Upgrade to vB

[Cthulhu]

With us having received enough donations to afford it, and after some deliberation with the members about what we should spend the money on, we've decided to goan purchase a vB license.

I'll try and get things set up this weekend. I'll have to go and buy the license and, first, see if I can transfer the threads and posts from our current forum software to the new. vB offers a program that can transfer posts, threads and users, but I'm not sure how its support is for our current forum software - worst case, I'd have to dive into the code and make some updates to get it to work.

But I'll do all that on my own system and make some backups beforehand, so it shouldn't cause any problems.

Once that's done, I'll see if I can port the skin over. It probably won't look like our current one, but more of a vB-ized version in the same colors and whatnot.

Speaking of, Someone should go and make a new banner for the forums, this one looks shit since it doesn't blend with the rest of the layout in terms of lines and shapes and whatnot, . In fact, someone with webdesign skillz should go and make us a completely new skin for both the frontpage and the forums, one that looks awesomer and less amateur as our current does (You should read that as 'I suck at webdesign', and then mainly in the details such as font sizes, positioning, etcetera - the original imagery is fine, but I didn't make that).

But that's of a later concern. I'll do some 'dry' runs of converting our current forum to vB on my own computer this weekend, and when I'm convinced we can transfer the lot of it, I'll turn the forums off and upload the new forums, install the database, etcetera.

I'm hoping to be able to reduce downtime as much as possible by doing as much as possible on my own computer before uploading and installing on the server, but I can't give any guarantees. Best-case scenario the move will be done in less than an hour, worst-case it'll be down for a few hours, worst-worst-case it'll be down for a day, worst-worster-worstest case it'll be down forever because I made the server blow up and I get chucked into Guantanamo Bay for terrorism, .

But yeah, I'll see if I can fix the upgrade this weekend.

 

[Ⓐaron]

good luck dood, let me know if you need any help

 

[Makoeyes987]

This is awesome, I'm glad we were able to get the donations and shit to do this!

Thanks everyone for donating to us!

 

[Cthulhu]

[quote author=V link=topic=680.msg29930#msg29930 date=1236974743]
good luck dood, let me know if you need any help
[/quote]

Donate money so we can get a better host if / when we need to, fgj . Also, write us good articles for the frontpage.

 

[Tennyo]

I suck at coding but I'd love to try to do a mockup of a site design and make a new banner for the forum.

 

[Cthulhu]

[quote author=Tennyo link=topic=680.msg30045#msg30045 date=1236984727]
I suck at coding but I'd love to try to do a mockup of a site design and make a new banner for the forum.
[/quote]

I could convert it to html / css like I did with the current layout, so that would be just, .

However, the imagery and whatnot isn't really the problem - I'm more concerned with the smaller stuff, positioning of text, color of text, links, etcetera. And for the frontpage, we'll also have to start looking for a new overall layout, so we can put up more links (to, for example, 'exclusive' articles, affiliates, regular news) and other stuff to be added later, without it looking cluttered.

I wouldn't mind if the site's width would be upped to at least 1024 pixels wide though - according to the stats, the most common resolution people use is 1024x768, whereas the 'old' 800x600 resolution is only still used by 2.80% of our visitors. Using more width would allow for some more room for the links (so they wouldn't have to be split up in multiple lines).

An even wider layout - 1280xsomething or higher is used by 53% of our visitors, 1024 is the 'highest' resolution for 'most' vistors at 32% - would allow for 3-column layouts, like a site I probably visit more often than my own sites, http://tweakers.net/. It has a load more than just articles though - it has forum posts, blogs, job postings, reviews, a price tracker / review thingy, etcetera - so 3 columns might be a bit of overkill for us.

But some more width to play with would be fine. That site I linked to is a pretty wide site (built for 1280+), but it looks fine on lower resolutions because the sidebar is reduced in size as the resolution (or browser size) is reduced.

But that's just my blab.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I'll donate money when I can be arsed to convert some of my funding to online, .

 

[Cookie Monster]

Excellent, I actually thought it would take longer to transfer.

 

[Tennyo]

Awesome. I'll get to work on that, but other people are welcome to it as well. Always better to have options.

And how many people who visit the site have 1440x900?

 

[Tetsujin]

[quote author=Tennyo link=topic=680.msg30075#msg30075 date=1236990334]
Awesome. I'll get to work on that, but other people are welcome to it as well. Always better to have options.

And how many people who visit the site have 1440x900?
[/quote]

I do.

 

[IndianaoftheJones]

I hope vB is easier on your resources and you don't get any more trouble from your host. If you do, lemme know and I'll go choke a bitch or something.

 

[Cthulhu]

[quote author=Tennyo link=topic=680.msg30075#msg30075 date=1236990334]
And how many people who visit the site have 1440x900?
[/quote]

13.31%, .

Also (and I should've seen this coming), the move will have to wait at least a few days, I have to transfer some money to PayPal to pay for vB, but that takes 4 - 6 days to process, so we can't get the license today etc.

Also, it's €20,someting more expensive than their offered price due to VAT, .

 

[Masamune]

In other words, Yop is going to take the money and start a new life.

"Say hello to Miguel Sanchez!"

 

[Cthulhu]

I dunno no Miguel Sanchez, but I am going to take the money and spend it on prostitutes, kthx.

 

[Masamune]

It's Lionel Hutz's new identify in one of The Simpson eps.

 

[Cthulhu]

oic, I haven't kept track of the Simpsons, only watch random episodes which I have no clue of in which season they are and whatnot, . Same with South Park, although I've kinda started watching those from their site.

 

[Tennyo]

[quote author=Tetsujin link=topic=680.msg30179#msg30179 date=1237022585]
[quote author=Tennyo link=topic=680.msg30075#msg30075 date=1236990334]And how many people who visit the site have 1440x900?
[/quote]

I do.
[/quote]

Great minds... have the same monitor resolution.

[quote author=Cthulhu link=topic=680.msg30197#msg30197 date=1237026249]
[quote author=Tennyo link=topic=680.msg30075#msg30075 date=1236990334]
And how many people who visit the site have 1440x900?
[/quote]

13.31%, .
[/quote]

Then Tet and I are a rare breed. Makes sense. Not everyone can be as awesome as we are. :-*

 

[Cthulhu]

I would if my monitor supported that resolution, :/.

If I ever buy a monitor again, I'll get a widescreen one as well as a second one, fgj.

 

[Max Payne]

I'm on the same resolution.

Laptop screen

 

[Cthulhu]

fyi, I just bought the license, so I'll have a go at getting things rolling tomorrow. As before, I can't give any guarantees on when it'll be done / when the official move starts, but it should be doable to finish it this weekend.

 

[Makoeyes987]

Awesome. Just please be sure to keep all our PMs in tact. There's a lot of important info and stuff in mine

 

[Cthulhu]

Hrm, I can't make any guarantees on that - after all, we're kinda depending on vBulletin's conversion scripts. To be sure, make sure to make a backup of the PM's. I should probably announce the move to vB at least 24 hours before actually doing so, so that people can back up any important data.

I'll keep a backup of the forum's database though, so if there's anyone that would need some info that doesn't transfer properly, I'd still have a backup.

Edit: Curséd, I just noticed this forum software doesn't have a PM backup system like vB does, >.<. In that case, store important information and hope for the best. I'm willing to extract the PM's from the database and pass them along if requested, if they don't transfer properly.

 

[Username.]

I av loads of Pm's from important people

the transfer of vb and stuff, is cool, brings extra functions into the game HHH.

 

[Pixel]

My monitor is 1680x1050, but i wouldnt have any websites open at that window size, and im sure most people are the same. 1024, I think would work great.

I dont know what way the stats work, but i doubt most people view websites at their full res. I think gamespot have a high resolutinon site like 1440, and its hard to view.

I suppose i showld talk about this in the gfx thread

 

[Cthulhu]

fyi, I just checked ImpEx, vB's import system, and it'll support our current version of the forum software and import / transfer all major content - sections, threads, polls (minus their results btw), attachments, PM's, smilies, andsoforth. See here