Hey All,
Last year in July we made the announcement about us leaving our previous forum software and the reasons why we did it. This came with some drastic changes as our new destination software did not have things like BBCode (though it allowed HTML capabilities). There have been many pros and cons, one of the largest cons being the loss of BBCode functionality. We expected the pros to outweigh the cons, and on paper, they really do. However, that is not what translated into reality for us as time went by. For those of you who forgot, allow me to explain why we needed to leave our previous software after nearly a decade of using it.
The change in August was not made because we disliked the forum software (xF). Rather, we had issues with third party addons. After using Xenforo for so long, we had many addons whose creators no longer updated them and custom work which led to layers upon layers of code weighing down on our install and database; some of the older addons didn’t even have proper uninstall functions. Since these addons didn’t work with newer versions of xF, we couldn’t update and utilize newer xF features and security that newer versions brought. We also couldn’t uninstall these addons, which were so deeply rooted into the site, without actually causing the site to crash (which it did in the past whenever we tried). I doubt the majority of the site has forgotten those days. Long may they remain behind us.
So that left us with something that most forum softwares have, the ability to import and export core data, completely bypassing addons and all of that hassle that was tying down the site. We picked IPS, it being one of the major competitors to xF and one of the few major brands around for paid forum platforms. With all of the issues we were experiencing, we weighed it against losing BBCode and other functionality for newer functionality and decided to move forward. The site, as usual, has continued to grow at astounding rates even despite what we consider to be a failure of a switch (its success in no small part due to our amazing userbase).
The first step, exporting, had to be done and wasn’t a mistake, and honestly neither was IPS with all the testing that we did. It’s what came after that that became the real issue.
IPS has a fast rate of releasing updates, constantly breaking our styles and creating other issues, and making strange design decisions (like removing search technology that actually made searching useful). Their company site has been littered with these kinds of complaints and feedback nonstop.
This rapid release of updates and the issues that follow them has led to the platform being insanely unstable and nearly worthless to us as a site staff. Heck, this has become evident with all of the bugs that crop up, such as preventing users from posting. Our Site Questions and Information section, once a beacon of activity for people looking to ask questions and learn how to use RpN, has become a forum just to bump bug report threads. Most of the admin tools in the back don’t work; we’ve had to do many workarounds and fixes to get even basic stuff we were able to do in the past to completely function. The staff’s ability to moderate the site shrunk considerably in response to the tools available.
I have no idea how to properly convey how many issues this board has been having without just explaining it in pure technical speak, or making videos based on all the issues we are experiencing so that you can see it visually.
Regardless, we have voiced our opinions and rather than dedicate too much time or money to fixing something that isn’t caused by addons or issues on our end, we thought it was time to begin another import/export process.
Sometime later this month (another announcement will come with the date) the site will briefly go offline and we will be back on the xF platform, but a fresh install. So basically we went xF > IPS > xF again, which is not a bad thing. We had to do that initial jump in the first place to be able to unfreeze the site from the state it was in. This means we can use the most current version of xF safely, and have an insanely faster site and all of the functionality that users have been used to, from profiles, to posting, to threads, to PMs, and BBCodes (this should magically also fix all of the styling on old posts that still have the coding for bbcodes, so bonus!) and more will return. We will also keep things we learned and did while on IPS, like the Color Me and Night Lyfe themes, but without all the crashing and bugs that is being caused by the current software.
So with that being said, here’s a few things that are going to take effect before the move:
We will have a final announcement in the days before we bring the site down for the switch. As before, no PMs, accounts, or threads/posts will get lost (URLs might change, but I’ll try to make sure they don’t this time if that's an option). Not completely sure about followers, but we will try. If we can’t preserve followers again, I’ll make sure to put it in the final announcement when we have a date and such, so users can save the names of people they are followed by or want to follow, and anything else they need from the follower system.
Blogs will not be making the transition, so please start saving anything you want to keep from there.
As usual, if you have any questions/feedback/concerns, please post below.
Please see if your question is answered here first before asking on this topic.
Last year in July we made the announcement about us leaving our previous forum software and the reasons why we did it. This came with some drastic changes as our new destination software did not have things like BBCode (though it allowed HTML capabilities). There have been many pros and cons, one of the largest cons being the loss of BBCode functionality. We expected the pros to outweigh the cons, and on paper, they really do. However, that is not what translated into reality for us as time went by. For those of you who forgot, allow me to explain why we needed to leave our previous software after nearly a decade of using it.
The change in August was not made because we disliked the forum software (xF). Rather, we had issues with third party addons. After using Xenforo for so long, we had many addons whose creators no longer updated them and custom work which led to layers upon layers of code weighing down on our install and database; some of the older addons didn’t even have proper uninstall functions. Since these addons didn’t work with newer versions of xF, we couldn’t update and utilize newer xF features and security that newer versions brought. We also couldn’t uninstall these addons, which were so deeply rooted into the site, without actually causing the site to crash (which it did in the past whenever we tried). I doubt the majority of the site has forgotten those days. Long may they remain behind us.
So that left us with something that most forum softwares have, the ability to import and export core data, completely bypassing addons and all of that hassle that was tying down the site. We picked IPS, it being one of the major competitors to xF and one of the few major brands around for paid forum platforms. With all of the issues we were experiencing, we weighed it against losing BBCode and other functionality for newer functionality and decided to move forward. The site, as usual, has continued to grow at astounding rates even despite what we consider to be a failure of a switch (its success in no small part due to our amazing userbase).
The first step, exporting, had to be done and wasn’t a mistake, and honestly neither was IPS with all the testing that we did. It’s what came after that that became the real issue.
IPS has a fast rate of releasing updates, constantly breaking our styles and creating other issues, and making strange design decisions (like removing search technology that actually made searching useful). Their company site has been littered with these kinds of complaints and feedback nonstop.
This rapid release of updates and the issues that follow them has led to the platform being insanely unstable and nearly worthless to us as a site staff. Heck, this has become evident with all of the bugs that crop up, such as preventing users from posting. Our Site Questions and Information section, once a beacon of activity for people looking to ask questions and learn how to use RpN, has become a forum just to bump bug report threads. Most of the admin tools in the back don’t work; we’ve had to do many workarounds and fixes to get even basic stuff we were able to do in the past to completely function. The staff’s ability to moderate the site shrunk considerably in response to the tools available.
I have no idea how to properly convey how many issues this board has been having without just explaining it in pure technical speak, or making videos based on all the issues we are experiencing so that you can see it visually.
Regardless, we have voiced our opinions and rather than dedicate too much time or money to fixing something that isn’t caused by addons or issues on our end, we thought it was time to begin another import/export process.
Sometime later this month (another announcement will come with the date) the site will briefly go offline and we will be back on the xF platform, but a fresh install. So basically we went xF > IPS > xF again, which is not a bad thing. We had to do that initial jump in the first place to be able to unfreeze the site from the state it was in. This means we can use the most current version of xF safely, and have an insanely faster site and all of the functionality that users have been used to, from profiles, to posting, to threads, to PMs, and BBCodes (this should magically also fix all of the styling on old posts that still have the coding for bbcodes, so bonus!) and more will return. We will also keep things we learned and did while on IPS, like the Color Me and Night Lyfe themes, but without all the crashing and bugs that is being caused by the current software.
So with that being said, here’s a few things that are going to take effect before the move:
HTML Beta is over. No more HTML. (While old BBCode posts will magically fix themselves in the switch to the new xF, newer HTML posts will most likely break.)
Creation of new HPs will be disabled for a while as we get ready for the transition.
Creation of new Blogs is disabled as they will not be able to make the switch.
We will have a final announcement in the days before we bring the site down for the switch. As before, no PMs, accounts, or threads/posts will get lost (URLs might change, but I’ll try to make sure they don’t this time if that's an option). Not completely sure about followers, but we will try. If we can’t preserve followers again, I’ll make sure to put it in the final announcement when we have a date and such, so users can save the names of people they are followed by or want to follow, and anything else they need from the follower system.
Blogs will not be making the transition, so please start saving anything you want to keep from there.
As usual, if you have any questions/feedback/concerns, please post below.
Please see if your question is answered here first before asking on this topic.
Last edited by a moderator:
!
