Looking Forward

[self biased]

what i would seriously do is keep the basic information like user data, important links, and forum structures then destroy the whole site and start over. Since you have a new server i would start there.

Destroy this whole backwards-coded abomination and start over fresh and streamlined.

i really hate to admit it, but aahz is making a modicum of sense.

[Grandpa Troll]

i really hate to admit it, but aahz is making a modicum of sense.

I agree as well with aahz

All I have heard since being a Staff member and even now as a minion of the former peoples republic of Ming

Stop the insanity, start from scratch and move forward

This was the precursor for Civilization, and they discovered advances so why cant we?



Brother Bruce

[Sirotnikov]

AAHZ is exceptionally correct.

Ever since 2006 the forum owners are inhibited by a commitment to convert loads of old ****ty forum hacks and other obsolete nonsense. I say drop it.

Copy basic user data to the new system and throw everything else away. Move the old site to www.apolyton-backup.com and lock it there, for people to browse when they want to read old stuff.

If you ever get to it, by all means convert the old data to the new site. But don't let this stand in the way of the much needed renovation.

Its not like I don't appreciate Robert's enthusiasm, love for this site, or his financial commitment to keeping it running and buying new stuff (servers, software). However, this announcement is 4 months old. And we've seen countless previous announcements.

I've logged in 3 times in the past 12 months. Nothing has changed! Not a single page on this site. Even today I've had the forum hick-up on me and struggle to load pages. Its not like poly's overloaded.

Seriously. drop everything. Put someone in-charge who is competent and with enough free time to oversee this operation. If you can afford a new server, maybe hire someone to do it?

[Robert]

Work is ongoing.
Migrating/converting the old server data is a horror. Everything is corrupt or somehow complicated. The new environment is ready for months. We are not shy about leaving stuff behind, like hacks etc. A lot of stuff may be implemented later. Our first priority now is to migrate at least the userdatabase. But this one is giving the biggest problems. Even a migration of only the member database, losing all the posts for now, would be acceptable at this stage.

We will migrate to the new environment anyway, our last option is to leave even the memberdatabase behind and start all over. But that's a horrible thought.
Experts are looking into this as we speak. Our biggest problem right now is most probably that none of the old technical staff is currently able to free some time to help us out. (despite their best help and intentions in the past, for which we are thankfull)

It is very well possible that Apolyton may be down a couple of days in the next few weeks. But an official announcement will then be made in advance. I'm writing this message mostly to answer your questions.

Robert

[MikeH]

Possibly why the old admins all jumped ship to a new site to leave the legacy hell?

Pure speculation on my part of course.

[Nikolai]

Something needs to be done. Thankfully, it does. Fastmoving? Perhaps with the troubles. Looking forward to Poly 2.0.

[Dinner]

It sounds like Robert is working his behind off for poly. Beers on me if we do a Dutchland meetup some time in the future.

[MikeH]

Robert (and the rest the team) are working really hard in what sounds an incredibly frustrating and annoying environment. It'd drive me crazy.

[SlowwHand]

Short drive for you.

[MikeH]

And I don't even drive!

[Robert]

If this helps at all, when i was a news editer for Dan i had to use a 3rd party site to enter the html code, and was somehow magically transferred to the front page news section, and this was before the VB upgrade. It wouldn't surprise me if Dan didn't even tell you about the basics of how this scrapheap junkpile of code for a website operated and what tools he used to do so.

Dan has informed us about all aspects of the website. He has given us all credentials and references we needed for all services Apolyton uses (or used) and tools that were installed. He has also always been helping when we asked for help. Even today, more then 1 year after the transition, Dan answered questions we raised to him within 2 or 3 hours.

The problem of Apolyton is certainly not Dan or any of the other former admins. (Locutus and Solver have been helping us as well, even after they started WPC, for a couple of months! Ming is till today always answering any question I ask him about modding within hours. Always in a very friendly and helpfull wa.)

Apolyton's problem is that it's a 12 year old website with a lot of legacy, integrated software, multiple server moves. This would have happened with every website (webapplication) of this size.

Apolyton just needs a fresh start with only the most important legacy. And that's what we're working on. And I can honestly tell you that none of us (Jeroen, Arno and me) who was frustrated with Apolyton's technology or structure, ever blamed Dan or the other former admins for it. Neither did we yell at them.

I do regret it that Dan left with Polycast to WPC, but even that we do blame ourselves for, because we waited way too long to offer Dan and Polycast a good home on Apolyton.

Bottom line: Apolyton is a 12 year old website, that's an awesome achievement! And we do hope that we can make Apolyton a shining new baby with the experience of my grandmother! (She's 103, btw)

[Robert]

Possibly why the old admins all jumped ship to a new site to leave the legacy hell?

Pure speculation on my part of course.

Well, at a certain moment one comes to the point where he has to decide to try upgrade the old woman or to restart with a young one
(or to burry the old one and remain a widower)

None of the former admins picked the first option, some picked the 2nd one, a couple of them went for the 3rd option.
And we, we decided to marry this now single old lady

I can't blame Locutus and Solver for starting all over.
I do believe though that on the long run our choice will be the best.

[Sirotnikov]

if you visit israel / i visit the netherlands, i'm buying you a beer.

[Solver]

And I can honestly tell you that none of us (Jeroen, Arno and me) who was frustrated with Apolyton's technology or structure, ever blamed Dan or the other former admins for it. Neither did we yell at them.

Maybe you should I can't honestly claim that no portion of the blame for Apolyton's structure lies on me. I gotta admire your optimism though, you retain it even after having actual experience with how the site runs. Hey, maybe that is exactly what this site had needed for quite a while, someone who has the optimism.

And Siro, I hope the offer applies to me too

[DaShi]

And we do hope that we can make Apolyton a shining new baby with the experience of my grandmother! (She's 103, btw)

Yeah, right.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?t=192339