Any upgrade is a good upgrade. I’m a wee bit concerned by posts like this:
From this this thread, but c’est la vie. Any port in a storm.
You work in software, if I’m not mistaken, so you know how good users are at following instructions. No matter what, you will have many PEBKAC errors.
I assume that setting new passwords will involve following a link on an email? If that’s the case, I recommend you plan out how to handle people with bad email addresses in advance and post a sticky with clear instructions. Maybe that’s emailing a mod with their username and correct address, maybe it’s something else. Whatever you think is best, tell people, or you’ll be dealing with a bunch of people doing things you don’t want.
I’m afraid of change and therefore hate it already and it makes my teeth itch.
You won’t be alone, but with a some minor effort and a little help from your friends, you’ll get through it.
Will Tapatalk still work?
Discord and Discourse are not the same thing.
We are moving to Discourse.
Just pulled that thread up on the new board. It looks like every other thread.
That’s not how we’re using it.
I believe you CAN look at it in that fashion if you want to. But threaded posts works too.
All we can do is let people know. Which we are doing.
So all of you go to your UserCP RIGHT DAMN NOW and check your information.
Thank you.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Yep. That’s why I understand AK84’s reaction. The people of this board have specifically said that we don’t want the stuff that Discourse offers. We hate the idea of even being able to like posts. But Discourse takes that further, making it where that’s how you become a moderator–you get enough likes.
I do not want my posts moderated by whoever the most popular Doper is. It does exactly what the conservative Dopers have been scared of, as that person will inevitably be liberal. It means people like me who accidentally got people to dislike him, will be in more danger of being punished. It’s not good at all.
Unless they’ve neutered all these features, this will fundamentally change the board, in ways the users and mods have repeatedly said they don’t want. And not because it was the only option, as several other systems exist.
The only reason I’m not jumping to the same conclusion is that I hope you’ve taken these concerns into account. That you are preserving the board working as close to the way it did before as you could. But your comment about how we’ll have to adapt to changes is rather foreboding.
I can’t imagine the mods would have been on board with community moderation, and the fact at least one has seen the new board, and there’s been no sign of any of them quitting, gives me hope that you found a way to keep this from becoming a problem.
I have been told you will not need Tapatalk; the mobile interface is robust enough that it should work for everyone as it stands.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
On the test site (which several mods have been checking out) I can see the avatars of those that have them.
The change is good news, and I hope the board can start to attract new members again who will stick around. Change is good in general, it keeps the old synapses snapping.
Not to tell you your business (but of course I am) I trust this will be a bold sticky on every forum from now until go-live.
eta: I don’t mean only TubaDiva’s entire post, but also this headline just by itself.
Discourse mentions that as a feature. But we are not using it.
No, the crowd is not moderating the board. The moderators are moderating the board. Same as always.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
I think this is amazing news. Congratulations on getting this rock up the hill!
Can someone share the link to the Discourse site or is that verboten?
(Now I will hit post and wait for my error page…)
Point taken. Thank you.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator
Remember to lower the DNS record TTLs ahead of time.
From the OP
Here’s the demo site linked from the link in TubaDiva’s post.
You can do everything under the sun, and some people still will have invalid email addresses after migration. Without giving them instructions on what to do in that case, you’re going to get sock accounts or people who just leave the board. I’m recommending you give a little thought to the desired resolution for those people now.
The look and feel of the new site is as close as we can get it to what we have now. It’s not a perfect match, of course, but all of those optional features that we’ve chosen to turn off here, we’ve also chosen to turn off there. Of the differences, some I like, and some I dislike, but in any event it’s certainly better than the 502 and 504 errors we’ve been getting.
Our site is nowhere near as busy as the usual Discourse site, in keeping with our longstanding policies in that regard.
So don’t assume the worst.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Change? You monsters!!!
I’m not sure what your expectations are here.
We can only notify people and make this information freely available to them. That is what we are doing. If they disregard it, it’s on them. And that is sad. But you have semi-free will in this decision. Use wisely your power of choice. 
I would hope people would do the smart thing, the reasonable thing. We can’t guard against it. We can’t protect people from the consequences of their failure to act as we ask them to. We can’t force people to pay attention.
Jenny
your humble TubaDiva
Administrator