web forum help for a noob please!

groovylee · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 Nov 2011 Karma :

Hi all,

i dont venture into this part of BCF very often, and it confuses the hell out of me Embarassed

anyway, i could do with some advice / guidance. I am in charge of a car owners club forum, which is getting very tired and dated, and the guy that maintains the website and forum is getting to the point where he doesnt want to administer the site any more. because of this, i am thinking about migrating everything to a proboards or similar platform.

the big question is, can i migrate all of the old stuff over? and is it something that i could learn to do relatively easily? I am a total website / forum noob, so in as simple language as possible would be great! Laughing

cheers!

Lee
____________________
Past - 1988 honda revere 600, 1996 kawasaki gpz500s, 1999 Yamaha R6

Current - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000R & 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R

chris-red · Have you considered a TDM? Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Karma :

I'm no expert in forums, but I am an expert in crappy requests from users that do not know what they are talking about. Razz

If you are asking for advice on a migration the KEY piece of info is what platform you are currently using... Laughing

____________________
Well, you know what they say. If you want to save the world, you have to push a few old ladies down the stairs.
Skudd:- Perhaps she just thinks you are a window licker and is being nice just in case she becomes another Jill Dando.
WANTED:- Fujinon (Fuji) M42 (Screw on) lenses, let me know if you have anything.

J.M. · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Karma :

Stuff like this can seem daunting but actually is really easy to follow. People generally write step-by-step tutorials for things like this. The hardest part is putting the problem in to words for google so that you get good tutorials.

You could probably get away with 2 searches:
1. "Backup data from myoldforumsoftware"
2. "Import data to mynewforumsoftware from myoldforumsoftware"
____________________
2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

groovylee · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 Nov 2011 Karma :

lol @ Chris Laughing

i was thinking just that when i wrote the post, but hey, at least i now know what i need to find out, cheers mate Thumbs Up

J.M. - as above, thanks for that, i'll do some digging around on google, find out what the current software is, and then come back to annoy everyone when ive got some more pointed questions. Wink

why cant computer stuff be easy like engines? Rolling Eyes

cheers,

Lee
____________________
Past - 1988 honda revere 600, 1996 kawasaki gpz500s, 1999 Yamaha R6

Current - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000R & 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R

CaNsA · Super Spammer Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Karma :

I would copy the entire site to a virtual machine and test the migration before doing it on a live website.

groovylee · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 Nov 2011 Karma :

WD Forte · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 Jun 2010 Karma :

I have some small experience in bike forums when I used to do some bike owner clubs forums way back.
Small experience ok? not an expert but I dimly recall that some free forum providers made it hard to migrate where info databases etc on a paid for forum was more easily transferred.
If you offered the web address of the current forum, thems as knows
might be able to look at it and give more detailed advice

thassit!
sall i know
____________________
bikers smell of wee

Jayy · Mr. Ponzi Joined: 08 Jun 2009 Karma :

It has been a long time since I ran a forum but I ran two back in the early 2000's, built them up in niches and sold them off.

Never liked phpBB which is what BCF runs on, always preferred Invision Power Board and they're still going today by the look of it.

J.M. is right, you need to do your homework on what software you've got and what you're migrating to.

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

We need a link to the forum in question.

groovylee · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 Nov 2011 Karma :

Ste · Not Work Safe Joined: 01 Sep 2002 Karma :

Proboards won't attract new members and it won't inject any life into the forum. Razz

Stowelly · Traffic Copper Joined: 25 Oct 2009 Karma :

it should show what forum software you use if you put your url in here: https://builtwith.com/

WD Forte · World Chat Champion Joined: 17 Jun 2010 Karma :

Tell us dammit or your suffering will be legendary

Austin Ambassador Y reg owners club?

Pink Nissan Micra racer bois?

Reliant Rialtos?

Tell us FFS this is BCF
trying to maintain any sort of dignity here is futile
____________________
bikers smell of wee

mab · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 23 Jul 2011 Karma :

may be https://rickmancarsownersclub.org.uk/

iooi · Super Spammer Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Karma :

groovylee · World Chat Champion Joined: 20 Nov 2011 Karma :

cheers guys,
I'm not witholding what the forum is lol, that was just a tongue in cheek comment to Ste Laughing

Maboughey guessed right. although that is the main website, the forum is accessed through it. at the moment, public can view the forum, but cannot post to it. we get a few enquiries from new owners who want to get involved in the forum side of things, ask questions etc, but dont necessarily want to join the club yet. i think that only being able to post on the forum as a member is putting the few interested parties we do get off a little.

I may well just leave it alone, but wanted to look at other options Thumbs Up

thanks,

Lee
____________________
Past - 1988 honda revere 600, 1996 kawasaki gpz500s, 1999 Yamaha R6

Current - 2002 Aprilia RSV1000R & 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R

mab · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 23 Jul 2011 Karma :

I got something right!

The forum your running is YaBB 2.2.1

J.M. · World Chat Champion Joined: 27 Mar 2011 Karma :

You could always start off by creating the new site, with no content, and trying to get members to move across and put any new posts on the new site?

If members are willing, it would/could then be worth the effort to import old messages?

Or that could be terrible advice. I have no idea about the non-technical side of things Mr. Green

____________________
2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

iooi · Super Spammer Joined: 14 Jan 2007 Karma :

Kickstart · The Oracle Joined: 04 Feb 2002 Karma :

Hi

From memory, YaBB is a bit of an oddity as it doesn't use a database.

Most of the forums around do support migration from other boards (after all they want people to migrate to them).

I would avoid any 'free' board that is hosted by someone else. Likely supported by advertising to annoy people and will be more difficult to migrate from in the future.

All the best

Katy
____________________
Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

Jayy · Mr. Ponzi Joined: 08 Jun 2009 Karma :

If it's a relatively small forum that isn't ever going to grow to massive heights, i.e. tens of thousands of posts a month, you can go with something like bbPress which integrates with Wordpress.

If you were finding the size was getting bigger and bigger every month and rapidly growing, I would move to vBulletin / Invision Power Board. Never liked phBB which is what BCF runs on but that's a personal choice.

Free doesn't mean shit but it does mean it won't scale very well if you start booming.