New Forums (Round #2)

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

Thank you one and all for the comments and suggestions, several of those will be finding their way into our new forums! This is actually being worked on right now in initial 'play with' development mode, give us a few weeks (we're VERY busy right now) and we may even get to a beta test stage.

Please keep the suggestions coming, you've given us some great ideas. A couple of points for help/discussion from me...

1. Our new forum system is going to be vBulletin. Any vb admins out there who wouldn't mind helping us set it all up? If you've got skills in that area then drop me an email, we'll have a chat.

2. What do people think about our old forums? What should we do with them?

Now on point 2. my personal view is that "the past is the past". When we last changed the forums we archived everything for you because people asked for it, I would like to thank both of you for actually using it :-)

How much grief are you lot going to give me if we just forget the damn things and start again with a clean sheet of paper on our new forums? I'll save the files in a corner of the new server somewhere (just in case) but in all honesty do you /really/ want access to them? Now you may say "yes", but our web logs tell a different story!

At present my personal view is forget them, they are simply not worth the effort, I was just going to leave them rotting in a corner somewhere. But this is a democracy, if you really, really, REALLY want access to the archive then I am going to have to divert resources to do it, quite frankly I would rather spend that time developing new facilties.

So your call folks - what do YOU think we should do with our old forums?

Keith L
BSAC Anorak In Chief

[David Walker]

When we last changed the forums we archived everything for you because people asked for it, I would like to thank both of you for actually using it :-)

There are old forums? :oO

Old posts will only be useful for people searching for answers to something. If they can't be integrated with the new forum, then obviously there's no point having them, people won't go looking specially in an old forum on the off-chance they will find an answer.

I'd say that it'd be good to have the old posts, as long as they were seamlessly integrated in the new forum. Depending on how the posts in this current forum are stored, it may be a simple case of exporting them all from the database, renaming a couple of fields around and then putting them into the new database. In that case, go ahead and do it. If they're not stored in a conventional database format, then unless you can get them out in a standard (eg .csv) format then its probably more trouble than its worth, and save your time for something more useful :O)

David



How much grief are you lot going to give me if we just forget the damn things and start again with a clean sheet of paper on our new forums? I'll save the files in a corner of the new server somewhere (just in case) but in all honesty do you /really/ want access to them? Now you may say "yes", but our web logs tell a different story!

At present my personal view is forget them, they are simply not worth the effort, I was just going to leave them rotting in a corner somewhere. But this is a democracy, if you really, really, REALLY want access to the archive then I am going to have to divert resources to do it, quite frankly I would rather spend that time developing new facilties.

So your call folks - what do YOU think we should do with our old forums?

Keith L
BSAC Anorak In Chief

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

There are old forums? :oO

Old posts will only be useful for people searching for answers to something. If they can't be integrated with the new forum, then obviously there's no point having them, people won't go looking specially in an old forum on the off-chance they will find an answer.

I'd say that it'd be good to have the old posts, as long as they were seamlessly integrated in the new forum. Depending on how the posts in this current forum are stored, it may be a simple case of exporting them all from the database, renaming a couple of fields around and then putting them into the new database. In that case, go ahead and do it. If they're not stored in a conventional database format, then unless you can get them out in a standard (eg .csv) format then its probably more trouble than its worth, and save your time for something more useful :O)

The existing forums are a custom flat file format - unless somebody knows of a vBulletin facility to convert the thousands upon thousands of files into vb MySQL database format then there is no chance of integration. The best we could probably do is set up the software on the new server (takes time...) and make them read only. That's what we did last time, virtually nobody used it :-)

HTH

Keith L

[Mike Halligan]

The existing forums are a custom flat file format - unless somebody knows of a vBulletin facility to convert the thousands upon thousands of files into vb MySQL database format then there is no chance of integration. The best we could probably do is set up the software on the new server (takes time...) and make them read only. That's what we did last time, virtually nobody used it :-)

I guess you've answered your own question there, Keith. If integration could be achieved quickly and easily, then there might be a benefit to offset and possibly justify the investment. If it cannot, then there can be no justification.

An archive of old debate is not going to be hugely relevant in the future, any more than it is now, so I guess a duty falls on each of us to secure that which we consider valuable. How long do we have?

Mike

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

An archive of old debate is not going to be hugely relevant in the future, any more than it is now, so I guess a duty falls on each of us to secure that which we consider valuable. How long do we have?

At least a month, more likely two. When we're a bit further down the road I'll publish a time line and give people plenty of notice!

Keith L

[Neil Carter]

Morning Keith,

Just a couple of quickies. Firstly, please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. These Forums/Fora might be antiquated, but they ARE extremely easy to navigate, probably the easiest of all the various lists I view on a regular basis, indeed, sad o that I am, GenForum is my Browser's Home Page. The problem with all the bells and whistles of separate non visible threads, visitors on or off line, most ever on line (huh !! ???) etc etc I personally find a distraction from navigating the info, which may well be of interest, if only I could get round the technological miracles to actually concentrate on the info. Having said that, I'll have a look at vBulletin, and hope my fears are groundless.

Secondly, as one of the "two" people who have actually asked to access the previous Archive, for information which I needed at the time, I would be in favour of maintaining a searchable archive in the backwaters somewhere, at least for a year or two. When you need the info, or reference, and can vaguely remember the where, but not the when or how, then access to Archive can be / could be invaluable.

As always, just my 0.5p's worth. (inflation, don'tcha know)

NC

[David Walker]

The existing forums are a custom flat file format - unless somebody knows of a vBulletin facility to convert the thousands upon thousands of files into vb MySQL database format then there is no chance of integration. The best we could probably do is set up the software on the new server (takes time...) and make them read only. That's what we did last time, virtually nobody used it :-)

In that case i'd personally say don't waste your time and just bin it all! Maybe keep both running together for a month or so (so that any "current" threads can reach their conclusion) but I don't see much value in transferring this forum over to a new server if its not integrated. As I said, the benefit of the old posts is when searching, but I wouldn't bother going to the old forum to search separately on there.

Alternatively, if you send me a sample of one of the data files for this forum then I don't mind having a look and see if I can put something together to read them all in and output them as something that could be merged with the new forums?

David

[Nigel Hewitt]

2. What do people think about our old forums? What should we do with them?

Ditch 'em. The amount of use they will get compared with just asking the question again will never ever repay the labour of importing them.

[Vic]

> 2. What do people think about our old forums? What should we
> do with them?

Stick the plain-HTML files in a corner of the domain (old.bsacforum.co.uk) and use them as a test-bed for ht://dig. We need a new search engine...

> How much grief are you lot going to give me if we just forget
> the damn things and start again with a clean sheet of paper on
> our new forums?

If you want to bin the lot, I could back them up to one of my boxen for perusal by my fellow geeks... ;-)

Vic.

[Vic]

> The problem with all the bells and whistles of separate non
> visible threads, visitors on or off line, most ever on line
> (huh !! ???) etc etc I personally find a distraction from
> navigating the info

That's my view as well.

These graphics-heavy fora frequently turn into a triumph of bandwidth consumption over content. Please, let's turn off all the extraneous stuff...

Vic.
[Who really doesn't like vBulletin - sorry...]

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

These graphics-heavy fora frequently turn into a triumph of bandwidth consumption over content. Please, let's turn off all the extraneous stuff...

Vic.
[Who really doesn't like vBulletin - sorry...]

Couldn't agree more Vic! In fact I personally find the out-of-the-box vb template gross, we will be changing that.

But I'm looking to FUNCTIONALITY rather than eye candy. I am aware that you favour FUDForum (which I am already using within the BSAC BTW) but FUDForum and the similar Open Source BB's such as phpBB (which I also have running within the BSAC) do not offer the facilities that we require IMHO. Having evaluated several BB systems for a commercial client recently I have used that knowledge to decide that vBulletin is the most cost effective 'fit' for the BSAC at this present time.

So judge us by the end results folks, not the preconceptions :-) I'm trying to be open and honest with you all and ask what you all want, not just assume that I know and dump that on you. When we're further down-the-road I will be asking for beta testers from our forum contributers, I want genuine member involvement in this little project and we will certainly listen to you. It is =YOU= who make our forums what they are, not me, I certainly appreciate that fact which is why I'm asking for you help.

Cut us some slack here folks, we are trying and we are listening.

Cheers

Keith L
BSAC Anorak In Chief

[Ron Evans]

Thank you one and all for the comments and suggestions, several of those will be finding their way into our new forums! This is actually being worked on right now in initial 'play with' development mode, give us a few weeks (we're VERY busy right now) and we may even get to a beta test stage.

Please keep the suggestions coming, you've given us some great ideas. A couple of points for help/discussion from me...

1. Our new forum system is going to be vBulletin. Any vb admins out there who wouldn't mind helping us set it all up? If you've got skills in that area then drop me an email, we'll have a chat.

2. What do people think about our old forums? What should we do with them?

Now on point 2. my personal view is that "the past is the past". When we last changed the forums we archived everything for you because people asked for it, I would like to thank both of you for actually using it :-)

How much grief are you lot going to give me if we just forget the damn things and start again with a clean sheet of paper on our new forums? I'll save the files in a corner of the new server somewhere (just in case) but in all honesty do you /really/ want access to them? Now you may say "yes", but our web logs tell a different story!

At present my personal view is forget them, they are simply not worth the effort, I was just going to leave them rotting in a corner somewhere. But this is a democracy, if you really, really, REALLY want access to the archive then I am going to have to divert resources to do it, quite frankly I would rather spend that time developing new facilties.

So your call folks - what do YOU think we should do with our old forums?

Keith L
BSAC Anorak In Chief

Bin please Bob!!

Ron

Bigger anorak question: "What is the plural of forum?" :)

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

Bigger anorak question: "What is the plural of forum?" :)

Grief :-)

K

[Andy Wade]

(snipped)
Now on point 2. my personal view is that "the past is the past". When we last changed the forums we archived everything for you because people asked for it, I would like to thank both of you for actually using it :-)


There are old forum archives?
....Sheesh! ;-)
I haven't missed them anyway, dump the lot.

[Martin]

My first thought was 'archive', however, the reason for this was that there are lots of answers to questions here, which can be interesting to look back on.

My later realisation was - as if anyone ever really looks back in the fora. Folk just ask the same question again, and probably sensible too, with the rate at which the technology changes.

For the exective filing cabinet me thinks.

Cheers Keith.
Martin

PS - if your looking for help with beta testing, then I'm willing.


Thank you one and all for the comments and suggestions, several of those will be finding their way into our new forums! This is actually being worked on right now in initial 'play with' development mode, give us a few weeks (we're VERY busy right now) and we may even get to a beta test stage.

Please keep the suggestions coming, you've given us some great ideas. A couple of points for help/discussion from me...

1. Our new forum system is going to be vBulletin. Any vb admins out there who wouldn't mind helping us set it all up? If you've got skills in that area then drop me an email, we'll have a chat.

2. What do people think about our old forums? What should we do with them?

Now on point 2. my personal view is that "the past is the past". When we last changed the forums we archived everything for you because people asked for it, I would like to thank both of you for actually using it :-)

How much grief are you lot going to give me if we just forget the damn things and start again with a clean sheet of paper on our new forums? I'll save the files in a corner of the new server somewhere (just in case) but in all honesty do you /really/ want access to them? Now you may say "yes", but our web logs tell a different story!

At present my personal view is forget them, they are simply not worth the effort, I was just going to leave them rotting in a corner somewhere. But this is a democracy, if you really, really, REALLY want access to the archive then I am going to have to divert resources to do it, quite frankly I would rather spend that time developing new facilties.

So your call folks - what do YOU think we should do with our old forums?

Keith L
BSAC Anorak In Chief

[Paul Beal]

Bigger anorak question: "What is the plural of forum?" :)

Fora AFAIK!

Paul

[Keith Lawrence(BSAC)]

I've had quite a bit of correspondence about binning the old forums, several people have asked for them to be retained and the technical advice I've been getting is telling me that it's not that difficult (to them maybe, beyond me!)

Better still there's a member on here who has offered to give us a hand and see if it can be done, some initial testing is looking promising. My thanks to all who have contacted me and we're going to have a crack at it, we'll see what can be done.

So member power rules once again, ignore me I'm only the Council anorak :-) But seriously, if people think I'm wrong and they're willing to give us a hand then I'm more than willing to give them the facilities and let them have a crack at it. It's what being part of a club is all about.

Cheers All

Keith L