Imperial Proclamation: phpBB, Free Hosting, and a Transfer

[Kaiseress Semisa I]

New citizen Greg Dean has his own server space and is willing to let us use some of it for our forums, site, and wiki. Of course, this means we'll have to move to phpBB.As said before, the move to phpBB will retain most of what we already have in functionality (indeed: it will improve it in a great many ways) and in style. Other nations have successfully used phpBB, such as the Anticas and the GC.We will be able to move all current posts over to the new forums with no hassle, as well as all user-accounts.In addition, this will save us on costs, for the site and for things like Gold Community that we won't need anymore.phpBB also has functionality that ezBoard doesn't have, like the ability to see--with one click--all the posts of a single user, of a single day, or since your last visit.And yes, I know some of you will be leery about putting our fates basically into the hands of one of our own. However, I will remind you that Shireroth is a community of friends, and friendship is built on trust.Trusting another of our own should not be a problem. Therefore, if there are no objections, I will be orchestrating a move to phpBB on Greg's servers as soon as possible.Greg has made it clear to me that this is nothing more than an act of goodwill--a Christmas present, if you will--and expects no preferential treatment because of it, nor will he retain administrative powers over the fine minutae of the forums.

[AngelGuardian93]

That's incredibly nice of him, and due thanks is of course, due; BUT...This is not the kind of thing you can just decree. This needs a super-majority. I don't support any moves at all, and I simply don't think it's a good idea to move off of Ezboard. Yes we lost history in the Ezplague, but most of it WAS restored and they gave us kickbacks in apologies. On Ezboard, we do have to pay for gold community, but we have clear security that's fairly useable to all, and the support of a paid staff that do this for a living.I don't like this at all. It's not a matter of trusting one of our own, i'd feel this way if it was anyone. I just think it's wiser to be on Ezboard. There's my two-cents worth. There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Does this mean that our site is going to be at http://www.reallifecomics.com/shireroth (or whatever) rather than http://www.shireroth.org? Or is there a way to keep the domain name and get it to redirect to our space on his site?Did people who were much more conscientious and on top of things than I am send you their money for the Brinkster offer? If so, how much did you get, and what are you going to do with it? Does this mean I shouldn't bother ever getting the money to you?As the person you've claimed is supposed to be Minister of the Interior even though I haven't gotten around to doing the job yet, am I expected to help out in this, and, if so, how does my complete lack of any knowledge of PHP figure into the picture? Does this mean I should abandon my project to beautify the EZBoard?Also, are you sure that Greg Dean is a real person? I get back from my little vacation and I find we've got someone who makes real comics, can actually draw, uses grammar correctly, has a website, and isn't an obvious spy. How did we get that kind of good karma? By generally ignoring the gods for all these years and saying we'll flesh out the religion later? Seems kinda unlikely.

[Lachlan Powers]

Im sure your citizens are trustworthy, but I might point out that the person who owns the space can always have admin to the forums. Its as simple as changing one character in the database. Which is why having the community owned space would be a good idea, or one owned and run by a long-long term citizen.Otherwise, if you need assistance setting up the auto backups or ezB conversion, give us a holler . Perhaps someone can start coding something that allows all the phpBBs to share a user database across servers (no idea if thats possible or not). ejen ranti taicardainre (Lachlan Powers)The Grand Commonwealth - Aerlig - MNN - Treesia - mncentre - EIFA - Lemuria

[Shyriath]

Hmmm. Hmm hmm hmmmm. This is unexpected. Very generous on Greg Dean's part, but unexpected. I suggest we take this time to hear everyones' opinion on the matter... I know this has been gone over before, but it would be a good idea to survey the collective "Do we want to make the move?" part before going through with this.I have no non-nostalgic reasons for staying with ezBoard myself, though.

[Delphi]

I support such a move, but I think we should continue looking for a paid host, in case we need to. Nothing against Greg Dean, but who knows if he'll enjoy micronationalism in a year, month, or even a week? People fall out of this hobby fast, you know.And Lachlan, I think it's fully possible to integrate phpBBs like that... One would just have to know the structure. Edited by: Delphi Augustus at: 12/21/05 21:37

[Greg Dean]

As I'm the one offering, I should probably pipe in as well. First, to assue Scott - No, it won't have any association with Real Life Comics. Shireroth will be given its own user account and IP address, and as such can point any domain it likes at it. It will either be on one of two boxes - the more likely is the one a friend of mine has at his ISP. (He owns and operates an ISP here in the San Francisco area) He's a whiz with forums, and has set up and maintained three phpBB's for me in the past few years, so he's intricately familiar with the software. The other box, which is a backup, is the same machine Real Life Radio is being hosted on currently, not the one the main comic site is on. (which means no worries about high-traffic days slowing things down.) Again, just a backup, but it means I have two options.And I hope somehow to also assure you that I am indeed a real person, but cannot prove it without meeting face to face. My reason for offering is simple - I'd like to stick around, and part of the FAQ said the best way to help out is to contribute. I have servers to contribute, with no space or bandwidth limits. So, here. I used to use EZboard for the forums on my comic a few years back - before you had to pay for gold membership and all that. After a time, I realized that it put some severe constraints on how I could make the forums better, so we made the jump. It was not without contention, but even though this was well before the ability to move posts and accounts over, people quickly agreed that the functionality and customizability of phpBB were worth it.And I also assure you - I can offer stability. Hell - I've been doing the comic for six years, and have owned my own servers for three of those. Uptime is paramount to me.But after being away from ezboard for all these years, coming back to finally use one was jarring, due to sheer counter-intuitiveness. We deserve better, and CAN do better. I just want to help, that's all.

[Greg Dean]

Quick addendum to address Delphi's post - No guarantee that I'll stick with it. However, I personally have, on the three distributed servers that make up my cluster, something in the realm of 400 gigabytes of storage space. Real Life and it's associated sites and files take up approximately 500 megabytes. Even if I dropped the hobby, which I'd try not to do, I'd never boot you guys from the server. Period. I don't work that way - got burned by a guy a while back (Tim Buckley used to run the Real Life store... till one day he had a hissy fit and took everything down. Without warning. My ability to sell merchandise. Yeah.) and swore never to act like that. And any admin rights I'd have would end as soon as we got finished putting everything in place. I will have fax change the FTP password, and since I don't have shell access to the box, (the guy running my colocation server does) I'd basically be shut out. Which is how I want it. Believe me, power is the last thing I want. Edited by: Greg Dean  at: 12/21/05 22:04

[Delphi]

*rubs chin*Eh, what the hell? Lots of space, free space, freedom from EzBoard... Let's do it.

[TonerMan]

all I say is.. we need our own server. I don't think we should rely on other people's servers to host the forums, site and wiki. Nothing against the offer, it's REALLY nice offer...but... I feel we should perhaps continue with the other plan we had going.. the 60 years one... If it's stalled.. I'll get it going again.. and stuff.. Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.Edited by: TonerMan at: 12/21/05 22:37

[AngelGuardian93]

People from the Bay area sure are nice... nicer than people in Charlotte... *grumbles* There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.

[Greg Dean]

Just so it's known, I would of course take no offense if you didn't want to go with my offer. However, it's here, now. Ready. If you wanted to simply move it to somewhere else later, that's perfectly fine by me - I merely offer the space as a means to an end - facilitating a new forum system. I can help get one set up, here and now. And later, if you want to move it to the Brinkster server, you have all the data there, ready to go. If you prefer, look at this as a jump start.

[TonerMan]

I wasn't trying to be mean....the "our OUR" was a weird typo... Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.

[Scott of Hyperborea]

Mmmm...I say go for it. He's got a good point about us being able to switch whenever we want, and it's true that we probably can't afford the Brinkster quite yet. Although I'm still suspicious about this Greg Dean character. Last time someone was this nice to us it turned out to be a demon trying to lure us all into the portal to hell...what...no one except me remembers this? Erik? Back me up here! Remember the demon?

[Greg Dean]

*belches fire*I didn't take it as being mean, TonerMan. I understood your point... as well as divined the true meaning of your typo, too. Also, just so's ya know, I'm working on getting the forum set up as we speak, merely as a testbed/showcase. Once I get it all up, you can play with it. Get a feel for it. See what you think. Hopefully I'll have that tomorrow - my buddy Sean (The guy who owns the ISP) is setting it up. I'll post a link once we have anything live and tangible.

[TonerMan]

I guess I also think we should go with a company.. and not someone' buddy...Oh yeah.. that deamon.. I remember that... Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.

[Greg Dean]

I should have clarified by saying "My Buddy Sean, the webhost, who makes his living hosting websites and who personally installed three phpBB systems for me alone, and has been maintaining them for nearly three years". Besides, the hosting is beside the point. Means to an end. You can still go with some other hosting package later, if you like.... I just want to help, is all.

[TonerMan]

Now my big question.... Why? Holy Warrior of NeeCommanding General of the Y.A.C.

[Greg Dean]

A few reasons.A) I've got web space in spades. I've got a dedicated connection that is bandwidth-unlimited. I can decide what to do with it, and I'm using less than 1% of the space I have. I see no reason not to share the wealth - especially since Fax and I have been talking about other stuff, what with him doing stuff on Real Life Radio. It's the least I could do.B) I'm an ezboard refugee. I used it back in the day, and I've come to realize how vastly inferior it can be. And on a personal, purely selfish note, I'm going to be spending a lot of time here. Anything I can do to make it easier and nicer to do so is worth my while, I'd say. The fact that it can be beneficial to everyone else is noteworthy, as well.C) I think the open-endedness of phpBB would work very well with what's being done here. It's very possible to integrate functions of the government into the forum itself, making everyone's job easier. You could integrate an economy into the board fairly easily - there are pre-made plugins that could be easily modified to do that kind of thing. Also, you could create any number of user-selectable skins and themes - so that each person can use whichever they like.D) I'm secretly a demon. WAIT! NO! I didn't mean that last one!! Edited by: Greg Dean  at: 12/21/05 23:20

[Tahmaseb]

E) He's our agent.

[david northworthy beckfor]

well, people say it should be on a Company's servers, yes?well....it is on a company's server!I say go for it

[osmose1000]

This is Greg Dean. Fax works as a host on the RealLife Radio thing and has talked with him well before he ever joined Shireroth. He made that Florencia map which matches up with the quality of those comics. I believe that's proof enough. They call it a signature, but no one ever signs their posts...Edited by: osmose1000  at: 12/22/05 7:38

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

MInfo is ready to make the move. Point me in the direction of that famed conversion tool and we'll be in business. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[AngelGuardian93]

I think MInfo should focus on... oh... updating the website...? *runs* There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.

[Delphi]

I'd be all over it, but I'm only a pawn and don't have access to do so... So what is it that Foghorn does?

[Greg Dean]

Actually, the conversion tool will be run prior to the demo of the forum. It essentially scans through the ezboard and copies over the information contained therein.I'll letcha know as soon as I have something to demo. Should be today, hopefully.

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

so, you want me to update the website, but when I ask someone to write a new script, you're all up in arms?Shirerithians are insane...I've been working on a commissioned site for about a week, and should be done in another week. After that, I'm all yours. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson

[AngelGuardian93]

You're talking about insane scripts I haven't the foggiest clue of! I can edit HTML, but that's the limit for me... There are no flowers, no not this time. There will be no angels gracing the lines, just these stark words I find.

[Delphi]

Speaking of HTML, I'm not even sure you can call that stuff that's on our site "HTML"...

[Nick Foghorn Leghorn]

it needs a major overhaul. Expect said overhaul sometime in the new year. ________________It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.-Andrew Jackson