Future of the forum - please voice your opinion!

[Metallica]

Hello folks,

As seen in the previous post, I have the hardware and the willingness to handle the server for this forum. I'm jumping ahead of Kryss by making the post, but I believe that if the responsibility is handed to me, I need the trust and approval of everyone else. Which is where you come in.

Before all of that, let me make straight the things I could and could not do with the server.

I CAN:

• Keep it up. Pretty simple huh? I have multiple servers and a few uninterruptable power supplies. Redundancy isn't a problem. I should probably explain why I have this gear, yes? I design networks for my company. This includes drafting designs, virtualizing devices to show how or why they belong in the network, and implementing them. I also host a few things for the company.
• From what I've been told, the Xenforo software is very plug and play and doesn't require too much technical know-how. I'm sure I could keep it updated.
• Pay the bills for however much power this would consume.

I CAN'T:

• Code. I work 60 hours a week and balance everything else around it. Aside from Python, I do not currently have the time.. or willingness, to learn another language. Someone else is needed for that stuff. I host the server, they implement changes or fix stuff that breaks. There's one person I know of that could probably handle this with ease, but he has to handle MTS and Turkernator and I doubt he wants to get involved with something like this.

There's so many things that could go wrong leading up to a transfer and whatever else. For all I know, something else happens and I won't be needed to host it. I'm not going to sit here and assume I'm already babying the forum. YOU and the staff has to be behind how this all goes down, because handling the server for this place could be easy to abuse. I or someone else could just pull the plug and its gone.

So voice your thoughts, opinions, suggestions, whatever here. What do you think of this? Anything you do not agree with? Let's hear it. Just keep in mind that I do not have anything to do with the forum right now. Nothing has been transferred to me. Other decisions have to be made first.

Also note that Kryss has only messaged me once, giving me the low-down on the situation. We haven't went in depth on it yet. But from what I can gather, the forum is in a tough place right now. They need someone to host the server or else the forum is pretty much gone.

 

[Kennedy]

I guess I didn't know there was hosting issues? Hey, whatever works to keep it going I'm all for.
Can't help you with coding though, sorry.

 

[A6_Foul_Out]

Pay the bills

If nothing else, it's obvious the one time-donation model doesn't work.

Put together a monthly cost on your end, get consistent long-time mtc people to promise a monthly sum -- like a subscription and let it go down if they can't continue to fund it.

 

[TSolo315]

The biggest thing is that we need someone to help transfer the forum from the current server to a new server. This would normally be pretty straightforward but the guy who has been running it made some customizations that may complicate things. I haven't seen it so I don't know the details -- it may still be pretty easy. Honestly, if you have the knowledge to help with that @Metallica I don't think additional coding knowledge will be necessary.

 

[Despairagus]

Would it be possible to make it more attractive for those who enjoy the chit-chat aspect of the forum to donate more regularly? I mean more people donating a little bit each month would be better, I'm assuming, than just a few people donating here and there. (Probably this is way complicated, I mean some sort of chat-room or something idk)

I don't know if that's helpful at all, but I'm glad that there are people who have been here a long time trying to figure out how to fix it. I'd be very sad if this place vanished.

Anything I can personally do to help, I'm 100% ready and willing to do, but I do not know how to code. All I bring to the table is being around a lot during the week.

 

[teal4life]

I am not on here all the time but I would like to see the forum keep going. I can't code, don't understand half of whats said as far as servers ect. but as my grandma used to say, "There are those that can paint the pews and those that buy them." I am all for a every couple month donation or whatever.

 

[ChrisTurk]

Code. I work 60 hours a week and balance everything else around it. Aside from Python, I do not currently have the time.. or willingness, to learn another language. Someone else is needed for that stuff. I host the server, they implement changes or fix stuff that breaks. There's one person I know of that could probably handle this with ease, but he has to handle MTS and Turkernator and I doubt he wants to get involved with something like this.

FWIW I'm willing to forward along modifications/etc I've already done to XF on TH for you guys to use here (including quite a few bug fixes / performance improvements for TLU & security fixes for some of the addons both sites use) if it'd help. I can walk you through it all there's nothing overly complicated about it & that would at least bring the forums back to feature parity & keep them that way.

I'm also available more or less all day for any questions about XF if you need me. I've one-man-show'd TH/TV for 2 years now and am pretty familiar with the multitude of ways to break stuff implement improvements haha

Now that I've said something nice/helpful I can also post this:

I CAN:

• Keep it up.

@Jerami do you see this R rated content?

I'm so sorry I'm a child , seriously please reach out if you ever need help w/ the XF stuff :thumbup:

 

[Metallica]

FWIW I'm willing to forward along modifications/etc I've already done to XF on TH for you guys to use here (including quite a few bug fixes / performance improvements for TLU & security fixes for some of the addons both sites use) if it'd help. I can walk you through it all there's nothing overly complicated about it & that would at least bring the forums back to feature parity & keep them that way.

I'm also available more or less all day for any questions about XF if you need me. I've one-man-show'd TH/TV for 2 years now and am pretty familiar with the multitude of ways to break stuff implement improvements haha

Now that I've said something nice/helpful I can also post this:

@Jerami do you see this R rated content?

I'm so sorry I'm a child , seriously please reach out if you ever need help w/ the XF stuff :thumbup:

I actually thought of him and Jenni when I typed the keep it up part

 

[savvy]

I personally will voice that I trust @Metallica to not randomly pull the plug because he literally can't take a break from the forum for very long, so abandoning our server seems unlikely.

 

[JenniLeigh]

I actually thought of him and Jenni when I typed the keep it up part

 

[basketcasey]

I trust the server to James Hetfield.

 

[basketcasey]

FWIW I'm willing to forward along modifications/etc I've already done to XF on TH for you guys to use here (including quite a few bug fixes / performance improvements for TLU & security fixes for some of the addons both sites use) if it'd help. I can walk you through it all there's nothing overly complicated about it & that would at least bring the forums back to feature parity & keep them that way.

I'm also available more or less all day for any questions about XF if you need me. I've one-man-show'd TH/TV for 2 years now and am pretty familiar with the multitude of ways to break stuff implement improvements haha

Now that I've said something nice/helpful I can also post this:

@Jerami do you see this R rated content?

I'm so sorry I'm a child , seriously please reach out if you ever need help w/ the XF stuff :thumbup:

 

[Metallica]

I trust the server to James Hetfield.

Did you hear that, @mboone73?

 

[Metallica]

The biggest thing is that we need someone to help transfer the forum from the current server to a new server. This would normally be pretty straightforward but the guy who has been running it made some customizations that may complicate things. I haven't seen it so I don't know the details -- it may still be pretty easy. Honestly, if you have the knowledge to help with that @Metallica I don't think additional coding knowledge will be necessary.

I'm currently waiting on Kryss to get back to me. She mentioned she was going to be busy today, so it will probably have to wait until tomorrow. She also mentioned that she isn't really knowledgeable about what to do with the server. No offense to her, but is there anyone else on the staff that is more knowledgeable toward it?

 

[mboone73]

Did you hear that, @mboone73?

She clearly hasn't listened to St, Anger.

 

[Metallica]

I'd like for there to be a way to sandbox it. Is that possible, to your knowledge? It would be great if I could do a test transfer to see if everything would go fine, ignoring everything else we need to mess with on it.

 

[ChrisTurk]

I'd like for there to be a way to sandbox it. Is that possible, to your knowledge? It would be great if I could do a test transfer to see if everything would go fine, ignoring everything else we need to mess with on it.

You can get the original XF license holder to log into their account over there & get you the install files to start from scratch. Build, do your thing playing w/ stuff, destroy. Rinse/repeat. If you were running it on DO you could just snapshot the droplet & xfer it into your account, change the DNS & call it a day lol but fresh is probably better anyway. XF is pretty agnostic to most server variables so you can transfer it around w/o many hassles tbh. Its pretty idiot proof (as evidenced by the fact "TH" is still standing after going to TVs domain.. I spun up at least 10 droplets, fiddled, destroyed and didn't cause too many problems other than the ones I meant to cause).

Or you can use this thread from XF, it explains the process for importing the manual way (ie w/o a fresh XF install): https://xenforo.com/community/threads/how-to-backup-and-restore-your-forum.7213/

Its ugly, you're basically just copying the entire server file system then rebuilding the DB to connect it to, but no reason it shouldn't work if you can't/don't want to start from scratch. The db dump should rebuild the tables correctly, but this method will also carry over any nasties that currently exist so def get a heads up from whoever is running it now. Any of the current admins can see the logged server errors but XF does not log all errors so definitely check server logs manually. The admin panel errors should look like this:
http://prntscr.com/m0tkcc
http://prntscr.com/m0tkm7

Do a few test runs, wipe it, then lock the forum (Admin Panel -> Options -> Board Active http://prntscr.com/m0tm51 ) during a low traffic hour to xfer -> swap dns -> no one will be the wiser.

In all seriousness I've done it all 3 ways and it really does transition pretty seamlessly. As long as you lock the old board before doing it you wont lose any data and as DNS records propagate the "new" forum is unlocked & people can go back about their business like nothing happened lol (well, they'll have to log back in again but most folks don't even notice/think about that IME)

 

[ChrisTurk]

You can get the original XF license holder to log into their account over there & get you the install files to start from scratch.

Oh wait huge note about this, MTC's XF install is most definitely out of date (the quote post link fix is in the latest update, that's still busted here, so its worth doing it this way):

1) Have someone log in to the admin panel here and see exactly which version is installed: http://prntscr.com/m0tp5f
2) Have whoever holds the license go to https://xenforo.com/customers/ and download the FULL install package for the version that matches MTC

2a) http://prntscr.com/m0tpuq​

3) have them download the UPDATE package for the newest version

3a) http://prntscr.com/m0tpzp​

4) Install outdated version
5) Import data
6) Make sure it all runs
7) Update XF

If you're going to do it the fresh install way, strongly recommend doing this versus just grabbing an updated version from scratch b/c idk how well that will work out.

 

[Metallica]

Oh wait huge note about this, MTC's XF install is most definitely out of date (the quote post link fix is in the latest update, that's still busted here, so its worth doing it this way):

1) Have someone log in to the admin panel here and see exactly which version is installed: http://prntscr.com/m0tp5f
2) Have whoever holds the license go to https://xenforo.com/customers/ and download the FULL install package for the version that matches MTC

2a) http://prntscr.com/m0tpuq​

3) have them download the UPDATE package for the newest version

3a) http://prntscr.com/m0tpzp​

4) Install outdated version
5) Import data
6) Make sure it all runs
7) Update XF

If you're going to do it the fresh install way, strongly recommend doing this versus just grabbing an updated version from scratch b/c idk how well that will work out.

The good news is that I followed entirely on both posts. So now I guess we just wait to progress further on this and discuss everything. I also hear the current owner is inconsistent at best when it comes to replying. Also no word on whether he's hosting it himself or if a 3rd party is.

 

[Merovign]

I have some web background, not really a coder, but my availability and reliability are random and crap respectively. I may be able to help with a short project but that's about it. Web grunt work anyway.