Updating the site - ALL USERS READ

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#1 Post by **Burning Sun** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:44 pm

THIS IS IMPORTANT

OK, this is an announcement about changes to the site, and this time they're MAJOR changes.

For those keeping up with the blog* this is just a continuation of what I've been posting over there. For the rest of you, I did tell you the blog would continue to be updated.

As many of you will have noticed, the site has been falling apart at the seams for a little while. We've had several crashes, including the one that wiped out turn 20 of the campaign. Now, as Ulthuan/Asur has a history of these, it didn't come as the greatest surprise, but this time, we've decided to jump ship before it sinks. As a result, Ulthuan will be changing.

Voodoomaster and I have spent the last couple of days installing and getting a new Library working. It's based on a piece of software we've had installed for a while on the site. You won't have noticed it, because for most users all it does is re-direct you from http://www.ulthuan.net to /forum/portal.php, but it is capable of so much more. I was trying for a long time to get it integrated with the forums, but have now scrapped this and it's working on it's own. So, we have a new portal and library. The library requires a lot of the articles input again, I didn't realised when I started just how much is in there.

So, that's the explanation (See also the blog, although you may not want to do that yet), this is the shorter version.

We will be upgrading the site to phpBB3
We will be installing some new software to go with these changes based on a recurring theme. You'll find out what when it's working.
We have already installed a new library and home page. (You just can't see it yet, but it does work) (Also, the homepage is now part of the library, this is an attempt to make the library more visible)

What does this mean for you? Well several things. We will be archiving this forum. We will be closing the forum and setting it to read only. To do this, the site will have to be down for probably a few days. We have no idea just how long the upgrade to phpbb3 will take for the forum, (although I have a feeling Nag may tell me), but better I overestimate now and you're all happy.

Also, only posts that have been updated in the last month will be transferred to the new forums. If there is anything that's important that we save for updating, please PM me with a link and reason, and I'll consider it. Also, please PM me and not any of the other Lores.

The basic plan is a fresh start, hence only taking a month's worth of posts. Also, I don't know if PMs will transfer, although you'll still have access to the old one's once we're finished (I repeat here that we will continue to have access to everything here, you just won't be able to add new stuff). User accounts should all go with us. Other stuff... ask and I'll see.

Questions and comments welcome as always.

*Blog: http://ulthuan.livejournal.com

EDIT - Damn, can't get big red text to appear either big or red on the portal.

Nagathi · #2 Post by **Nagathi** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 9:51 pm

Burning Sun wrote:We have no idea just how long the upgrade to phpbb3 will take for the forum, (although I have a feeling Nag may tell me), but better I overestimate now and you're all happy.

It all depends on the amount of data you're transferring. For a site with half the amount of posts, it took less than an hour to do the upgrade. But I know you've had issues in the past where it got estimated to several days. It's hard to say, but it shouldn't take too long

~ Naggie

Allerion · #3 Post by **Allerion** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:13 pm

whats going to happen to all of the posts older than one month?

langbaobao · #4 Post by **langbaobao** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:14 pm

Well, one thing I've noticed with phpbb3 forums is that the posts tend to use much more space and generally has more wasted space on the monitor instead of posts. I hope you guys can fix it in a way that will make it close to the current layout...

Paraicj · #5 Post by **Paraicj** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:15 pm

Allerion:

(I repeat here that we will continue to have access to everything here, you just won't be able to add new stuff).

#6 Post by **Burning Sun** » Sun Apr 19, 2009 10:17 pm

Yeah, that. Older posts will be read-only on the existing forums, and we'll be getting "new" forums with everything from the last month, plus important stuff.

Raukov · #7 Post by **Raukov** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 12:52 pm

Sweet, does this mean we'll get ignore lists?

#8 Post by **Burning Sun** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:12 pm

I think the answer to that one will have to be "no", but with reservations. We're trying to maintain the spirit and feel of Ulthuan, and with that needs to come a lot of the stuff we're doing now. Allowing you to ignore each other by automation can generate feelings of animosity and ill-will, if you're ignoring a member and they ask you a direct question for example. If you're doing it manually, you're being rude, but if you never saw the post in the first place? Makes our live harder, so we will be considering each and every new feature of phpBB3 that we use.

Alfginnar Oakenshield · Mon Apr 20, 2009 6:09 pm

Raukov wrote:Sweet, does this mean we'll get ignore lists?

You're a nice chap, eh ?

Will post counts be transferred? Not that it matters to me of course...

grantmepower · #10 Post by **grantmepower** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:00 pm

I hope post counts aren't transferred. In fact, it would be nice if they were deleted completely.

#11 Post by **Burning Sun** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 9:06 pm

You're not the first one to suggest that. It will be taken into consideration.

Allerion · #12 Post by **Allerion** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 11:01 pm

or maybe just on your profile page. its kinda nice to see how many pointless things ive posted here over the... 6 months

i dont care if other people see it though

Prince_Asuryan · #13 Post by **Prince_Asuryan** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 12:59 am

Alfginnar Oakenshield wrote: Will post counts be transferred? Not that it matters to me of course...

I worked hard for mine

Whatever, I don't mind if they stay or go - I leave it to the Lore's and their infinite wisdom

Alfginnar Oakenshield · Tue Apr 21, 2009 4:53 pm

grantmepower wrote:In fact, it would be nice if they were deleted completely.

I'd like that too!

Aryel · #15 Post by **Aryel** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 7:12 pm

Yes, let's delete all Eldacar's post count. It makes my e-penis look tiny.

Squeak · #16 Post by **Squeak** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 5:00 pm

Alfginnar Oakenshield wrote:
grantmepower wrote:In fact, it would be nice if they were deleted completely.
I'd like that too!

+1

Good luck with it, hope its not too much of a headache.

Lethalis · #17 Post by **Lethalis** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:04 pm

Aww, but it's fun to watch people's responses to my post count... =/

grantmepower · #18 Post by **grantmepower** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:14 pm

True... He should be allowed to keep his

#19 Post by **Burning Sun** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:05 pm

Hmm,

Well given the vocal support for this, it's very much on the table, but there are two things worth considering still:

We are only keeping the last months worth of posts, the easiest way for me to do this is using the forum system, which may well reduce post counts accordingly.

Also, if you think we should keep them, speak up! I can only listen to people that tell me things.

Prince_Asuryan · #20 Post by **Prince_Asuryan** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:15 pm

Burning Sun wrote: Also, if you think we should keep them, speak up! I can only listen to people that tell me things.

Just to be awkward. I feel that the post counts generally give a good indication to the new members of the forum who are reliable and experienced members of the boards, seen as OT doesn't effect it.

That said, as I have stated, I'm not overtly bothered about it, but I like having a big post count

I'd also comment on the loss of the OT forum. I rarely pot there, and I wouldn't miss it. But I think it forms a big part of the community of the site, and losing it would be a mistake.

#21 Post by **Burning Sun** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:19 pm

Prince_Asuryan wrote:I'd also comment on the loss of the OT forum. I rarely pot there, and I wouldn't miss it. But I think it forms a big part of the community of the site, and losing it would be a mistake.

Lets be clear. The OT forum is not going anywhere. My last post was unclear, that we are considering getting rid of post counts.

I suspect (but don't know) that everyone's post counts will be seriously reduced when I delete thousands of threads for the new site. (and let me be equally clear here that a copy will be made, then thousands of threads deleted from the copy, then the copy will be used to make the new site, without deleting the originals)

Prince Elileth · #22 Post by **Prince Elileth** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:34 pm

I don't see the big deal with the post count. It really doesn't matter that much does it, and deleting them just seems like one more thing to do even if it is a trivial step. I don't see why they need to disappear as they're pretty meaningless as is. They're just kind of there. Do people really pay attention them that much that they feel it has a negative impact on the community?

#23 Post by **Burning Sun** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:43 pm

Prince Elileth wrote:Do people really pay attention them that much that they feel it has a negative impact on the community?

Personally I tend to use post counts to tell whether or not a person is a well established member of the community. I have a simple test, if they have more posts than me, I should probably know who they are...

That says about as much about my post count as anyone else's though.

Loflar · #24 Post by **Loflar** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:03 am

Post count is a rough measure of user's activity. Whether this activity is useful or not is another, and hard to judge thing.

I understand that there are people who might spam the forum to get a high post count, though I have never seen that. But I expect, that spamming the forum will get boring once the spammer gets over 100 or 200. Above these numbers, changes are less visible and less rewarding

I have personally only really looked for post count during HotW, where, as a HQ member, I wanted to know my soldiers. (An account created in 2005 and 13 posts meant that this person will probably not cooperate.) And, of course, I spent some time wondering, why does Leth's post count not change

I think that it is better to leave them as they are (with OT posts not counted). For newcomers, post count is a way to guess who is established member of community.

(I wonder, how low will my post count go, once all the threads from Reik forum get deleted

)

#25 Post by **Anarion** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 12:25 pm

Just a note. Sun, I don't know if this is easier in phpbb3 but in order to exclude the counting of OT posts we had to manually hack something. If you need to know where that is I could find it back...

Uther Di Asturien · Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:31 pm

Prince_Asuryan wrote:
Burning Sun wrote: Also, if you think we should keep them, speak up! I can only listen to people that tell me things.
Just to be awkward. I feel that the post counts generally give a good indication to the new members of the forum who are reliable and experienced members of the boards, seen as OT doesn't effect it.

I agree, that said I understand why one would want them gone, however I tihnk they could be replaced by ranks ala Roundtable

where each person obtains a rank after a certain number of posts, this number of posts however is unknown to all the members. Otherwise I would prefer if we kept the post counts.

Prince_Asuryan · #27 Post by **Prince_Asuryan** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:42 pm

Uther Di Asturien wrote:
Prince_Asuryan wrote:
Burning Sun wrote: Also, if you think we should keep them, speak up! I can only listen to people that tell me things.
Just to be awkward. I feel that the post counts generally give a good indication to the new members of the forum who are reliable and experienced members of the boards, seen as OT doesn't effect it.

I agree, that said I understand why one would want them gone, however I tihnk they could be replaced by ranks ala Roundtable where each person obtains a rank after a certain number of posts, this number of posts however is unknown to all the members. Otherwise I would prefer if we kept the post counts.

Ranks, while a nice idea, just make people spam. I think it's the reason we don't have them already. People get them awarded by the lores as something special - an idea I like.

fireblade · #28 Post by **fireblade** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 4:28 pm

True, ranks lead to spamming, but the post count is still a nice instrument for the newer members, as prince asuryan said.

Well, I'll probably fall below 100 posts if the older ones are removed from the equation (my most active time was during the storm of chaos, some time ago already)

Tarrowhin · #29 Post by **Tarrowhin** » Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:31 pm

As a 'newer member' can I just add my support for keeping the post count.

Even if all they do is give a rough 'n' ready guage of how much someone contributes, that's still worthwhile.

I'm sure we all learn fairly quickly who is worth paying attention to, but the post count is a useful 'ready reckoner'.

All that said, seeing as I've only 21 posts feel free to ignore me!

#30 Post by **Ruerl Khan** » Fri Apr 24, 2009 4:20 am

@Tarrowhin:
The quality of your input, not the quantity of your inputs, is what merits consideration. Thus while we do hear your argument, we also have to ignore a part of it, since its ironically based on your post count.

Lets make that perfectly clear: We do not judge a person on the number of posts they make, we judge a person by the content of his or her posts.

As for titles and such, they can still be handed out to active, and postivedly contributing, members of the community should we feel like it or should it be felt warranted, its not like custom titles are a rare thing either.

Updating the site - ALL USERS READ

Updating the site - ALL USERS READ

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