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Forum Upgrade

Touzen

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Hey all,

I am currently in the process of making preparations to upgrade the forum to a new software, that should do away with all the bugs and the quite frankly horribly outdated design. Essentially what will happen is that the forum software will be exchanged to a state of the art 2017 software that should allow RP to happen in an appropriate environment for a long time for now.

I have already been in discussion with some members on our Discord (please join if you feel like talking to us, not only about RP! ) and they have graciously offer to shoulder some of the costs involved in the update - including server changes and licenses for the new software it will be around 250 dollars, possibly less. We seem to be pretty well-funded at the moment, but if anyone wants to chip in, they are more than welcome to, no pressure at all though, and I genuinely mean that.

As for the old forum/content, I'd like to hear community opinions. Quite frankly, it will be quite a hassle to convert our 11 years old database that has gone through several generations of forum software to the new suite, and it might also quite potentially have some quirky effects, not speaking of of slowing down the new forum from the get go. Due to that, I am strongly favoring making the old forums an archive once the new software is up and running, allowing people to access old content, but not edit it anymore. I wanted to hear if there are any objections to this and whether there are any voices that strongly wish the old content to be integrated into the new forum even despite the issues I just mentioned.

Finally, I hope to make things more comfortable for our NationStates friends as well and give them better forums and means of self-moderation once the page is up and running.

Anyhow, thanks for reading all this and looking forward to your replies. Cheers :)

- Xen
 

Saaremaa

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I'd say that there are no problems by archiving it, as old RPs can still be read, so it won't be completely lost forever and thus it won't really affect present and future RP.
 

Saaremaa

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Roleplay wouldn't be disrupted as this forum will be online until the other one will be fully ready, so RP will continue here normally and then be moved there and from there it can continue normally too.
 

Rheinbund

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First of all thank you very much for your work, Xen. I can also financially support if needed. Please send me your IBAN and BIC number, either by PM, or by a Facebook message, or by e-mail, whichever is safer.

One small question of logistical importance. You are talking about turning the “old” forum into a read-only archive. Could you please indicate what you mean with “old”? Everything that has been posted and will be posted until the forum upgrade, or everything before a certain date?

Talking about a certain date, would it be an option to split the database into a part from before 1 January 2017 00:00:00 CET and a part from 1 January 2017 00:00:00 CET and later? Then you indeed freeze and archive everything before 1 January 2017 00:00:00 CET and convert the remainder to the new forum software. I would imagine that making the file to convert smaller will make the conversion less cumbersome.
 

Touzen

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Thanks for the offer, Eiffel. I think that transfer fees between Japan and the Netherlands will be quite high though, meaning that in the end most of the money might end up being used for fees, at least that is my experience with transfer from elsewhere. As such, I will probably collect contributions on PayPal, which also takes a fee, but not an entirely absurd one. If you don't use that or don't want to use it that's completely fine, as said, all contributions are appreciated, but enough people already said they would donate via PayPal so push comes to shove things are good as they are. :)

So yeah, those who are interested in contributing please query me in private in Discord and I will forward you the PayPal details.
 

Touzen

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Quick update: I will have to verify my PayPal account, so it's gonna take a few days to get a letter and whatnot, before I will be able to accept contributions.
 

Záhorie

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Just let me know when this gets done and Ill slide you some bones
 

Rheinbund

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Kashtan said:
Thanks for the offer, Eiffel. I think that transfer fees between Japan and the Netherlands will be quite high though, meaning that in the end most of the money might end up being used for fees, at least that is my experience with transfer from elsewhere. As such, I will probably collect contributions on PayPal, which also takes a fee, but not an entirely absurd one. If you don't use that or don't want to use it that's completely fine, as said, all contributions are appreciated, but enough people already said they would donate via PayPal so push comes to shove things are good as they are. :)

So yeah, those who are interested in contributing please query me in private in Discord and I will forward you the PayPal details.

Hhmmm ... Time to let Japan into the EU.

Given the mails I get from Paypal, I must also have an account there. I don't know the details any more though.
 

Touzen

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Apparently once I verified the account, I can also receive payments by "cash, cheque (no idea how these two would work) and credit card" to the PayPal account even from people who do not use the service itself. I would use bank transfer were it not for the international transfer fees and also that I plan to buy the license for the upgrade directly with PayPal, so that I don't have to move funds around.
 

Gunnland

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I'm pretty sure I have a Paypal account, so just let me know when you're ready and I'll hop over to the Discord to get the information.
 

Rheinbund

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Anyway, one question remains ;)

You are talking about turning the “old†forum into a read-only archive. Would it be an option to split the database into a part from before 1 January 2017 00:00:00 CET and a part from 1 January 2017 00:00:00 CET and later? Then you indeed freeze and archive everything before 1 January 2017 00:00:00 CET and convert the remainder to the new forum software. I would imagine that making the file to convert smaller will make the conversion less cumbersome.
 

Touzen

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We'll see in general how things work with the new software. Unfortunately I cannot test anything before I haven't purchased the software, so we'll see how the technical aspect of things will turn out.
 

Touzen

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Alright, all set now. I should now be able to use PayPal for collection purposes!
 

Touzen

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No rush.

A quick update, right now we are at 92 out of 140 dollars needed for the initial upgrade (excluding additional plugins we might need in the future).
 

Great Engellex

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Time to be that one, annoying I know, but I can make a donation on the week beginning 2nd. Hopefully useful, if not timely.
 

Touzen

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[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]No worries. Even if we should have gathered the money for the initial upgrade by then, there will probably be additional costs eventually for additional functions we will require. For now I am simply just collecting for the upgrade so I can move the forum over to the new platform and start working on the needed things, since I suspect it will not be an immediate process from the moment I purchase the license until I convert the forum, I need to get used to the new platform and make sure everything works etc, which I can only do on my days off.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif]Oh yeah, those that already have donated, please tell me on Discord whether it's okay to put your forum name into an eventual "Thank you" list or whether you prefer to stay anonymous. In general, please hit me up on Discord if you want to talk about donations and not the PM system (I don't trust the old software too much with sensitive data).[/FONT]
 
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