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Author Topic: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?  (Read 7239 times)

Altair

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2016, 09:52:17 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;185428
We are going to be moving from vBulletin forum software back to SMF forum software. When we moved from SMF 1.x to vBulletin 4 in 2011, we did so because a) SMF 2.0 looked like it was never going to come out due to all the infighting among SMF developers and b) because by going to commercial forum software we hoped to get better support. Unfortunately, vBulletin got bought out and support isn't what it used to be (and the new vBulletin 5 they want people to go tries too hard to be like a social network). SMF on the other hand has reorganized under a non-profit organization which has pretty much ended its development issues.

However, the real reason we are moving on is because SMF 2.x handles recent versions of the php server software it runs on much better than vBulletin 4 does. vBulletin 4.x barely handles php 5.4 and php 5.5 -- and both of those are old versions of php. php 5.6 has been standard for the past 18 months or so and has just been replaced by php 7.0 (version number 6 was skipped). vBulletin 4 may never support them while SMF 2.0x supports php 5.6 and the upcoming SMF 2.1 should support php 7.



 
I tried plugging this into Google Translate, but it didn't work. ;)

Whatever is easiest on you guys who do all the heavy lifting is fine by me. I've survived board moves before, and I trust that this will be no different.
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

Yei

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2016, 06:10:41 am »
Quote from: RandallS;185482


Assuming the DB transfer goes as well as the test, yes.

 
I know I'm going to get in trouble for this but ...



Totally worth it.

RandallS

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2016, 07:53:57 am »
Quote from: Altair;185506
I tried plugging this into Google Translate, but it didn't work. ;)

Simple version. For the security of our server, I need to be able to upgrade something called php. To upgrade php and have a working board, we either need to "upgrade" to vBulletin 5 from our current vBulletin 4 forum software (but just about everyone thinks vb5 sucks) or switch to another forum software that will handle more current versions of php. SMF will and we have used it before.

Quote
Whatever is easiest on you guys who do all the heavy lifting is fine by me. I've survived board moves before, and I trust that this will be no different.

This should be an easier move than previous ones as it looks like we will be able to take all the messages and user-id/passwords with us -- instead of starting from scratch again.
Randall
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Microlite20: Lots of Rules Lite Tabletop RPGs -- Many Free

RandallS

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #18 on: January 27, 2016, 08:13:41 am »
Quote from: RandallS;185533
Simple version. For the security of our server, I need to be able to upgrade something called php.

I was asked in a PM what would happen if we do not upgrade php so we could keep using the current forum software.

When our version of php hits end of life, there will no longer be security updates for it as hackers discover holes in the system. This means our server would eventually get hacked and we'd be forced to either shut it down or upgrade -- probably losing our current message base in the process -- along with being offline for days or weeks while I try to do everything at the hacker's convenience instead of a planning the change and being able to do it when I don't already have other things scheduled in real life.
Randall
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IceAngie

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #19 on: February 02, 2016, 11:43:24 am »
Quote from: RandallS;185428
We don't have a time scale for this change, but I hope we will be able to do it sometime in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

Comments are welcome

 
I have a couple of questions. Will the old SMF board still be able to read/access? If our accounts here are moved there, what will happen to the old accounts that we had when we were on SMF?
Angeles/IceAngie/Selegna.

RandallS

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #20 on: February 02, 2016, 01:06:32 pm »
Quote from: IceAngie;186055
I have a couple of questions. Will the old SMF board still be able to read/access? If our accounts here are moved there, what will happen to the old accounts that we had when we were on SMF?

The old SMF board will still be there, locked down/read only -- just as it is now.

Right now we have the old (read-only) SMF 1.1 board and this vBulletin board. After the transition we will have the old (read-only) SMF 1.1 board and a new SMF 2.0 board (with the messages and user accounts of the current vBulletin board).
Randall
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Microlite20: Lots of Rules Lite Tabletop RPGs -- Many Free

emmstah

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Re: ADMIN: Change Message Board Software (back to SMF)?
« Reply #21 on: February 03, 2016, 06:40:43 pm »
Quote from: RandallS;185428

We don't have a time scale for this change, but I hope we will be able to do it sometime in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

Comments are welcome

 
Just to say good luck. :)

 I made the switch of one our forums from UBB to SMF, and other than the PITA DB conversion which required writing some manual mysql translations, it went well.

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