Your opinion: improving the site

[Tristan]

I just mentioned in another thread that I am looking into moving over to a new platform for DCATZ that will allow us to spend more time working on content instead of fixing technical problems with 3-4 different systems all cobbled together.  The problem would be primarily getting forum content imported properly. 

Now I could create a poll asking whether you cared if the old forum posts get imported or not, but ... everyone would say they care, and that wouldn't really dig into the problem.  So, I'd like some pure, honest, candid opinion on this, if it means anything to anyone.

Obviously, the best solution would be a seamless transition from the old boards (here) to the new, with all the posts from the old boards available in the new boards...and then I can just jettison (I really like that word) this install.  But, the best solution would cause a lot of work, and with the time I (don't) have, it would be a classic case of the perfect getting in the way of the good.

The alternatives, which I'm not in love with but could deal with, are having only users imported to the new site (this should be a lot easier than both users and content) or importing nothing at all and having a simple link back to the old forums, locking them down to new contribution.

I don't want to force everyone to register again...but if it came down to it and we made the process as painless as possible (really just needs a username and an email address), would you register again?  We currently have 66 users; it would take the better part of an afternoon to move these over manually...but it can be done.

Bottom line is, we can do whatever the consensus says we should do...but realize that everything costs, so it's a question of setting priorities.  The options, again:

• We can import nothing and get a new site up in the next day or two and hopefully get content development back up and running next week,
  
• We can try to import users as well, which would push us up to at least the weekend if not mid-week and get content development up by the following weekend,
  
• Or we can try to import everything...and as of now, I'm not 100% sure how long that would take, but to do that would require this board to be shut down for the duration so that no new posts are made during the process...so at least one full day of downtime, if not more...and that's assuming that the process works seamlessly. Also, I would have to do some investigation to see if my preferred platform will support, by any means manual or automated, of importing data from this board.  If I can't crack that puzzle, I'll have to resort back to a less sexy option 2.
  
  

So, what do you all think?  I'm gonna go ahead and make it a poll anyway to get some metric data, but I'd really like to get ideas and comments more than numbers.  Again, realize that the more goes into this conversion, the less time in the short term there will be for the site itself.  Consider this and choose wisely.  For the record - if time were unlimited, your friendly webmaster (yours truly) would choose option 3, but would prefer under the circumstances to go with option 1.

[TransitGuru1981X]

Please import my everything from this forum.

~Ben (TransitGuru1981X)

[Tristan]

Thanks for the comment, Ben.

[Tristan]

I should note that one of the goals of moving to new software would be making new content development easier, and that means things like roster data (and rehab numbers, for example) easier to access anyway -- we would have enhanced rosters and other pages that show this information a lot better than the forums do...so in considering whether you'd prefer importing everything or not, keep in mind that the biggest idea here is to organize information better, not just to copy the current info over.

[mrpete]

Optimum solution is to shut down and attempt to import everything. However, that requires significant time and effort with no guarantee that everything will transfer completely.

Would an option be for those of us who have contributed significant text that we may need for future reference to simply copy the text, note the thread and date(s) saving it in our "My Documents" folder? When the board is up we could "rebuild" the thread one entry at a time, including the original date for reference, eventhough the real time date would be the current date.

[MetroLinerXLZ]

I would have no problem re-registering at the new site when it is up and running, that is, if it has to be done. I'd just need the new site address so I can bookmark, re-register, etc. It might be a better solution, like doing a complete reinstall of Windows XP. Also, I do support just importing users only as it seems to allow some time flexibility, seeing that just about everyone here has a busy schedule.

At the same time, both options would erase a lot of history, and it doesn't really sit well. A lot of good discussions and photos (and other content) have been posted here. But that's something that might have to go.

Importing everything isn't a sure shot guarantee (IMO). Therefore, I wouldn't risk that option if I were wearing the driver shoes.

[Tristan]

Let me be clear -- there is only one circumstance in which everything here will be deleted, and that's if I get everything successfully imported.  If that does not happen, this will be locked to new posts but not closed.  And, the two reasons the forums were phase I are to build community support and start collecting information...we've done that beyond my expectations, and now phase II means putting that support and info to good use.  That entails assembling a lot of the data here into actual content, meaning that the forums don't necessarily have to be the "central data repository" anymore.

[Tristan]

I need a few volunteers to go to http://beta.dctransit.info/phpbb3 to make sure your username/password still works.  This is the intermediary stage of the transition, not the actual platform we'll be using.

Also, if you want to browse through and see if there are any huge problems with the posts, that would be really helpful.  Eight eyes (or more) are better than two.

Please report your results here...thanks!!!

[79MetroExtraMD]

Successful login

[WES]

I logged in with no problems.

[TransitGuru1981X]

Successful login

It worked for me, too.

[rideonrulez]

It worked for me

[LandoverDivision]

Yup same here Tristan.

[Tristan]

Thanks everyone for checking that out for me; that stage of the conversion went perfectly.

[Tristan]

Okay, just to update everyone:

I ended up making an early switch to a platform that is much more powerful and, when it's all set up, basically keeps everyone from having to do any coding.  This is something that is very important to me, because I know that many people I want to recruit, and many people who would like to help here, do not know how to work with HTML/php/SQL/etc.  My goal is to allow as many people to work together on this as possible to ensure that it keeps going, so it's critical that I have something in place that can be used; I think I have done that with the platform I'll be using at this point.

So, the next step is getting all this data imported.  I ran a couple test imports on this server (that you're using now -- let's call it the Production server) and they sort of worked, sort of didn't -- shared hosting (where many sites are on one server) has certain security restrictions that place a time limit on how long a process can run, and the conversion process exceeded that time limit.  To go around this, I am now running a server off of a USB drive connected to my computer (let's call this the Development server), I have this forums program and the new platform installed on that server and I have a copy of the Forums database from earlier this week I'm using to test things out.  On this Development server, I will be able to let the conversion process run as long as it needs, and that'll get all the data converted to the new format.  The last trick will be breaking the data down into pieces that are small enough to be imported to the Production server without timing out.  I have an idea on how to do that, and it's a PITA, but it only has to be done once.

When I'm satisfied that the process is definitely going to work, I will launch the platform on this Production server.

If none of that made any sense to you, don't worry.  This is the important part:
To make sure that I import the most up-to-date data from the forums, I'll have to shut them down for a few hours one day sometime soon.  Maybe I'll do this really late at night (I'll check the stats to see when the least busy access period is) so as not to inconvenience anyone.  When we open back up, it'll be on the new platform and you might have to log in and update your avatar or something, but probably not much else.  What you can do right now is make sure that your profile has an email address that is up-to-date, because I will send an email out with the new information when the time comes.

I will leave these forums up for some time after the import, in a closed condition, so that we can make sure all the content has been moved properly.

So: good news to everyone who voted, it looks like I can get most, if not all, of the data to move over properly!  It's taking a bit of work but it's probably worth it.  Thanks all for your support.