Thoughts on Change (SMF)?

[Lazybones]

Well I guess the question is, are there other forum options?

Is docker a must ( probably a big win on ease of maintenance)?

Is it worth the effort to change ? (Change of some kinds is needed)

[Melbosa]

Discourse is big, phpBB is still in active development, but I think SMF is all but dying out.

I would agree Docker is the way to go for maintenance, ease of installation, ease of use from an Administrative side.

I agree something is needed to be done as our SMF is stalling out on an advancement side.  I'd like to know the thoughts of our key members too before making a decision for us all.

[Lazybones]

Of note, I think we are 2 releases behind on SMF, we should probably apply those updates.

[Mr. Analog]

I'm all for something new as long as its usable and has some kind of app I can keep track of things with on mobile.

For me it comes down to usability and how flexible the UI is (skin support, threaded conversations, media support etc)

I'm also very interested in keeping all the content we currently have here since it really is interesting to come back to conversations from years ago.

If we can migrate content from one platform to another I think my main concern is keeping private conversations private, obviously moving to a new platform will give us more secure communication options but if we aren't careful our private forums might become public - would hate to accidentally dox people

[Lazybones]

I'm all for something new as long as its usable and has some kind of app I can keep track of things with on mobile.

For me it comes down to usability and how flexible the UI is (skin support, threaded conversations, media support etc)

I'm also very interested in keeping all the content we currently have here since it really is interesting to come back to conversations from years ago.

If we can migrate content from one platform to another I think my main concern is keeping private conversations private, obviously moving to a new platform will give us more secure communication options but if we aren't careful our private forums might become public - would hate to accidentally dox people

All good points.

For discorse at least it has a modern responsive design, the conversion and security settings should be something we can confirm offline locally. I suspect with any migration we will have some broken links , tags, emojis, and attachments in some areas but I agree it is important to maintain our historic discussions.

[Darren Dirt]

Well I guess the question is, are there other forum options?

Is docker a must ( probably a big win on ease of maintenance)?

Is it worth the effort to change ? (Change of some kinds is needed)

Docker = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docker_(software) right? AKA virtualization

So you're saying, new forum system, but instead of being a real single instance on a real HD one of you has been nice enough to provide for [omg!] 2 decades, now it would be virtualized... and [therefore?] no longer the current BBS system but something more "new and hip" like Discourse?

As long as it is easy enough to search (you know me and resurrecting ancient threads when a single post on the same subject is all I have to say), plus to quickly get "up to speed" from the previous visit (aka busy week or two, I can still come back here to RW and easily see the most recent "10 pages worth" of discussion).

TBH that's all that matters to me, I really appreciate the time whoever might be investing to keep this *COMMUNITY* alive with my dear friends of half my damn life.  :hat-tip:



Post-Grunch: seems like Mr. Analog said similar, but I want to echo this...

I'm also very interested in keeping all the content we currently have here since it really is interesting to come back to conversations from years ago.

If we can migrate content from one platform to another I think my main concern is keeping private conversations private, obviously moving to a new platform will give us more secure communication options but if we aren't careful our private forums might become public - would hate to accidentally dox people

Even if worst case scenario there is some kind of "snapshot" of all the previous threads, if somehow a full export is only raw data then I want it even available as like a .ZIP or something. Just the thought of losing what we all invested in for DECADES of our adult life, it gives me the shakes similar to when the IMDB threads gave 30 days notice before #MemoryHole made it all vanish.

[Lazybones]

The current plan is I will take a snapshot of the current forum and setup a proof of concept for you guys to preview.

The less you need me to carry forward the less work the conversion is.. I should be able to directly convert, forums, messages and users, the things that might be wrong, missing or break are URLs, attachments, custom smilies, and BBCODE in old posts.

Virtualization puts multiple OS on a single physical box by emulating or presenting virtual hardware.. You need to maintain the OS etc under it.

Docker is considered Containerization / Application Virtualization. You wrap all of an applications dependencies in a container then it runs on one OS.

For example you could wrap JRE , the app jars and its files in a container and run it beside another one with different dependence.. You don't install anything on the host OS other than docker.

For the forums this often means wrapping a lite webserver, PHP / JAVA / .net, the app etc in the container.

INstead of Patching  the normally common items like PHP, Java, .net you wrap the latest app with the latest dependencies.. You destroy the out of date container a replace it with an up to date one.. The apps data is stored outside the container and persists.

This avoids having a bunch of conflicting libraries on the host OS and keeps things very clean.

Last night I tried to upgrade the forum from  SMF 2.0.13 to SMF 2.0.14 and it failed because PHP needs to be upgraded on the server.. With docker that would not be a problem as both compatible apps and dependencies would be in the container.

[Melbosa]

I'll be sad if Attachments don't come over, as I've been running my D&D Thread with lots of attachments... it is something I can fix after the fact but will be some hours of work.  And then there is all my CoH/CoV creations lol...

[Lazybones]

I'll be sad if Attachments don't come over, as I've been running my D&D Thread with lots of attachments... it is something I can fix after the fact but will be some hours of work.  And then there is all my CoH/CoV creations lol...

I want attachments as well.. I mention it as extra work because reading the various forums it is something that can cause the import to fail (IE it is way faster to not try).. I will try and bring them over however.

[Darren Dirt]

I would presume the easiest thing to do as a safety net is a full raw snapshot archive backup dump of the RDBMS back-end, is that where the attachments are located too?

Otherwise who has the time and interest to do a full data dump of some kind, via some kind of Web Crawler wget calls with a bit of logic to "get everything"?

...like what some folks did for the IMDB forums...

[along these lines, one of these is probably the "hit"] https://archive.org/search.php?query=imdb

One attempt used "Scanner: Internet Archive HTML5 Uploader 1.6.3" apparently [but it was like 50k... unlike this which is much bigger -- https://archive.org/details/warc_home-grab-grabs-_imdb-forums_20160802 ]

[Lazybones]

Posts, forums, users are in the DB.

Smilies and attachments are stored with the web content files.


I will try and grab the attachments and import them.

[Darren Dirt]

If I had time/self-discipline, I could see this kind of "backup everything in a structured way" project being a good way for me to learn node.js or even just properly restart my Java skillset development...

[Darren Dirt]

*** >>> ABILITY TO EDIT/MODIFY POSTS <<< ***

just sayin'

[Melbosa]

*** >>> ABILITY TO EDIT/MODIFY POSTS <<< ***

just sayin'

For everyone else...

[Darren Dirt]

to clarify:

ability to edit/modify MY OWN POST without being a Mod of any kind.

You know, like what https://gab.com/ allowed from Day One but Twitter will never allow.