Forum Update +

[Patroclus]

I don’t like the idea of “read only state” because it will be confusing for new members. They will get in from a google search, see that it’s dead and when they see that they can’t post anything then they’ll leave. But if it’s impossible then we should accept it. The choice is yours.

[QorDaq]

It appears that Option 2 will give us a solid archive if I'm understanding all of this correctly? Also, is there anything in the new Forum option which prohibits newer DiceMod functionality? In other words, would it be possible at some point in the future to add a new Dice roller of some description? Same with awards and similar?

As to the migration of gallery items... That seems like it could be a project-over-time sort of endeavor that perhaps the community could assist with in some way, like breaking the work into more manageable chunks and assign them (on a volunteer basis) to those interested in assisting? Or something like that? I know nothing about forum structure, so I don't know how feasible that would be or how it would work, but if it's as simple as Downloading pieces of art and re-uploading them from scratch, I'll bet a volunteer army could be set to task? Or am I way off base with that assessment?

And, on the point of folks coming over to the olde site and being discouraged, would it not be possible to put up a splash page that lets visitors know that both sites exist before they get into the boards themselves? A little brief text and links that direct them to the archive or the active forum depending on their needs?

I don't know, again, I'm not a computer person by nature and I don't have the tech background to know what is or isn't possible from the back-end, but I am familiar enough with this community to know that folks will be willing to help if it's feasible.

Let me know what you need drathe, if it's within my meager abilities I'll gladly pitch in. Like MitchieMasha, I consider myself to be a lifer at this point, I may not post all the time, but I visit pretty much daily.

[knightkrawler]

How did you get in here!?

[mitchiemasha]

Ahhh, a lost trader, or a trap from Zargon.

[lestodante]

Is anyone else having issues with some of the gallery pictures not displaying? Some of them I get a 503. It doesn't seem to be an overload or bandwidth, because its the same pictures on different days.

Yes, I often get an error after browsing some pics from the gallery too. I land on a balnk/grey page showing the following:
"503
Service Unavailable
The server is temporarily busy, try again later!"

and then on the bottom of the page:
"Proudly powered by LiteSpeed Web Server
Please be advised that LiteSpeed Technologies Inc. is not a web hosting company and, as such, has no control over content found on this site."

the error is temporary and appeared today on the following images:
gallery/image_page.php?album_id=4&image_id=1895
gallery/image_page.php?album_id=15&image_id=411
gallery/image_page.php?album_id=8&image_id=1580

[Daedalus]

Hey drathe,
I wish there was some way we could all do something or give you something to show our appreciation. I just
don't know what.

Anyone with PayPal who shares the sentiment could always use the Donate button at the Homepage. Then there was that thread about an HQ set donated and painted by Inn members. The momentum died, but anyone so motivated could paint up a figure and send it to drathe as an extension of the X-mas exchange. A bit of coordination could eventually create that dream game.

[Daedalus]

Here's where we stand now...
The forum software we are currently using is out of date and no longer supported. I've also discovered during my trials that a lot more of the Modification we use here are incompatible with the newer version than expected.
DiceMod, Rewards, all the custom profile fields, the gallery, etc. There is a gallery available for the new version, but we'd have to rebuild it from scratch as there's no way to transfer the current gallery over to the new one.

I have a couple ideas on how to proceed from here.

1. Continue to try again at a later date and hopefully the database will completely transfer during one of the future attempts. This would be during the Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday (2nd weekend in October) or Christmas Holiday (I'll have a lot more time during the Christmas Holiday).

2. Complete number 1 as a new forum with all users, topics and posts transferred (as long as the database doesn't drop a tonne of posts again), and also keep the current forum in a read-only state as an archive allowing it to be viewed, but no new posts can be made to it.

I like the idea of number 2 personally, as we will have everything for historical purposes and can easily reference everything when rebuilding the gallery on the new version. By the time I can again attempt the upgrade, our host will also have completed some equipment upgrades which will hopefully assist in transferring and updated the database successfully.

Please feel free to discuss the options here.

Christmas is coming up, so I'm hopeful any new attempt has better tools available for a successful update. However, if the Inn is archived as read-only, will the search function of the newly-updated Inn still operate on archived topics? For instance, say after a choice-2 update a new topic was started about Borin's Armor. Could archived topics on the subject be searched and then have the OP contain a link pointing to a related topic started in 2014?

As a side note....I was planning on setting up a Dropbox archive with all the HQ stuff I could find organized in it. If you're gonna do that anyway for the website, is there any need for me to do it?

Perhaps there's this . . .

As to the migration of gallery items... That seems like it could be a project-over-time sort of endeavor that perhaps the community could assist with in some way, like breaking the work into more manageable chunks and assign them (on a volunteer basis) to those interested in assisting? Or something like that? I know nothing about forum structure, so I don't know how feasible that would be or how it would work, but if it's as simple as Downloading pieces of art and re-uploading them from scratch, I'll bet a volunteer army could be set to task? Or am I way off base with that assessment?

I'd be willing to enlist.

[knightkrawler]

As to the migration of gallery items... That seems like it could be a project-over-time sort of endeavor that perhaps the community could assist with in some way, like breaking the work into more manageable chunks and assign them (on a volunteer basis) to those interested in assisting? Or something like that? I know nothing about forum structure, so I don't know how feasible that would be or how it would work, but if it's as simple as Downloading pieces of art and re-uploading them from scratch, I'll bet a volunteer army could be set to task? Or am I way off base with that assessment?

I'd be willing to enlist.

I would take over a chunk, too.

[knightkrawler]

Bugger me sideways, these last few days were hard...

[Sjeng]

Panic was had. But you're back

Goblin King and Anderas both contacted me on BGG, and I had no idea why Ye Olde Inn was down.