Moving forums to XenForo

[Vas]

I agree with World of Illusion.
All this information,threads,topics,messages will be lost.
Its like having a community Reboot, well it really is a community Reboot.

Well, you think it's better to "reboot" the community now while we have this amount of active people rather than later when we have 10x more?

I agree with World of Illusion.
All this information,threads,topics,messages will be lost.
Its like having a community Reboot, well it really is a community Reboot.
But if some how you can move all this Data to the new forum, so why not?
i mean if its good for the community then why not?
BUT losing all this data is not worth it just to change to a new forum.

I'd almost certainly leave these forums up in a frozen state. We could recreate the active threads on the XF side with links to their old versions here and pretty much just continue where we left off. I hope.

I'd be willing to help transfer stuff over as well.  I remember editing the database of my SMF forum in order to change who owned a post once, I'd probably need to go try that again to see if I can do it flawlessly.  If so, it's likely the very same easy thing to do on the XF Database.  So if I reposted all topics  and all posts, I could basically just change the ID of the poster in the database to give it to the proper person.  Assuming the person is registered of course.

As I've heard though, you could just convert SMF to PHPBB then to XF, and you'd only need to fix a few small things (Which I can also help with) and at worst, you'd just need to send a mass email to everyone to reset their passwords the next time they try to log in.  Since the 2 forums have completely different encryptions for password storage.

OH, and I just remembered another thing I absolutely loved about the Starbound forum.  Though I'm not exactly sure how they did it.  http://playstarbound.com/suggestions/
Each suggestion is a forum topic in a certain board, and automatically appears here on the suggestion area where you can vote on it with a simple click, or click the title of the suggestion to go to the topic to discuss it.  I can ask them how they did this area, if you like.

[Col_Jessep]

Erm, why not just transfer the forum with all members, topics and stuff to XenForo? I'm honestly surprised that this is not considered the default option. There are usually conversion tools in the forum software or available as plugins. There are also people offering to convert your forum for you for under $100. I don't know how trustworthy those offers are.

Ty, I would suggest you simply make a thread in the support section of XenForo and see what floats to the top. They want to sell their product and that's a good test to see if their support is good or not.

Or you set up a test server and if you can import the database with a tool/plugin. If not you might be able to convert through a free 3rd party forum software like phpBB. Not gonna lie, there is a good chance some stuff will break. Most likely old links, maybe attachments...
Keeping a read only backup up for a while is a great idea.

[Celthric Aysen]

Im also wiling to help transfer some data, and information.

[Vas]

With conversion tools, you tend to have a lot of things break.  The forum needs a double convert from SMF to PHPBB and then to XF.  I researched and some people lost permissions when they did this, and in all cases, everyone lost their passwords.  BUT, someone did make a MySQL thing that you run that repairs the password part of your database to work with XF so maybe nothing will need to be lost at all.  But in the event that stuff does break, I could try to help fix it.  I'm not experienced with XF forums yet but I am with SMF and might be able to find where stuff broke at. 

We'd have to keep the new XF in read only mode till after we worked out all the bugs too.

[Architect]

I'd just like to be able to embed youtube videos in my main page, and be able to review messages I have sent previously. Other than that I'm quite happy with this forum Though I'll roll with any changes which get made.

[jamieg]

I would love like buttons, but im happy here, im more concerned Ill loose my screen name 

[Celthric Aysen]

I would love like buttons, but im happy here, im more concerned Ill loose my screen name 

yeah same..... lol
Edit: Im also concerned that i wouldn't be able to use gif avatars... 

[Yarkista]

It's been suggested that we move the forums to XenForo and off of SMF.

I'm open to the idea. The software does seem a bit more modern, and it has features that allow content management. For example, this is how the StarBound forums do their mod listing.

So a few things:

1. What do you guys think? Good idea?

2. Can anyone help or offer advice on how to move over properly? The simplest thing seems to be to install XenForo alongside SMF, freeze these forums, and let discussions migrate over. However, it would be great if we could import some of the content too. I just don't know how that's possible.

Oh christ, I'm going to fuck up this forum transition if it happens, I am god awful at using technology..

[Geeves]

Well Yarkista,
you have managed to get this far and post on this forum. That took a lot of technological skills already, compared to anyone from a hundred years ago. Surely you can manage a transition IF it happens.

[Celthric Aysen]

Well Yarkista,
you have managed to get this far and post on this forum. That took a lot of technological skills already, compared to anyone from a hundred years ago. Surely you can manage a transition IF it happens.

[longbyte1]

That took a lot of technological skills already, compared to anyone from a hundred years ago. Surely you can manage a transition IF it happens.

So are you saying that anyone in this forum can manage a forum transition IF it happens? 

[Geeves]

I am saying that if anyone can get used to posting here, they can get used to posting anywhere.

[Coenmcj]

Oh christ, I'm going to fuck up this forum transition if it happens, I am god awful at using technology..

You're still around after all this time Yarkista? You should be fine, Just... I dunno make sure you have a backup? or three...

Edit :
#1 Requested feature on the forums "A God damn Like button"

[Vas]

As for those concerned with losing their screen name?  It's very unlikely.  If the forums were rebooted and everyone needed to re-reg, you can just make your name again.  I bet if we moved, the database would be converted.   We'd at least attempt a conversion before doing a reboot.  That's just my assumption though, right Tynan?

[Ermantis]

Please, please, PLEASE, pretty please, don't make the futur forums font white on black : it KILLS my eyes !