Thoughts on Change (SMF)?

[Melbosa]

So you may be aware that Lazy and I have spent time to see what the upgrade will look like for SMF.  It is possible to do so, and its in our wheelhouse to make it happen, but I wanted to know your thoughts on moving out of this traditional software to something more modern.  I know we asked this question a few years ago, but since then there has been some new products released that I am really excited about.

One particular is Discord, and with Discord there are more integration options with other products that could replace SMF really nicely.  One of them to consider is Guilded (https://www.guilded.gg/).  This free product is currently in beta, but I have one large guild I am in is already using it.  It is pretty much Discord + SMF + Game Stat collections + Streaming section wrapped up together (and integrates with Discord).

What I want to know is the active member's thoughts about exploring this new medium?  I can set it up free of charge for us to review if there is interest?

Let me know by Friday, September 21, 2018 what you think about pursuing a demo of it for this group?

[Lazybones]

My personal thoughts.

1. I would like to see HTTPS in use... because well I log in from work, and well passwords in the clear and all.
2. We have a number of private subs for guild and friends chat.. I have some concerns about that being hosted as a SaaS as we lose some control of that data. However I am not opposed to it as I think security wise a SaaS will probably do better than us.

I do like the look and feel of some message / forum systems better than others however I am very flexible on this.

[Mr. Analog]

Like Lazy I have some concerns about SaaS and privacy, if we migrate existing content it may reveal more than I think I'd like to have out there in the cloud.

That said I'm not opposed to change, I do like the threaded conversation model we have here and how easy it is to access / read. I have a lot of control over how it looks with my web browser, but that's mainly a me thing not a most people thing.

I like Discord but it can get unwieldy (I've been managing my own small community for over a year), I wouldn't mind if we had a Discord on the side - if anything for voice chat and fun bots and such.

[Tom]

I'm not fussed, though I'm partial to not using some other client for a single community...

[Darren Dirt]

I like what has worked for this long time... I really like the ability to FIND old threads quickly and easily and reliably.

I fear Discord would be too different in how I use this forum regularly.

What are the benefits to switching?

[Melbosa]

Its about the time to switch.  If going to put in the effort want to make sure moving to the right upgrade that is best for us.

[Lazybones]

Given how little time we typically have to dedicate to patching / administration I agree it is time to change.

I agree with Darren that discovering old content via search however is an important feature, I quite frequently search for past discussion on hardware and various topics on here as well..

I just don't resurrect the thread as often.

[Mr. Analog]

TBH I kinda like the ol' forums the way they are, I'd like to know more about the other options though. I'm very familiar with Discord and its more of a live conversation type thing (think IRC or group IM chat, but with channels) it does offer some bonuses like having voice channels / screen sharing if we actually want to see or talk to each other.

FYI you don't need the desktop / mobile client to use Discord there is a web interface it's kinda clunky but it works

I have no idea about Guilded, I'll have to do some poking around to learn it

[Darren Dirt]

I VOTE REMAIN





Seriously though... not broke, why fix it? I really appreciate what we have, and the time you admins spend keeping it reliable. No extra time needed if no new system to go to.

[Lazybones]

I don?t think remain the same is a realistic option, I think this is more about when and what.

[Lazybones]

Going to make two suggestions.

1. Replace SMF with https://www.discourse.org/ it can be run as an open source docker image (or hosted as a SAS if you want)
2. Host in AWS on a simplified LightSail instance.. $5 USD / mo (1GB of ram is the minimum for discourse)

Using the above we should be able to wrap the site with Nginx and Free lets encrypt

The above config should be VERY portable to other hosting, and also allow for an offline data conversion on a faster system as we have lots of legacy data to move.

Data conversion doesn't look too clean.. Probably will break BBCode and some custom smilies but there is a documented SMF2 procedure for doing an upgrade / conversion.

It is a popular and well supported forum.. While I don't totally like its look and feel it is build on highly maintainable parts and using docker it should be MUCH easier to keep the host and services patched and secure.

[Melbosa]

I can host the same thing on Linode for the same price, so either solution is fine.  Its the getting there that will determine how we proceed.

[Lazybones]

I can host the same thing on Linode for the same price, so either solution is fine.  Its the getting there that will determine how we proceed.

Yep.

Really with docker the only big difference is going to be how the storage mount points are setup / permissions on some variations of the OS.

[Lazybones]

I suppose the recommended install method for letsencrypts certbot does differ a bit by host OS.

The ubuntu option is actually to use a PPA and use a package, it setup the auto renew cron job for you.

[Melbosa]

I have already setup a letsencrypt with centos on linode using docker.  So I am familiar on how to do it under centos with docker.