New Board Construction

[Mogwai]

Hi Everyone,

I want to thank everyone for being a part of this forum over the years.  You all have made it a great place to discuss Dostoevsky, philosophy, and other fun stuff.  

In the last year or two, spambots have started registering themselves on this old board to the point where I can no longer keep up with manually deleting them.  I am unable to "upgrade" this board since the code is around 4 or 5 years old.  The only alternative I see is me deleting this whole board (along with all the users/posts/everything) and building a new one with SMF (www.simplemachines.org).  This new forum software has very good safeguards against spambots even trying to register.

My question with everyone is this: Would this be okay?  I do understand all the posts would be deleted and all users would need to re-register.

Please let me know your thoughts.  It's a tough decision for me but the lack of code security on this old forum needs to be addressed.

Thanks for reading,
Wes

[poor knight]

I certainly understand your need to reduce the amount of effort in deleting spam. Is there anyway to save the posts in some sort of downloadable archive? Considering this may be the best site on the web for FD discussions - I was on Wikipedia the other day and its FD database is pathetic -- I'm sure you recognize your obligation to posterity. I'm illiterate about these things, but if there was a way to store the threads and posts in an archive that would be accessible, even if it couldn't be edited or added to. I still go back and look at old threads when I have need or interest.

[Mogwai]

I certainly understand your need to reduce the amount of effort in deleting spam. Is there anyway to save the posts in some sort of downloadable archive? Considering this may be the best site on the web for FD discussions - I was on Wikipedia the other day and its FD database is pathetic -- I'm sure you recognize your obligation to posterity. I'm illiterate about these things, but if there was a way to store the threads and posts in an archive that would be accessible, even if it couldn't be edited or added to. I still go back and look at old threads when I have need or interest.

Not a bad idea!  I guess I could always keep this board "alive" but make it to where it is read-only.  No one would be able to post anything or register - just read what has already been posted.  I will certainly take that into consideration....

[Scoundrel]

I agree....aside from discussing Dostoevsky, I think this forum is a valuable resource for researching dostoevsky's works and philosophies...it would be a loss to the internet if all that information was just gone

[lerik]

Mogwai,if making a new board is the only way,I guess we will have to go with the decission.But is there any way to save info on the board if you make a new one?

[highseas]

     It's good to see the message board being flooded with messages on this problem the forum has.
     That said-- I would like it if the old posts could be preserved in some type of archive even if they were separate from the new forum address.  I sometimes look through previous posts for their content and think it would be a shame if they became inaccessible.

[Mogwai]

Everyone, thanks so much for your input.  I will certainly keep this board alive if I put in a new one.  I'm pretty sure there's a way to archive everything to where it is read-only and no one can register.

However, I might have found a way to upgrade this very board to the latest version.  Someone has made a SMF conversion application that should allow me to do this.  I just want to be careful when I do it so I don't mess anything up!

Thanks again for your feedback.  I'm glad many of you go back and read older posts for education/enjoyment.  

[axon]

I agree a 100% - we simply must keep this board alive or at the very least as an archive. Wes, I will pm you a contact for one of the guys who worked on the SMF development team. Maybe he could give us some pointers on how to convert or archive.

[Monster_Rain]

    It's good to see the message board being flooded with messages on this problem

I dont think you fully understand the breadth of the word flood.  Of course, no offense intended.

[Mogwai]

I agree a 100% - we simply must keep this board alive or at the very least as an archive. Wes, I will pm you a contact for one of the guys who worked on the SMF development team. Maybe he could give us some pointers on how to convert or archive.

Axon, let me know if your friend can still help with the SMF conversion for this board.  I'd like to get this done by the end of July if at all possible.

Thanks so much!  

[black_abyss]

I noticed that this is an old thread, are we still having spammer problems?  

One bit of advice-have a paypal or credit card feature where members can donate some cash.  I for one, would definitely kick in a few extra bucks if it would help with the cost of running this place.

[Mogwai]

Just letting you all know that the new board upgrade is now in place.  If there are any glitches you see, post them here and I'll take a look when I have a spare minute.