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Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:42 am
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First off, I'd like to say thank you to Alex10819 for hosting UnSS on a subdomain for the first year and a half or so of its life. However, like a fledgling bird, UnSS quickly outgrew its nest and it was time to move on up. However, this process of moving took longer than I expected. In fact, it's a bit embarrassing that it took this long. Nonetheless, the deeds are done and the switch is thrown.
Moving on, I would like to apologize to everyone. As I had originally intended for the move to take only a week or so, I requested that nobody post to the forums as the database was, regrettably, one of the first things I had copied over to the new server. This request essentially snowballed. The few active members of this site didn't post, less active members and newcomers saw no activity and therefore found no reason to come here, and in the end the site was left virtually lifeless for the duration of the last few months. I did not intend to "kill" this forum, rather it was my lack of foresight and inexperience in site management that delivered this fatal blow. Again, I apologize for this and hope that we can get this forum busy again.
Also, I would like to publicly apologize to Alex10819, whom I believe didn't know of my intent to move this site. My not explicitly notifying you and the public of this move was not meant to be an offense to you or your hosting. Your hosting is truly superb and again I thank you for being so kind as to host us.
Pressing on, I'd like to detail just what exactly happened during the months UnSS was being transitioned from one server to another:
Initially, with the move I had intended to switch over from phpBB2 to phpBB3. Built into BB3 is a migration tool for easy conversion of BB2 databases. Sadly, the tool wouldn't work. According to some transition support I found, this tool apparently only works with smaller databases. UnSS's database was too large to migrate and the only way to accomplish a migration would be through the installation and use of offline database applications. Personally, the effort required to migrate this database outweighed the benefits of phpBB3 enough to make the extra effort not worth it.
Deciding to stick with phpBB2, I installed a fresh copy of BB2 to the new server and ported the template files from the old copy. Then, it was down to the simple task of rewriting the templates to make Tetra much smoother. I figured it was the least I could do. I also took the liberty of changing up a few things.
About here was where I probably made the worst mistake. I had decided that, since I was redoing the site anyway, I would go ahead and rewrite the site's file hierarchy system too. Essentially, I wanted to make the site less forum-centric by making all the common files a directory of their own which every other site-related item would call from. In the end, I really had no clue what I was doing and ended up borking the site. I spent countless hours trying to fix all the bugs but the effort was futile. UnSS was hopelessly borked.
Luckily, it was about now that I realized I was being an idiot and decided to just port the entire original forum over, fixing all the problems at once. Finally, transition was done. However, file-working is not. I still have a lot of work to do, smoothing out a lot of the templates that seem to have stopped working properly due to the rewrite. But that's for another day.
In closing, here's a list of what's new, what's coming up, and what's still a bit buggy:
What's New
- Tetra has been smoothed out and feels a bit more like BB3. It's still far off from being a clone of proSilver but it's bubbly-rounded nonetheless
- Obviously, a new site logo. It's a trial. If you all like it, it'll stay. If you all hate it, I'll gladly revert back to the old one
- No more Shade, Neon, or Holiday templates. You're stuck with Tetra and any theme derived from it.
- Non-forum pages are no longer in an /unsyntax/ directory. They're now in the root folder of the domain.
- Changed up the subforum organization.
To Do
- Fix profiles (view and edit), fix PMs, and fix View Topics. They're a bit buggy but they work. If you can manage with them being fugly for now, I'll promise they'll be fixed up by next week.
- Finish Home and Projects pages. Add Links and About page.
- Add archives
- Fix whatever else borked up in the process of moving (or was perhaps still borked from the start)
As you can see, my work is still far from done. At least you have your forum back, guys. I encourage you all to post!
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Keith
OmniAdmin
Posts: 302
Joined: 30 Jun 2007
Location: His Office
     
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:00 am
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So...It was all your fault.
Bad Keith.
Anyway, glad it's finally done and stuff. tiSAX working again too. I [would] like the changes on the theme too, except they're not going over so great (FF 3.0.6):
The columns are misaligned.
Speaking of transitioning, since you're busy changing stuff, is it possible for you to add a Quick Reply box? One that doesn't require you to go to a new page to post.
So yeah, I'm looking forward to UnSS becoming active again, but I can't remember much activity other than the three-word story. 
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Xphoenix
Forum Sage
Posts: 632
Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Location: Spain
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Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 6:26 am
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First off, well done, Keith...you may be the one to "blame" but at the same time this was all your doing, so...well done.  I like the new changes and such, including the new logo and phpBB3ness style, but table misalignments are indeed rampant (such as here in the Post a Reply [you know, Quick Reply would not be so bad...] and Post Options), and the topic review, as I see...is...borked, lol.
But this is certainly a big leap in the right direction, and with the right sort of promotion I'm sure we can slowly get some more activity going. (Can anyone say CONTESTS?  )
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JFabi speaks again!
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JFabi82
Senior
Posts: 477
Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Location: Southern California
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