WE ARE MOVING - HERE’S THE PLAN

[Gary Lewis]

The Invision folks have started writing the code to migrate us from Nabble to their platform. They anticipate having the first pass up for us to test in about a week. We will then have 7 days to test it and point out what issues we can find. They will then revise their code to fix the problems.

Once they are done we will set a time and day to cut over. At that point we will turn off access to the forum on Nabble, take a backup, run that through the converter, and put the forum up on Invision in “production”.

I will put the Nabble version up on a page on the website that only a few of us can access just in case we need something, but we won’t be able to post in it. And then, once we know we have everything we will delete the Nabble version to free up space on their servers.

[ArdWrknTrk]

What kind of joining protocol will we have after the move?
Will it be similar to what Nabble WAS before it got borked, where new members are sandboxed until they post in the NMSH?

I really look forward to not having to apologize before they can even make a first post.  👍

[Gary Lewis]

Good question, Jim.  The way I THINK I have it set up at present on Invision is that a newbie can only post in NMSH.  But as soon as s/he posts one time they are automagically promoted and can post elsewhere.  (The # of posts to get promoted is adjustable.)

However I think that everything we've set up now gets blown away when they create the new forum, so we will have to adjust it - and I do have it all recorded.

And the joining process is automagic as well.  We can have them agree to the guidelines before joining.  But moderators don't have to admit people.

Speaking of moderators, we will have admins and moderators.  The admins can change serious things and the moderators make sure people are playing nice.  Chris and I'll probably be the admins with current admins being moderators.  Yes?

[ArdWrknTrk]

I really don't want any power to screw things up in the background.
Not my domain and I've kept my hands in my pockets so far, except when I banned myself.  

Im okay with being the hall monitor.
We're very fortunate that you have a great membership that doesn't devolve into profane  slinging.
I catch my own frustration pushing towards a tantrum often enough that I'm not sure I set a good example, but I try to answer questions in a courteous and timely manner.

I really look forward to seeing all Invision has to offer!  

[Nothing Special]

Will the links within threads still work?  Like when you replied to a earlier post in a thread and you get the "in reply to this post" at the top?  Or if I took a "permalink" from a post and used that to link to it from another post?  It'd be a shame to lose that functionality, but I could see it being too hard to recreate.

[Gary Lewis]

I don't know the answer to that question, Bob.  But it is something we should check out when the time comes.  

[85lebaront2]

Gary, it's your baby, you set it up the way you feel is best.

[Rogue_Wulff]

Just leave a forwarding address......

[viven44]

I looked at that. Didn't realize each POST in a TOPIC has its own URL (permalink) and the logic for it looks like Website_name_TOPIC_subject_TOPIC_number_POST_number.com

I don't see why they can't search for identical links (paired between a POST and a reply to a POST) and match them up with another Invision URL. I think we should push for that. The computer does it all anyway once they program the logic.. It has been over 20 years since I played with any kind of coding in school so hopefully not oversimplifying it... when people meet me they assume I'm an IT guy (talk about profiling, haha)... they don't know I play with copper, tin, silver, polymers, and also Ford trucks

[Gary Lewis]

Bill - I appreciate that, but also appreciate the guidance.

Paul - The address is the same.  When it comes up it'll be right where this one is now.  Same URL, different platform.  Your handle should still work and maybe even your password.

Vivek - We don't know that everything won't work.  When the time comes I'll need all the help I can get testing it out.

[ckuske]

Thanks for handling this while I was on vacation, Gary.  (Well, you're in charge anyways of course, but you know what I mean haha)

No more time off for me for awhile, but I'm ready to help get stuff done.

Regarding the old permalinks/URLs - if we can't support it out of the box with the InVision folks replacing Nabble URLs automagically within the thread I think we can probably figure out how to map them as long as there is some pattern/coherency to the URLs.  It would be good to ask for that from the InVision folks if possible, Gary.  It may be possible, it may not be really.

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

They anticipate having the first pass up for us to test in about a week. We will then have 7 days to test it and point out what issues we can find.

Perfect timing for me Gary, I’ll be on vacation for 3 weeks beginning next weekend.
You can count on me as member of your test pilots crew.

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

[…] But as soon as s/he posts one time they are automagically promoted […]
And the joining process is automagic as well […]

Are we really going to be relying on so much magic, Harry?
Hoping there is still remaining a bit of techno behind the scene…

[Gary Lewis]

Glad you will be one of the test pilots, Jeff.  You know your way around Invision.

As for the automagic bit, it has yet to be proven that it works.

[ArdWrknTrk]

I personally am very frustrated by the fact that posts aren't numbered (forward facing) on this forum.

Many times I'd like to tell someone to "go back 3 pages and look at post 2317..."

But that's impossible and I have to open a menu, select the permalink, copy it, return to the last post of the thread, compose a post, open the link drop-down, back out an antiquated URL prefix, paste my permalink, and then wait for the link to resolve on the overloaded Nabble servers.

It's an incredible pita that we've had to put up with for years and could be easily avoided.

[viven44]

I just hope Invision is everything you wanted ever

I probably should know this / it has already been shared probably but is there another Invision forum that is active today that I go check out... this would the "example" that we can refer to.

[Gary Lewis]

I've looked at others but don't remember which ones.  However you can see a little bit about it on the Invision forum we have up.  Just go to Test Forums in the menu and pick Test Forum For Chris.

[Gary Lewis]

Got a note from Stuart at Invision yesterday:

The custom converter development is proceeding well, I expect that we'll be able to complete the test conversion around the 24/25th July. Some elements are taking a little longer than anticipated, but we're also being very thorough with your data to ensure that the conversion is to a high standard.

Do you have an account you can share the password for? Ideally a test account that isn't your main account. This is for testing/developing a method to allow existing passwords to continue to work so we need to know an existing password to know if it was successful.

I responded that they are doing the right thing, that we aren't in a hurry and want everything to work.  But that all he has to do to get an account is to apply and we will approve it.

[ArdWrknTrk]

Did you mention that we have the test forum as well???

I'm sure you're busy w/ Ian today, so I'll BOLO and escalate right away, but if they signed to the test I could make them an admin and they could 'go behind the curtain' so to speak....

[ArdWrknTrk]

Well, I've locked myself out of everything Google

So I can't be watching my mailbox for requests from InVision, but hopefully you have time to breathe now that the grandtwins have headed back to James Island.