|
.. so others who might attempt the same endeavor (converting existing forums to a new URL) could glean insights from someone with first-hand experience. There are certainly challenges associated with "upgrading" a forum (more accurately described as a > new installation & subsequent conversion) that involves a new URL .. which I hadn't fully appreciated (having never before attempted it). All in all, I'm glad I did .. cuz many of the forum's new features are cool. But it's not something I'd want to do again anytime soon. I'm also glad I waited for v2.1, which contains many bug fixes & improvements to v2.0. It's like waiting for the first service pack from Microsoft before installing a new operating system. The biggest surprise .. is I don't think I'll be able to delete posts at the old forums .. at least not any time soon .. since so many links still point back to posts (threads) at the old forum. ••• today's entry continues here ••• Another factor to consider > search engines still use links to the old forums (which have been at the same URL since June 2001). It will take a while (months?) for them to "spider" their way thru posts at the new forums, and figure out those are active forums. For example, right now, I see there are currently 32 Guests visiting the old forums. No doubt they found their way there (primarily) via search engine queries. Speaking of links pointing back to the old forums, I'm currently updating the Ghost guide, which contains tons of links to threads in the old forums. Stayed up late last night working on that, changing the links to point to the new forums. I'm about have way done. I'm also in the process of deleting everyone's membership at the old forums, so no new posts can be made there. I'd like it (eventually) to be a read-only archive. I have less than 1,000 more memberships to delete (started with 5K). Taking forever. Still trying to determine the best way to "lock" it from new users. Maybe chmod (change permissions) of key directories to read-only. For more along these lines, here's a Google search pre-configured for the query > yabb forum installation upgrade change new url |
|
