Hi,

might it be possible to update/use a newer forum software for morph.zone?
It would be great to have more modern features like integrate screenshot/files into posts.


[ Edited by eliot 25.12.2024 - 07:38 ]

Quote:

Usually this ends up in loosing all old posts and get a bloated slow replacement.

The last page I know that did this, managed to loose more or less all users in the progress and is now more or less abandoned.

Especially with MorphOS and our old ppc hardware this is a bad idea. :D

Hm,

if you look at a1k.org it runs great with our old ppc hardware.
This forum also has the feature for uploading files,
but currently it fails, because the given path is
not writablefor the server.

2 issues I see:

Do we even have a webmaster that could do such changes?

Is there a compatible newer version of the server that could load in the existing data?

As geit wrote loosing all the old posts would be fatal and I just don't see a switch happening if it involves manually transferring them.

If we have someone willing he could spin up a new forum while keeping the old one around but thats kinda messy....

Yes, loosing the old data wouldn't be an option.
But maybe fix the upload feature of the existing forum would be a big step.

> integrate screenshot

This is possibly already as long as it resides on another server.

Quote:
Despite its advanced age, the existing forum software provides these features.

They were disabled for legal reasons.

There have been cases of hosting companies proactively shutting down entire websites because of mere DMCA takedown requests related to specific files regardless of whether these requests were fraudulent or not.

Being removed from search indices due to similar copyright complaints is another risk.

The only reliable solution is to host files on a third-party platform. Could this be made slightly more convenient by integrating a file upload API? I suppose so.

As much as I would like to see a more modern and featured replacement I have to agree with the others here. It would kill off the users we have now and put the current history at risk for little gain.

Forums have been killed off much like the BBS scene was when forums came out by the modern internet and places like Facebook/Discord. I'd hate to see even more people go for no real gain.

Quote:

In the past I tried to move data from one forum to a new forum. Problem is, it is almost impossible because you have very different databases behind and often not very well documented. A direct way is not possible so you would need to do it yourself by writing some sort of transfer program. I at that time simple copied in my view relevant data to the new system so you could use at least search but of course it is a loss. If it would be worth all the work and trouble I am not sure, as long there are no serious security problems enforcing it.

[ Editiert durch OlafSch 26.12.2024 - 15:06 ]

I would go older rather than newer. Mature codebases are seldom as buggy as recently developed ones.

I'm looking at setting up a new instance of Citadel on a 32-bit ARM computer to see how well it works. When using the web frontend, the old BBS software runs comfortably in the background and just looks like forums, RSS feeds, Jabber (XMPP) instant messages, blogs, calendars (WebDAV) and emails.

The nice part (though only necessary on classic Amigas) is that it can run graphically on a custom client using its own protocol. On my own server I was going to experiment with bouncing external email sources so all the messages could be treated like an intranet in IMAP protocol unless there were admin privileges involved.

See the Citadel webpage for more information.

Which forum software is used here? I didn't see any info with a quick look... but in my opinion the biggest issues here are the static layout of messages, very slow private messages area, no email notifications about new priv messages, and no mobile support... to name a few.

I kinda like phpBB which is very common nowadays. It isn't too heavy and it works well on mobile devices.

If you don't have too custom solution, there usually are converter scripts for message bases (at least used to be, but maybe situation is different nowadays?), but in any case the new forum should be built simultaneously when the old one is still working, because any down-time will cause user loss, as seen for example at amiga.org.

Nevertheless it would be a huge job and I'll understand if we just continue like this for now, it isn't that bad and content is what matters...

I hope the forums are backed up regularly!

The big issue with old forum software is security holes becoming evident, which then lets in trojans/bots which then take the whole thing down big time.

If you did want to update things then my recommendation would be to make a full backup of the database and a full backup of all the files. Then make a 100% copy of the current forum and update that as a test-bed. Once you know the update will work you can apply it to the original forum. If it doesn't work all you've done is balls up a copy.

But it's a lot of work and not much fun, so I can also understand the reluctance to do it. Personally, I'm happy with how things are currently.

Re:old forum software
The reason I brought up Citadel is it's under active development. Sure it still supports its text-based interface from its BBS days but it's mainly used via the web and email.