Forum software

[El Gordo]

OK, listen up... it looks like something's gonna change around here.

I've had my usual annual demand from vbulletin to extend the licence. It's gone up again, to $100, and I'm minded it not to pay it this time.

So, what to do? In the medium term I'd like to move over to the Drupal forum, though this will need some bashing about. (The first attempt at a test migration can be found at http://www.runningcommentary.net/new/forum. Please feel free to play around with it as I'll be deleting it and trying again at some point soon. Do bear in mind that this is a very rudimentary test, with zero tarting up.)

In the meantime I may have to look to something like phpBB which isn't great, but may have to do for a while. It partly depends on what I can migrate to. I'll investigate.....

[marathondan]

Your Drupal demo looks fine, but also phpBB (e.g. this forum) looks to my untrained eye like it might do the job. If Drupal is only a medium term option, do you have any thoughts for the longer term? I wouldn't want you to go through the effort of migrating twice. It's great to have all the old threads available, but if they need to be archived off and we move to a different style of forum, then I guess so be it.

That's my thoughts, anyway. Thanks as always for your unsung efforts.

[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.

[marathondan]

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.

Certainly, it's a fantastic body of work that you've ended up as curator of. (And let's face it, great bodies are something of a rarity around here. ) I was just wondering if it would be possible to do a once-off, semi-manual, dump of each and every thread, to a flat piece of html. That would form a closed archive, and we could embrace the future in whatever form was most convenient. Again, I can imagine that the images might prove a problem.

And now I've just looked at the stats, and seen that there are 1,691 threads that would need to be archived.

Anyway, my line of reasoning is about as valid as saying to a car mechanic "hey, why don't you just fix the pistons?" or something similar. Sleeping on it sounds like a good excuse for some strong cheese and a bottle of red before bed -- the answer might come to you in a dream.

But one final thought -- if you end up with a solution that needs a lot of donkey-work (e.g. manual relinking of images or whatever) please shout and I'm sure we could put together a workers' cooperative of semi-computer-literate individuals to help out. (Equally, I can imagine you might prefer to trust major abdominal surgery to non-professionals than let us anywhere near your database. We won't be offended. )

[El Gordo]

Certainly, it's a fantastic body of work that you've ended up as curator of. (And let's face it, great bodies are something of a rarity around here. ) I was just wondering if it would be possible to do a once-off, semi-manual, dump of each and every thread, to a flat piece of html. That would form a closed archive, and we could embrace the future in whatever form was most convenient. Again, I can imagine that the images might prove a problem.

And now I've just looked at the stats, and seen that there are 1,691 threads that would need to be archived.

Which actually, isn't that many. This forum has been going a long time but compared with many, it doesn't have a huge digital footprint. As mentioned, by far the biggest problem in terms of exporting/importing elsewhere is the space taken up by the pics -- but I wouldn't want to discourage them.

Anyway, my line of reasoning is about as valid as saying to a car mechanic "hey, why don't you just fix the pistons?" or something similar........

.....But one final thought -- if you end up with a solution that needs a lot of donkey-work (e.g. manual relinking of images or whatever) please shout and I'm sure we could put together a workers' cooperative of semi-computer-literate individuals to help out. (Equally, I can imagine you might prefer to trust major abdominal surgery to non-professionals than let us anywhere near your database. We won't be offended. )

I'm greatly touched by the offer, but if there really was a labour-intensive task like that I might just put an ad on elance or similar, and get someone in the backstreets of Bangalore to do it for $50.

Sleeping on it sounds like a good excuse for some strong cheese and a bottle of red before bed -- the answer might come to you in a dream.

Ha! How prescient. I can't be too outrageous as the teetotal in-laws are on the premises, but I have spent the last hour or so nibbling on strong Cheddar and a couple of glasses of even stronger Cotes du Rhone. Let's see what tomorrow offers.

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

I must be getting old ... I'll go with whatever you feel is best, but please don't try to run the two simultaneously!

I'd be happy to contribute to the $100 and just stay here if that's easier/better/popular/more fun.

:o