Imperial Proclamation: phpBB, Free Hosting, and a Transfer

[Greg Dean]

The problem involves the subforums mod - it messes with the way forum ID's are assigned, giving the converter issues. Unfortunately, uninstalling the mod is.... tricky. I'm going to set up a clean phpBB and see if I can't get that to work. *ponders*

[Greg Dean]

Success!! I installed a clean version of the system, and even WITHOUT having to set the style of this board to classic, it copied the (non-closed) threads over perfectly!More information to come. Will continue work on this as long as I can this evening.

[Greg Dean]

OKAY. I'm working as fast as I can to get all the forum threads and users copied over, so it won't be inaccurate. Unfortunately, it's slow going - the converter takes some time. Thankfully however, it IS automatic. So at least I don't have to spend all my time on it.The new forum, right now, is pretty barebones. No subforums yet, no special design stuff.... just the forums and threads. YOUR USERNAME WILL BE COPIED OVER. I'm trying to think of a good way to get everyone their login information... I think for now, it would be best for you to send me a PM on this forum, and I will return you with a PM that includes your temporary password so you can login and change it to something more your style. You can go ahead and do this now, and as soon as the forums are done, I'll send the replies (I'm reluctant to do so until I get the threads copied, as I'm told the script needs a completely empty forum to copy into. I'm going to check on this - if it's untrue, I'll just toss up the link and let you guys start messing with it.Locked threads cannot be copied, and it's entriely possible the converter MIGHT not catch everything, (I've been trying to verify it as much as I can, but that only goes so far.) as the script is essentially parsing the forum info directly from the HTML pages. But it seems to be working.

[Greg Dean]

So, good news - it CAN convert to a non-empty forum. Which means you can start PMing me for temp passwords and logging in as soon as you like. I leave the official announcing of it up to the Kaiseress.For now, the address is shireroth.kuroshiro.net/forum2/ ... I'm still copying things over, and it's the DEFAULT TEMPLATE. So don't expect much just yet - I'm working on it, though....But only for another hour, at most. Then, I won't be back until thursday. Going to Disneyland.

[Ryan]

Somebody fix Dave's custom title! Useless art is simply tolerated vandalism. I am a vandal.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Custom title fixed. Dave's post above deleted to prevent it from messing everything up. What he said was:"....my usualy login name (davidnorthworthybeckford) is longer the the default limit, and on converters will often end up generating a new user for each post...has that happened?"

[Dafitt Bergsdrumfort]

thanks

[Delphi]

Oh yes, that happened when I converted Antica's forum from ezBoard to PHP way way long ago... I went about manually deleting the "Chancellor Delphi of Anti"s until I realized I could do it en masse from the database...

[Sir Ophiuchus]

Er ... Greg, how can we PM you? Your ezInbox is disabled, so did you mean something else?

******************
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
- Oscar Wilde

[Greg Dean]

It's disabled? Hell.. that's no good.Well, you can always e-mail me. gregdean@gmail.com will work.

[TonerMan]

Unix or Windows server...?I'll keep asking till I get an answer.. Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.

[Lachlan Powers]

If its phpBB I would say 99% chance its Unix. ejen ranti taicardainre (Lachlan Powers)The Grand Commonwealth - Aerlig - MNN - Treesia - mncentre - EIFA - Lemuria

[Greg Dean]

Knowing the guy who admins the server, it's Unix. And if it were on MY box, I know for a FACT it's Unix.

[TonerMan]

I still think we should get our own server... Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.

[Greg Dean]

I just need to add - both machines, regardless of which we're talking about, are full-bore SERVER machines. Hosted at honest-to-god data centers. The one I own is actually partitioned off and used to do hosting to some of my host's other clients - he takes very good care of his customers.The only difference between what you're getting from being hosted on my servers and what you're getting from being hosted on someone else's servers is that you'd end up paying for someone else's servers. You're free to do as you choose, obviously. I just want to make sure things are in perspective.

[Kaiseress Semisa I]

And I think you're paranoid, Erik.

[Ryan]

The ironic part is I just threw a decent server in the trash last month because nobody would take it for charity and I didn't have a use for it.Go figure. Anyways.... Once this thing is finished, we should make a copy of the whole thing and send it to gmail so there's a "boot copy" should it ever get wiped you can just upload the copy rather than re-doing the setup all over again. Useless art is simply tolerated vandalism. I am a vandal.

[osmose1000]

Fax: That statement has added you to my personal Hall of Gods list.Warvoid: YOU COULD'VE MAILED IT TO ME! They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...

[Delphi]

I'd just like to publicly state, just for the record, that my experiences with restoring forum backups have failed, with only one exception. It think after a certain database size it just won't work. Not sure if this was just me though. I've looked up some articles on phpbb.com's knowledge base and found a few hacks to (supposedly) fix it, but I'm not sure if they would work with the size problem.Don't get me wrong, I still support this all, I just want the admins to know they may spend a few hours breaking up an SQL file and entering it manually into the database if something gets FUBARed.

[UEC]

I'm not being paranoid. I just think we should have our own server, and not rely on the charity of others... With a company we get a legaly binding contract that, assuming we don't screw up, keeps us from being screwed. Maybe I'm a lil cautious...but paranoid...naah.. E. Metzler (UEC)Count of Monty CriscoFounder of the MCS"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSJoin ShirerothEdited by: UEC  at: 12/27/05 16:35

[King of Ronen]

Shirerothian friends,Congratulations on the decision to transfer your forums to phpBB. I have always used phpBB for my micronational projects, and I have yet to be disappointed with my decision. While the initial transfer may be difficult, I think you will find that your qualms are needless and the disadvantage of the cumbersome transfer will be far outweighted by the benefits of phpBB. Additionally, I don't know Mr. Dean well enough to say whether or not he will be worthy of the high responsibility of hosting a nation's forums, but I have seen my share of good and bad hosts, and he looks like "a keeper" to me. If you keep frequent backups, even in the unlikely event that someone pulls a plug, there shouldn't be an issue with major losses. I cannot help but wonder, though, does the shireroth.org domain have capabilities for phpBB and MySQL?Also, should you require any assistance with the sub-forums modification, Mr. Dean, please do not hesitate to ask me for assistance; I just installed it in Ronen.

[Lachlan Powers]

The forums can be backed up, just takes a few hours. I just reinstalled the GC Forums on a new host with no problems- while it took a couple of hours cause the database needed to be broken up into smaller pieces to upload, there was really no problem. ejen ranti taicardainre (Lachlan Powers)The Grand Commonwealth - Aerlig - MNN - Treesia - mncentre - EIFA - Lemuria

[Ryan]

IIRC, you can also use a download manager utility to space out downloading the whole thing if you can't sit around for a few hours at a time. Useless art is simply tolerated vandalism. I am a vandal.

[Lachlan Powers]

Downloadings not the problem, its the uploading that causes issues. ejen ranti taicardainre (Lachlan Powers)The Grand Commonwealth - Aerlig - MNN - Treesia - mncentre - EIFA - Lemuria

[King of Ronen]

Regardless, the Shirerothians can transfer their database to a different host if need be; that is the most important thing.

[UEC]

If we do this we need a contract that says you won't just pull the plug on us unexpectedly... This is out nation we are talking about here.... It's not that I don't trust you....well.. I don't.. but I don't distrust you either... And Shireroth hasn't been around for 5+ years by being careless.... E. Metzler (UEC)Count of Monty CriscoFounder of the MCS"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSJoin Shireroth

[Delphi]

Basically what he's saying is "Greg, it's important we're very careful, because we've got a lot of important information here, and there's no need to take unnecessary risks with it." He's trying to be practical and nice.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

We've had the assurances. Asking for any more would look ungrateful. We can back up the databases and we'll have to content ourselves with that. If the whole thing falls apart I'm sure Foghorn would let us share some space on his server for a week or two while we work on getting our own space.Can I have admin of the new board now so I can play around with skins and settings and start to get people moving over? My email is scott.siskind[at]gmail[dot]com. Edited by: Scott of Hyperborea  at: 12/28/05 15:53

[Delphi]

Let's not forget good ol' Delphi here who's actually paying for his webspace now at FusionXHost. Mostly to keep the old Antica website up, and also to host the Antican duchy one, but I've got plenty of webspace if we needed somewhere in a pinch as a backup.

[UEC]

And what about email....?I also just don't like the idea of leaching off someone elses webservice... But no one seems to be listening to me... and things seem to be going ahead anyways.. so I guess I should just give up... E. Metzler (UEC)Count of Monty CriscoFounder of the MCS"Never use a BOO/\/\ist as a diplomat" -- GSJoin Shireroth