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[FYI] The Forum's future

Darat

Lackey
Staff member
Darat
Joined
Aug 3, 2001
Messages
118,673
Location
South East, UK
As you are most likely aware the JREF is currently undergoing significant changes and as part of those changes they are divesting themselves of the JREF Forum. What this will mean is that the Forum will have new owners and a new name - The International Skeptics Forum (ISF).

The migration will be done in several stages to help minimise disruption to the Forum and your access to the Forum.

Stage 1

The (current) JREF Forum will be transferred to new hardware. This will require downtime expected to be 3 to 6 hours but may be longer. It’s hoped that this stage will occur before Sept 9, 2014. The site will remain under the ownership of the JREF and day to day control will remain with the current moderation team. There are likely to be a couple of additional "technical admins" created to help ensure everything goes as planned. Any new technical admins will be announced as per usual and their roles will be limited to technical matters rather than moderation.

Stage 2

A mirror of the forum will be configured as The International Skeptics Forum (ISF) (www.internationalskeptics.com). All personally identifying data, including real names, email addresses, and personal messages will be removed during the transfer. Usernames and passwords will remain the same. Current admins and mods will continue their roles on the new forum.

Stage 3

When the admins and tech staff are happy that new site is stable and operation (hopefully by September 16), the ISF will become active and the JREF Forum will be deactivated and the address redirected to the new forum. Members will need to agree to the new terms and conditions to activate their account on the new forum and will be given the option to transfer their existing email address, name and personal messages to the new forum.

Stage 4

The JREF Forum database, under the ownership of JREF, will remain accessible to the current admins to help with any issues that may arise due to lost passwords, forgotten or inaccessible email addresses etc.

Stage 5

At some stage in the future, the Forum software will be upgraded.....


I've also created a thread about the new terms and conditions that will apply on the International Skeptics Forum, see: Terms and Conditions for the International Skeptics Forum.
 
Will banned/suspended statuses be transferred?

At stage 3, will there be a single option to transfer or not, or three independent options?

Thanks
 
Will all old and current threads still accessible? Will all stats, post counts etc. remain intact or will we all begin with a post count of 0?
 
JohnG said:
Will all old and current threads still accessible? Will all stats, post counts etc. remain intact or will we all begin with a post count of 0?
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All stats should remain intact, post counts will probably go down as some sections aren't going over and post counts are always slightly inaccurate for various reasons.
 
Checkmite said:
Tapatalk functionality - yes/no/eventually?
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Why does a forum need to do anything to make typing on phones (and I suppose tablets?) work? Why isn't it a simple matter of poking the space you're going to type in on the page and then poking the buttons on an on-screen keyboard, all handled in the device in your hands?

Darat said:
All stats should remain intact, post counts will probably go down as some sections aren't going over and post counts are always slightly inaccurate for various reasons.
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Will uploaded images cross over, and if they do, will there be an option to delete them there? When I first started using forums ages ago, it was rude to upload many images, and part of how to minimize your burden on the site as a user and stay under the data storage limits was deleting the ones you didn't need anymore.
 
I don't know if this has been asked or not, but will members' records of warnings/infractions be transferred over? And if so, how about for posts that were made in areas that will not be transferred over?

It may be hard to get banned for Body Of Work for a while. ;)
 
Delvo said:
Why does a forum need to do anything to make typing on phones (and I suppose tablets?) work? Why isn't it a simple matter of poking the space you're going to type in on the page and then poking the buttons on an on-screen keyboard, all handled in the device in your hands?
Click to expand...

Tapatalk is a custom forum client that runs by itself, not in a web browser. A special plugin is installed into the forum software to allow it to run so it's a custom modification.
 
Delvo said:
What does it do that's different from what I described?
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In practice nothing, but some people prefer using the Tapatalk client to the regular web interface since it's often easier to use and read. Especially if the forum doesn't have a custom mobile skin installed.
 
Darat said:
As you are most likely aware....
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This is great!

A big thank-you to everyone involved for pulling together a thoughtful, sane plan to continue the Forum. I have some minor quibbles with what has been proposed for the Membership Agreement, but they really are minor, so I am extremely pleased with how what started as severe abandonment anxiety has become delighted expectation.

Thanks again.
 
Will current suspension end dates remain the same or will they be extended due to the rollover period?

I will also add my voice to the thanks for the good work.
 
temporalillusion said:
In practice nothing, but some people prefer using the Tapatalk client to the regular web interface since it's often easier to use and read. Especially if the forum doesn't have a custom mobile skin installed.
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Yes, I've tried using this forum on a phone browser, it sort of works, but it's extremely cumbersome and nowhere near as good as using Tapatalk.

I do wonder though, if there is any possibility that the upgraded forum software will have features that might improve it's presentation on phones and tablets, making 3rd party software less necessary. While I like Tapatalk, I expect that it's going to become more common for potential "New Blood" to come to the new forum through searches on their devices, and being told they need to download an app to read the forum properly could be a stumbling block.
 
This is excellent--it's great you're keeping us informed, Darat. Thank you.
 
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Darat said:
All stats should remain intact, post counts will probably go down as some sections aren't going over and post counts are always slightly inaccurate for various reasons.
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Any hints on which sections won’t carry over? I assume the Challenge Applications section will remain property of JREF and not carry over. I could see dumping the Archive and maybe even AAH. Maybe the JREF section, which is mostly stuff that only deals with JREF specifically.

But I would like to see the posts in the MDC carried over. Lots of good stuff in there that I don’t see the JREF doing anything with. The Latest Commentary Issues section also has some decent posts, although those may need to eventfully be rolled into something like the General Skepticism and The Paranormal section.
 
jsfisher said:
This is great!

A big thank-you to everyone involved for pulling together a thoughtful, sane plan to continue the Forum. I have some minor quibbles with what has been proposed for the Membership Agreement, but they really are minor, so I am extremely pleased with how what started as severe abandonment anxiety has become delighted expectation.

Thanks again.
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AdMan said:
This is excellent--it's great you're keeping us informed, Darat. Thank you.
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Let me add my gratitude and thanks to the great work being done to keep the JREFISF on track.
 
rdaneel said:
Yes, I've tried using this forum on a phone browser, it sort of works, but it's extremely cumbersome and nowhere near as good as using Tapatalk.

I do wonder though, if there is any possibility that the upgraded forum software will have features that might improve it's presentation on phones and tablets, making 3rd party software less necessary. While I like Tapatalk, I expect that it's going to become more common for potential "New Blood" to come to the new forum through searches on their devices, and being told they need to download an app to read the forum properly could be a stumbling block.
Click to expand...

At this stage we plan to migrate to Xenforo sometime in the future, it's "responsive" so natively supports different screen sizes.
 
rdaneel said:
Yes, I've tried using this forum on a phone browser, it sort of works, but it's extremely cumbersome and nowhere near as good as using Tapatalk.

I do wonder though, if there is any possibility that the upgraded forum software will have features that might improve it's presentation on phones and tablets, making 3rd party software less necessary. While I like Tapatalk, I expect that it's going to become more common for potential "New Blood" to come to the new forum through searches on their devices, and being told they need to download an app to read the forum properly could be a stumbling block.
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I find Tapatalk very valuable on my iPhone, but on my iPad I tend to use the browser. The strength of Tapatalk lies in presenting an overview of threads fast, but actually reading a thread is done better without if the screen allows, because special formatting and avatars is lost. Tapatalk lets you quote the post you reply to, but there are no buttons for inserting quote, bold, italic or other tags, so it is not very good for writing.

I have tried a number of other forums with forum software that is supposedly scalable for smartphones, but in my opinion they fail, because it is not just a question of using smaller images, but also making a more smartphone-friendly user interface. One forum that I follow for the moment has such software, but on Chrome and Safari, the tags tool bar does not show up. For this reason I still prefer Tapatalk.
 
Thanks to all involved for putting this transition plan together. Unfortunately it means I will have to work harder to find something to complain about.
 
Thank you for the update, Darat! I'm glad things are progressing. :)
 
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RemieV said:
I don't know if this has been asked or not, but will members' records of warnings/infractions be transferred over? And if so, how about for posts that were made in areas that will not be transferred over?
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Those records are (in the current implementation, anyway) just threads in a restricted area of the forum, so, as far as I know, there's no reason why they shouldn't be transferred along with the rest of the content.

Not quite sure what you're asking about with regard to posts in areas not being transferred. I can see technical issues in that the posts link to the reported posts, and if the reported posts are not there (because there are in areas that were not transferred), it won't be possible to follow the links, but I doubt if that is your concern.
 
Can I register at the new forum with a new username?

I've wanted to change it for quite a while. I've never been suspended or even yellow-carded, I just want a change.

In other words, If I sign up at the new place with the same personal information, but a new username, will I possibly get in trouble for sockpuppetry?
 
You can change your username anytime you like; simply message me or one of the other Admins (Darat, Lisa Simpson, LashL) with what you want to change your username to and we can go from there.
 
Many thanks to all involved in this brave new venture. Change is necessary for the forums to remain the same ;)
 
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