[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Abyss, on 08 January 2020 - 03:04 PM, said:

Brujah, on 19 October 2019 - 04:17 AM, said:

I don't know crapola about what it takes to run the site. I do know that there's a ton of us who've been here for several years to decades now.

If there is a way to upgrade the things we need, I'd be willing to help financially, even though it was mentioned the war chest was in good shape.

The combination of all of us could generate tons of cash. This might be a stupid question, but could we hire someone to do the necessary changes if needs be?

I don't want to go anywhere, or lose all our old posts and history.

Xae, on 08 January 2020 - 01:35 PM, said:

Well, since ME doesn't use that many features, one option would be to migrate over to phpBB and re-develop the reputation system plus any styles that people are attached to. phpBB has been around for 20 years and is still actively developed. Free, open-source forum software without any bells and whistles, and it can be easily extended. You could stay on that pretty much indefinitely and not have to pay any licence costs.

It's not a big job but it is a bit more than I can do for free.

Slow Ben, on 08 January 2020 - 02:15 PM, said:

Whatever we need to do to keep the old joint going. I'd chip in.

Confusion.
OP was Oct 2019.
Xae, is this a thing at this moment?

I can't speak for Xae. My take on this is that we should be future-proofing. Otherwise, we'll be stuck on the current obsolete and insecure version of forum software. A hack or elsewise will be inevitable.

The original incident should be a call to action to do that future-proofing.

Xae, what level of effort do you foresee an IPB->phpBB transition taking? It sounds difficult, from my limited and outdated knowledge of forum software. Is it something you'd do for pay?

This post has been edited by Whisperzzzzzzz: 08 January 2020 - 05:15 PM

[Gorefest]

Let's just convert to Google Groups. You know it makes sense.

[Aptorian]

Give us an estimate, Xae and I'm sure we'll figure something out.

[Abyss]

MODGOD NOTICE OF
EPIC HEIST IS
GOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[Xae]

Abyss, on 08 January 2020 - 03:04 PM, said:

Confusion.
OP was Oct 2019.
Xae, is this a thing at this moment?

It's been a creeping issue for years and now reaching the point where I think we can't wait much longer. It's not necessarily urgent since I do have backups but we should get the ball rolling on a solution. A bad hack would result in lost post history, and there are security vulnerabilities that I just can't fix or otherwise neutralise. I've already limited forum admin functionality to protect against certain intrusions.

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 08 January 2020 - 05:14 PM, said:

Xae, what level of effort do you foresee an IPB->phpBB transition taking? It sounds difficult, from my limited and outdated knowledge of forum software. Is it something you'd do for pay?

Aptorian, on 08 January 2020 - 07:40 PM, said:

Give us an estimate, Xae and I'm sure we'll figure something out.

I don't expect it'll be a huge undertaking but it does depend on the scope of work. You guys ought to have a good get-together and decide what it is you want for the new version. I obviously can't copy the themes since they're copyrighted, except perhaps the ME one, but I could make imitations. You'd also need to try out phpBB to make sure it has enough features.

I'll do some investigation into how much time the base migration and development would take me.

[Abyss]

Please do, and you can prioritise integrity and avoiding lost posts over diversity of themes. Contents is more valuable than how pretty it looks.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

What's the benefit of phpBB over ipB? Is the cost-saving worth any potential reduction in security and features?

[Aptorian]

One thing I'd like, if such a thing is possible, is an updated social media linking/plug-in solution, making it easier to embed videos, tweets, pictures, what ever. I don't know why but I have a hell of a time getting links to embed now a days.