It’s time to upgrade the board

[nero]

Hello fellow Rig-Talk members,

I hope you’re all fine and safe in these troubled times.

I wanted to let you know that we will soon migrate the board to a new application since it hasn’t been updated in years. We’ve been discussing it with the moderators, they’ve been able to test a staging version of the new board and the feedback was positive.

This migration is serving two main purposes:

• Technical reasons: we’re using outdated software and this causes several issues. In short, we need to be able to follow applications and OS upgrades on the servers in order to avoid security issues. This also comes with great benefits in terms of performance.
  
• Usability reasons: no new features have been added to this board for a long time and there’s very little we can do anyway with such an outdated program. Moderators need modern tools to manage the board and fight against spam. With the explosion of smartphones and tablets, we also need a board that can adapt graphically to any device. And you, users and contributors of this board, need modern functioning tools, whether you’re consulting the board from your desktop computer, your tablet or your smartphone.

As you can see on the screenshots below, I’m pretty sure that you’ll quickly get used to the new board as it doesn’t change “that much” visually but under the hood, it’s a complete change though and that’s a good thing.

New board desktop view:

New board mobile view:


For those interested, we will be leaving phpBB for Xenforo which is currently the state-of-the art in terms of forums. We’re in contact with people who’ve already done several migrations to Xenforo a long time ago and they’ve been really happy with the results. I’ve already done several test migrations myself with complete real data in order to migrate other boards and build the staging version I’ve shown the moderators so the final migration should go smoothly. Of course the board will have to be closed for a few hours during the migrating process.

I’m planning the migration for next week. I’ll get back to you when I know the exact date but it will most certainly occur at night (CET) which is anyway the most quiet time for the board.

Your access to the board won’t change. You’ll be able to log in with your existing credentials, your thread subscriptions should remain untouched and any existing page on the board should automatically redirect to the corresponding page on the new board.

I’m looking forward to taking Rig-Talk to the next step and hope you’ll like the new board system as much as we do. Stay safe.

Cheers,
Nicolas

 

[japetus]

We the future now bois.

 

[MrDowntown]

What about all the existing threads... Will they make the journey to this next-level platform? Amongst the political soft-shoe ass-grabbing that we all adorn...there's also a plethora of info on the other branches. A proverbial cornucopia of knowledge...

 

[Monkey Man]

Thank you, Nico!

Should be great. Pages will load a Helluva-lot faster, embedding and uploading video and images should be quicker-and-easier, likes (I'm guessing) will be implemented... so much good stuff.
Good on ya mate, and thank you in advance!

One thing:
Will the current emoji set be importable to the new board? So many of us, I'm sure, have come to rely on and dare I say even fall in love with many of the options we currently have.

MrDowntown:
According to what Nicolas said, the answer would be yes, Frank:

Your access to the board won’t change. You’ll be able to log in with your existing credentials, your thread subscriptions should remain untouched and any existing page on the board should automatically redirect to the corresponding page on the new board.

 

[Metlupass2]

Noooooooooo!

 

[MrDowntown]

MrDowntown:
According to what Nicolas said, the answer would be yes, Frank:

Your access to the board won’t change. You’ll be able to log in with your existing credentials, your thread subscriptions should remain untouched and any existing page on the board should automatically redirect to the corresponding page on the new board.

Thanks mate!

 

[Monkey Man]

No worries, bro'.

Noooooooooo!

Don't worry mate; nothing will be lost, but some new features will be gained.

It should be a win-win situation IMHO.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

Please scrub the physco babble and take out the garbage why your at it There's far too many clowns on here that need permanent removal. I just ignore it personally, but it would be nice to not have to sift through all the BS.

 

[nero]

Hey,

Thanks for the feedback.

Of course all existing threads and posts will be moved to the new one. The current set of emojis will also be transferred.
As for the "garbage and clowns", I'm afraid this will be transferred as well but I agree we should remove some of those threads that have nothing to do in here on Rig-Talk but that would be a manual job and it would probably a good way to get our hands in the new tools

Glad to see the positive feedback

 

[Monkey Man]

Thank you, Nico! Great that the emojis will survive. Very important, man.

IMHO the OT stuff is just-fine. It has been nicely-separated since new posts stopped showing up in the "view active topics" link. Pretty-much everyone seems to be happy with this. The only missing step seems to be that all the "view new posts"-type options don't operate the same way. If all could be brought in line with the "VAT" one, that'd be perfect IMHO. Perhaps it could be looked at?

As for complaints, IMHO if the OT stuff isn't shoved in your face via the links I've just mentioned, there is absolutely no legitimate reason for anyone to complain. If ya don't like, don't look.

 

[stephen sawall]

Sounds great.

I'm for removal of Off Topic completely. The is no music or gear in OT. Virtual every thread in OT is in violation of the posted rules.

 

[glpg80]

Sounds great.

I'm for removal of Off Topic completely. The is no music or gear in OT. Virtual every thread in OT is in violation of the posted rules.

I agree - it served a purpose when traffic was much higher and harmony central dissolved, but now the board doesn’t need it.

I’d like to see a thinning of uselessness and getting the forum back alive. Archive and close all non used manufacturer sections and remove the off topic section.

Looking forward to the migration!

 

[311splawndude]

Looking forward to the upgrade

Here is my suggestion.

Keep OT
Make a dedicated 'Only Politics' thread.

Hell, you can even make it sticky for all I care. I don't mind OT sub-forums because sometimes it is nice to chat with your regular buddies about other things. Especially if it keeps people coming here and being active.

But honestly, now days the OT is just the same 4 or 5 people (or 1 or 2 alts) making a new thread for every single thing that pops into their mind.





PS: And I agree with Monkey Man. A dark theme option would be cool. We're all getting older now ya'know.

 

[japetus]

Sounds great.

I'm for removal of Off Topic completely. The is no music or gear in OT. Virtual every thread in OT is in violation of the posted rules.

It's a containment board. If we delete it, everyone comes to the main page and starts trolling.

 

[Monkey Man]

Hey Nico:

D'ya think you could maybe allow a basic choice of dark, medium light themes?

Obviously for users to be able to choose their preferences, a pop-up window would have to be an option you can enable in the board software. If the upgrade doesn't allow this, maybe you could consider making a call - a compromise by selecting something darker but not OTT?

I've had a thread requesting this for some time now, so it seemed like the time to ask again now that the software's being upgraded.

Thanks man.

 

[nero]

Hi there,

Regarding political threads, I'd vote for having a dedicated section that could be in the OT forum. I can make sure those new posts don't appear in the "new posts" feature. If you'd like to add other subsections, whether it's in the OT forum or elsewhere, please don't hesitate to let me know.

FYI I've cleaned up the Nike and Adidas threads, it was about time and I definitely should have done that a long time ago. My bad.

Finally, regarding the dark mode, I agree that would be a nice addition and I know it's been requested for a while but there's not much we can do with the current board. I'll check if it's handled natively on the new board and if not I'll see what I can do. I'll probably do that AFTER the migration though as it requires a little bit of work to set the correct colors. I guess automatic detection of the OS' dark mode would not be enough and you'd rather have an option or a dark them that users could choose manually?

 

[nero]

I'll do the upgrade tomorrow evening (around 22:00 CET).

The board will most certainly be down a big part of the night.

 

[Sitedrifter]

This is really good move and much appreciated!


Thank you!

 

[311splawndude]

I guess automatic detection of the OS' dark mode would not be enough and you'd rather have an option or a dark them that users could choose manually?

Yes. Manual. Please.


...and good luck tomorrow night

 

[nero]

Yes. Manual. Please.

Noted.

...and good luck tomorrow night

Thanks!