Forum Move and Donation System Starting Next Month

[Arynis]

Hi everyone!

This post serves as a summary, clarification and continuation of this announcement, more or less:
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After roughly 4 years, it came to that NAC can no longer function with its current hosting, which costs Shadowfang roughly 60+ euros (~$68+). Starting next month, in order to reduce such costs, we are moving to another service. Furthermore, we're ditching phpBB as a forum software and going to migrate MyBB. Not only it has more and better tools for us staff members, but we also feel the software would be more user friendly to members as well. Some of the changes to expect, good and bad:

- Avatar sizes will be scaled back to 150 x 150.
- Custom usertitles are once again available!
- Better themes. PhpBB's themes intervene with mods, which made proper theme and mod choice a pain in the ass. We are hoping the theme we picked for MyBB will be more for your liking!
- Better moddability.
- BBCode will break horribly, including video tags and signatures, especially links. I advise everyone to redo their signature and back up their link heavy posts and redo those as well once the code is sorted out.
- A better infraction system which should allow us to dish out offenses more fairly (i.e., offenses have different levels of severity now) instead of every offense being equal on a strike based system.
- The current banner will unfortunately not be on the MyBB themes, because we've yet to figure out where we could insert the banner. I'm the only staff who's more technically minded barring Shadowfang, but unfortunately I'm not too good with CSS.


For us staff, the benefits are the following, for the sake of transparency:

- More settings in the ACP to customize the forum and permissions better.
- The aforementioned warning system.
- Modding with MyBB seems to be better and not as pain in the ass as phpBB. While we still don't want to go mod-happy for the sake of stability, we do have a little leeway now on what we can do and do not.

Furthermore, the forum will be running only on donations from this point (unless someone offers to be a sugar daddy/mommy), which makes everyone's help important and valuable. Our estimated hosting cost won't be too high for starting out (~$15), so that goal hopefully won't be that hard to reach. Without money to pay the hosting, NAC will shut down and we won't be able to provide you information or grounds for discussion. If we end up with excess money, we will use that for future hosting costs, as well as paying back to Shadowfang, as he's done a lot for us by paying out of his pocket to keep the site up.

This should not affect the download forum, it will be available as before.

If anyone has any questions or concerns about the move, MyBB, the hosting or any other changes please don't hesitate to post here. We're willing to hear out everyone.

[The HydЯa]

When you say link will be broken *nevously swollows* like the Moonrune thread type of link?!

[NeoArkadia]

Did it have a lot of URLs?

Then yes. Yes it will.

[The HydЯa]

Did it have a lot of URLs?

Then yes. Yes it will.

Cool, I'd finally get to fix the earlier shit <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/NAC_Smiley_Pack_Default/smile.gif" alt="" title="Happy" /><!-- s -->

[Arynis]

Speaking of Moonrunes, the conversion doesn't affect Japanese characters (kanjis, etc.), so those are fine.

[The HydЯa]

Will the new format be the same like

and [img[/img]

Or does it ALL change?! Never been through a forum conversion so IDK

[闇の女王ヤミ]

The links, that will stay intakt are those who were set up with the regular links button in the full editor. They look like this in the editor: [*url=http://something]somethingsomething[*/url] (ignore the stars). Longer links that have just so been posted in the threads and have been parsed down to html by phpBB will look like this in the POSTS -> <*!-- m --><a class="postlink" href=http://something>blob<*/a><*!-- m --> (ignore the stars) which turns wonky by the import into MyBB
So TIP: Use the Full Editor Links-button to edit the links you remember with the link-button.

[The HydЯa]

Oh I've been putting everything inside full editor img sorta deals, am I safe?

[闇の女王ヤミ]

Oh I've been putting everything inside full editor img sorta deals, am I safe?

Jupp, all is fine then ^^ (Concerning the links <!-- s8) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/NAC_Smiley_Pack_Default/cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" /><!-- s8) --> )

[~Mana~]

Doesn't MyBB have ACP functionality to import custom tags anyway? So like, for the tags that we'll be losing in the transition, couldn't they arguably be re-added as custom tags and allocated the appropriate HTML needed.

Also, whereabouts would we be able to donate if I may ask? I'm more than happy to pay the monthly fee for the Forum to keep running post-migration.

[Nodqfan]

I didn't see it mentioned in the initial post, but will we have to re register when we change forum software?

[Arynis]

Doesn't MyBB have ACP functionality to import custom tags anyway? So like, for the tags that we'll be losing in the transition, couldn't they arguably be re-added as custom tags and allocated the appropriate HTML needed.

Also, whereabouts would we be able to donate if I may ask? I'm more than happy to pay the monthly fee for the Forum to keep running post-migration.

Hmm... I'll look into it.

It's planned to be Paypal, but we're still setting things up.

I didn't see it mentioned in the initial post, but will we have to re register when we change forum software?

No need to, you can use your accounts just like before.

[Blue-Eyes White Wanderer]

I might be able to help with the donation too. I haven't used Paypal before though, but I can look into it at least once the donations is set up. Would we lose any of our posts when the forum moves?

[NeoArkadia]

Nope! At least not intentionally! Everything will be carried over.

Same posts. Same content. Just different clockwork to make our jobs easier and give you guys more stuff than the barebones!

[MystikX]

Nope! At least not intentionally! Everything will be carried over.

....Isn't that what you said when we moved to this location from the previous one back during The Purge?

[Arynis]

As far as I can recall, Zetaboards being converted wasn't easy, and I think the database size had to be kept to a minimum to make the move smooth.

[The HydЯa]

As far as I can recall, Zetaboards being converted wasn't easy, and I think the database size had to be kept to a minimum to make the move smooth.

So we should or should not expect for Threads to just go the way of soviet Russia?

[Arynis]

To be more specific, Detective had to create his own converter and he had to filter some of the portions of the forum for a variety of reasons, the conversion was pretty slow as is. For example, the Games Corner section would have been a waste of time and energy since those were pretty much forum minigames - not much substance.

In our current situation, the test forum that was based on an earlier forum backup was fine, no posts poofed. The worst that can happen is the aforementioned BBCode goof, and possibly dates being wacky, but those should sync and sort over time. i.e., nothing harmful should happen.

[Blue-Eyes White Wanderer]

Nope! At least not intentionally! Everything will be carried over.

Same posts. Same content. Just different clockwork to make our jobs easier and give you guys more stuff than the barebones!

Awesome. It sounds like a win/win situation for everyone, so that's cool.

[Niedude]

I just got started on a job that should pay relatively to pretty well, so I'll be more than happy to donate every now and again

[unsnaggedtea76]

I’m willing to donate to help the site. It probably won’t be like very month depending on my pay.

[strike]Plus technically, it’s still pay-to-use for the site.[/strike]

possibly dates being wacky, but those should sync and sort over time. i.e., nothing harmful should happen.

So dates could be randomly changed on posts and then be back to normal in say, a week (as a random guess)?

[ebrietas]

I'll see what I can do about giving donations. Probably won't be very often, but if the site starts losing steam, I'll try and put some more out.

[J. D. Guy]

Where there be a "Multi-Quote" button?

Please say yes...

[Arynis]

So dates could be randomly changed on posts and then be back to normal in say, a week (as a random guess)?

Kind of, yeah.

Where there be a "Multi-Quote" button?

Please say yes...

Yeah, there's a multiquote function in MyBB. It works a bit differently though. You click Quote on the posts you want to quote in the thread itself (i.e., not the posting screen like in phpBB) and then you should see such a text in the Quick Reply window:

"You have selected one or more posts to quote. Quote these posts now or deselect them."

Click "Quote these posts now" in order to put all the quoted posts in your reply. The quotes are also added automatically if you click the Reply button normally, instad of using Quick Reply.

[J. D. Guy]

Will there be a "Multi-Quote" button?

Please say yes...

Yeah, there's a multiquote function in MyBB. It works a bit differently though. You click Quote on the posts you want to quote in the thread itself (i.e., not the posting screen like in phpBB) and then you should see such a text in the Quick Reply window:

"You have selected one or more posts to quote. Quote these posts now or deselect them."

Click "Quote these posts now" in order to put all the quoted posts in your reply. The quotes are also added automatically if you click the Reply button normally, instad of using Quick Reply.

Ah, that's good to hear. 'Cause, let me tell you, Quoting multiple posts as it is now is a chore.

[sunbak]

will the forum only rely on donations or will you start having ads as well?

[Takibi]

At last, I was wondering what was gonna happen. Sounds like a pretty smooth process overall other than some of the links getting garbled, but even that isn't that big a deal cuz the URL is still there for people to copy paste. It only looks bad. Hope you know what you're doing keeping the downloads forum and don't get in trouble, that was a big issue when discussing it before.

will the forum only rely on donations or will you start having ads as well?

Arynis said the forum will run entirely on donations.

[NeoArkadia]

If we're forced to, we will go to Ads, but we would stick to the least intrusive ones possible, as possible.

But our intention right now is to stick to donations via Paypal or Patreon or so such.

[The HydЯa]

Won't Ad's cause double dipping profit problems with the download forum and cause Shushy to go all c/d n NAC?!

[kuova]

I wouldn't mind becoming a patreon
subscriber, I could throw a couple of dollars a month for a service I enjoy.

Will this conversion have any effect on those that use Tapatalk to access the forum?

[~Mana~]

Will this conversion have any effect on those that use Tapatalk to access the forum?

I'd imagine not. MyBB does have a Tapatalk plugin which enables usage of the app with the forum the plugin is installed on. Though, at the moment, a recent Tapatalk app update has broken MyBB support and is being fixed.

[kuova]

Ok that's great, I almost always enter thru the app so that would suck if the fix isn't done before the change occurs

[realcomptoncityg]

This whole transfer doesn't mean we will be moving to a new domain right? We will still be at the same address?

Also donation perks (Just little things) would be fabulous. More donations = less ads.
If you do result to ads, please...no spammy ads....

[NeoArkadia]

My personal preference would be those ads on DN or YGOrg, non intrusive banner-bar ads.

But we'll see.

We're considering donation perks, but we should probably ask you guys what you would consider reasonable. (Ban immunity and staff positions being obvious nos)

[Arynis]

Won't Ad's cause double dipping profit problems with the download forum and cause Shushy to go all c/d n NAC?!

The ad concern was based on a one-time source we couldn't reach again. It's not just ads though, it's also donations - though at this point, we'll just have to take the risk, since the alternative is NAC going down, period.

I'd imagine not. MyBB does have a Tapatalk plugin which enables usage of the app with the forum the plugin is installed on. Though, at the moment, a recent Tapatalk app update has broken MyBB support and is being fixed.

That's kind of unfortunate. Hopefully it will be fixed ASAP then.

This whole transfer doesn't mean we will be moving to a new domain right? We will still be at the same address?

Also donation perks (Just little things) would be fabulous. More donations = less ads.
If you do result to ads, please...no spammy ads....

Same domain, different host/server. There will be a redirect involved and DNS transfer will take a while too.

We'll be thinking of perks for the system. And as Ark noted, the ads would be as non-intrusive as possible if we were to have them.

[kuova]

So I'm guessing that the fix for Tapatalk hasn't been fixed yet because everytime I get on it, it says an error has a occurred and talk to the forum admin.

[PK2]

I'm posting this message from Tapatalk right now, but I did have to log out and put my login info back in.