Replacing Xenforo with Invision Community

[thickornotatall]

Security updates are essential to keep any website up and running smoothly. No one wants to be hacked and expose personal information to any bad actor. Ransom ware is a definite problem which opens more problems than can be dealt wth here.

As far a taking away a ban that should be done case by case.

[MikeBiDude]

@RadioRob i haven’t seen this addressed? Back in the day we had forum software that supported the option of viewing threads in “tree” mode along with the default “linear” mode. We lost that here somewhere along the update train as years went by. Guy noticed this, and was going to review, but that was long, long ago.

 

Any chance Invision has options to view threads in 2-3 different modes? Not a big deal but was sometimes “tree” mode was helpful in keeping track of who was replying to who if posters didn’t use “quote”.

 

I’m impressed with all other features and ability to make it feel “the same”.

[+ José Soplanucas]

@RadioRob i haven’t seen this addressed? Back in the day we had forum software that supported the option of viewing threads in “tree” mode along with the default “linear” mode. We lost that here somewhere along the update train as years went by. Guy noticed this, and was going to review, but that was long, long ago.

 

Any chance Invision has options to view threads in 2-3 different modes? Not a big deal but was sometimes “tree” mode was helpful in keeping track of who was replying to who if posters didn’t use “quote”.

 

I’m impressed with all other features and ability to make it feel “the same”.

 

You do have those options.

[RadioRob]

The default view is Linear. I think you’re thinking of the Threaded view which put the replies in somewhat of a nested view based on reply. Most of the major forum software providers moved away from it for a few reasons….

 

- It was difficult to support in a mobile view. It did not play well with responsive design which lets developers do cross platform UI development.

- People never used the correct reply to track the tread properly.

- It did not work with multi-quote.If someone was quoting multiple threads, it could not be nested with the reply.

 

Ultimately the major developers just decided to not support it saying it was too much effort to try and make it work properly given how few people actually used it.

 

There might be an unofficial mod to support this, but I’ll have to look to see if there is one compatible with the most recent release of the software.

[MikeBiDude]

You do have those options.

Show me where?

[MikeBiDude]

The default view is Linear. I think you’re thinking of the Threaded view which put the replies in somewhat of a nested view based on reply. Most of the major forum software providers moved away from it for a few reasons….

 

- It was difficult to support in a mobile view. It did not play well with responsive design which lets developers do cross platform UI development.

- People never used the correct reply to track the tread properly.

- It did not work with multi-quote.If someone was quoting multiple threads, it could not be nested with the reply.

 

Ultimately the major developers just decided to not support it saying it was too much effort to try and make it work properly given how few people actually used it.

 

There might be an unofficial mod to support this, but I’ll have to look to see if there is one compatible with the most recent release of the software.

Thanks! I hadn’t thought about it being cumbersome on mobile platforms, makes sense.

[+ José Soplanucas]

Show me where?

 

I cannot find it! It was there, available only for the Clubs. However, now it is vanished. I know it was there because the first time I joined the clubs, I disabled that feature, I do not like it.

[RadioRob]

I've named "Clubs" as "Groups" (by editing the language files). Clubs have two views for forums... condensed and expanded. You can see an example in the test I created earlier. (I made this group as I wanted to let members create their own groups for specific areas of interest such as location specific discussion like a city, or a group dedicated to a specific provider, or a topic.

 

https://www.companyofmen.org/beta/groups/1-washington-dc/

 

If you click on the forums link inside the group, it will take you to:

https://www.companyofmen.org/beta/forum/40-forums/

 

Inside of the forum I created a specific topic with a few replies:

https://www.companyofmen.org/beta/topic/124322-test-topic-1/?tab=comments#comment-1817007

 

As you can see, there is not a way to change how the the replies are displayed. You CAN change how the topic list itself is displayed. You would do that from the topic list page (in this case https://www.companyofmen.org/beta/forum/40-forums/) and clicking one of the two buttons to the left of the "Start New Topic" button. It will toggle how much of a preview you get of the initial topic.

[+ stevenkesslar]

I don't have any sort of plan or ETA for if/when we would actually make a change.

 

I know I'm the asshole that keeps wanting to bring things back to the big picture. But let me bring it back to a few big picture things.

 

First, I think of innovation and growth as good things. In a different post you actually used the word "growth," Rob. As in it's a desirable goal to grow this website. If that is what you meant, I agree with you. It's not clear whether a different software helps with innovation and growth, or not. I'm ecumenical. But I really, really, really like what you are doing.

 

Second, the obvious thing about this website is that it had very good moderators who have been moderating for years. So it was a no brainer to me that they would keep doing that, and now the moderating team has been expanded. This is good news, good news, and good news. The missing piss was a technical wizard, which we found in you. That is great news, great news, and great news.

 

Third, I understand why we are maintaining the legal position that Bill owns these websites. So if somebody asks that question, I'll say, "Oh. A guy named Bill owns these websites, and he is deceased." Beyond that, I don't see that fact as a reason to slow down innovation and change. If a legal argument for change is needed, which I don't think it is, we are simply preserving the value of Bill's websites to its users as the legal issues play out.

 

Fourth, there are two bad outcomes to worry about. The only really bad extinction level outcome is if a judge says these websites go in the dumpster fire, given their content, or Aunt Edna mysteriously shows up to claim them. My view is we are all acting as if that is not going to happen, and we should keep acting that way. If and when it happens, which is unlikely, we can deal with it. The more likely problem is timing. I'll quote @Lucky when he says these kinds of things can go on "forever" in probate. That's a long time. For that reason, I'm excited with the new energy and ideas and hope you and others keep bringing it on. I think it's great. Even if we had a crystal ball and knew it would take six months or one year or three years to get this legal stuff resolved I don't think there is any reason to wait to make these types of changes. If a legal reason is needed, which it isn't in my view, we are simply updating and preserving the value of the websites Bill still owns.

[RadioRob]

My use of the word growth was deliberate and intentional. Yes, my goal is to see this community grow. I've been around various online forums/communities for over 20 years. This included the early AOL days where I served as a Community Leader helping in chat rooms, message boards, online games, etc. Over that time, I've seen the rise and fall of many different communities.

 

At the end of the day, there is not a "single" silver bullet in what will make a community successful. It takes EVERYTHING... from a good site, to good moderators, to good members contributing. You can have the most functional site in the world, with the prettiest graphics/UI, blah blah... but the site could never end up taking off. A forum without active and entertaining members is just another static page on the internet which will end up being forgotten. People come back to a site because of new/fresh content and ideas. As a result, it's ultimately going to be the people that make this place work or not. My goal is to provide tools/features that help the members express themselves and to enjoy their time. When people have fun, they stick around. If they're having fun, guests who happen to come across will see it and want to participate also. That ultimately creates a multiplicative effect making it easier for even more people to join/participate. That will mean thinking through things like the signup process and reducing the barriers to signing up in such a way that can still keep out spammers and people just looking to troll.

 

I've always thought that Cooper did a great job moderating, but at the end of the day he was being overwhelmed. This place is simply too much for just one or two people to handle. Adding more people made perfect sense to help reduce the workload and to provide additional layers of redundancy for when people eventually burn out or need to take a break (short or long term). We'll continue to add additional moderators and super moderators going forward. I personally would also like to add another true admin as well eventually.

 

As I said before, I don't see my involvement with the site in the same way Daddy did. All of the major things I've posted about here ranging from wanting to change the forum software, to the server migration, to rearranging the forum categories, etc were all things discussed among the moderating team first. They are helping shape and refine these issues before they're posted publicly. Once we have a consensus, it's brought out to the masses. Even once it's brought to the public, I've tried to solicit feedback from the members for additional improvements because at the end of the day I think we've gotten a better result with the suggestions ya'll have provided. My goal is to continue this going forward.

 

Regarding the legal question... who knows what will happen in the end. As long as I'm operating in the interest of the community and it's preservation, I cannot be faulted for the actions I take. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and let the chips fall where they may. We can survive whether probate lasts for days/weeks/months/years.

[RadioRob]

UPDATE 5/13/21:

Given the positive feedback from members, I'm going to look at plans to move forward with changing the forum software. My goal is to do this in approximately 2-3 weeks, most likely on a Friday or Saturday evening. (Once I know the specific date, I'll post it.)

 

In order to make the transition, I will need to take the boards offline for approximately 6 hours. Once the initial conversion is complete, I will need to manually set group permissions and start configuring various features. I anticipate this taking another 1-2 hours... at that point, I'll be able to unlock the doors and let everyone back in. Once the forums are re-opened, legacy posts may look funny and some posts may appear to be blank. Given the sheer size of the forums, it will take around 24 hours for all posts to be reindexed and rebuilt. This will naturally straighten itself out as the posts rebuild in the background. (This may also mean the site is a bit slower for the first day since a lot of resources are going to be dedicated to the rebuild/reindex process.)

 

IMPORTANT: Please take a few minutes to wander through the beta site. Feel free to login, post, send a PM, or whatever is most important to you. I want this transition to be as seamless/painless as possible for everyone. By looking around now, you won't have any major surprises as to what to expect later.

[lonely_john]

IMPORTANT: Please take a few minutes to wander through the beta site. Feel free to login, post, send a PM, or whatever is most important to you. I want this transition to be as seamless/painless as possible for everyone. By looking around now, you won't have any major surprises as to what to expect later.

It will help if you pin a post (redirecting to this thread) on The Lounge, The Deli, The Spa, Ask an Escort, and Political Issues.

Many members dwell almost exclusively there without participating in other forums.

They will probably be the first to complain of never being informed.

[RadioRob]

It will help if you pin a post (redirecting to this thread) on The Lounge, The Deli, The Spa, Ask an Escort, and Political Issues.

Many members dwell almost exclusively there without participating in other forums.

They will probably be the first to complain of never being informed.

In a few days, I'm going to post a system-wide message with the announcement.

[+ easygoingpal]

@RadioRob - I tried to send a PM message in the Beta site... I got an error message indicating my Inbox is full and to delete messages before I could send a new message...

[Islesguy]

My use of the word growth was deliberate and intentional. Yes, my goal is to see this community grow. I've been around various online forums/communities for over 20 years. This included the early AOL days where I served as a Community Leader helping in chat rooms, message boards, online games, etc. Over that time, I've seen the rise and fall of many different communities.

 

At the end of the day, there is not a "single" silver bullet in what will make a community successful. It takes EVERYTHING... from a good site, to good moderators, to good members contributing. You can have the most functional site in the world, with the prettiest graphics/UI, blah blah... but the site could never end up taking off. A forum without active and entertaining members is just another static page on the internet which will end up being forgotten. People come back to a site because of new/fresh content and ideas. As a result, it's ultimately going to be the people that make this place work or not. My goal is to provide tools/features that help the members express themselves and to enjoy their time. When people have fun, they stick around. If they're having fun, guests who happen to come across will see it and want to participate also. That ultimately creates a multiplicative effect making it easier for even more people to join/participate. That will mean thinking through things like the signup process and reducing the barriers to signing up in such a way that can still keep out spammers and people just looking to troll.

 

I've always thought that Cooper did a great job moderating, but at the end of the day he was being overwhelmed. This place is simply too much for just one or two people to handle. Adding more people made perfect sense to help reduce the workload and to provide additional layers of redundancy for when people eventually burn out or need to take a break (short or long term). We'll continue to add additional moderators and super moderators going forward. I personally would also like to add another true admin as well eventually.

 

As I said before, I don't see my involvement with the site in the same way Daddy did. All of the major things I've posted about here ranging from wanting to change the forum software, to the server migration, to rearranging the forum categories, etc were all things discussed among the moderating team first. They are helping shape and refine these issues before they're posted publicly. Once we have a consensus, it's brought out to the masses. Even once it's brought to the public, I've tried to solicit feedback from the members for additional improvements because at the end of the day I think we've gotten a better result with the suggestions ya'll have provided. My goal is to continue this going forward.

 

Regarding the legal question... who knows what will happen in the end. As long as I'm operating in the interest of the community and it's preservation, I cannot be faulted for the actions I take. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing and let the chips fall where they may. We can survive whether probate lasts for days/weeks/months/years.

You were a community leader on AOL? I was also. I had a blast doing it.

[RadioRob]

@RadioRob - I tried to send a PM message in the Beta site... I got an error message indicating my Inbox is full and to delete messages before I could send a new message...

I increased the limit on the number of stored conversations (Private Messages) that can be stored to 1500. You should be good now.

[RadioRob]

You were a community leader on AOL? I was also. I had a blast doing it.

Yes. I was a Community Leader. Specifically I was in the Guide program, the Online Gaming Forum, WorldPlay, and AOL Hometown (for building personal web pages). Back in the day... you had to pay by the hour to "go online". Being in various CL programs allowed me to not end up with thousands of dollars in hourly fees for being online.