Author Topic: Switch to SMF from phpBB  (Read 17494 times)

kaysha

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« on: July 21, 2007, 04:46:53 am »
Hello,

This is a brief post to let you know of our plans with the forum.  You might have hit the forum today when it was unaccessible... we were taking a snapshot of the database to run through the conversion process to switch from phpBB to SMF as we want to make sure all the posts and users migrate properly.

SMF is a very lean, easy to maintain and free forum with many themes.

You can read about it here: http://www.simplemachines.org/

Here is the page with themes: http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/

I welcome you to go look at the themes and post which ones you like.

Our tentative timeline is to complete the mock (edit: mach is the speed of sound -Trolan) setup this weekend where can review everything and ensure there are no problems from an administrative perspective.  Once that is complete we will setup a time to move the main forum at which point we will have to take a maintenance window of 1-2 hours where the forum is down while it is converted to the new software.

We have also made some plans for the main site, getting the forum to something easier to maintain and less spam bots is just the first step... :)

-katia
I <3 Nicole

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LimeTwister

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itsthefiveofus

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« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2007, 09:16:52 am »
I second that ooo la la. That black one is not to bad either.

Current takes me out, what will be, will be. Floating on the sea, stars are watching me.

Vultch

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« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2007, 01:34:56 pm »
*skurred*

Ghisy

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« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2007, 02:03:44 pm »
That green looks terrrrrrrible.
I saw a couple of blue/black ones that are nice.
But there are too many of them, didn't feel like going through all of them.
Ghisy
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Trolan

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« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2007, 02:11:13 pm »
The default SMF theme is something akin to subSilver (this one) is to phpBB.  With SMF we can generally put in additional themes easily, and not have to worry about also ensuring board modifications work with them, just due to the way things are with SMF.  I expect Katia and the rest will grab a bunch of the liked ones and make them available to those who want to use 'em.

kaysha

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« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2007, 03:23:05 pm »
yes, Kelly is correct!  We know you have been requesting for a while more than just this theme so we want to provide them!

Just post some links to the ones you like and we'll check them out when we're ready to start adding themes.

Just a quick update, we are on track (thanks to Trolan) for having this database converted to the new SMF software and are learning a bit how it works and what changes, if any, we need to make.

-katia
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« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2007, 01:27:30 am »
I went through quite a few themes and found this one to be my fave:

http://custom.simplemachines.org/themes/index.php?lemma=6

itsthefiveofus

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« Reply #9 on: September 01, 2007, 10:56:48 pm »

Current takes me out, what will be, will be. Floating on the sea, stars are watching me.

Vultch

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« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2007, 06:44:00 pm »
So a week or so ago the Nessaholic admins converted over another messageboard, smaller than Nessaholics but was a good beta test to see how things may convert here.
It went smoothly for the most part.
The biggest flaw I saw in the process was zero permissions for anyone in a membergroup, on this board that would mean anyone in a Usergroup like the Street Team, and anyone with a Custom Rank. Anyone that fits into those groups were not able to post, not able to look at or edit profiles.
I ended up deleting all usergroups and custom ranks and members could post fine once again.

Ghisy

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« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2007, 02:38:09 am »
Quote from: "Vultch"
The biggest flaw I saw in the process was zero permissions for anyone in a membergroup, on this board that would mean anyone in a Usergroup like the Street Team, and anyone with a Custom Rank. Anyone that fits into those groups were not able to post, not able to look at or edit profiles.

Man, that sucks. I don't want that to happen to my profile.  :?
So you had to re-create all the usergroups and custom ranks to make it work?
Ghisy
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Vultch

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« Reply #12 on: September 16, 2007, 11:46:24 am »
Quote from: "Ghisy"
Man, that sucks. I don't want that to happen to my profile.  :?
So you had to re-create all the usergroups and custom ranks to make it work?

I created 1 new group from scratch to guinea pig it... the permissions for the group say the user should be able to do everything a normal user can, but even on the new group there was something screwed up so had to axe it too.

For ranks tho, with SMF there's actually 2 "rank" options. There's the post count rank or membergroup, those go above the avatar, but there's also a Custom Text field which allows users to basically make their own custom rank which shows below the avatar. So on that board I'm leaving it with the post count ranks (which work fine) and people can insert their own Custom Text.

NolitaFairytale

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« Reply #13 on: September 16, 2007, 11:55:48 am »
I am just wondering, and I know that what I am about to suggest may be pretty expensive (depending on which deal you choose), but have you ever thought of purchasing a vBulletin? This is just an example of a vB and has nothing to do with Vanessa at all (nor anything anywhere near the subject and I am not advertising the site.) I am just showing what a vB can look like. The scheme was made, and so could one/multiple schemes be made for Vanessa. Just a suggestion.

Will

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« Reply #14 on: September 16, 2007, 01:44:57 pm »
Quote from: "NolitaFairytale"
I am just wondering, and I know that what I am about to suggest may be pretty expensive (depending on which deal you choose), but have you ever thought of purchasing a vBulletin?


vB blows. End of story.
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