The future of Tech-Forums

[C0RR0SIVE]

It was broken for a very very long time, even parts of the search index are still busted IMO.

 

[Slacker]

Trotter and Baez thanks for the response....but if none of us here have a say in what is going to happen and the people over at CF have no real say in how this plays out. why are we waiting? In any merger there will always be a percentage of loss, waiting will only make that worse.

A lack of communication from the new owner concerns me as a member of this community. I came to TF b/c I was able to talk to people who were knowledgeable and willing to share their knowledge. I return b/c of those people. I

That said forums are like chat sites and represent the internet in the 90's- That is why I think they are dropping off. You can also thank google. I no longer have to sign up- then sign in then make an intro post and finally post my question. I can just google it.
and most often somebody already has a youtube video up-

Last thing I want to ramble about. Majority of visitors are not tech savy. They have a specific need when they visit the site. Most often they need an answer and once they have that there is no need or desire to return until the next crisis arrives at their doorstep...

We should be trying to implement community projects- Overclocking challenges- programming challenges etc.... doing so would allow us as a community to keep knowledgeable people around and the ability to still assist those that are only looking for an answer to their current tech crisis. It might even attract a few new people to the mix.

ps- all of the talk about mobile devices and I may have missed it but I have not seen a mention about all of the smart devices that are coming to the home/car....
Tech is no longer just a tower and monitor or device in your hand, it is becoming everything that surrounds us.

 

[carnageX]

^ The talk of mobile / smart devices were in earlier pages.

 

[BK_123]

Well, in our usual fashion of being transparent, the admin team itself has gained a lot and would love to move ahead with several ideas and plans. However, Andy & Co have not responded to us for close to 2 months now. Things like the app not working still have not been completely resolved and most of the tasks at hand are still "in-progress".

So, we'd love to give you updates on new things happening from what we've pulled here (among other ideas we've had for a very long time), but it's out of our control.

That's a very similar scenario over at CF, We rarely see or hear from Andy but Janet is online and posts every now and again.

The main issue regarding the moving ahead with the merger has been giving the CF folk time to digest the idea. I was under the impression that the merger was revealed to the membership of CF at the same time it was revealed here, and Janet thought the same thing. I started posting over there and mentioned the merger a couple of times and kicked over the anthill so to speak. There are aware and are working through it now.

Last I heard the app was held up in approval. I don't know if the merger itself may be causing issues with getting it done or not.

@Slacker - Good questions. Once we get the merger done and the dust settles we will begin making Techist into what we want it to become. I hope to use a lot of what has been brought up when we do. As things come to be I or someone from the team will post an announcement to let everyone know.

Yeah we (CF) didn't really have much knowledge of this matter until Trotter made mention of it. Some of us like myself didn't take it very well at first but now I am all for it. I hope this merger can make the two communities a greater place.

So can someone try and tell me, When the merger happens all our posts etc will be shifted to one database and when can we expect this to be done and dusted?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

So can someone try and tell me, When the merger happens all our posts etc will be shifted to one database and when can we expect this to be done and dusted?

The thought is that we should be able to flat out merge our two databases I would assume... Probably keep two separate sets of tables because I am almost positive that many of the thread ID's and user ID's will clash, horribly...

Wonder if vBulletin made tools for merging forum databases...

Regardless when it starts they will probably take a copy of both databases and experiment with a copy of TF and see how the merge goes offline, any errors come up and it wont impact us, will just take research to overcome those errors and see if they can successfully merge the two databases offline... Once they do that, rinse and repeat again offline with the latest copies of the databases to ensure nothing strange may come up. I want to say this would be a good time for the TF Testers group to actually get to... ya know, do something?


My worries aren't really the threads, but user accounts as well as the search index... Merging these two databases can cause serious issues, is a lot of work (if people thought updating the software was a PITA, wait till you merge two entirely different databases like this), especially with us using 3.8.8.1 and CF using 3.8.8.4, that leaves a higher chance for us to have a busted index... again... I hate when our search index is busted... I still can't find some threads that I know existed. XD



I do have one request from the site team... Especially after reading what's going on over at CF... When the merger is going on, can we please have a couple of different forum skins? Would be nice if we could keep the CF skin so that CF members don't feel too out of place with the layout, and also have a TF skin so our own members don't feel too out of place, then have the official Techist skin (if we do end up with a new skin, since there is mention over there of possibly changing software after all is said and done).

My next question, don't think it was asked really... I know we are going to be getting a different overall layout with different board selections, what about threads that are the same or similar? I notice that CF has a thread for Workstation/Desktop pictures, which is very similar to two of our threads, I know we have one for posting Wire Management, then another one for posting our desk/work areas...

Our Chill Spot/Workstation thread: http://www.techist.com/forums/f6/what-does-your-chill-spot-look-like-48810/
Our WireManagement Thread: http://www.techist.com/forums/f10/rate-wire-management-above-you-150446/
CF Chill Spot/Workstation Thread: http://www.computerforums.org/forums/gallery/gallery-your-workstation-142011.html

So, what would ultimately happen to those three threads as they are essentially redundant threads after the merger..?

 

[Trotter]

So can someone try and tell me, When the merger happens all our posts etc will be shifted to one database and when can we expect this to be done and dusted?

As soon as I know something solid I will let people know.

I do have one request from the site team... Especially after reading what's going on over at CF... When the merger is going on, can we please have a couple of different forum skins?

My next question, don't think it was asked really... I know we are going to be getting a different overall layout with different board selections, what about threads that are the same or similar?

So, what would ultimately happen to those three threads as they are essentially redundant threads after the merger..?

Skins haven't been mentioned in this but we will see what we can do.

Forum layout has been discussed but nothing on a micro level. Most sections of the two sites balance out so merging them into each other shouldn't be a big problem. Once that is done we will probably collapse some unused forums into others to clean things up a bit. Redundant threads will be left as-is but we can merge them on a case by case basis if it makes sense.

User accounts will be the biggest headache IMHO. I'm glad I don't have to sift through thousands and thousands of accounts.

 

[BK_123]

The thought is that we should be able to flat out merge our two databases I would assume... Probably keep two separate sets of tables because I am almost positive that many of the thread ID's and user ID's will clash, horribly...

Wonder if vBulletin made tools for merging forum databases...

From a quick Google search one user said that you can use Implex Merge vBulletin Databases? - vBulletin Community Forum

 

[BK_123]

I actually feel like having all my stuff migrated here now, I like the structure of this forum

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

After reading that thread, looks like it even changes previous URLs with in the website to match the final version so that they aren't pointing to dead threads. 0.0 Interesting...

 

[cb600fshornet]

As far as I know you can merge threads anyway, I guess the main bit is just ensuring no member data or threads are deleted, then any similar threads can be merged manually afterwards.