System: New Forum Software

[proffrink]

AF-UK will be migrating to new forum software within the next few weeks. You may notice a difference in the appearance and functionality of the forums, but your posts and content will carry over. The Classifieds will be wiped and rebuilt (this includes feedback), but will be available immediately after migration.

 

The current forum software has become a huge headache

The forums run on software called IPB. Back in 2023 IPB decided to discontinue their marketplace, and ever since this has meant maintaining certain code without the assistance of authors of the various 3rd party plugins that we use for things like The Classifieds, small moderation tools and other minor tweaks that you likely don't notice like dead thread protection.

 

Without these modules it's impossible to maintain the current rendition of AF-UK without dropping certain large features. A lot of you joined the forums for The Classifieds, and many of you solely use the forums for them so it's untenable that many of the modules that AF-UK uses don't work properly with the latest versions of IPB.

 

We're moving to new software

Migration could take as little as a week but may take up to three weeks. Downtime when the migration happens should be less than 24 hours. The new Classifieds will be more reliable and should have a few extra features when it releases with the new forums. The forums themselves will remain largely unchanged.

 

Some data will be lost, but most will remain

Although all of your accounts and posts will be retained, many items such as feedback and current classifieds listings will be wiped. Please use the next week or so to save any data that you may need as nothing is guaranteed given the age of the AF-UK database. There is still a small possibility that a full forum wipe will need to take place, but this is very unlikely.

 

 

[ButcherBill]

Thanks for letting us know.

[Cannonfodder]

Thanks for the heads up. 

[Skara]

5 hours ago, proffrink said:

There is still a small possibility that a full forum wipe will need to take place, but this is very unlikely.

nooooooo all my senseless ramblings!!

[Fatboy40]

I miss Yahoo Groups  

[Tommikka]

9 hours ago, Fatboy40 said:

I miss Yahoo Groups  

I like turtles 

[Enid_Puceflange]

7 hours ago, Tommikka said:

I like turtles 

I love lamp

[Lozart]

22 hours ago, Fatboy40 said:

I miss Yahoo Groups  

[Cannonfodder]

Edited October 21 by Cannonfodder

[proffrink]

Migration is happening middle of next week (Tuesday through Thursday). The old forums will be made accessible in a read only mode for a few weeks afterwards, but again the plan is to move as much data as possible anyway.

 

For the avoidance of doubt: accounts and posts will carry over as well as any existing threads, but probably nothing else. You will be able to log into your existing account as normal.

[proffrink]

Data migration is complete and - short of some tweaking and assuming no unexpected surprises - the new forums will go live during the weekend. No data from this point onward will be moved so any posts made during the next day or two will be lost.

 

Unfortunately the images and attachments are refusing to migrate. There's possible a workaround on this but so as to not delay migration any further for now no images will be moved. 

 

All accounts, posts, threads and personal messages have been migrated successfully. Once the new forums are live this weekend you will be able to log in as usual.