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Jaemus
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 01 Apr 2009
Posts: 2674
Location: NSW
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Yep, looks like that german site is, as far as i can tell, is forum software with a frontpage portal plugin/module, much as you suggest.
That sort of setup makes sense, particularly with regard to the content generation aspect, but you're talking forum seccession here unless Brett will make the plunge and set this up for this forum. Im not sure if there are such modules available for phpBB, particular the very old version we have here, although there very well could be. Either way, afaik, this will likely involve a completely new installation, which the current database may or may not be able to be ported into, depending on the nature of the new or updated software.
That said, I entirely agree that it's worth looking into, and if implement in a simpler, less cluttered fashion than the linked German site (keeping in mind as Aaron correctly suggests, eye candy be damned, pure content FTW), should be a winner. _________________ <Patrician|Away> what does your robot do, sam
<bovril> it collects data about the surrounding environment, then discards it and drives into walls
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Sun Dec 04, 2011 10:43 pm |
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Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Looks a bit cluttered to me, but Im not picky, if you guys all like it, you can can change it.
We are running the latest version of the phpBB V3 series (IIRC).
I never did the change to the phpBB v5 series because it took a while for them to get some early bugs ironed out (there were a lot of rapid releases), and it wasnt compatible with some anti-spam modules I had installed, and it didnt really seem to offer much that was better than phpBB v3 at the time.
Plus, I cant recall the details now, but I think there was some big messy work going to be required to pull the photo album across. Its another sql-database based add-on to phpBB v3. I didnt want to break everyones old image posts, which probably means having to either figure out a way of installing the old photo album plugin in phpBB v5, or having to export all the content from the old album database, importing it into whatever the new photo album is, building a cross-reference table of links and then doing a search/replace on the old posts to update them to point to the new database.
Its stuff like that, that is why I say whoever is volunteering to revamp the site had better know what they are doing and be prepared to put in some hard work to do a good job of it. not just offer a rethemed front paqe and then realise it will break all the back-end stuff.
PHP isnt that hard for anyone with some coding experience, I can read and mod it fairly easily.. I wouldnt want to write from scratch, but following whats going on doesnt take a lot of brain-cycles. Getting all the SQL stuff in combination with the PHP and the style scripts takes a bit more head scratching.
and making sure you do any changes in a safe roll-back-able fashion so if you bust something by tinkering in an area youre not familair with you can get things rolling again without having to start over is the hardest part. Its tedious, careful work, but if you dont want to see "Sorry, the Forum is down for maintenaince [while we try to figure out what weve stuffed up]" pages, then you have to do it.
Not to toot my own horn too much, but who can remember *any* significant amount of downtime on this forum in the last 10 years ? Thats the difference between a novice admin who changes things willy nilly, and a careful admin who backs things up and makes sure changes are roll-backable.
OK, I havent done any changes in the last few years, its just run nicely by itself. But when I was changing code and installing plugins, , I always made sure I had several history backups and recovery plans. If you admin server systems for multiple users and not just yourself, that is essential and what I would want to see from any potential new admins. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
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Mon Dec 05, 2011 8:40 am |
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dyrodium
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 24 Aug 2004
Posts: 6476
Location: Sydney
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@ Aaron, that alternative would work pretty well I think, however it's somewhat back to the same issue with the home page being outdated, none of those side links are needed any more, but perhaps could be substituted with robowars NSW, QLD and the wiki...
The current forum has been pretty reliable, I can only think of a few temporary hiccups over the years.
I can't offer any coding or website expertise, not nearly close to what you're asking Brett, but what I can offer is a determination to pull up the popularity of the sport.
I've been doing this through school clubs, talks, managing events and intend to continue. I think we're all on the same page with the fact a flashy site is pointless if it has none of the drive to back it up, but on the same token I need to direct people somewhere.
EDIT: On a side note... I'm not sure who uses the photo album still, or has for some time, other than Phillip? Could organise a rip of it's content and then get rid of it in my opinion... I've found photo bucket great over the years.
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Mon Dec 05, 2011 11:57 am |
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