Here's the deal (aka SAVE DAC FROM CERTAIN DEATH)

Post by **Taluntain** » Sun Jun 13, 2021 6:43 pm

Nowhere fast. I keep asking the guy and he keeps rescheduling due to his big client's Major Project getting extended for the 5th time or so now. He's promised that he'll take on DAC as soon as he's done there, so all I can do is wait and bug him every so often. After the fail of the first guy's attempt, I don't think that there's anyone else who's more experienced and capable of transferring DAC whole, so we just have to wait in line. But yes, it's majorly frustrating.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:35 pm

can we reopen registrations? all the various cool activity is attracting more cool, handsome, fun people but they are chomping at the bit to be let in

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Mon Jun 28, 2021 6:29 pm

Megatron wrote:can we reopen registrations? all the various cool activity is attracting more cool, handsome, fun people but they are chomping at the bit to be let in

yea

if spambots become an issue, appoint mods

Post by **Taluntain** » Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:57 pm

We can't, this ancient phpBB has no facility to deal with them and they register by the dozens automatically, it took me a better part of the day to clean them up and all the spam they posted.

HOWEVER, The Import Guy has JUST PM'd me that he can take DAC on now. Keep your fingers crossed, pray to any gods willing to listen, etc.

SenisterDenister · Post by **SenisterDenister** » Thu Jul 01, 2021 10:28 pm

I'll go perform a rain dance.

Hyacinth · Post by **Hyacinth** » Wed Jul 07, 2021 9:07 am

Hey Mr. Bossman when do you think you will be able to assign new moderators?

Post by **Taluntain** » Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:47 pm

Well, there's not really a huge rush since there's really nothing to moderate. Everyone's grown up and responsible now. More or less.

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 9:42 am

Amis · Post by **Amis** » Thu Jul 08, 2021 8:03 pm

I disagree sir.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Thu Aug 05, 2021 8:20 pm

Hitler reacts to DAC server upgrade

Post by **Taluntain** » Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:49 pm

I'm going to need to disable the forums for a bit every so often over the next few days as I test the new forums (which require a higher PHP version that the old forums don't work with). Just so you know if shit's broken, it'll get back to normal sooner or later.

Hyacinth · Post by **Hyacinth** » Mon Aug 09, 2021 8:50 am

Post by **Taluntain** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 10:02 pm

The latest is... disappointing. The most capable importer failed to get a complete import to XF2 done and chucked it in. Even though it appeared that there was only one critical issue left (poll results weren't importing), there were also quite a few non-critical issues that would mean dozens of hours of manual labour to sort out post-import, but at least they would have been possible to solve with enough time wasted on them.

I tried to get the importer guy to at least fix the polls issue with us paying extra for that, but he hasn't responded to any of my messages over the last few weeks.

If he remains non-responsive the only option left is to first upgrade to phpBB3 and see if we can at least get a more or less complete upgrade to that. phpBB3 should then be usable enough to stay on it for a while, or go to XF2 from there directly.

Jeff · Post by **Jeff** » Thu Oct 07, 2021 11:40 pm

What's with these import guys? They all seem super flaky. It's all just garbage in garbage out anyway, that's machine learning 101 everybody knows that. Acting like they're better than us, just copy/paste the posts and be done with it like a real man, just like in the olden days of PhpBB 1.6/7/8

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Fri Oct 08, 2021 12:22 am

can we just start a forums2/and import all the users over there and keep this here, a sort of DAC heaven if u will

Post by **Taluntain** » Fri Oct 08, 2021 12:45 am

Gimp Mask wrote:What's with these import guys? They all seem super flaky. It's all just garbage in garbage out anyway, that's machine learning 101 everybody knows that. Acting like they're better than us, just copy/paste the posts and be done with it like a real man, just like in the olden days of PhpBB 1.6/7/8

Basically, our phpBB2 is messed up to the extent that it's more trouble than it's worth for them. They're used to charging a few hundred bucks for a relatively quick job that doesn't require much effort on their part when everything goes smoothly. When it doesn't, they'll put some effort into trying to get it to work, but how much depends on every individual. The results will also depend on how capable they are. The extra problem in our case is that there is no direct importer from phpBB2 to XF2, so the upgrade to phpBB3 needs to be done as an interim step during the import anyway, which complicates things.

Megatron wrote:can we just start a forums2/and import all the users over there and keep this here, a sort of DAC heaven if u will

We can do a lot better than that, really. Also, we couldn't keep this old phpBB2 viewable any longer than it was also usable, short of just converting it all to html, but handling that properly would also be more trouble than it's worth. Worst case scenario right now seems to be losing poll results (the actual polls still import, just not the poll votes). Everything else that doesn't import like certain member profile fields, custom smilies, avatars etc. can either be redone with enough hours wasted or just left behind.

Oh and the charset issues seem to get even worse after every import, so even the foreign characters/symbols that aren't broken now, do get broken post-import. But since they're relatively rare in mostly English posts, they can be fixed manually. Mobile emojis just get turned to garbage though, so those people using them now, don't. They'll just be a garbled string of characters post-import.

My goal is always to import everything if at all possible, but if that proves impossible we'll just cut our losses and go with what we can salvage.

Hyacinth · Post by **Hyacinth** » Fri Oct 08, 2021 7:36 am

I'm for turning DAC into an internet variant of Frankensteins Monster, as long as it will be reachable on the same adress and be recognizable. Any errors on custom avatars and polls could maybe be fixed with a default profile picture of a cross in the desert, we who are still alive can just change it. I think it could look cool. Start from the ground up.

What's the other alternative? Flash more cash in those computer geeks faces?

Post by **Taluntain** » Fri Oct 08, 2021 2:20 pm

It's definitely going to cost more than I budgeted for initially. Heck, I've probably wasted over 20 hours of my time on it so far already with nothing to show. If this guy doesn't come through, we'll need to do two separate imports most likely. First to phpBB3 and then again from there to XF2. We'll see.

Post by **Taluntain** » Fri Dec 17, 2021 11:37 pm

Amis wrote:Give us an update please sir. What's going on with duckandcover.cx?

Basically nothing since the last update. The XenForo importer guy simply ignored my pleas for a response and to try to do the workaround I suggested. He's got money coming in left and right for far more lucrative projects so he won't bother to do us any favours, even if we're willing to pay.

Also, I've been swamped with work and RL stuff and haven't even had time to work on my priority projects, let alone DAC. However, I did take a few hours to research our options to upgrade to phpBB3 and think I have found a guy capable enough to take this on. He also seems to be used to working on problem phpBB2 imports and fixing them up, so I'll ask him to give it a go as soon as I clear my schedule enough to be able to work on this again.

Unfortunately this project has turned into a far bigger time sink than I ever expected, but I'm not giving up on it after wasting so many hours on it already.

Hyacinth · Post by **Hyacinth** » Sat Dec 18, 2021 12:45 am