Not a good sign

[Setec Astronomy]

He's doing it--the message now says:

It's new host and working on it!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Big Dave]

I got this message from Deyon, DFB on the AG forum, who emailed AG customer service.

"We should have it back up shortly, we ran into some software issues and need to do a full update and migrate the forum into a new software due to unsupported software that is no longer available. " Juan Sierra

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I wonder if they are going to do the same thing with Autopia or whether that is going to go away along with the store. I think that is probably a more challenging migration due to how many other forums got folded in there and old vB hacks from the original owner.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I'm very familiar with vBulletin and all the similar forum software options - but after much research, it was easy to see that Xenforo was the way to go.

They have a very basic main page up now--will they be able to migrate the existing AGO content to XenForo, or is it going to have to be a clean sheet?

 

[Mike Phillips]

They have a very basic main page up now--will they be able to migrate the existing AGO content to XenForo, or is it going to have to be a clean sheet?

Supposedly Xenforo offers the migration tools necessary to move a vBulletin forum to the Xenforo platform. Have to wait and see if all the content/text shows as normal after the migration.

The problem is going to be all the pictures archived on the integrated photo gallery. Any picture posted to the Internet has a webpage address. It's very specific. For example, here's the CODE for an image on my site. I removed the first 5 letters - the https so the Xenforo software doesn't automatically try to display the image as a link.


https //themikephillipsforum.com/media/barry_karen_meguiar_mike_phillips-003-jpg.5140/full


ANY PLACE on the forum content where there's an image inserted using the BB Code image tags, that would be this one,

If through the migration process the exact webpage address for each image is not retained - then my guess is, while the content, for example an article I've written, the text will show up but the images will not appear. This tends to make the article, review, discussion, etc., worthless.

The other issue that might be the root cause of no images showing up would be if they simply kill or delete the photo gallery. I don't remember offhand which software the geek forum was using for archiving images, I think it was Photo Post, but it might have been Photo Gallery.


This is what happened at MeguiarsOnline.com - they upgraded to the latest version of vBulletin and from what I can tell, ditched the photo gallery altogether.

And if everything transfers or migrates without issue, then the pictures will show up.


Here's the image code above, inserted as a complete webpage address sandwiched in-between the BB Code for images.

Mike

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I know the photo gallery at Autopia hasn't been working for a long time, but on AGO it was, so maybe the photos will work there--but I won't hold my breath.

Time to thank you again for keeping this forum under your auspices, I'm sure it nags at you seeing all that content you created at MOL and AGO potentially be lost.

 

[Max Burks]

Well Mike

It seems that that somebody at AG was listening when you offered advice on using Xenforo as web format. It really shows good character on your part to try to help
a company that you are no longer involved with.

You're a good man, Mike. May your star rise even higher and shine brighter.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Time to thank you again for keeping this forum under your auspices, I'm sure it nags at you seeing all that content you created at MOL and AGO potentially be lost.

Not really. I have a list of all the articles I've written, and all the info is in my head, so I can easily re-write and even update and improve any article topic I need or want to recreate.

Over the last few years at the geek, they had a guy extract a LOT of my reviews and how-to articles and insert them into product pages on the Autogeek.com store.

If you read any of them and pay attention, you can see they were all written in first person - me. And of course, if you look at the pictures, there's no one else at the geek before, during or after me that created so much content using really cool cars. That stuff didn't just happen on its own. LOL

In places they tried to remove the Mike aspect, but it's all my content no matter how they like to cut and slice it up. LOL

I'm actually thankful they did this as they have memorialized me and my writing style for the future. I'll always know the story behind the story.


Mike

 

[chilly]

So a few people have joined the new AG site and are already posting about the loss of info and how they had to join again

I am not going to even attempt to do anything until I see if they bring back the old info and let us resume our previous identities

If that doesn't happen I think I am done with AG

 

[Mike Phillips]

Well Mike

It seems that that somebody at AG was listening when you offered advice on using Xenforo as web format. It really shows good character on your part to try to help
a company that you are no longer involved with.

Like mentioned previously, Juan is a sharp guy, even without my recommendation, after doing some research he would have found Xenforo and like me, figured it was the best option.

I can't remember, but I think I also recommended archiving the original vBulletin forum, that is, leave it be but close it to new members and new posts. Make it so it's read-only. THEN bring up a new forum.

Skip the entire process of trying to import the vBulletin databases into the Xenforo databases. Migrating an existing, legacy forum into completely foreign forum software always sounds like a good idea on paper but it doesn't always execute as planned.


Mike

 

[Mike Phillips]

So a few people have joined the new AG site and are already posting about the loss of info and how they had to join again

I am not going to even attempt to do anything until I see if they bring back the old info and let us resume our previous identities

If that doesn't happen I think I am done with AG

I'd say give Juan some time, there's bound to be unexpected hiccups working through the process. I'm certainly glad I'm not in his shoes.

My guess is after they workout the bugs, all the old content will show up versus what you see now.

Mike

 

[chilly]

Roger that...

 

[chilly]

Oh Good Grief!!!

There are a total of 5 messages on AG so far and one of them is already SPAM

 

[Mike Phillips]

Oh Good Grief!!!

There are a total of 5 messages on AG so far and one of them is already SPAM

I saw that.

So sad that there are still forum spammers at this point in time.

Mike

 

[Setec Astronomy]

It looked like most of the people that were joining were spammers, along with a few impatient members. FWIW they have a message up now that says:

"Sorry, we're currently unavailable. Site Upgrading is in progress, we will be back soon. Thanks for your patience."

 

[Mike Phillips]

It looked like most of the people that were joining were spammers, along with a few impatient members. FWIW they have a message up now that says:

"Sorry, we're currently unavailable. Site Upgrading is in progress, we will be back soon. Thanks for your patience."

This is probably a good sign. Hopefully it means they are working out or have worked out the bugs and are importing the vBulletin databases into the Xenforo databases.

If all goes well, the new forum will be up and hopefully all previous members of the vBulletin forum will be able to login and their original account/posts will be intact. I wish them nothing but good luck.


Mike

 

[Big Dave]

Guilty as charged, I didn't want to lose my user name, imagine how confused you guys would be if Big Dave ended up being some guy in Austria, who drives a Land Rover.

It did actually happen on another website, I was Big Dave in their comments section, then someone else came in and used it as well, they figured it out in the end, but I added OZ to mine, and he added UK to his, because they couldn't figure out who was first.

I suppose I could have stolen Setec Astronomy, but then I'd be the one with "too many secrets".

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Guilty as charged!

Actually, I came up with the idea for that user name out of frustration when trying many variations of whatever more pedestrian user name I was trying to use at a large email site, and they were all taken--and I said to myself "everyone has too many secret(s) email addresses" which reminded me of that movie, so Setec Astronomy it was.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I just realized something in another thread, I think this also happened when Autopia got merged, that if you have bookmarks to old AGO threads, or even links within posts there to other threads, that they are not going to work now with the new software.

Between that and the picture issues, makes a good case for what Mike suggested about about making the old vB forum an archive and starting from scratch with the new one.

 

[Big Dave]

Big Dave came from my soccer team when I was 9, there were 3 Daves, you can guess which one I was.

But 1970 must have been a very popular year for the name David, by the time I got to High School there were 10 of us in the same year.