We told you that we were all very much aware that your experience on the Straight Dope Message Board over the last while has not been an optimal one.
We told you that the board software was old and failing and overdue for a change. That we were not sure initially how that change was going to happen but we could not continue indefinitely like this. (Though I know to most of you it feels like it.)
Well, today’s that day. Or will be soon. The Straight Dope Message Board is moving to new software on a new platform.
The site will be moving to Discourse.
It will not look or feel exactly like the vBulletin board you’ve been accustomed to for the better part of the last 20 years, but it will be as close as we can make it minus the 504 errors.
We expect that the new board will take a period of adjustment as we look at new ways of doing the same old things in a brand new way. It will also be faster and more efficient and less frustrating, though this period of adjustment will no doubt have some bugs to be discovered in it; that’s the way of all new things.
The tentative go date to move to Discourse is **Thursday June 18. ** Here’s how we think it’s going to work:
Sometime that Thursday we will set the board to be in “Read Only” mode. We will get a final data dump of all of the posts/content up to that point, and send it over to Discourse to do their migration. Hopefully the migration will be finished by Friday.
Then we will kick the tires of the Discourse install, make sure everything is good to go, then switch the DNS settings to point the existing SDMB to the new Discourse install and we will be open for business as soon as that propagates. This means you’ll use the same URL for getting to the SDMB as now. And it also means all the old existing thread URLs should automatically work properly, in case you have any bookmarked.
If there is any problem during the migration we will go back to the old board, reopen it for posting, go back to where we were, and we’ll try it again the next week.
Almost everything is migrating over to the new site. We are not losing any content; your past posts should all be there. The development team has worked hard during the last four months to make sure this happens.
An important thing that is NOT coming with us is your password; apparently password hash does not import well. So when you come back to the site you will have to set a new password. Please be aware of this going in.
For those of you who haven’t looked at your information in a while, now is really a good time to check your UserCP to be sure all your information – especially your email – going forward is correct.
Let me repeat that.
**When you arrive at the new site you will need to reset your password to get into the system.
Before we go to the new site please go to the UserCP and check your personal information to be sure it is correct, especially your email information. **
We will do our damndest to make this work for you as expeditiously as possible. Please expect that it’s not going to be a flawless experience right off the bat. You’ve been really patient with us for a long time and we will ask you for a little more of that patience and understanding. But as we get this happening and come out the other side we believe you will like this change and will enjoy the new board. We think you will especially enjoy the speed and flexibility of the new system; you’ll be able to engage the board like never before.
Once we all learn it I think you will like it. Like all new things there will be a bit of a learning curve and some getting used to new stuff
We are in the midst of preparing a user guide for you that we hope will be helpful. I’ll try to get that released before you get to the site.
I’m happy to answer your questions. May not yet be able to specifically answer all your questions – I’m still learning this too, and so are your mods – but I’ll tell you what I know and find out what I don’t. It’s a new experience for all of us and we’re going to learn how to do this together.
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Looking forward to adventures in our new home and a better Straight Dope Experience.
Jenny
Your humble TubaDiva
Admnistrator
