I know you guys were locking posts back in Aug for this problem, but it's been almost 3 months now without an update on the solution. What is the current situation on it?

I think that the Admins are just waiting for the switch to the new Forums, which should be happening Any Week Now™.

Well, the switch has been imminent for at least six months now, so I'm not sure it really counts as an answer anymore.

~J

Of course it doesn't count as an answer. I ain't a moderator!

Well, even if you were, I mean. Sorta like my promises that I'll be consistently updating that story someday soon x.x

~J

I can tell you that we're working on the new board software as we "speak." I don't know when it will be released to the public at large, but the admins and the rest of the moderators and I have been working with it, learning it, and generally preparing for the update for quite some time. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as flicking a switch and changing from forum A to forum B. We're also trying to maintain the user base and the posts through the switch so that we don't have to maintain this version of the site as an archive of information. We tried that the last time the DSF software was updated and it didn't work out so well.

What forum software are you changing to? Something homebrewed or one of the major ones (phpBB, vBulletin)?

There may be mods written to convert the database from IPB to the one you're using.

We're upgrading to the latest version of IPB. Mark has been stuck on a killer contract job as late and now that that's wrapped up, we expect to finish things up here.

I don't see why there'd be any issues keeping the database intact, then. Unless Invision dramatically altered theirs with a newer revision.

I can't speak for the IPB boards, but I have never been able to successfully update forum software (usually phpBB or vBulletin) without losing the databases. Perhaps I suck, but it's not usually as easy as it should be.

If a switch does happen and the forum threads cant be moved will you guys be able to revert back or save the old forum? Or is it like a cross your fingers and hope the forum threads dont go poof thing??

Most likely, making a full backup of the database, then upgrading. If that breaks the forums, there are most likely ways to import the old databse into the new, saving everything.

I just can't imagine a forum software wouldn't maintain standards between releases, or not provide a method of importing old databases.

We aren't going to lose the data; we've done a test install and it imports fine. But there are a bunch of things that need to be manually tweaked/reconfigured, which means the forums will need to go down for awhile, the database re-imported and upgraded, the tweaks made, and then the new forums can go live. So we need a period of time when both Mark and I can sit around and work on it without interruptions.