Should we stay, or should we go? The past few weeks have been Hell for us. In a nutshell, EZBoard was attacked by a hacker on May 31, 2005. Some boards lost everything, some lost most, and a very, very few were unaffected. We were somewhere in the middle.
After three weeks of trying, EZBoard got a lot of our old posts back. It took a lot of people complaining and threatening to get things back.
The Board still isn't right. There are still topics that list thousands of posts, but lie empty.
I'm ticked that EZBoard was a vulnerable to an attack like this. I'm more ticked that they lied to us and didn't have a good backup system. I'm also very ticked about the "screw you" attitude coming from Robert Labatt, CEO of EZBoard Inc. If you've read his latest announcement, you know what I'm talking about. What an asshole.
They gave us six weeks extra of Gold Membership for loosing years of posts, loosing posts from our family that have passed on, loosing posts of our love and sorrow.
So, ever since the attack, I've been looking into hosting our own board. There are many good and bad things about doing this.
On the good side:
It's cheaper. The host I'm looking at costs ~$35/year + ~$9 for hosting and domain registration. At our current rate, EZ is costing us $96/year.
We would have full control. All backups, membership, design, etc. would be controlled by us.
We would have storage for avatars, pictures and smilies.
We could have our own email addresses, etc.
On the Bad Side:
As of now, I can't move the posts we do have. I can make pdf files (much like FF did) and make them available.
We have to move. I know that people are comfy here and don't like moving and changing.
We would have to keep a closer eye on things.
We have to backup, design and control membership, etc. (LOL)
So, what do you think? Any move or change wouldn't take effect until our Gold status runs out. As of now, that date is September 27, 2005.Show results
Johnny ~ "A vernacular?! That's a derby!" ~ Curly Howard
Re: Should we stay, or should we go?
The ayes have it!
OK, I got a webhost and bought www.intothenightforum.com.
The name has already propagated and the email is working.
I'm going back and forth between a few boards. I like YaBB the best (works like Midnight Hams and our alternate board), but I can't find a way to get our EZBoard to transfer.
The only one that will transfer our posts is phpBB2 (same software Coast to Coast uses now), which I like the least.
I might settle on smf. It's somewhere between phpBB2 and YaBB. AND, I can transfer the posts from phpBB2 to smf. Well, there's a script out there to do it, but I can't get it to work yet.
I'm learning how to modify the css style sheets and the board now. There are some really neat features in smf and seems to work pretty fast. It isn't overly complicated to use.
After over three years here, I know all of us have gotten very used to where everything is. It's not all that different... Posting is similar (with more features), but getting different fonts in posts is a little clunkier. Some of the post formatting features actually work better in Mozilla and Netscape (pretty much work the same in IE).
So... I'll keep everyone updated on my progress. I'm thinking we'll probably move to the new place sometime in the end of September or beginning of October.
I'll leave this board up and post every once in a while to keep it alive and to re-direct people to our new home.
Re: Should we stay, or should we go?
OK, I've been fairly successful in converting the EZBoard posts over to SMF.
Unlike here, the staff at Simple Machines, the makers of SMF, are polite, helpful, and get things done. The best part? SMF is shareware!
I had a glitch converting stuff. Some of the pictures wouldn't work right because of the crazy hidden codes EZ puts in our posts. I asked the help staff at SMF about it and within 20 minutes, he had a mod for me to try. It mostly worked. He asked that I let him know what it does. I told him and he wrote another that worked. Now that's service!!!
Now, I have to figure out how to make a template that I like for the new board. I also have to come up with notification icons that I like.
So far, so good! Things are way ahead of schedule. I looks like our move date will be on or around October 12.
Johnny ~ "A vernacular?! That's a derby!" ~ Curly Howard
Re: Should we stay, or should we go?
I like the idea of changing to full featured forum software setup, total thumbs up from us newbies! In fact I think it would help bring in the mass exodus from another forum that I was exiled from today. A real domain name and good featured forum software is the way to go! I checked out that other site with the forum software you mentioned, that one doesn't seem to support custom avatars or even pic posting/linking - thats a big negative. Can those features be configured/added to it? If not, I'd vote for something with at least some features like are here now. Vbulletin would be great, but I know more expensive. Perhaps donations are in order?
I'm really digging SMF. It's free. Actually, it has some great features. Custom avatars, picture posting, file attachments, etc, etc. It's about as full featured as it gets.
I'm working on the templates now. I've managed to get most of the topics here on EZBoard transferred to phpBB2, then transferred to SMF. The damn thing works!
I bought www.intothenightforum.com and have the hosting set up. I set up a test board and it's working really well. There are a bunch of mods out there, so it's very customizable. The support is outstanding for SMF. I had a glitch converting from phpBB2 to SMF. I posted a question about it and within 20 minutes I had a fix. Not bad for a free service!
Re: Should we stay, or should we go?
Funny you should mention that, MDS...
I'm working on it right now. I don't know how four months has passed, but it has... I'm trying to figure out how to transfer the EZ stuff without loosing any new posts. I think I have it figured out.
I'm aiming for either next weekend or the weekend after. Our EZ Gold is expiring on December 7. I want to be moved before then.
I'm going to start locking some of the forums so no one can post in them. That'll help me keep the transfer organized.
Also, I don't want anything archived here anymore. I'm going to send an email out to our mods to remind everyone.
I have given up on modding the new forum software before we move. I'll put the mods in later. I was trying to make some of the features as close to EZ as possible. Well, the good features. Posting links and pictures etc. are clunky on SMF.
The mods I am going to implement are the themes. SMF is set up so that if you don't like the look of a forum, you can change how it looks on your computer. That's really cool! I just need to create and upload some themes. Right now, I have the "dark" themes from the Saloon and Café, and the theme from Tea uploaded and working. The default theme and the "classic" SMF/YaBB themes are working.
Things I need to finish... Um, for now, the smilies and tutorial.
I will keep you all posted! Expect the move to happen between November 25 and December 3.
Re: Should we stay, or should we go?
OK, here's the plan...
I'm in the process of transferring all of our posts from the inactive Forums and topics as well as all of the archives. As I transfer them, I'm making them invisible. So, Administrators will still be able to see all topics, non-admins won't. Fear not! If you do not see our archives etc, they are not lost, just hidden.
I'm thinking Friday, November 25 "Saloon Time" will be the grand opening. I would like everyone to refrain from posting here on EZ that day. We can either post on the Proboards temp board ( In2 The Night ) or the temp board I have set up at the new place ( Into The Night Forum ).
I'll have my Yahoo! Messenger running on Friday, so if you need to ask what's up, either IM me (johnnyt34) or email me.
Actually, it has some great features. Custom avatars, picture posting, file attachments, etc, etc. It's about as full featured as it gets. 
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