A whopper.

[Acorn]

The forum in my sig: Could it be converted, as in cloned, from proboards to some paid host? I mean: Every last post and account, post dates, account dates and postcounts and forum money...and permission settings on given boards, stickied threads, links in posts linking to other threads...It'd be a huge move. But...

I've dealt with having my board at proboards because I figured it was just stuck. I refuse to move to a new board if we cannot bring all that we have built over 5 years of roleplaying an epic. But Proboards just isn't working well for us. I want to allow members younger than 13, for one, as they are common in the fandom. Currently I cannot do this per Proboards' rules.

So is this possible? Is it expensive? What would be the best paid host to move to? I do not want to move to a small host because from what I have seen, that's where most forums get hacked. I want the sort of security Proboards gives now. I can handle password "cracking" protection pretty well, but hacking? No.

What would be the costs involved and would I be able to set up some kind of ad revenue to at least partly pay my way? I do not want to sign up on anything that imposes bandwidth issues beyond my means to cover the costs. I also want to steer clear of any hosts that are slow in load time.

Thanks for any advice you may provide!

 

[Hitakashi]

To answer the biggest question
http://www.simplemachines.org/community ... c=188741.0
that's the converter. I only used the forumotion one they may be the same but I know for a fact they convert
members
post
threads
catagorys
forums
and stickys

it won't convert money as that's a mod (or it might it may idk lol)
it won't copy permissions since its a crawler but it does grab post counts as well

as for host I am server tech at a host but you can look around the web etc.

I could convert for you but not today (tuesday) but I can wensday

 

[Acorn]

Members, boards/forums, and posts are what matter most. If it converts those, then I can spend time doing the rest manually during the transition. Money could just be instituted on the forum {it's a big incentive so it's a must have} I'm also looking into hosts and all that now. I only just discovered this possibility like a few hours ago 😛

This wouldn't happen for a while and depending on what the cost will be maybe not at all. I still have to see whether I'd be able to either afford the rate of hosting a forum that gets a LOT of traffic {500 to 1500 unique hits a day roughly} or if I can't afford it, setting up a way to make revenue through ads. There's a lot I need to look into.

Thank you so much for your help and offer though! This is an exciting possibility and i will be learning all I can.

Does Simplemachines allow sub-sub boards, by any chance? We currently don't have them but would have a use for them if we were able to have them. But not having them wouldn't change my mind.

Edit: Can't find the proboards converter, but I trust it exists as Brawl Domain did just get converted the other day, and they were proboards.

 

[Joshua Farrell]

Cant say that I know where the exact converter is, but I can answer for one thing.

SMF does allow sub-sub boards. In-fact I think you can go even more deep than that.

 

[Acorn]

I wouldn't want to go deeper than that. But just a third layer would be priceless!

I have another question. Though I'm running it nowadays my own account on my forum isn't the head account. The head admin has been AWOL a while. Would this be a problem in the conversion? I'd be running this joint. as for contacting her that might be out of the question, I'm not even sure. 😛

 

[fantanoice]

Just be careful. When I converted my Forumer forum there was a bug that wouldn't convert any topic with 1,000 replies or more. If you have any massive topics like that, I would suggest splitting them up multiple topics with 999 replies or less, then re-merging them on your new forum.

Also, when converting my Zetaboards forum, it wouldn't convert the last category on the index. To be on the safe side, you should create a dummy/final category for the converter.

I don't know of any Proboards-converter bugs, but they're the ones I faced. May as well take the precautions in case the Proboards converter suffers from them as well.


Apart from that, good luck on the conversion.

I have another question. Though I'm running it nowadays my own account on my forum isn't the head account. The head admin has been AWOL a while. Would this be a problem in the conversion? I'd be running this joint. as for contacting her that might be out of the question, I'm not even sure.

The person running the converter needs Admin CP access and can view all topics/forums (the converter uses the Admin-member's cookies to crawl through the forums, so you need to be able to view them all to convert them all).

Hope that helps.

 

[Hitakashi]

nope as long as you have admin permission and can view all forums your all good 🙂

ill be pluging in my laptop and looking for the proboards converter and so I can post faster to this thread

 

[Joshua Farrell]

I would think that it wouldn't take permissions, just what it could visibly can move over with guest permissions, since it would virtually be a guest, and it doesnt know permissions of the staff. You would probably have to reset permissions for all staff that you want to have their former permissions that they had on proboards.

 

[fantanoice]

No, it does not convert permissions. They will have to be re-adjusted when you move to the new forum.

 

[Hitakashi]

ok i read the readme, it actually ask for your username and password for your account and asks that you make hidden forums shown or it will not be converted over

here is what doesn't get taken over
-No Attachments
-No Polls
-No special membergroups ("admin" gets default group 1, moderators and other admins need to be
added by hand.)
-No calendar

 

[Acorn]

At this time we have few or no hidden forums however the staffboard and its sub boards ARE hidden to guests and non staff members. I wouldn't see an issue with making them and other boards briefly viewable, and creating a dummy category would also be doable.

...My password on the forum as it stands now? I can't give that to anyone else...I just can't. If I need to could I create a dummy account and give that?

We have numerous topics WELL over 1000 posts. {We call them "epic threads" lol and have many of them buried somewhere in the 750,000 posts...}

I don't know how to split up threads, that's not doable in proboards. not even by the head admin.

I have admin panel access and control over board creation, moving, permission settings and so forth.

no calendar...that would suck but honestly we can do without it. Polls are also a biggie on our board--we have several. Okay, hundreds. But the boards would still be viewable where people could go see them. Would the threads accompanying the polls still get converted, without the poll part?

I need to look into the cost of hosting this monster too...

Thanks so far for your input, guys! If the cost and all checks out I will look into actually learning SMF...I don't know any languages though besides HTML and even there I am pretty basic. I fail at codes completely. I know, I've tried so many times.

I feel bad and rather daunted as I know I'm going to need a lot of help.

 

[Hitakashi]

ok to re put this, if your going to convert it yourself then its ok putting your password in it since it will always be on your PC at all times but if your gonna let someone else do it change your password to a different one but still secure (google password gen and you can use those lol)

 

[fantanoice]

At this time we have few or no hidden forums however the staffboard and its sub boards ARE hidden to guests and non staff members. I wouldn't see an issue with making them and other boards briefly viewable, and creating a dummy category would also be doable.

Only the person conducting the conversion (AKA: you) will need to view all the forums. They can remain hidden to regular members if you like.

We have numerous topics WELL over 1000 posts. {We call them "epic threads" lol and have many of them buried somewhere in the 750,000 posts...}

I don't know how to split up threads, that's not doable in proboards. not even by the head admin.

Wow, such a simple feature... I assumed it was available. Apparently it's coming in version 5. :S

Well, in that case, make sure the board settings don't have a comma (,), space ( ) or dot (.) separating the digits. (Aka: Instead of having 1,000, have it as 1000). That should work alright, because it was the comma that messed up my conversions.

 

[Hitakashi]

At this time we have few or no hidden forums however the staffboard and its sub boards ARE hidden to guests and non staff members. I wouldn't see an issue with making them and other boards briefly viewable, and creating a dummy category would also be doable.

Only the person conducting the conversion (AKA: you) will need to view all the forums. They can remain hidden to regular members if you like.

We have numerous topics WELL over 1000 posts. {We call them "epic threads" lol and have many of them buried somewhere in the 750,000 posts...}

I don't know how to split up threads, that's not doable in proboards. not even by the head admin.

Wow, such a simple feature... I assumed it was available. Apparently it's coming in version 5. :S

Well, in that case, make sure the board settings don't have a comma (,), space ( ) or dot (.) separating the digits. (Aka: Instead of having 1,000, have it as 1000). That should work alright, because it was the comma that messed up my conversions.

Wrong, im reading the instructions now and it says

"Finally, unhide all hidden boards (unless you don't want them converted). Hiding boards prevents
the converter from knowing about them."

i actually looked at your stats and FP's stats and there very close except flip the post and threads here 😛 but FP gets more members a day you do, 1010, while you get about 1000ish

edit: nevermind i think you get more lol
you may wanna ask fowler how much bandwidth FP uses and base your looking for host off that

 

[Acorn]

Yeah version 5! You know, 10 years from now XD

😛 I could make whoever does the conversion into a moderator w/o powers other than viewing all staff boards. I'd set up an account for you. I've had horrific experiences the last time I gave my own password out and wouldn't even give it to my own mother now. XD so this is nothing against anyone here. This community I run is pretty much my life.

The boards use a comma in the thousands of numbers and up. On threads and total postcounts. I need a way to preserve these threads or this ain't happening 🙁

 

[Hitakashi]

I edited my post above your you may wanna read it.

it may take along time to convert members and topics and post and catagorys but min i say (depends on internet) like above 30 mins

and yea same here i wouldn't even give my mom my passwords

 

[Acorn]

I'm glad you understand my reservations. Since they have to be unhidden anyway though I guess that's not an issue? I can make you a "powerless staff" account if is and I do decide to take the plunge. The length of time to create the actual conversion is not an issue. I just want the place already set up to immediately port the members over so that nothing accrues in the interim that would later be lost.

If I set up a code to remove those commas would that work to convert the 1000+ threads?

Thanks again everyone for being so informative so fast and offering to help me out.

 

[Hitakashi]

there should be a setting in the ACP (i haven't used proboards in ages) ill make a test account and find the spot of it.
i have no clue how to take off comma's if you do then yes it can be converted

 

[fantanoice]

If I set up a code to remove those commas would that work to convert the 1000+ threads?

I suspect it will, but I can't give any promises. I just know the comma caused the the problem in mine, so removing it 'should' let you avoid the problem.

 

[Hitakashi]

well you were using forumer i did a forumotion and it had comma's and it worked fine so it could have been the converter for forumer