Forum software

[El Gordo]

Hey Dan, these aren't unsung efforts -- I'm a sun-shy geek, and the several hours I've wasted, er, invested today in trying to migrate the current forum to phpbb are grist to my mill.

Strange that you linked to that forum, as I have been poring over those very posts today, trying to resolve my problem. I managed to install phpbb3 OK (http://www.runningcommentary.net/forum2 -- though I've not activated it), but when I run the script to migrate from vbulletin, it starts off OK but then I hit a memory error. Have been livechatting to the hosting company who have been pretty good, but the long and short seems to be that beyond trying all their suggested fixes, the only option would be to buy a dedicated server off them. I would love to do that, not just for this, but to improve my very modest sideline reseller business -- but the cost is prohibitive.

Anyway, the thing that the migration is tripping over seems to be the attachments i.e. the images that we love to ilustrate our posts with. If I knew that it was a particularly huge graphic it was choking on, I'd try excluding it, but I can't narrow it down.

Hmmm. I'll sleep on it.

To be honest, I wouldn't consider archiving and starting again. I'm hugely grateful for all the interaction and banter and encouragement and cajoling that's kept me company over the years, and I wouldn't dream of unhitching all those conversations.

The worst case scenario is that I pay for another year. It wouldn't be the end of the world. It's not just the cost that's put me off, but I've started to find vbulletin a bit too bloated. It has tons of functionality I don't want to use, and it's become so proprietary and complex under the hood that they seem too scared to remodel it. It's become really hard to customise it. It hasn't changed its appearance in the 10 years or so that I've been aware of it,

I'll keep you posted.

Yes, I described Drupal as a medium-term solution but I should have said medium and long term. At the moment there is no other longer term plan.