Forum Transitioning to Xenforo Software (Soon)

[Viserys]

New Forum Software

Alright folks, we reached the point where I would like to upgrade the forum software. Ultimately, free forum hosts have their limitations. For example, they host the data (database, layout etc) on their servers and you can't export to a new host.

There are some troubling issues however that will arise because of this:

• Members List can be manually rebuilt (lose post count, history and other small details. Avatars and signatures can be rebuilt but that's about it
  
• All forum entries, posts, topics will be deleted. Essentially the forum will start with a post count of 0. Again, things can be manually rebuilt if necessary, but it will just be a time consuming process.
  

So essentially, all the data from these existing forums will be wiped and everything that needs to be imported will be manually ported over.

I am still researching the details of everything, so nothing is finalized, but I realize this is for the best giving forumotion's inability to export data to other forum hosts. The export process would just become more difficult as the community grows.

Theme / Appearance?

Probably will start from a default theme, making sure most of the basic layout and such is transferred over (and users). Any design changes will be worked on gradually.

Light or Dark Theme? Probably Light, not only is Xenforo's default theme light-based, but I realize black is hard on the eyes sometimes (not to mention our current site is light rather than dark).

So existing members?

Whenever the transition is complete, you should be able to simply log into the new forums like usual. All existing members will be imported manually.

Date for transition?

Nothing set in stone, but this will definitely be happening. End of January by the latest I feel, sooner than later. One reason I want to push this initiative is because of the data wipe, I don't want our users to get too invested here if the majority of data will go poof.

Xenforo Forum Software : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Smashboards (popular community) on Xenforo : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Any questions/comments for me you can let me know (Seira mainly).

I suppose I should manually backup important threads (and the active ones) so we don't have to start from scratch.

[Seira]

• Members List can be manually rebuilt (lose post count, history and other small details. Avatars and signatures can be rebuilt but that's about it
  
• All forum entries, posts, topics will be deleted. Essentially the forum will start with a post count of 0. Again, things can be manually rebuilt if necessary, but it will just be a time consuming process.
  

Post count and things like that aren't such a big deal (especially with the members we have now, but hopefully, one of these days, we will grow). Sucks about the topics and posts but the most important/active ones should should be backed up, even if it has to be done manually.

Probably will start from a default theme, making sure most of the basic layout and such is transferred over (and users). Any design changes will be worked on gradually.

Light or Dark Theme? Probably Light, not only is Xenforo's default theme light-based, but I realize black is hard on the eyes sometimes (not to mention our current site is light rather than dark).

I admit it is sometimes pretty jarring looking at one and then switching to the other, the forums should match what is already decided of the main site, and the default theme does do the trick for the beginning.

I'll try and think of if I have any questions but right now I am a little too excited after finding out SAO officially announced it's inevitable next season and I should be busier than yesterday.

[Viserys]

After a marathon session yesterday, the new forum is mostly done (yeah I took the plunge).

I am liking the new setup, I think it came out fairly well. There are few minor tweaks I have to implement, but I am not going to get too caught up on the graphics for now.

The new forums should publicly be available within the week, as soon as I implement a re-direct to the new forums

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