Update regarding my forums...

Moderators - if this is in the wrong place, please put it in the right place.

Hi Trainzers,

Some of you may notice that my current forum addresses are offline. This is because I'm in the process of setting up a brand new forum to sort out a clean slate without the permission and spam issues from my previous forums. This forum will hopefully include sections for not just Trainz, but content creation software and a forum for other simulators as well.

I don't anticipate it taking me that long to set up, but any users of my previous forum addresses will need to re-register on the new forum as I will not be transferring existing information across to it due to the aforementioned issues. I'm looking to make use of PHPBB3 to power it though (similar to my old forum, but a later version of the software which my old forum would not upgrade to for some reason).

At the moment though, I'm not going to be able to offer every single feature that I'd like to be able to (like a place for users to store content outside of individual posts) due to the limitations of free forum software and going for the paid for ones is quite an outlay at this stage for someone who does volunteering, as they seem to work out at $140USD+ which is close to £100. I am looking into alternative methods though.

If anyone has any questions, please ask. I can confirm that all content from both http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/forum and http://forum.trainztutorials.com are safe as I am using the maintenance mode on both sites (which means I can retrieve content if needed).

I did have a temporary forum on the new address but due to a configuration problem I've had to remove it.

I apologise if I seem to be spamming the forums here but I thought users may want to know the status of what's happening with my forums.

I will be able to update this thread when the new forum is up and running with the forum address.

My tutorial websites at http://trainztutorials.com and http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tutorials are not affected by these changes.

Once it is set up I will then have the option of appointing moderators etc.

Shane

Ahh, having a job keeping tabs which forum is which, there were still a couple of new posts a couple of weeks back on your original one, hidden amongst all the spam!

I know what you mean there. That's one reason why I'm trying to put things in one place and sorting out the spam issues at the same time.

Shane

shaneturner12 said:

... <snippage> ...
At the moment though, I'm not going to be able to offer every single feature that I'd like to be able to (like a place for users to store content outside of individual posts) due to the limitations of free forum software and going for the paid for ones is quite an outlay at this stage for someone who does volunteering, as they seem to work out at $140USD+ which is close to £100. I am looking into alternative methods though. ... <more snippage> ...

Click to expand...

I'd be open to some version of "pay to play", with an annual fee of about 1 Euro / $1.40 US per person per year.

ns

mjolnir said:

I'd be open to some version of "pay to play", with an annual fee of about 1 Euro / $1.40 US per person per year.

ns

Click to expand...

I will see what my options are on that front once the forum is up and running which will be at some point today - thankyou for your response though.

Shane

I have used phpBB for over 10 years, and simple forums, also. Upgrading from previous versions caused me to lose old installations due differences in upgrade paths (not unlike Trainz and all its hotfixes and service packs, I suspect). Some are incompatible, so I understand where you are at. The only sincere advice I have is to leave the old forums in place in maintenance mode, as I see you have done. Very, very wise. I lost eight years of data due one botched upgrade, so I do understand where you are at.

Best of fortune then.

Saieditor said:

I have used phpBB for over 10 years, and simple forums, also. Upgrading from previous versions caused me to lose old installations due differences in upgrade paths (not unlike Trainz and all its hotfixes and service packs, I suspect). Some are incompatible, so I understand where you are at. The only sincere advice I have is to leave the old forums in place in maintenance mode, as I see you have done. Very, very wise. I lost eight years of data due one botched upgrade, so I do understand where you are at.

Best of fortune then.

Click to expand...

Thankyou for your response there - luckily I've gone for the clean install route on a separate subdomain for this one to avoid upgrade issues, although I did hit a snag yesterday with a confusing error message during post testing which I found was due to a setting I hadn't changed.

Shane

Just to bring people up to date...

The creation and permission setting side of the new forum is coming along nicely after a small issue last night affecting posting which has now been rectified.

Some of the subforums (particularly the content related ones) will require registration in order to view and post. This is to protect content from being downloaded by robots For other forums (apart from Forum Announcements) which is read only to non-moderators) registration is only required if you wish to post something in the forum.

Shane

One final update....

The forums are now up and running over at http://newforum.trainztutorials.com/.

Registration is possible although an email verification system is in effect so users will need to check their email after registering. If a user does not receive an email, contact me as I can manually activate accounts if needed.

In order to access the Content Discussion and Announcements section registration is required.

I'm hoping to add foreign language forums at some point in the future once I get the hang on how the software works.

If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer them if I can.

Shane

Can I get those who have bookmarks or links to either of my old forum addresses please update them to point to the new address in the post above this one. I've already updated my signature link and the link on my Tutorial List thread to point to the new forum.

Also, those who have content on either of my old forums that they would like to put on the new forum please contact me so I can look into the necessary transfer process.

Shane

Apologies for bumping my own thread, but I have observed a couple of undeliverable mail messages relating to forum registrations on my new forum (as I get email from the forum email address forwarded to me). Can I ask those who are registering on it to please double-check that their email address is correct before submitting the form (if your email address is correct and you haven't received an activation email, please let me know as I can manually activate accounts if needed as well as updating email addresses if it's wrong).

Shane