Planning the move of the forums

[Firestar]

If you haven't already, please read the thread about the move to the new forum domain and forum software.



These are the steps you should take to prepare and get a smooth transition. It won't take you too long to do. Get it done sooner rather than later, please.



Things to do before the move:

1. Change your email address to something you can receive. Moving to the new forums has a high likely hood that your password won't work. You won't be able to log in to the new forums, and without your email address updated, you won't be able to receive your forgot password email. If you stop reading here, that's ok, but please just do this one step. It's for your own benefit.
2. There is a good chance that signatures and avatars won't get moved across. Please save them if you don't want to set them up from scratch again.
3. There is still a small possibility that attachments won't be pulled over. I've managed to fix the problem once, but there's no telling whether it'll actually work next time. Please save your attachments if you wish to keep them.
4. No user albums will be migrated. Please save your album pictures so that you can re-upload them on the new forums.
5. Blogs won't be migrated. If you care for the data of your blog, please save the code (the code should work in 90% of cases, although some tweaking might be necessary) so that you can create your blog posts on the other side again.
6. Downloads won't be migrated. Please download whatever you wish to keep, as once we move, they'll be gone.
7. There won't be an Xbox live on the other side, so if you want to see anything, or take screen shots, now is your time.
8. URL's won't be redirected for the actual threads. The home page will be redirected, and I'll try and redirect direct thread URL's to the home page as well. This is unfortunately one of the sacrifices we will have to make for the forums to move.

I'm going to put up a count down timer soon. This will give you an idea about when the forum move will be. My thinking is next weekend, if possible.



Things to be aware of after the move:

1. On the new forums, you'll have log in issues. Use the forgot password link to get your new password, so that you can log in. You'll need access to your email. Change it now.
2. I'll put up another guest accessible forum for those of you who cannot log in, to post as a guest. I'll need your new email address and forum user name to reset your password. I'm going to growl at you for not listening to point 1 above.
3. Please note that Vbulletin does not support changing of forum nick names. Your LOG IN NAME will be the username that you use to sign in, and it will also be your forum nick name. There is nothing we can do about this now, but once we're settled, I'll install a mod that'll allow you to change this.
4. We will be moving to a new domain (www.phforums.co.za). We will likely not have a proper logo up, and we will likely look different. Don't panic. It's still us, just under a new name and look. We will redirect this domain to the new domain.
5. If in doubt, please read the stickies in the Support Forum on the other side first, before making any new posts. I'm sure I'll have my hands full with this move, and I don't want to read the same thing 10 times in 10 different places. I'll put up a issues we know about post, which will be updated as we are made aware of new issues.
6. Save this list in a text document so that you will have access to it for the new forum, if you're not confident you'll be able to find it on the new forums.

I've tried to be as detailed as possible, while keeping it relatively short. I know the minimum of people will read this and understand it, but thanks to everyone who put in the effort.

[spaceman]

its true, if you don't read this you will be laughed at.

we may also perform an arrested development chicken dance at you.

[Maverick154]

What about all our inbox messages, will they be moved over?

[Firestar]

yes, they will be, although I would appreciate if they were cleaned out a bit. We have just shy of 1 million PM's on the system, and just that part takes more than an hour to migrate over. So, if you have old PM's that you no longer need, please clean them out for me. It will speed up the migration process a lot.

[Oj]

FS, have you considered migrating to a test server? That way you can find any major speed bumps and iron them out before the final move.

[Firestar]

I'm already doing test migrations. It is on this server, though. I don't have another server lying around to test with.

[Oj]

Can you not host it on a subdomain?

How big is it? Perhaps you'd like to host on mine? Drop me a PM and if it's not TOO big I'll send you my details.

[Firestar]

What do you mean? I've got it hosted on www.phforums.co.za already. I just don't have it open to the public. I'm already doing test migrations. I don't know what you want me to host. Can you explain?

[Oj]

Never mind, I'm doing too many things at once, I somehow read that you don't have a domain for it :/

[Firestar]

I'm intending to go live with the new forums this coming weekend. Prepare for some downtime from Friday night onwards. I'll try and get it done by Friday evening, and then do some initial testing late on Friday night, opening the forums up on Saturday morning. If you're able, I'd like to get some testing done on Saturday, so please check for the forums every once in a while and report any bugs you find.



I'll try and get a countdown timer up soon.

[Tank]

awesome!



ja no mistaking the time hey



nice and big timer

[Firestar]

moved forward to Wednesday night.

[Oj]

Do I need to change my nick before the time? It's currently two characters and VB wants at least three.

[Firestar]

I don't think you'll be able to. Since you can only change your display name, and not your login name.

[Oj]

Could you do it for me, if need be? If it HAS to be changed, just add a zero at the end (capital O, lower case j, zero).

[Firestar]

If it's a problem, I'll change it (you can post on the new forums when you see you cannot log in). However, I checked, and your account has been successfully imported in my tests, so there shouldn't be a problem.

[Oj]

Hahaha that's a laugh, you can import two character names but not create new ones. Cool man, thanks

[sinj]

FS, am I correct in my understanding that the images in Jay's Random Image thread and cats will be moved without problems if they are linked with the image tags to a different site and only the the images that were attached or used from the members galleries won't make it across? Thanks man

[Oj]

VB uses the same [IMG][/IMG] wrapper.

[Firestar]

I'm not sure what will happen. The FlameZone's existence is in question at the moment.