We are migrating the forums to new software called Discourse.
I know everyone will love the ease with which you can post pictures videos and other things.
However, there will be bumps on the way. For now don’t post anything that you would not mind having to repost again just in case it gets caught in the middle. This is probably a 24 hour adventure.
Here is Jay’s update to me:
Discourse has processed ~75,000 and has about 55,000 to go. Once that’s done, if you’re ready, I will:
Put the current phpBB forum on “maintenance mode” which displays a short message and makes the Forum inaccessible to all but admin users.
Do a final data dump, tweak the database, upload it to the droplet, sync the attachments, avatars, and smilies one more time.
Re-run the import. It should be quick this time because it skips anything it has already imported.
Put the Discourse forum on read-only mode and do a backup.
Download the backup.
Upload the backup to Communiteq.
Restore the backup in the new Discourse instance I created–and Richard upgraded–on Communiteq.
Test the restore.
If all looks good, switch the DNS to point to the new Discourse forum on Communiteq.
Add the htaccess rules to point old forum links to the new forum.
I’ve got a feeling the backup is going to be huge, so all that downloading and uploading will take some time.
If you’re seeing this, you know the deed is done. There were some issues along the way, but overall, it went pretty smoothly.
You should be able to log in using your old password as long as it is nine characters long.
If you’re unable to log in with your old password, use the “I forgot my password” link on the login form to send yourself a link to reset the password.
Site looks good. A few deficiencies … can’t see the latest update on an existing thread by hovering cursor over the post.
Also, can’t find anything that shows me where to find the gallery images; here is my Forums screen. Should I have a link there somewhere to take me to the gallery?
It’s no longer really necessary, and useless for users of mobile devices, though I can see how you’d miss it on phpBB.
Discourse takes a different approach: If you click a link to a post you’re interested in, Discourse will take you to the newest post since you’ve visited. Hit the back button, click back, etc., and it takes you right back to where you were. And it’s fast.
Give it a try for a while, and let us know if you still miss the preview-on-hover thing.
The Gallery isn’t necessary anymore for adding images to the Forum, but I realize you may want access to your images. The major issue is that without the old Forum there is no way to log in to the Gallery. I’m thinking about how best to modify it so that you can access it and use it with Discourse.
At this point I’m inclined to agree. I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt since I need to learn how to use it. But a couple things that stand out are the categories don’t display very well and we seem to have lost our signatures. Also I don’t see how to send a private message in response to a post.
And why am I listed as a ‘Basic’ user? I have been with this forum for over 10 years and have made my fair share of posts. I feel that is an insult to my contributions. Yes, what happened to the signature??
Everyone that isn’t an admin is listed as a Basic user for now. Bill hasn’t had an opportunity to address that yet. It’s no reflection on you, and I’m sure he will get around to setting up badges and ranks as soon as he can.
The signatures are not something that is imported in the phpBB > Discourse migration script. There is an option in your user preferences to create an “About Me” section that shows up–I think–when someone clicks your avatar in the list of five most-active posters for a topic and in a post you make, but there isn’t a signature in every post like there was in phpBB.
I guess the some had issues with the old forum format, but it was a well laid out and easy to use format. This forum style just looks too busy and chaotic.
You can easily navigate around the site by using the options from the drop down menu selected by clicking on the three bars at the top right hand corner, next to your avatar
If you want to quote the previous post, click the balloon at the left side of the input menu line
To include a picture - click the square icon on the input menu line and navigate to the picture
You can also cut and paste links to pictures
