Changing Software

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Dude
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Thu Dec 22, 2016 12:08 pm

It looks like vBulletin is dying so I am looking at switching the forum to SMF.

it's a free open source software that many people say works much better.

When I do the conversion I am not sure what will be lost,

I have read that sometimes the PM messages do not copying over, so if you have anything important you may want to back them up.

other things that may not make it are the profile pictures.
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Dude
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Fri Dec 23, 2016 9:23 pm

we have some experts looking into the problem with out website,
here is one of them:

Image

so I might postpone the update until we have another software meltdown.
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Revroy
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Changing Software

Post by Revroy » Sat Dec 31, 2016 1:49 pm

Never send a cat to do a squirrel's job....

Dude
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Thu Jan 04, 2018 11:21 am

ok, the software has broken again, and this time I don't seem to be able to fix it,
so I am really really going to switch to some other forum software.

I just tried to convert the database to the SMF forum, but our database is so old that the converter does not work anymore.

I am going to try to convert it to phpBB and see if their converter still works or not?
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Dude
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:52 pm

the converter for SMF Forum software is written in C+ which I know nothing about.

The converter for phpBB is written in PHP which I know a tiny bit about, but it's thousands of lines long and throwing out fatal errors at the beginning so I doubt I have any chance to figure out what it's doing.

they were both written 10 or 12 years ago, so they are seriously out of date.

not sure what other options there are?
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Dude
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:18 pm

Looking into paying someone to convert the site to a SMF forum.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world,
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Dude
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Tue Jan 16, 2018 3:34 pm

in the next week we may see some changes, the person who is going to work on the database is on vacation and when they get back hopefully they will be able to move our site to the SMF software.
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Changing Software

Post by Dude » Wed Jan 24, 2018 3:24 pm

I just found out that the passwords will not be transfered over to the new software, it looks like there is a different way of storing them,

so double check your email address and make sure it's current so that you can update your password on the new software.
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those that understand binary and those that don't. 

Dude
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Re: Changing Software

Post by Dude » Thu Feb 22, 2018 8:06 pm

After working with the new software for a few days now I have figured out that SMF Forum software has many more bugs than the previous software we were using.

The thing that looks like it is causing the most problems is that to update a post can take 1 to 5 minutes because of the way it uses it's cache memory.
This causes all kinds of problems,
At first it makes most things around the forum look like they are not working and then when five minutes later when the changes occur that can cause more problems.

Looking where things are at this point I am not sure what the solution is?

there is a slight possibility that the forum could be converted to another forum software like phpBB, which would not be pleasant since I just spent $100 hiring someone to convert it to the SMF forum software.

At this point I am looking at the different options that might work.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world,
those that understand binary and those that don't. 

Dude
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Re: Changing Software

Post by Dude » Fri Feb 23, 2018 9:46 am

I am surprised at the amount of Spam posters we have I really thought switching to SMF forum software would cut down on the number of spammers that we would have to deal with,
but it appears that they can post without even signing up which I don't think they could do before or they were not quite as active about doing it.

on the bright side, with SMF version 2.0.15 it is only a few mouse clicks to delete an account and all the posts from that account,
the first day there were two new members who posted 89 posts each,

with the old site this would have been a real headache deleting each post one at a time, with SMF it takes almost no time to remove someone and all their posts no matter how many of them there are.

The main problem I am running into is that if there is a bunch of spammers that appear over night, then when I go to delete them the site does not update for several minutes so I have to remember which ones I have deleted and which ones I have not so I can remove a few of them, then I have to wait 5 or 10 minutes and come back after the site has updated and I can see who is left.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world,
those that understand binary and those that don't. 

Dude
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Re: Changing Software

Post by Dude » Sun Feb 25, 2018 1:18 pm

I figured out that for some unknown reason I set the sign up process to ask two questions to people signing up, but it was not doing this, it looks like it was just letting anyone sign up, yesterday I set it again and it started asking the two question and it looks like the spammers are not signing up and posting now.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world,
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Webscout
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Re: Changing Software

Post by Webscout » Sun Feb 25, 2018 5:16 pm

..Dude....a spammers worst enemy ;D
Image

Dude
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Re: Changing Software

Post by Dude » Tue Feb 27, 2018 8:56 am

what should I work on first?

- play youtube videos

- new custom design for the shoutbox

- speed the site up so it runs better oh wait I should make poll
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world,
those that understand binary and those that don't. 

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