Change of Forum Software - UPDATED!

[i_love_burritos]

Don't forget the crew.

 

Who? :?

 

=D>

 

 

 

I'm sorry.

 

 

 

:shame:

[MageUK]

A little off topic, but who pays for all this - and how much does it cost?

 

 

 

Rune Tips was originally founded by STEEL Corporation Inc. Dmonik, BlueRose13x, Lightning, Starlude, Xentia, Kibble, Rodrigo, DOC IRON 9, Sir Beachy, Stud6900, Hitman X and Silverion.

 

 

 

I think everyone has retired but Silverion? - Is he the sole website owner then, who pays all the bills?

 

 

 

Forgive my lack of knowlege on the subject, or my noseyness as it were :oops:

 

 

 

If it's alot of money, maybe a news article could be put out for a donations. After all, a recent questionnaire discovered not many people knew about donating to tipit. If tipit doesn't want a 'donation drive' as it were; perhaps the donations button could be in a more visable area.

 

 

 

Or has the change of forum software only come about because of sufficient funds gaining from donations/ads over the last few years?

 

I'm personally interested in how Tip.it works too. Anyone have answers?

 

 

 

Tip.It generates income through both donations and the advertisements you see on the main website and forum.

[Sam]

 

Currently we only allow large pictures to be in hide tags so they don't stretch the layout. You have to click to open the hide tag anyway. We don't know if we'll use it yet though, we may just keep it turned off and mandate hide tags for large images as we do now.

 

 

 

Have you considered implementing the Lightbox plugin for viewing? of the resized images?

[MageUK]

 

Currently we only allow large pictures to be in hide tags so they don't stretch the layout. You have to click to open the hide tag anyway. We don't know if we'll use it yet though, we may just keep it turned off and mandate hide tags for large images as we do now.

 

 

 

Have you considered implementing the Lightbox plugin for viewing? of the resized images?

 

 

 

The resized images are clickable to make them bigger and then clickable to make them smaller again (which is faster than lightbox). However, lightbox is implemented for the gallery.

[PolarBearBlue]

I use to roleplay and help admin on a site on Invision. Should be cool then. A lot of awesome features so I hear.

[InkofDeath]

Oh what, so in the future I may actually be able to post a topic to suggest something, and it may, may just be possible for once. What an interesting concept, lawl.

 

 

 

And for those scared about the image thumbnails, it's probably possible to disable the thumbnail/shrinking within the hide tags. So if they used the hide tags, they could be as large as whatever, and the hide tags would not represent the width of the image to distort the page either. But if they just posted the image it could be resized. Everyone wins. And I'm pretty sure it's always easier to disable a feature than to create the function.

 

 

 

Read through the topic, and I don't know if I missed the clarification on what forum skin we'll be using. Are we going to try and convert certain skins, or is that included in the conversion that IPB offers as well?

 

 

 

The only thing about IPB is how they've layed everything out and how spacial it looks, and how annoying that feels to use. Hopefully the skins we use can eliminate this.

 

 

 

Everything else about it is definitely better than phpBB.

 

 

 

--> Why aren't display names going to be used? With Jagex's plan for name changing, and two previous topics about the issue that both claimed that if Display Names became a possibility than name changing would be considered? With these two reasons, it seems faulty to not enable Display Names.

[Jard_Y_Dooku]

IPB is no better than phpBB. If you want good forum software, you write your own. 3rd party stuff is too difficult to integrate into existing systems. Selling software based on a database that wasn't designed by the organization using it generally tends not to work very well. Also, IPB is written in PHP just like phpBB, so it's still junk. Weak-typed languages are an invitation for trouble in advanced systems.

 

 

 

Also, lollables at friendly URLs. Just append &title=Title-of-your-thread to the end of every URL. The integrated index.php?/topic/xxx_Title-blah-blurgh/ looks pretty stupid compared to index.php?id=xxx&title=Title-blah-blurgh It's only for looks anyways, the title should not even be read by the software.

[Looce]

IPB is no better than phpBB.

 

Debatable. For most users, there will be relatively little difference between both, just where profile options and sig options are and stuff like that. For administrators, phpBB and Invision both have features that the other doesn't, such as Invision's new separation of admin privileges (some can be restricted to the themes interface, some can get full admin privileges, etc.) But both are as easy to install, as easy to administrate, as easy to add MODs to... That's all that counts.

 

 

 

If you want good forum software, you write your own.

 

If you want good forum software, you use something with a good policy regarding patches and a security-conscious programming team. You don't want your forum to get hacked by some noob who thinks he's cool because he can URL hack his way into &action=delete for all threads... and you mistakenly only hid the &action=delete button from forum threads, and didn't bother to check for permissions in the delete script. While I don't think Tip.it's web staff is that bad at security, they're just too few people to provide the needed code oversight. phpBB and Invision, on the other hand, have dealt with these security issues and provide patches quite frequently. Now would you say that using phpBB or Invision is that bad?

 

 

 

3rd party stuff is too difficult to integrate into existing systems. Selling software based on a database that wasn't designed by the organization using it generally tends not to work very well.

 

Tip.it Forums and Tip.it are pretty much completely separate, except for Tip.it Times article and discussion links (which link into the forum) and Community Events, RuneScape News and all that stuff from the front page. The only thing for Tip.it to do, as I see it, is to change the links to point to the new URLs. Hell, they could make /viewtopic.php?p=123456 still work with some mod_rewrite magic.

 

 

 

Also, IPB is written in PHP just like phpBB, so it's still junk. Weak-typed languages are an invitation for trouble in advanced systems.

 

If PHP is junk, why do so many Web sites use it? (Many of these sites are even phpBB and Invision forums! Also includes Wordpress, which is written in PHP.)

 

Good naming conventions for variables can give you some insight into their types without needing to think much. Would you think $numTopics is a string, or an int? What about $userMessage? Cases where you have a variable named $topic can also be disambiguated by using $topicID or $topicTitle. Now, which is a string, and which is an int?

 

 

 

Also, lollables at friendly URLs. Just append &title=Title-of-your-thread to the end of every URL. The integrated index.php?/topic/xxx_Title-blah-blurgh/ looks pretty stupid compared to index.php?id=xxx&title=Title-blah-blurgh It's only for looks anyways, the title should not even be read by the software.

 

I believe you're horribly misled here; I think you're thinking of Wordpress and its long SEO links, such as /blog/2009/09/03/how-to-make-money-in-runescape-12345/, which does not have anything to do with either phpBB or Invision.

 

 

 

Recent Invision software has links like /topic/123456/, where 123456 is the Topic ID, or /topic/123456/2/ where 2 is the page you want.

 

edit: After seeing a link to a thread from an Invision Power Board forum, which seems to use slightly different software than what I'm used to, they do have the title in them, and trying to remove the title from the URL makes the forum go back to the Index. Myyyy bad! Though the title itself is indeed not used by the software, you could just as easily go to /topic/123456-X and it'll stil give you the right thread.

[Georgelemmons]

One last question: what kind of timeframe do you have in mind? When will the upgrade happen, and how long will the boards be down (or will they even go down)?

[dsavi]

Also, IPB is written in PHP just like phpBB, so it's still junk. Weak-typed languages are an invitation for trouble in advanced systems.

 

That argument got old a while ago. As Looce said, why are there so many sites that use it then?

 

IPB is no better than phpBB.

 

Debatable. For most users, there will be relatively little difference between both, just where profile options and sig options are and stuff like that. For administrators, phpBB and Invision both have features that the other doesn't, such as Invision's new separation of admin privileges (some can be restricted to the themes interface, some can get full admin privileges, etc.) But both are as easy to install, as easy to administrate, as easy to add MODs to... That's all that counts.

 

Are you sure that their separation of admin privileges is new? Because phpBB has had that for two years now.

[MageUK]

One last question: what kind of timeframe do you have in mind? When will the upgrade happen, and how long will the boards be down (or will they even go down)?

 

 

 

I'm going to leave Jard's post alone and just answer ones which I think are worth my time.

 

 

 

We estimate this will happen Thursday or Friday next week but there is no concrete date for this yet, we'll inform you once there is.

 

 

 

Providing everything goes to plan, the order of events should go something like this:

 

- These forums go completely offline and are totally inaccessible to anyone including staff (to avoid any database changes) for conversion to take place. This should take no more than 24 hours.

 

- These forums (phpBB) will come back online with a notice stating any posts/registrations from this point on will be lost.

 

- We will keep the phpBB forums online for around 48 hours while we fully configure and allow our staff to get familiar with Invision Power Board.

 

- We will then make the switch across, any data created in the previous 48 hours would be lost, but this process should take minutes to do rather than hours. We will also attempt to make the fact that data will be lost very clear to users, because it doesn't matter how many announcements we make some users still seem to not notice them.

[Wachtwoord]

A little off topic, but who pays for all this - and how much does it cost?

 

 

 

Rune Tips was originally founded by STEEL Corporation Inc. Dmonik, BlueRose13x, Lightning, Starlude, Xentia, Kibble, Rodrigo, DOC IRON 9, Sir Beachy, Stud6900, Hitman X and Silverion.

 

 

 

I think everyone has retired but Silverion? - Is he the sole website owner then, who pays all the bills?

 

 

 

Forgive my lack of knowlege on the subject, or my noseyness as it were :oops:

 

 

 

If it's alot of money, maybe a news article could be put out for a donations. After all, a recent questionnaire discovered not many people knew about donating to tipit. If tipit doesn't want a 'donation drive' as it were; perhaps the donations button could be in a more visable area.

 

 

 

Or has the change of forum software only come about because of sufficient funds gaining from donations/ads over the last few years?

 

I'm personally interested in how Tip.it works too. Anyone have answers?

 

Basically, the "highest" person is Silverion. He owns the site and the forum. Right beneath him, you have the tech admins, who *drumroll* fix all technical issues. These are the people who fix the forums if they are down again. The tech admins are very invisible, if you look at the list of admins and think "who the heck is that?", it's probably a tech admin. Under them you have the other admins, who deal with all the other important issues regarding the forum and the website. Most of them are specialized in an area like crew, clans, etc. Admins play a role in every major decision regarding the forums and the website, even though ithey're usually invisible for the normal users. Admins also have special powers no one else has, like making a new (sub)forum.

 

 

 

Under the admins there are 2 groups. Crew and Moderators. I don't know much about how mods are organized, but it's a normal hierarchic system in which roles and responsibilities increase the "higher" mod one becomes.

 

 

 

I can't say too much about how crew works either because it could make us vulnerable to hackers and such. However, I think I can tell crew has some sort of hierarchy system too. Some people have more responsibilities and options then others. We also have different groups who each specialize on a particular area (guides, quest, databases, calculators, etc.).

 

 

 

2 final notes:

 

• 
   
  [*:3k0dgh3u]Sorry for hijacking the thread, I know this is extremely off topic.
   
  [*:3k0dgh3u]If this post is somehow inappropriate, just delete it. However, please pm me about it too.

[Mil]

I was just thinking, and found that the new RSS feeds could really compliment the actual site and also the Crew. Archive of Wisdom guides could have their own section in the Guides sub-menu on Tip.It, where each topic is listed from an RSS feed linking back to the actual topic in question.

 

 

 

Just one of the many possible improvements that this forum update could encourage, so I'm looking forward to it :P.

[The_Avatar]

Oh man, I hope someone can make a skin that looks as good as the current one. Though I don't think thats going to happen to be honest. :|

[dsavi]

Which leaves the question lingering: Which skin are you using?

[Sinkhan]

Now if only Jagex had the sense to improve their forums... :roll:

[MageUK]

Which leaves the question lingering: Which skin are you using?

 

 

 

Just as we have for phpBB we'll be leaving the original skin available and installing 2-3 seperate skins. We'll then also be looking at a Tip.It skin.

[dsavi]

I was responding to the poster above me :P

[MageUK]

I was responding to the poster above me :P

 

D:

 

 

 

[Johannas]

A little question - who runs tipit, controls the funds, pays the bills and everything?

[MageUK]

A little question - who runs tipit, controls the funds, pays the bills and everything?

 

 

 

I would suggest reading Wachtwoord's post.

[InkofDeath]

A little question - who runs tipit, controls the funds, pays the bills and everything?

 

Yes, read WachtWoord's post, but:

 

 

 

Silverion = Andrew Gower.

 

 

 

Just a little known fun fact for those that aren't in the know.

[Stormfolk]

Sounds promising :)

 

 

 

Will be interesting to see the new features of v3

[Laikrob]

Silverion = Andrew Gower.

 

 

 

Just a little known fun fact for those that aren't in the know.

 

Or not so much. :?

[InkofDeath]

Silverion = Andrew Gower.

 

 

 

Just a little known fun fact for those that aren't in the know.

 

Or not so much. :?

 

I guess you're not in the group of cool. :roll:

 

 

 

Also, Pure_Mage; Gonna have to reference you back to my post on page 6.