ... my avatar's stuck

I can't change my avatar and when I upload a new one it just reverts to the one I have at the moment

EDIT: OK, now it's changed but is still stuck
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Griz on April 09, 2006, 12:08:35 PM
what happened to the 'view recent messages' tab/link???

it used to be part of the search function on the old forum ...
and was here as well up until today.
Recent Messages (http://www.darwinbots.com/Forum/index.php?act=Search&nav=lv&CODE=show&searchid=3782bf50c9808dfa8b2e1296d4a6eb08&search_in=topics&result_type=topics&lastdate=86400)

that was most useful, and how I visited the forum ...
rather than have to go to each subforum to see if there is anything new.

'sup wid dat?
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Elite on April 09, 2006, 12:12:04 PM
Can't you see new messages through your assistant?
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Griz on April 09, 2006, 12:19:08 PM
Quote from: Elite
Can't you see new messages through your assistant?
where?
I can no longer find my Assistant.
where is is?
all I have for tabs now are:
Blogs Gallery Help Search Members Calendar

aha!
I was using a different skin ....
had to go back to the default ...
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: PurpleYouko on April 09, 2006, 12:41:47 PM
Which skin are you using?

I like the look of "Comfortably numb" but it doesn't have any of the controls like the others do. I think it's mising a complete piece of the forum php code. Like the header page!

Everything seems to work in the others except that in "Mouthfull of poison", the default smileys have weird outlines.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Numsgil on April 09, 2006, 01:09:26 PM
If you're missing something it's probably to be found in the IPB Default skin.  The other skins all have certain things they're either missing or covering up.  Personally I like Abstract but it doesn't let me see the blogs or gallery.  There really aren't that many skins to choose from from the official collection.  I'll continue to look around for neat skins.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: Griz on April 09, 2006, 05:08:15 PM
Quote
Which skin are you using?
I like the look of "Comfortably numb"
yes ... that's what I was using ... and missing View New Posts.
Title: Moving the forum
Post by: PurpleYouko on April 09, 2006, 09:05:49 PM
Like Num said, stick with IPB default if you want all the features.
I think "Tower" has them all too.

I might try to have a look at the php over the next few days. It may be possible to modify the templates to include everything in the other ones.