javageek

As all of you probably know, we will soon be going to new site software. There are a few issues that need to be discussed prior to the "move" though. We basically have three choices of software.

We can wait for the new CPG-Nuke 9.0 release. The benefits of that are, no data loss, free of charge, no learning curve.

Invision Portal IPB 3 - Benefits are strong presence in the community. Many well established sites are using this. To see it up and running go to www.tibathon.com. With this we would either have to wait for someone to code us a converter, or start new with this forum as an archive.

vBulletin 3 - Slightly higher cost than IPB , same benefits but a little more common. You can see this running at http://www.columbusdsm.com/forum/ . The same thing goes for this one, either wait for a converter or start new with this one as an archive.

Please vote on what you would like to do. Personally my choice would be either IPB or vBulletin. They are much more functional from an Admin and Moderators stand point. To me dealing with an archive is not a big deal. Also when you vote, please post and say what you wanted.

UltraTibby

I have personally used and setup a forum with vBulletin. The administration side is VERY straight foward and not hard at all to learn. The biggest pain is that we will lose everything again. I remember how big of a pain it was for everyone with the last switch over.

Even with all that said I still think either vBulletin or IPB would be the best for the site. vBulletin from what I have seen stays up to date. What I mean is they are constantly updating their software. Just my 2c

REDZMAN

Last thing I want is another archive to tell folks to go check in.

How long of a wait for IPB if we wait?

I'm voting for IPB, because I love it, and to wait for a converter. UNLESS we can have the old forums searchable.

Biggest problem with another archive that I see is the following.

1. 5% of folks will ever look at it.

2. Everyone will have to re sign up again. Folks will get really tired of this.

3. More people posting the same old stuff.

Casper

Java, if you have details on the two databases, I could possibly write a unix script that would convert the database from CPG to what you choose. If I do not have time to work on something like that, it seems that this site has many IT professionals which would be willing to lend a hand.

Personally, I would like to keep the data gathered on this site in tact with the new software rather than another archive. It is alot easier in my opinion to search one site rather than to search the main, then the archive, then the old archive.

This is my .02.

Joshuwa

If I were in your shoes, I'd consider two things:

a)Staying with Nuke, as that means no data loss - and I personally hate data loss.

b)But, seeing how Nuke is limitted, I would then consider VBulletin. Much more functional, Much faster (take a look at the homepage now...you're making 90+ quiries to the database. That's absurd). And as you said, its much better to admin/moderate.

Even though I run www.tibathon.com and use invision, it is soley because I had to purchase the software out of my pocket, and it was cheaper than VBulletin.

I guess it comes down to whats more important: saving data, or better controls?

If you want to save data, stick to what you have.

More controls - go with VB. I don't think there is much comparison between VB and Invision.

(besides - Invision tries to charge you for EVERYTHING. ticks me off. They once said their software would always be free - now not a single bit of it is).

supercow

hehe, so you took the advice of my pm? I think if you going to pay you should go with the one all the free boards are emulating, vBulletin. laugh.gif

Zman

Well, I signed this forum a few months before it got the major change, so for me it's like another change in a short time. I'd prefer to not change the SW again loosing everything, however, if it's necessary, let's do it.
Just a quick question: How long is the expectancy of the new SW life? Because if we are going to loose the data and have a new forum for... a year? then I think it might not be the best, however, if you estimate it will last at least 2 years, then well ... do it.

supercow

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread....ghlight=cpgnuke

do you think that if you changed the "nuke_" prefix to "phpbb_" for the phpbb db then the importer would recognize it as phpbb? I know vbb can import from phpbb, and really all that cpg-nuke does is run phpbb inside of a window in cpgnuke shell.

javageek

If we go to vBulleting or IPB it will be for good, no more switching. A few growing pains are always expected with sites, and this is one of them. As joshuwa said, this site right now makes ALOT of database queries. That is one of the reasons people are getting blocked by the server. I am kind of leaning towards vBulletin, that is what everyone else is trying to clone. I would like to find a sample of it though.

Casper, if you could do that it would be awesome!

Supercow, the only problem I see is the user information is stored in a seperate area than the forum information. I could try it to see what it does.

Zman

Well Java it seems that's the way then; I also work with DB's and I know how annoying it can be to have non optimized querys or procedures, besides the site / community is going to grow, and so will the DB making the actual problems worse right?
I hope it has an improved search functionality or better said layout than the actual page... lets move on then.