KasperVld Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 (edited) Hi [s]Bob[/s] everyone! Over the past weeks we've taken big steps in preparation of migrating our forums from the vBulletin platform to the IPS 4 platform. We're now at a point where we've tested our processes and can set a date for the conversion. The conversion will start [U]Friday November 27th, at 09:00 UTC[/U] and is scheduled to last between 30 and 40 hours depending on how much - if any - sleep we get and how smoothly the process will go. Once the update starts the forums will be unavailable until the migration is completed. Several forums will be merged into others, for example a few inactive language-specific forums which will disappear and their contents will be reposted to the general 'International' forum. The same goes for the Live From Mission Control forum which will be merged into the Fan Works forum. Apart from merging forums a few will also be moved around. Note that [B]not all data will be transferred to the new forums[/B], so please back up the following if you wish to repost it after the migration: [LIST] [*][B]BLOGS[/B] will not be converted because we've chosen not to use that particular feature any longer. [*]The [B]Rocket Builders[/B] forum and its contents won't return. [*]For now we won't have support for the [B]Livestreaming Calendar[/B] on the new forums, but we'll work to get that back if possible. [*]Information about [B]Friends[/B] may be lost in the database transfer. [/LIST] Of course, there's good technical reasons to migrate to IPS 4, but everyone will notice some vastly improved functionality as well, some highlights: [LIST] [*]Get notified when someone responds to you (quotes you) [*]The critical addition of some Kerbal themed emoticons, and support for emojis [*]Full functionality when browsing with mobile devices [*]Tag people in your posts [*]Easily keep track of threads you've started or that you've followed, with a ton of notification options to choose from [*]Easily quote sections of a post simply by selecting them with your mouse [/LIST] Those are the most important things about the update, please leave a reply if you have any questions. Of course we encourage you to join us on our official IRC chat or any other place to interact with the community during the transfer :) [QUOTE] [U]Update Nov 21st ~19:50 UTC[/U] A lot of people seem to respond to this thread without reading the prior posts and discussions, leading to a lot of repeat questions and misinformation. I'll quickly reiterate a few points: [LIST] [*]A backup of the current forum will be available to moderators and administrators for a while after the update, if someone is for some reason not able to recover a particular blog/thread we can retrieve it [*]After some discussion in this thread we'll (most likely temporarily) keep a read-only version of the Rocket Builders forum available for people who wish to retrieve their content but were unable to at first. This archive will be available to a link which we will post on the new forums. [*]We love to see people work together to build craft and such, and as long as the roleplay element is remove from the Rocket Builder company threads there's nothing stopping you from posting these collaborative threads in the new Spacecraft Exchange forum. [*]Almost all data will be preserved including reputation, custom user titles and signatures. [*]Though the new forum does not support BB-code for new posts, it will convert existing posts which contain BB-code automatically. [*]Some links may be broken during the transfer, but I'm looking into how we can avoid this. IPB itself may have a solution as well in the form of support for mod_rewrite. It's being looked into. [/LIST] As for the reason of migrating to different forum software: vBulletin 4 is an aging platform, which only receives legacy support and it's showing its age in many ways: backend integration of the different systems is poor, security with the vBulletin platform is becoming an increasing concern and the forum lacks support for many modern techniques, requiring quite a few workarounds to get some things working. We have tried updating to vBulletin 5 previously, but that failed hopelessly and wouldn't take away the security concerns. We've compared many forum packages and IPS 4 came out on top both for us on a technical side and for (at least we think) the community as a whole. The new features should allow us to interact with you a lot better, and more. Now time for the stern side of things: I've seen quite a few rather disrespectful posts in this thread, both towards other members and towards Squad. These posts will be deleted and the users contacted. We're open to discussion and criticism on the condition of a constructive attitude and mutual respect, even when you disagree with something. [/QUOTE] Edited November 21, 2015 by KasperVld Adding information that was spread throughout the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alshain Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 It's a shame really, IPS is a downgrade from vBulletin, IMO. Ah well, I don't really care that much as long as it doesn't go away for good ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giggleplex777 Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Why remove rocket builders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EdusacconBR Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 wow, im a bit sad that some data will be lost, theres so much amazing stuff arround :l Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KasperVld Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='Giggleplex777']Why remove rocket builders?[/QUOTE] Rocket Builders is a place that actually breaks our community rules constantly, in particular the 'thou shallt not roleplay' rule. You're still welcome to offer the craft you make, or even take requests in the Spacecraft Exchange forum though, the only thing that will change is the 'company' part of it, with the employee/director/ceo roles and inter-company drama that comes with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fwiffo Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Maybe while you're at it you could add an option to extend the default timeout. It gets annoying having to log back in so frequently. Have tried "Remember Me". Don't seem to have this issue on other vBulletin based forums out there. Ignore this post if I'm the only one with the problem :-). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longbyte1 Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 No more blogs ;.; but I'd knew the forums would be migrating to either IPS or XenForo. Do we keep the ability to change our titles? That would be nice. Also, what about link redirection? All the forum post links are going to break. And of course rep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fwiffo Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Also, could you confirm this key question: Will links pointing to old threads and post #'s still be valid? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whirligig Girl Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Well this is exciting. Will reputation points be preserved? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thourion Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Take my words with a pinch of salt, since im out of my league concerning IP4 and emo stuffs but... ..is it just me or the pros < cons in this move ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KasperVld Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='longbyte1']No more blogs ;.; but I'd knew the forums would be migrating to either IPS or XenForo. Do we keep the ability to change our titles? That would be nice. Also, what about link redirection? All the forum post links are going to break. And of course rep.[/QUOTE] The ability to change your titles will remain, as will the reputation. We'll assess if further action is required to fix broken links after the migration, but I don't generally consider that critical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Will the rep system remain intact? I just got my second bar... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alshain Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 "The forums [U][B]will[/B][/U] be updated to new software on November 27th. Data will be lost, please see [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/140126-Forum-Migration-Nov-27th%21?p=2306685#post2306685"]this post[/URL] for more information." Little proofreading.... The forums be changin' yo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camacha Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Will the current blogs be lost, or are just new ones not possible? There are some real gems out there, it would be a shame to bin those. [quote name='Alshain']"The forums [U][B]will[/B][/U] be updated to new software on November 27th. Data will be lost, please see [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/140126-Forum-Migration-Nov-27th%21?p=2306685#post2306685"]this post[/URL] for more information." Little proofreading.... The forums be changin' yo![/QUOTE] You are reading it wrong. [I]The forums be updated, harrrrr![/I] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='Alshain']"The forums [U][B]will[/B][/U] be updated to new software on November 27th. Data will be lost, please see [URL="http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/140126-Forum-Migration-Nov-27th%21?p=2306685#post2306685"]this post[/URL] for more information." Little proofreading.... The forums be changin' yo![/QUOTE] I just saw that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Svm420 Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='KasperVld']'thou shallt not roleplay' rule. [/QUOTE] Why is that even a rule? Seem to go against the community aspect of forums :huh:. Haven't been around long, so maybe there is some history to that rule I don't know about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='Svm420']Why is that even a rule? Seem to go against the community aspect of forums :huh:. Haven't been around long, so maybe there is some history to that rule I don't know about.[/QUOTE] It causes issues with opinions, and makes it an overall bad place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoloYolo Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 I hope I don't lose my rep. I mean, I'm only 58 points away from a forth bar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KasperVld Posted November 21, 2015 Author Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='Svm420']Why is that even a rule? Seem to go against the community aspect of forums :huh:. Haven't been around long, so maybe there is some history to that rule I don't know about.[/QUOTE] There's a lot of history with things getting out of hand as a result of roleplaying :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alshain Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='Svm420']Why is that even a rule? Seem to go against the community aspect of forums :huh:. Haven't been around long, so maybe there is some history to that rule I don't know about.[/QUOTE] I can't tell you how many times I've seen it. "I wasn't breaking the [insert rule here], I was just in character!" Roleplay is a headache. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azimech Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Well I'm glad I've never heard of it. I'm too busy designing to be playing some kind of forum RPG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longbyte1 Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 Hmm, the migration definitely won't be seamless. The rep formula needs to be carried over, along with PM inboxes, release articles, subscribed threads, avatars, user settings, read/unread post data, signatures, visitor messages, thread prefixes, thread icons, user group colors, antispam plugins, and more. Holy moly this could take some time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterlubber Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 As for the rocket builders, I've seen non-roleplay things. Would something like a thread for a group where one can submit crafts and others can reply still work? Obviously without leaders and such, but still broken down so it isn't one megathread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fwiffo Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='KasperVld']We'll assess if further action is required to fix broken links after the migration, but I don't generally consider that critical.[/QUOTE] I hope what you mean is you don't consider it to be a likely risk. If you mean it's not an important feature, I politely but [SIZE=4][B]LOUDLY [/B][/SIZE]disagree. There are hundreds of links out there on the web (and in my own game notes) pointing to specific threads and post #'s for details on handling various problems, things to follow up on, or as a source of more in-depth knowledge. Please keep these working and implement redirection for the legacy links (both url's and # anchors) if needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cantab Posted November 21, 2015 Share Posted November 21, 2015 [quote name='KasperVld']Rocket Builders is a place that actually breaks our community rules constantly, in particular the 'thou shallt not roleplay' rule. You're still welcome to offer the craft you make, or even take requests in the Spacecraft Exchange forum though, the only thing that will change is the 'company' part of it, with the employee/director/ceo roles and inter-company drama that comes with it.[/QUOTE]It still seems like a rather drastic measure though, to just Delete Freaking Everything with very little notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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