New and more sophisticated forum coming soon!

[Chris OConnor]

As most of you know ezBoard is switching to a new system they call "Yuku." In my opinion Yuku looks too much like MySpace and we just won't be taken seriously be authors if we're using a childish forum system.

I've recently met an incredible web designer who also owns his own hosting company. He is capable of creating for us an advanced PHP forum that would have far more features, control and security than our current ezBoard system.

Here are a few forums he created:

www.fishingterritory.com

Take a look at all the features we currently don't enjoy. We can have subforums or forums within forums. This would come in handy for archived book discussions. Instead of having 35 forums stacked on top of one another we would have one forum called "Archived Book Discussions" and then 35 subforums.

Notice at the bottom we can post pictures. Imagine having that section full of member photos or book cover images or whatever. It is simply a cool feature.

We can have Google AdSense ads in the sidebar, which means we can earn money to help pay for all the upgrades. This obviously doesn't impact you guys directly, but BookTalk can improve if we have ad revenue. This goes without saying.

Notice that there is a chatroom - although you need a password to enter the one on this particular forum. We could still have a chatroom.

But here is the problem...

What do we do with our current forums?

There is a GOOD chance that all posts from the current forum can be moved over into the new forum. We're discussing this right now.

But in the event that this isn't possible what should we do? Is having a new forum worth losing everything people have posted for the past 5 years? This is a tough call.

We wouldn't have to lose anything though as ezBoard isn't going away. One idea would be to create brand new PHP forums and then keep a link at the top to our old ezBoard forum. Would this be acceptable? I'd love feedback.

Here is another forum example:

www.performancepoultry.com/forums/index.php

[MadArchitect]

Personally, I don't mind the idea that old conversations will disappear forever. I don't look at BBS systems like this as an alternative for publishing ideas that you want permanently on display, and once a thread is idle I don't see much point in keeping it around. What I'd suggest is that you find a way to move all recently active threads (say, active within the last 2 weeks) over to the new forum, and let the rest die a peaceful death. Leave the ezBoard forums open for a specified period of time (say, one month), so that anyone who wants to save a particular thread on their own computer can do so, but don't break your neck trying to save threads that are just collecting dust anyway.

The exception may be the official book discussions, since those also serve as an illustration of what it is this forum does. It could be helpful to have those around so that authors trying to decide whether or not to make a guest appearance have a sense of what goes on here.

But as for the general topic forums, I'd let them go down with the ship.

[riverc0il]

I have mentioned phpBB before and think it is a great move for booktalk.org. Personally, I despise ezBoard. phpBB really set the minimum standards for forums, especially considering it is essentially "free" software. I say "free" because it does require a lot of time, effort, and learning to effectively run it on your own server even though it does not cost money. I opted not to maintain a forum on my web site due to saturation of forums in the skiing world, but if I had decided to run a forum, I certainly would have used phpBB.

Retaining past book discussion would be important but if ezBoard will not let you export the data (I wouldn't be surprised!) then the rest of the discussions are not too important to the future of the community. A locked achieve of older posts is pretty standard when switching forum software.

Edited by: riverc0il at: 6/8/07 7:12 pm

[Frank 013]

I agree with Mad, I don't think the archive is that important, besides we will have a new one in no time. If you can get the current topics switched over then that (in my opinion) should be sufficient.

If you feel that most of that material is too important to let go than the link to the old page seems like a good compromise.

Later

Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well
preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,
shouting..."Holy Crap...what a ride!"

[Chris OConnor]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'm working on the two polls right now, but will get back to this thread and issue soon.

[Cogitoe]

I'm new to ezboard and this site so correct me if I'm wrong, but right away compared to other forums I notice that you don't have a decent control panel where you can subscribe to threads, and also the "new posts" function only puts checkmarks next to the forums instead of showing you a list of posts from all forums. So hopefully this change is still happening soon.

[Chris OConnor]

I am waiting to hear from the guy that agreed to help us switch to new forum software. He had a personal emergency that set him back a few weeks, but I am hoping to hear from him soon.

[Chris OConnor]

Ok, he is about ready to make the transfer. I have mixed feelings about this. We have the opportunity to start completely new with new forum names and categories. Maybe we can schedule a chat session and discuss this as a community. I think the first step will be to move everything into duplicates of our current forums. Then, once we're on a php forum we can create new forums if desired.

[Mr. Pessimistic]

That sounds like the best plan Chris - Move everything and keep us running and then we can think about making changes.

I am actually excited. I usually do not like change with things like this (used to the look and all) but I think I need a bit of a change at this time.


Mr. P.

But atheism is no more a religion than not playing chess is a hobby. - Robert Sawyer - Sci Fi Author

I'm not saying it's usual for people to do those things but I(with the permission of God) have raised a dog from the dead and healed many people from all sorts of ailments. - Asana Boditharta (former booktalk troll)

"The Sentient may percieve and love the universe, but the universe cannot percieve and love the sentient. The universe sees no distinction between the multitude of creatures and elements which comprise it. All are equal. None is favored...It cannot control what it creates and it cannot, it seems, be controlled by its creations (though a few might decieve themselves otherwise). Those who curse the workings of the universe curse that which is deaf. Those who strike out at those workings fight that which is inviolate. Those who shake their fists, shake their fists at blind stars." - Michael Moorcock in the "Queen of the Swords"

[MadArchitect]

I'd move all of the quarterly discussion threads, and any general discussion threads that have been updated in, say, the last month. I don't see much point in moving anything older than that. Very few people actually go back and re-read inactive threads. Mostly they just sit there, eating up bandwidth and memory. Let go.

&lt;br&gt;<br>-----------------&lt;br&gt;<br>&lt;i&gt;Ain't got a name, just a current address.&lt;/i&gt;

[Mr. Pessimistic]

Well bandwidth would only be used if someone accesses the thread...no? And how much memory could they possibly take up?

I say archive the whole shebang if you can.

Mr. P.

But atheism is no more a religion than not playing chess is a hobby. - Robert Sawyer - Sci Fi Author

I'm not saying it's usual for people to do those things but I(with the permission of God) have raised a dog from the dead and healed many people from all sorts of ailments. - Asana Boditharta (former booktalk troll)

"The Sentient may percieve and love the universe, but the universe cannot percieve and love the sentient. The universe sees no distinction between the multitude of creatures and elements which comprise it. All are equal. None is favored...It cannot control what it creates and it cannot, it seems, be controlled by its creations (though a few might decieve themselves otherwise). Those who curse the workings of the universe curse that which is deaf. Those who strike out at those workings fight that which is inviolate. Those who shake their fists, shake their fists at blind stars." - Michael Moorcock in the "Queen of the Swords"

[MadArchitect]

Hey, Chris, are you guys still moving some posts from the old board? I've noticed that some of the recent threads are a bit clipped, and I'm wondering whether or not we'll see the newer posts reappear in the next few days. Specifically, I noticed it while reviewing the "Introduction -- You're Too Nice" thread in the "Godless In America" forum.

Also, where are the posts from the temporary forums? I was planning to movie my last minute non-fiction book suggestion to the proper thread...

Otherwise, the place looks great.

[Chris OConnor]

I'd appreciate if you showed me the specific threads that are missing posts. I didn't realize this happened. There is probably nothing we can do about it other than copy and paste those posts that are missing. I'm sorry about it if it happened.

Keep in mind that ezboard doesn't even make transfers possible. They gave us zero access to our database of members, posts or forums. We used a script developed by a hacker/programmer to weed through our forums and grab everything possible. Overall, I'd say the transfer is a big success. But I cannot promise it went perfectly. It is better than the alternative, which was to lose everything and start from scratch.

[Mr. Pessimistic]

[indie]

Hey guys,

All things considered, I think the move went very well. I'm not surprised at all that parts are missing though. The converter I used is far from perfect, but it's the best we have. It also is free (as in liberty and as in beer) so on that front it's hard to complain too.

Copy/paste operations can be used to move individual posts, I know it's less than ideal and the chronology is lost but it will preserve the text.

Sorry it didn't get everything (but 26k posts ain't bad considering the methods).

indie