Message Board Upgrade

Discussion in 'BOARDANIA' started by Maljonic, Feb 26, 2007.

  1. Maljonic Administrator

    The site needs to be upgraded, to make it more up to date, a bit more spam proof and much more secure, so I’m going to make a start today.

    It will be converted to a knew system entirely, Joomla for the content, with vBulletin for the message board, which is quite a big job so might take all day today and a bit of tomorrow to fully complete – though I will try to keep normal service interruption to a minimum.

    The current site runs on PHPNuke with PHPBB for the message board, which is kind of created by this one Brazilian guy and has to be patched up enormously by willing supporters every time he releases an update. It’s quite difficult to keep up with.

    Anyway, everyone’s posts and all the threads will still be here, as will all the articles that people have added to the main site – it will just work more efficiently.

    The journals (blogs) wont be ported across immediately but their content will be saved from the current database and can be added to the new blog system that will be installed.

    The games data will probably be lost, but the games themselves should return – possibly with some new ones too.

    Members may have to redo their avatars after the change, I don’t think they can be ported across.

    Private messages will most likely not be ported across either. If there is any important info in them it will be possible to dig it out of the old database in future though if anyone really needs to.

    The main thing, I think, is that the message board will all be there (no posts will be lost) and fully functional, just like it is now only much better.

    The actual swapping over wont take place until late tonight (GMT) or early tomorrow morning, which is hopefully okay with everyone.
  2. KaptenKaries New Member

    Best of luck with the migration, Mal!
  3. Tephlon Active Member

    Good on you Mal. PhPBB can be a b*tch.

    Maybe send out a shout or even an e-mail to everyone, just in case they want to save their avatars?
  4. Maljonic Administrator

    Good idea, I've made a shout and will try the mass email, but I never tried that before so don't know how well it works.
  5. Tephlon Active Member

    I just received the e-mail, So I guess it worked :)
  6. Katcal I Aten't French !

    It works ;)

    Good luck to you !
  7. Cynical_Youth New Member

  8. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    Thanks, Mal! I hope it all goes smoothly.
  9. Maljonic Administrator

    Blimey, that avatar makes my arms cringe. :)

    P.S. I'm backing everything up, which takes ages, so a lot of the avatars and other images will be saved somewhere - all the ones that were uploaded to the site, and those in folders etc.
  10. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    Blame KK!

    If threads contain embedded images that are hosted on this site, will they stop working?
  11. Maljonic Administrator

    No, they might if they were in that members' gallery, but they never worked properly anyway I think when trying to show them in the forums? The ones that were uploaded to folders specificly should still be the same.
  12. TheJackal Member

    Spent ages getting those high scores! Nah, good on you Mal.

    I'll just go have a silent cry for all the effort I put into getting the number 1 spot in Bloody Pingu!
  13. Bradthewonderllama New Member

    Good luck, and thanks!
  14. Hsing Moderator

    That email things worked, it seems.
    And everything is still running smoothly despite all the changes going on! Cool. (I am somewhat naive when it comes to such things, and I expected the online equivalent of a three miles long construction site on a highway.)
    Thanks for all the work.
  15. spiky Bar Wench

    ta Mal. I got my email and will forgive you for everything.
  16. Maljonic Administrator

    Heh, well I haven't actually done anything to this site yet. I've been preparing the new site program all day.

    Sometime tomorrow morning the site will go off for a while then, hopefully, rise like a pigeon from the ashes. :)
  17. TamyraMcG Active Member

    I can make a new avatar, I wouldn't mind losing the trucker mama thing though. I'll be looking foreward to the brave new message board. :)
  18. Maljonic Administrator

    Right, I think all posts, users etc are transfered. There's still some things to sort out and we'll have to test stuff.

    Need to re do moderators for one, and we'll have to see what people think of the colours - if they're easy to read or not. I can't tell after looking at it for a day and a half.

    Oh, and I just noticed we all joined today... not sure if I can fix that, or if it matters?
  19. KaptenKaries New Member

    Looks nice Mal, I noticed some quotes looked funny but I'm sure it's one of those things your working on sorting out. Good job, migrations are scary!
  20. Maljonic Administrator

    Can you tell me where you mean?
  21. mr_scrub New Member

    Everyone lost their special titles, but now I'm a Senior Member. Hooray!
    Where are the Emoticons that go in your post and where is the shout box?
  22. KaptenKaries New Member

    Have a look at my post attempting to quote wikipedia. That post was made before the migration.

    Incidentally, that is a link up there, but it doesn't show if you don't hover over it.
  23. jaccairn New Member

    The members news thread has quoting and other code not working also. Are you still transferring things and would you rather wait for comments until you're done, just so we don't start nagging about things you haven't had a chance to do yet?
  24. Maljonic Administrator

    I see what you mean now, it's all the bbcode that isn't right - quotes, italics, image tags etc.
  25. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    ::whimpers::

    I can't tell which posts are new and which aren't. But I think that might be because they're all marked as new. And I keep pressing on the wrong things by accident.

    But it all looks much more smart. I'm going to see if I can add an avatar now. Thanks for all your hard work, Mal, I'm sure this is going to be very good.

    Edit: Avatars are currently disabled, I see!
  26. Electric_Man Templar

    I note that the Sticky Posts (the book guide and official threads thread) have disappeared, I'm guessing that they lost stickiness in the move - maybe they just need a mod to change them - maybe someone other than Mal as he deserves a rest.

    The search function seems to be much quicker, which is nice. :)
  27. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    Only Mal currently has mod powers, Ben.
  28. Maljonic Administrator

    Yeah, I'm still tweaking away. I thought all the bbcode was buggered, but looking through some threads it seems that some links etc are okay and some are not. I've asked at vBulletin if it's possible to fix this, but it might not be. For me it's incredible that everything seems to be here (I had to port everything through two different message board systems to get it from PHPNuke to VBulletin).

    I'll redo the moderators next and we can have a look for those missing stickies. For the recent threads, like the photo competitions and such, I guess we can simply edit our own posts and delete those silly numbers from the img tags and url tags etc for now. Worst case scenario we'll have to change our posts now and again as we see ones with garbled code in, if it can't be fixed with some codey trickery, or just leave them as they are.
  29. TheJackal Member

    Yes, I also am finding it quite hard to tell which posts are new or not. The colours are quite similar.

    Also, it says we all joined the board in Feb 2007!
  30. Maljonic Administrator

    Can you check to see if you can moderate all the forums now?
  31. Maljonic Administrator

    You will need to alter your offical threads thread links too. I have to install something first though that will make all the addresses more user friendly. I'll tell you when I've done it.
  32. Maljonic Administrator

    Ok, I did it. :)
  33. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    I can indeed moderate all forums. :) I notice the Temple is still missing - presumably that's coming?

    Also, minor thing for when more important stuff is dealt with - I still get a new post indicator icon on the Boardania forum even when I've read all new posts within it.

    Edit: I note the Temple is back, and I can moderate everything in the Sweeper section.
  34. Maljonic Administrator

    I think I've done all the moderators now. Those graphics on the main pages are almost identical when there's a new post, I'll add back some of the graphics from the previous site when I get time as they were nice and clear.

    I'm not sure about it still showing new posts when you've read them all, I think sometimes there's one that you missed right down the page somewhere. Or it could be that we're all treated as if we've read none of them or something and will sort itself out after a few days.

    One cool thing we can do now is merge threads as well as split them so, like the other day, when someone posts an almost identical thread we can merge the two together.
  35. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    That could indeed prove handy! And adding back the old graphics would be brilliant, thank you.
  36. Orrdos God

    I've restuck the official thread list and tidied up the tags on it.

    Because i'm public minded. Not cause i'm bored. Oh no.
  37. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    I meant to add that I'd stickied this thread. And Doors, if you're bored, look at the "Baby Photos Competition II: The Cutening" thread.

    Edit: And I'm currently going through threads fixing broken code.
  38. Electric_Man Templar

    Huzzah for Doors actually doing something for once!

    I've just noticed that the latest threads are no longer latest, and appear to be in a relatively random order.After stickies, last post indicators are:

    05-30-2006 03:48 PM
    by Katcal
    05-21-2006 08:48 AM
    by Katcal
    08-17-2006 12:03 PM
    by Katcal
    06-27-2006 01:36 AM
    by spiky
    Today 05:51 PM
    by Garner
    2-14-2006 06:46 PM
    by Saccharissa
  39. Cynical_Youth New Member

    They were in alphabetical order for me. You can change that in the Display Options at the bottom of the page.

    Only problem with that seems to be that they keep jumping back to alphabetical order after I've browsed a thread.
  40. Electric_Man Templar

    Ok, I see now that they were ordered by thread title, rather than Date of Last Post, as indicated by the thing at the bottom. Might be best to change the default?
  41. Electric_Man Templar

    Yeah, I've just noticed that too. And occasionally I will select to change to order by date and it will jump back to title. It's Doors' fault, he changed the URLs and it was alright before he did that...
  42. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    Quick note: I am starting to delete size tags on sight, as what were previously tags to reduce the normal size are now producing giant writing when left in.
  43. Electric_Man Templar

    I noticed that by my picture in the photo comp, changed it to size 1 which is small-ish.
  44. Rincewind Number One Doorman

    I can't find alot of the threads has the order been messed up during the move or something?

    Also, the quick reply isn't working for me. I'm outraged!
  45. Electric_Man Templar

    It does work, and we went over the order earlier, fool.
  46. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    The Quick Reply box contains the instructions for using it - did you read them, Rinso? You have to click on the button in the bottom right of someone's post (hover over them to see which one).

    Mal, I've just spent about an hour editing the tags in The Jackal's Ultimate Guide thread, only to find that the board won't accept it as the character count is more than twice the limit! Is there anything that can be done about this?
  47. Orrdos God

    Laugh?

    As a side note, it wouldnt let me post that cause it was below a minimum character length.

    IRONY.
  48. Rincewind Number One Doorman

    Right.And the result of this conversation was...?
  49. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Rinso, you have to click on the double-downwards arrow to use the quick reply. The multiquote button will allow you to quote several messages, the selected ones will have a red button, and when you have finished selecting, you click new reply...
  50. Katcal I Aten't French !

    Like this :
  51. Buzzfloyd Spelling Bee

    Read the flipping thread, you lazy sod!

    Across the top of the forum are various column headings: Thread/Thread Starter, Rating, Last Post, Replies etc. Clicking on any of these will sort threads by that criterion. So if you click on 'Last Post', the board will automatically sort the threads into the normal order for you. Presumably, Mal will soon make this the default.
  52. KaptenKaries New Member

    I was experiencing the same behaviour but found a trick that worked for me:

    How to reproduce the behaviour
    Prerequisite: New posts in a forum (lets use Boardania as the example here).
    Steps to reproduce: Enter the forum listing. Enter Boardania. Read all new posts. Go back to the forum listing. Boardania will still still show as "new posts".
    Expected behaviour: Boardania in the forum listing should show as "no new posts" when all new posts in Boardania have been read.

    Solution
    Once you have read all new posts in Boardania, hit F5 to refresh the Boardania page. All the thread icons should now change into "no new posts". If you then return to the forum listing, Boardania will properly show up as "no new posts".


    I think I stumbled across another feature/issue (I actually thought it was quite neat, but it wasn't what I expected), but I might be wrong, I didn't test it multiple times. I think a multiple page thread with new posts will not be flagged as read if you don't view the last page of the thread. But I'm not so sure about this one.

    Edit: Nope, I was wrong. I'm experiencing the forum-listing-not-updating-issue and my "solution" didn't solve the problem for me this time. I'll try to investigate and will post back here Mal if I find something I think will interest you. Also, reading back through your post Grace made me realise I didn't answer your question at all but a completely different one. Oh well.
  53. Maljonic Administrator

    Okay the posts are listed normally again, newest at the top hoefully.

    P.S. That quote thing's ace, the little curved arrow takes you to the original post. I guess I'm the last one to spot that...
  54. Bradthewonderllama New Member

    Good job Mal, I appreciate your efforts.
  55. Maljonic Administrator

    The postings in this thread, on the previous page especially, are some of the funniest I've read in ages - very sort of Unseen University. :)
  56. Hsing Moderator

    Who is Malemperor? :-o
  57. Maljonic Administrator

    I had to invent a name before I imported the users otherwise I would have deleted myself as administrator, and I sometimes log in with that name by accident and even make a post before I realise what the fiend has been up to!
  58. Maljonic Administrator

    The limits have been changed up to 100,000 characters instead of 10,000 - and the lower limit is now 5 characters so Doors can simply laugh. :)
  59. Andalusian New Member

    Can I have all my private messages back, please?
  60. Mynona Member

    Now, no messages or threads are flagged as being new/having new posts even though I can see that there are when I look at posting times.

    Why doesn't it like me? I'm not Doors.

    It works now. What did I do?

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