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The move to the new Xenforo forums is slated to happen Dec. 24 - Dec. 26

Lutiana

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Staff member
Joined
Mar 26, 2009
Messages
3,298
Location
Dublin, CA USA
Hello everyone,

Phase 1 of our forum migration has been completed, and after about two months of testing and a large amount of general feed back we decided that it is time to move into phase 2 of this migration, which will be the official transfer of the forum database from here to Xenforo.

With that said, we are planning to start Phase 2 on December 24th, with an estimated completion date of December 26th. Why three days? Well mostly to buy us some time to solve any data migration issues, do some last minute checking after the data has installed and to allow for anything unforeseen that may come up. So starting on December 25th at 9am this forum will go into read-only mode, with all the content being available for reference, but no one will be able to post anything new.

In a nutshell this process is basically exporting the database from vBulletin, wiping the database in Xenforo and then importing the vBulletin database into XenForo, and there are basically two possible outcomes to this process
:
Outcome 1 - The data import is successful and the new forums are open for business. If this happens we will announce it at the new forums, and will add a comment in this thread saying as much.

Outcome 2 - We run into some sort of show stopper and are not able to complete the migration by the evening of the 26th (EST). In this case we will remove the read-only restriction here and make an announcement in this thread explaining this and then we will go back to the drawing board to work out what happened and how to solve the issues and setup another set of days to try again.​

We are reasonably confident that outcome 1 is the most likely outcome, but to be sure we plan on a few more test export/import operations between now and the 24th, both for practice and to hopefully shake out any issues with the process. The better this goes, the easier the final transfer will be. Definitely keep an eye on this thread and the announcements forum at the Xenforo forum the outcome of this process.

Once we have the data migrated, and we are happy with the results, we plan to leave this forum up in read only mode, probably for the foreseeable future. We feel that it will remain a solid reference and will allow for less broken links in the new forums. And then we can move onto Phase 3.

What is phase 3? Well that will the part where we start to customize the forums for our needs, and we will heavily rely on feedback from the community to customize, tweak and fix issues with the new forums. None of the admin team are Xenforo experts, and most of us have full time jobs, so this process will probably be quite slow going, but what we cannot promise you in timeline or speed we can hopefully make up for with a completely open and honest dialogue around customization, tweaking and repairing of the forums.

That's all I have for you know, if you have any questions let me know in this thread, I'll do my best to answer them as they come up.
 
This is a great gesture, but I know I'm willing to wait rather than have you guys blow your Christmas babysitting progress bars and fighting this stuff.
 
i've used XenForo on various sites for quite a while. But for those who are not fully acquainted, I'm wondering if there is a "canned" tutorall that comes with the package. If not, maybe a link to to some of the highlights.
 
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Finally.
A true Christmas Miracle. :p

The more I think about this, the more I'm deeply concerned. Given how awful the last forum "upgrade" was in terms of administration throwing up the new forum and then throwing Lutiana under the PR bus while fixes remained hush-hush among people who seemingly ghosted from the feedback threads and eventually gave hollow messages of "We're fixing things. Don't worry. It will be fine I promise! :^) " (spoiler alert: many things never got fixed, like PM's), is it really a good idea to up-end the forum again and hope nothing happens over the Christmas long weekend when chances are most people on this forum will not be around to post much less administrate?
 
throwing Lutiana under the PR bus

Nope, I did this to myself and pushed for the "upgrade" and the ability to take on the PR role and lead mod role.


while fixes remained hush-hush among people who seemingly ghosted from the feedback threads and eventually gave hollow messages of "We're fixing things. Don't worry. It will be fine I promise! :^) " (spoiler alert: many things never got fixed, like PM's)

All very valid concerns, but I should point out that I now have full admin access to the new forum and this one. The fixes never happened here like we wanted to most due to a complete lack of any type of reasonable support option from vBulletin. We did try, myself, ajacocks and some other admins spent many hours researching and trying to fix things, but it proved to be well above out pay grades and the interface has fought us at every turn.

But know that when I say phase three will be tweaks, mods and fixes, I am including myself as the very much apart of the "we" in that statement. I am not a Xenforo expert right now, but I suspect I will be much closer to that title when this all said and done.

is it really a good idea to up-end the forum again and hope nothing happens over the Christmas long weekend when chances are most people on this forum will not be around to post much less administrate?

That weekend was picked precisely because it will a low use weekend. broswell is the person primarily doing the data transfer, and as luck would have it, he does not actually celebrate Christmas, but he still intends to get this all done on the 24th, we are planning for 3 days, with the hope it will take one. He is also going to do a few practice imports between now and the 24th, during regular work hours, so he can reach out to Xenforo support if any issues come up and will be documenting any needed fixes. So in all likelyhood, when the transfer happens on the 24th it should go smoothly, and in theory he should have already solved any issues that will come up.
 
I mean at this point it cant get much worse. And we are all tired of the state its in. Using the forum has become stagnent.. So Great, yeah lets do it! I know most of us welcome it at this point.
 
And I agree too.

Thanks very much to everyone who has stepped up - and I hope this upgrade is less painful for everyone (users, moderators, administrators etc.) than the last.

Here's to a less "stress free" VCFED in 2022 :)!

Dave
 
broswell is the person primarily doing the data transfer, and as luck would have it, he does not actually celebrate Christmas, but he still intends to get this all done on the 24th, we are planning for 3 days, with the hope it will take one. He is also going to do a few practice imports between now and the 24th, during regular work hours, so he can reach out to Xenforo support if any issues come up and will be documenting any needed fixes. So in all likelyhood, when the transfer happens on the 24th it should go smoothly, and in theory he should have already solved any issues that will come up.

It's nice that this time the forum migration is being properly tested before hand. It's a lot of work, but it's necessary work. Thank you to everyone involved in these tasks.
 
Yes, I hope everyone will realise the admins are giving up their Christmas with friends and family for us, so whether it works or not, please be nice.
 
Agreed - very appreciative of the time you have all put in and I hope that the upgrade goes as smoothly as you hope and that there is still time for you all to enjoy the festivities.

Merry Christmas everyone - and see you on the "new look" VCFED soon!

Dave
 
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