New forum software and technical committee

webwit · 21 Apr 2018, 10:41

Many, and not by default.

seebart · 21 Apr 2018, 10:43

°_°

__red__ · 21 Apr 2018, 12:30

matt3o wrote: both webwit and I are pretty busy these days so things are proceeding slowly. Also the technical committee bailed on us so we are alone.

Want help?

codemonkeymike · 21 Apr 2018, 12:35

I wrote PHP for 4 years and may also be able to help.

Blaise170 · 21 Apr 2018, 16:16

I can volunteer some time as well.

chuckdee · 21 Apr 2018, 18:49

webwit wrote: Many, and not by default.

I'm trying to offer what help I can. Can you expand on what you mean by this? It's a task that can be done pretty independently, and I can volunteer to do if welcome/needed, i.e. to evaluate them, as I know it can be a time intensive task.

Thoughts?

matt3o · 21 Apr 2018, 21:14

unfortunately when we were actively working on this nobody chimed in. now we have other priorities and we had to put the forum update on hold. Also based on deskthority's future we may take different roads in regards of forum software.

anyway keep an eye to this thread, I hope you guys would be still available then.

Blaise170 · 22 Apr 2018, 04:42

Well I wasn't around when this thread was active, but my attention was drawn to it by webwit due to the wiki password issue. I'm all for doing what I can to improve the site.

__red__ · 22 Apr 2018, 10:26

Yeah- I don't recall seeing either but my attention was brought to it during the discussion regarding finding a new club president etc... I'll keep my head up, but if you call for help and don't see a response from me please don't hesitate to poke me directly. I may have just missed it.

tatsurou · 28 May 2018, 22:04

I can help too

Wodan · 06 Jul 2018, 08:05

Maybe we can kick this project off once again.

With all the re-adjustments going on in the community, it might be a good time to upgrade the site.

The previous attempt didn‘t go well. I am not familair with PHP and forum stuff at all so my experience during that previous attempt was that I had no clue what to actually do.

Since I can‘t help much with the technical upgrade, maybe I can volunteer for the organizational part of the upgrade? I‘ve seen tons of PHPers offer their help, it feels like we just have to chain them up and hit the drums.

One of the illuminatis (webwit, matt3o) can you make a list of things that need to be done?
Do we still have the sandbox from the last upgrade attempt?

matt3o · 06 Jul 2018, 09:06

pretty much everything has been fixed and documented in this thread. We miss the "spy" functionality and possibly some other amenities added during the years. I'm strongly against modifying the engine code which makes updating impossible.

Last time it failed for lack of time on both webwit and my side... and honestly lack of enthusiasm from the community

That being said, my very humble opinion is that we need a deeper rejuvenation if we want to keep growing. On the other hand, if we want to keep the "pub" idea we can keep going this route.

The other day after the GH snafu, a friend of mine asked if Deskthority was still a "pay to join" thing...

Wodan · 06 Jul 2018, 09:17

Ultimately, I think upgrading to the latest phpbb might seem a little out of touch but hip new platforms are popping up left and right and we don't have to become another one of those. keeping the bb style forum we have and maybe improving the spy a little would at least retain the DT appeal and keep us a bit more up to date component version wise.

matt3o · 06 Jul 2018, 09:53

well now that I think of it, I'm not even the forum master anymore. So I guess it's entirely up to webwit to decide where to go from here.

Wodan · 06 Jul 2018, 10:01

Doesn't he spawn when we say his name three times in a row?

matt3o · 06 Jul 2018, 10:09

didn't you get the note? you have to TYPE his name three times on a beamspring... Or install a forum software that actually supports @username

webwit · 06 Jul 2018, 10:11

You rang?

matt3o wrote: well now that I think of it, I'm not even the forum master anymore. So I guess it's entirely up to webwit to decide where to go from here.

You still are if you want to be and are still motivated.

Let me think stuff over guys, and I'll come with a more elaborate reply.

scottc · 06 Jul 2018, 11:02

Same as Wodan here - was clueless about the PHP stuff. It’s hard to be enthusiastic about an ancient PHP monolith, I guess.

Maybe one of the trendy new forum softwares would work better, as Wodan said. But it’s not really for me to decide. I don’t have the time to volunteer.

andrewjoy · 06 Jul 2018, 11:38

I dont mind back end upgrades but i am strongly against anything that changes the look and feel of the user interface. Its easy on the eye and simple to use at the moment. We dont want to turn into the vomit inducing mess that is the layout of geekhack.

Loss of the Spy would be a show stopper in my opinion, its how many people visit the site.

AMongoose · 06 Jul 2018, 11:44

andrewjoy wrote: I dont mind back end upgrades but i am strongly against anything that changes the look and feel of the user interface. Its easy on the eye and simple to use at the moment. We dont want to turn into the vomit inducing mess that is the layout of geekhack.

Loss of the Spy would be a show stopper in my opinion, its how many people visit the site.

Yeah but it doesn't work very well on high resolution displays and it could really use a dark theme option IMO.

andrewjoy · 06 Jul 2018, 11:46

Works just fine on my 4k display

. A dark mode would be nice. But with the same layout.

Do we have any info on the theme that is uses at the moment ? The name of it, or is it custom ?

webwit · 06 Jul 2018, 12:08

It's a heavily customized version of https://inventea.com/en/projects/we_universal ... which is also available for 3.1 (not 3.2 yet) which scales on mobile.

Wodan · 06 Jul 2018, 12:27

webwit wrote: ... (not 3.2 yet) ...

From their Github:

Latest commit 03526d1 on 27 Apr 2016

doesn't look like there will be a 3.2 port

Doing all this migration work just for a 3.1 upgrade?

I mean what REALLY counts for me is preserving the existing forum contents 100% including links, references, pictures and so on. Loosing that would really cripple DT

webwit · 06 Jul 2018, 12:47

Well matt3o already tested a stock phpBB update here:

http://staging.deskthority.org/
Username: dtstaging
Password: InigoMontoya

So if you want a spy, maybe other mods, a DT skin... that still leaves the problem there are no volunteers except people who cannot develop or don't have time.

AMongoose · 06 Jul 2018, 14:29

webwit wrote: Well matt3o already tested a stock phpBB update here:

http://staging.deskthority.org/
Username: dtstaging
Password: InigoMontoya

So if you want a spy, maybe other mods, a DT skin... that still leaves the problem there are no volunteers except people who cannot develop or don't have time.

I can probably take care of the skin if anyone is interested.
Not that I have a lot of time, but i do have some time.

Blaise170 · 06 Jul 2018, 14:52

I have no idea what this PHP looks like, but I do PHP development at work so I could take a hack at it sometime.

andrewjoy · 06 Jul 2018, 15:23

I can try to have a play with the skin if you like , will set up a few VMs

If someone could send me the customised version ( and phpbb version we are on now) i will have a play

webwit · 06 Jul 2018, 16:25

Matt3o, is that version on staging the latest one? (3.2)

I can prepare a package of the current and staging codebases over the weekend. I need to filter out the admin forum, PM data and attachments for privacy and package size purposes, before passing it around over the evil Internet...

Looking more closely at that we_universal skin for 3.1, it's not very good I think for an update. It provides mobile scaling, but the icons are still pixilated noughties versions. It's probably better to get a newer skin with a proven update cycle, and provide our logo, colors and stuff with additional, overriding CSS, so we don't get any update problems like with the old 3.0 phpBB branch.

matt3o · 06 Jul 2018, 17:22

it's v3.2.1

kbdfr · 06 Jul 2018, 19:17

andrewjoy wrote: […] i am strongly against anything that changes the look and feel of the user interface. Its easy on the eye and simple to use at the moment. […]

Loss of the Spy would be a show stopper in my opinion, its how many people visit the site.

Completely agree.
Black on white, clear and simple.
And don't mess with the Spy.