Kevin's Watch

Yeah that may be in the right direction.

I am now reminded why I've dilly-dallied on this for a wee while.

Currently using XAMPP, FTP'ing a copy of the KW code (with it's bazillion files) and using an old database backup that I made...

Have discovered that phpmyadmin doesnt like databases that are a Gb big...so busy using Bigdump to chunk it up...it's fun!

Once I have that I can run the Vanilla converter and install the resulting database in Vanilla and see what I get....

OK....so eventually got everything running on XAMPP locally.

Now with a bit of luck, the Vanilla Porter tool will be able to suck up the database and just work easy peasy lemon squeezy...of course that's not going to happen

It all sounds so simple.

Tom, looks like most of your sig images have been blocked. I'm just seeing "linking forbidden" messages now.

I'm Murrin wrote:Tom, looks like most of your sig images have been blocked. I'm just seeing "linking forbidden" messages now.

Ahhhhhh. Well they weren't important anyway.

Thanks for the heads up. I wasn't aware.

On my end Photobucket images are blocked.

wayfriend wrote:

I'm Murrin wrote:It just occured to me that right now the site's URL includes the model of BB we're using. What would you be planning to do about that aspect?

You don't think it would be possible to create a page at that URL that redirects to the new one?

Um, hello,,,

www.kevinswatch.com



Old posts of course are a requirement for a new board. I think at this point if we had to start from scratch with a new board and new posts, it would kill the Watch.

I think most of the extra stuff is perishable, though.

-jay

Possibly we can find an image repository for the pictures and artwork in the cloud somewhere. Something where they won't disappear after a few months.

Drop all Mallory posts on the new board.
Also delete Mallory posts from peoples total post counts.
Please.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Drop all Mallory posts on the new board.
Also delete Mallory posts from peoples total post counts.
Please.

What did Mallory ever do to You?

aTOMiC wrote:

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Drop all Mallory posts on the new board.
Also delete Mallory posts from peoples total post counts.
Please.

What did Mallory ever do to You?

I was never a big fan of Family Ties.

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Drop all Mallory posts on the new board.
Also delete Mallory posts from peoples total post counts.
Please.

I second this.

-jay

kevinswatch wrote:

High Lord Tolkien wrote:Drop all Mallory posts on the new board.
Also delete Mallory posts from peoples total post counts.
Please.

I second this.

-jay

In reality I'm not 100% against this if it helped make the BB database more manageable during the conversion to a new system.

I would view the re-population of the Word Games forum a sacred calling.
Plus I wouldn't be against calling it the Word Games forum since I never quite understood the "Mallory" thing in the first place. Something about the Bar in the Gap series.

OK !! I managed to get my old copy of the database uploaded and working in the Vanilla Forum software

A few notes about what iwill be different:
- everybody loses their avatars and need to load a new one
- all the weirdo non-ascii characters will be stripped out
- all the bits like WGD's, Store etc are gone
- the album is gone
- custom smiley things are gone
- custom statistics are gone
- signature are gone but can be updated

I think that's it - otherwise everything is pretty much the same

I have posted pics in the album of what it would look like - I have this done on my local machine though so not online. It would likely take a weekend to get it all done so maybe Easter?

Can't say I'm a fan of that layout (sidebar, names and avatars above each post instead of beside), but I'm sure it's customisable, right?

It can be customised but that isn't likely to happen in the short term. There are a few themes that can be used so it might just be a case of picking one and living with it for a while

Hmmm...Set up a temp live one (not with our DB) so we can see theme options and stuff? What's the feature options like? Lot's of plug-ins available?

--A

My challenge is having enough time to do this.

There are some template options and you can configure if you're into CSS. CSS makes my head hurt

There are a bunch of add-ons that you can check out under the plugins at the vanilla forums site.

If we're going to make the shift then I think we need to understand that it's not going to be a case of getting it all right from the start but will be progressive - and some things won't automatically appeal from the get-go. Having a test forum isn't really an option.

This iteration of KW morphed over many years. The new iteration may need to do that as well?

After reviewing the screen shots the new format does look like it may take some getting used to but there doesn't appear to be anything so alien that we all won't grasp the site pretty quickly.

What might be helpful is if we can discuss the more interesting and exciting features that vanilla forums will be giving us access to.
Like an iphone/android app version or faster site response times etc.

I like nice boxes separating one post from the next. Looking at the vanilla examples I see a lot of the text-floating-in-whiteness style. I guess I am old.

aTOMiC wrote:After reviewing the screen shots the new format does look like it may take some getting used to but there doesn't appear to be anything so alien that we all won't grasp the site pretty quickly.

What might be helpful is if we can discuss the more interesting and exciting features that vanilla forums will be giving us access to.
Like an iphone/android app version or faster site response times etc.

Great idea

So take a look at the following for what it can look like:

https://vanillaforums.com/en/showcase/

It also does social login - facebook, linkedin, twitter

It is mobile ready - doesn't have an app from what i can see but renders nicely on a mobile

The addons are here: https://open.vanillaforums.com/addons

Other stuff is that its likely to be better for google search - they have changed their model