SITE MIGRATION COMPLETED - Post issues here

[Supertom]

Newsflash! Overscan has kindly offered to take the headache of upgrading and migrating the site off our current hosting provider. We'll be sharing resources with Secret Projects, but will remain the offshoot as we're more of the mad-scientist-hell-yeah-let's-do-it crowd while the Secret Projects folks are more into the intellectual endeavour of discussion and debate  

"Finally!" say some. "Hip hip hoorah" say others. "It's about time, you git" says a voice in the background.

Anyway the bulk of the discussion is in the Everyday Chat section, linked below:

http://www.whatifmodelers.com/index.php/topic,41539.msg734189.html#msg734189

The short of it is that Overscan has kindly offered to provide us with a new home that will be free of the issues we've had the last few years, as well more frequent updates to keep us with the times, and we'll shift the funding his way for a product that works rather than limp along with the old guard.

Our current contract expires 22 July so we will do this soon, but in case the site disappears shortly after, don't worry. The URL will still be the same, by the way.

[The Rat]

Excellent! As a 'thank you' for your efforts, we're all chipping in to send a large box of Twiglets to you!

[DogfighterZen]

 

[overscan]

It may take a few days to polish up the appearance (new site logo, adding the custom smileys etc)  and fix issues as we will move to a new, more modern forum system which works better on mobiles etc, but all the data should be there from the beginning.

There will be a few hours of downtime while the migration is carried out.

[McColm]

Will it be easier for uploading pics?

[philp]

As long as I start getting email notices on threads I am following again I am all for it.

Who knows how much I have missed out over the last few months.

[overscan]

I can reenable uploads within the forum, if the powers that be agree. Elkarte in particular has awesome attachment options including drag and drop and multiple file selection.

[Thorvic]

I can reenable uploads within the forum, if the powers that be agree. Elkarte in particular has awesome attachment options including drag and drop and multiple file selection.

I would suggest not as being modellers we will fill it with lots of in progress builds shots or snap shots taken of stuff we've spotted. On SP it tends to be photos and documents to support real projects and is a major reference resource we've used external hosting for some time so its easy to carry on with that

[zenrat]

Excellent! As a 'thank you' for your efforts, we're all chipping in to send a large box of Twiglets to you!

I have no twiglets but I can provide bamboo smeared with vegemite...

[Supertom]

I'm leaning towards "no" on uploads, and having them redirected from pic storage sites, for two reasons:

1) images take up server storage space very quickly;
2) should the site have issues with storage, images could potentially be lost.

There is an argument from some that donations could help with upkeep of storage space. I do not agree with that. Not everyone chips in, and it would be unfair to those who have chipped in if others upload without the buy-in. I do not wish to introduce any form of tiered membership either. We also tried to free up some storage space a few years back and there was crying and gnashing of teeth, even though these files were old. We cannot afford to hoard old data here. Sorry guys.

I'll post up instructions for uploading and linking images. Send me a list of pic storage sites and I'll work out the documentation.

[NARSES2]

Fully understand the pictures issue and agree with your decision

[Dizzyfugu]

Thank you very much for the update and the work in the background. 

I also support the "host pix elsewhere" policy - external platforms are dedicated to this task (I use FlickR, even pay for it, but the options are anything I could ask for - even a simple picture editor and pre-formated options for linking pics elsewhere is offered) offer back-up support, in case things crash and evaporate. This could turn ugly, quickly, and the need for storage space is not to be underestimated. Over time, a lot of stuff piles up!

I also welcome the "keep things simple - but free for all" paradigm.

[overscan]

I added a plugin which improves image display to the Elkarte test forum. Basically if you click on a picture it shows it full size in a popup window (rather than opening it in flickr etc) and you can then slideshow the pics in the topic if you like.

[Rheged]

Fully understand the pictures issue and agree with your decision

I concur with this decision.  Thanks for taking this matter in hand

[Captain Canada]

Sounds good ST looking forward to the future ! Thanks for all of your effort guys :-)