Forum Software Upgrade

[Andy R]

We are currently working on the import script to convert our current forum software over to a popular platform called vBulletin. *The import will allow us to have a foundation for which we can add many new features. *Shortly after the conversion we should have our new iPhone, iPad and Android apps which will offer a very streamlined way of accessing the forums.

There are a couple of things that everyone should prepare for in this conversion.

1) Private Messages will NOT be Imported - Due to privacy issues the current host will not export the private messages. *That means you will need to read and archive any private messages you want to save ASAP. *They do this because no one is allowed to see the private messages (Admins and Mods included).

2) Everyone will require a password reset - The current host will not provide the old passwords so everyone will have to reset their password after the conversion. *Please make sure your email address on file is up-to-date so the reset email will get to you. *We will also have the help desk to assist members via email as needed to make sure everyone gets back in.

We will post updates ASAP as our import testing continues.

 

[Art]

Andy R wrote:
We are currently working on the import script to convert our current forum software over to a popular platform called vBulletin. *The import will allow us to have a foundation for which we can add many new features. *Shortly after the conversion we should have our new iPhone, iPad and Android apps which will offer a very streamlined way of accessing the forums.

There are a couple of things that everyone should prepare for in this conversion.

1) Private Messages will NOT be Imported - Due to privacy issues the current host will not export the private messages. *That means you will need to read and archive any private messages you want to save ASAP. *They do this because no one is allowed to see the private messages (Admins and Mods included).

2) Everyone will require a password reset - The current host will not provide the old passwords so everyone will have to reset their password after the conversion. *Please make sure your email address on file is up-to-date so the reset email will get to you. *We will also have the help desk to assist members via email as needed to make sure everyone gets back in.

We will post updates ASAP as our import testing continues.

Andy R - Being a business person*I wish you best in your new developments for this Forum.* Hope they please enough constituents.* Thanks for keeping us abreast.* Cheers! Art*

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. Andy R. Thanks as well for the update but a question from this computer Luddite. Password reset? Means resubmitting the current password or picking an entirely NEW password? Heck, took me 6 months to remember my current one. Hmmmm....irrepressible????

 

[Egregious]

Good luck.* These things are what we call a PITA.* I wish I could help, but unfortunately you don't pay me

 

[JD]

RT Firefly wrote:
Greetings,
Mr. Andy R. Thanks as well for the update but a question from this computer Luddite. Password reset? Means resubmitting the current password or picking an entirely NEW password? Heck, took me 6 months to remember my current one. Hmmmm....irrepressible????

*I think you can use the same one but you will have to reset it.

 

[Delia Rosa]

Andy R wrote:
1) Private Messages will NOT be Imported - Due to privacy issues the current host will not export the private messages. *That means you will need to read and archive any private messages you want to save ASAP. *They do this because no one is allowed to see the private messages (Admins and Mods included).

*

*Is there a way of archiving private messages within Trawler Forum?

 

[Andy R]

RT Firefly wrote:Password reset? Means resubmitting the current password or picking an entirely NEW password?*

*You can use the same password you currently have. *Here's how the password reset will work:

1) After the software conversion we will email ALL members with a link in the email. *You follow that link and set your password.

2) If someone does not see the email (sometimes there are issues with spam folders), when they try to login they will see a big bold message that tells about the software conversion and has a link to the password reset page.

3) There will be a Contact Us link on the bottom of every single page. *If someone is having issues they can simply click that link, fill in the form and we will help them via email.

4) We will also have support [at] trawlerforum.com setup so if someone needs support they can simply email us. *We are here to help.

We understand that having to re-setup your password is an inconvenience it's the only way we can move from the current software to any other software. *We feel the benefits of being on a self hosted and more robus software will be worth it in the long run. *If anyone has issues during the transition, we will be here to help.

@Delia Rosa - I don't see any export for the current PM system. *The new software will have that feature but that does no one any good with their current PMs. *I think printing them out (to PDF if possible) might be the best way.

 

[FF]

A reminder,

Passagemaker board went DEAD after the "upgrades".

 

[Andy R]

LOL, don't worry, this community won't have the same fate of the Passagemaker forums.

I wanted to post an update on the upgrade. We are hoping to upgrade the site next week (March 26-30th). We don't know exactly which day but it could be as soon as Monday. Once all the pieces are in place we will close down the current site so no new posts can be made while the data export is taking place. The export takes a while but once done we will transfer the content over to our server and then start the import. The total downtime could be as much as a whole day but we will make every effort to get the site open again as fast as possible. We will probably open the site up so people can get to posting again even though we will have lots of tweaks to make. So please be patient as we will be "tuning" things considerably over the days to come after the import.

The iPhone and Android apps are being developed and will be available for FREE in a few weeks.

 

[Arctic Traveller]

FF wrote:

A reminder,

Passagemaker board went DEAD after the "upgrades".

*That was MY first thought too.* With each and every "upgrade" things got worse and worse until they killed it. Sadly the owners paid little attention to the issues that came up, (I was told by insiders that budget cuts were the main issue)* I have high hopes that won't happen here.* Best of luck with your new platform.......Arctic Traveller

Trawler training at www.arctictraveller.com

 

[Andy R]

I don't have a full understanding of the Passagemaker issues but I'd like to learn more so we won't repeat them. From what I have heard so far, they had a forum that had some activity but they started to mess with the platform and it became less and less user friendly. Does that about sum it up or were their other issues that also led the members to leave?

 

[Tom.B]

And I believe this community is strong enough and dedicated enough to be even stronger after this.

 

[CPseudonym]

GonzoF1 wrote:
And I believe this community is strong enough and dedicated enough to be even stronger after this.

*You guys built a wonderful forum full of great content and Andy seems genuinely interested in making it grow and prosper. Some birth pains are to be expected along the way but I have confidence in the leaders in place to do a fine job.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. Andy R. I was a participating member of PMM's chat deck for a number of years during which time I experienced the evolution to extinction of both the magazine and the forum. The magazines' articles dealt initially with the types of boats, re-fits, equipment, problems and solutions etc. that the members here experience, ask about and report on but after Bill P. sold the mag' to Dominion Enterprises the article emphasis shifted to Advertiser's base "information". No longer could one read about the couple who bought a 45' vessel and re-furbished it into a cruising vessel, ALL of the articles seemed to be about multi-mega dollar new vessels outfitted with the latest and greatest gadgets, gizmos and electronics.
Their forum, to the best of my recollection, was "improved" several times with by far the GREATEST loss being the archives. Years of Q&A's gone. Data base lost. I don't specifically recall any major insults/arguments/dust-ups but that's just me.

** So whatever you do DON'T lose the TF archives!


-- Edited by RT Firefly on Saturday 24th of March 2012 05:13:46 PM

 

[Tom.B]

RTF, since TF isn't tied to a magazine, I hope we'll have a much better result.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
I agree Mr. GonzoF1 no magazine but Mr. Andy R was looking for background as to the demise of THAT forum. I just offered my take on it. And to add, THAT forum had more than "some" activity. For a time, in the early days, it was a hive of activity with dozens of posts daily with a broad data base which was lost in subsequent "improvements".
A correction to my previous post...There was the forum section but the "chat deck" was a separate feature which allowed real time exchange between members. I recall one evening there was a conversation going on with some 7 or 8 of us all flapping our gums-good fun. I made several VERY good friends on the chat deck, all of which I am still in touch with.
I hope TF can continue to be a source of valuable information for the likes of us and may I reiterate, I feel there really IS a place for OTDE.


-- Edited by RT Firefly on Saturday 24th of March 2012 07:20:46 PM

 

[Andy R]

RTF,

Thanks for the info. It's a shame to hear about forums which are "upgraded" and the owners just ditch all the old content. I agree that's it's of the utmost importance to keep all the old content as it's the amazing knowledge-base that the members have created together. Not to toot our own horn but the current forum provider only provides a crude export of the data and there is no import tool from our current platform to vBulletin. Jeff (our programmer) has spent many hours building a custom import script so we won't loose any of the posts or discussions.

I also understand that it's not really an upgrade if we loose features or make things harder to accomplish. The new software will offer a lot of new features and should be just as easy to use. It's a big like getting a new car where you have all the same buttons around the steering wheel and dash but sometimes they are in a slightly different location. It will take a bit of time to get used to but I am sure everyone will get settled quite quickly.

OTDE will be back after the upgrade. We will have two small changes to the way it's setup.
1) We will have an Off Topic forum for the general off topic discussions.
2) A special opt-in section for Hot Topics (such as politics, guns, religion, etc).

 

[twiisted71]

RT Firefly wrote:
I experienced the evolution to extinction of both the magazine and the forum. The magazines' articles dealt initially with the types of boats, re-fits, equipment, problems and solutions etc. that the members here experience No longer could one read about the couple who bought a 45' vessel and re-furbished it into a cruising vessel, ALL of the articles seemed to be about multi-mega dollar new vessels outfitted with the latest and greatest gadgets, gizmos and electronics.*

___________________________________________________

*

I have cut and chopped RTs post somewhat but ite reflects what are my sentiments as well.

*

 

[markpierce]

Andy R wrote:

OTDE will be back after the upgrade. We will have two small changes to the way it's setup.
1) We will have an Off Topic forum for the general off topic discussions.
2) A special opt-in section for Hot Topics (such as politics, guns, religion, etc).

*Wondering if the subject of anchors needs to be under OTDE(2)? *...* Nah, anchors only needs to be tightly monitored.

 

[Conrad]

Andy R wrote:
I don't have a full understanding of the Passagemaker issues but I'd like to learn more so we won't repeat them. From what I have heard so far, they had a forum that had some activity but they started to mess with the platform and it became less and less user friendly. Does that about sum it up or were their other issues that also led the members to leave?

*That pretty much sums it up, except that as RTF wrote, it was a real hive of activity in the early days. Each "improvement" reduced technical performance to the point where eventually there just wasn't any. There was a minimum to no moderation as I recall, and some heated discussions but things were generally civilized.

And, there was no OTDE.

 

[Tidahapah]

Agree with all. I was a member from the start of the PMM site and a contributer to the mag.
Loved the articles and the live chat, that was a real feature especially for me being down here.

I just hope we here don't go down that road, but it is possible as it now looks like it is commercially driven.
I won't dissapear but will probably slowly just go astern.

 

[Arctic Traveller]

I seem to remember that the PMM forum started down hill after the first "upgrade".* Added features didn't work, and there was no response from* "Superuser" (the webmaster actually) The first upgrades seemed mostly designed to allow increased advertising on each page, which they did, but with so many features not working it became a pain to use.* Many members were asking questions of the webmaster that never got answered.* Then came another "Superuser" who promised to fix everything, but only made matters worse.* At one time, the site was down for days (then a couple weeks as I remember) while fixes were put in place, but upon the grand re-opening the site was hijacked by spam and again taken down within days.* They finally gave up, and there doesn't seem to be any effort to bring it back.* It was at the beginning of these dark days that Doug posted a link to his new site, and many of us migrated here to get our trawler fix.*

On the plus side, the P/M site was pretty well un-moderated , and everyone behaved themselves nicely (just as they seem to do here).* Occasionally someone would get offensive, but it never lasted long.* It was a great place for the first few years with large amounts of traffic and a great information exchange.* Sadly, they didn't have the resources to put into the site and it finally went away.* The good news is that we still have a great forum centered on trawlers. I have high hopes that the "upgrades" will work well, and that the bugs are addressed quickly.* I also have no doubt that the site will migrate to including advertising at some point, but I don't think most folks have an issue with this as long as it doesn't get in the way of using the site.* Everyone knows it cost money to keep the site open and we appreciate the effort that goes into it............Arctic Traveller

Trawler training at<a href="http://www.arctictraveller.com"> www.arctictraveller.com
</a>

 

[Conrad]

There seems to be a lot of pessimism about the future viability of Trawler Forum here, which I don't understand. Possibly because of the current OTDE hiatus I suppose. But to suggest that TF could go the route of the PMM forum is doing a big disservice to the new owners I think.

The PMM forum was an add-on to the site owned by magazine publishers who obviously didn't have a lot of interest or expertise in the forum world.

For the new owners of this site, I gather that forums is their business, so I have full confidence that this will continue to be a vibrant, useful, and socially acceptable site.*

 

[sunchaser]

Password reset should not be an issue for me as I try to log off after each use to prevent, ahem pop ups from advertising showing up on my e-mail. It will not be a good sign if my e-mail is used by TF for advertising such as happened with PMM and THT. I have given up on linked-in because I got too many friends I didn't need requesting stuff*and connections.

Good luck Andy with your APPS, hopefully they won't be APPS into oblivion for the current site users which has become all too common in the digital age.

 

[Larry H]

While I realize these sites are not free to operate, I find the advertising on CruiserForum to be annoying. Just now Smokey the Bear is the most prominent thing on the CF home page.

How is that related to boating?

The clean look of this forum and the focus on our discussions is a real positive. Everywhere in life now we see advertising and logos. When I go boating I am able to see the natural world without advertising.

Some websites have subscriptions where after you pay, you don't see the adds.

If the forum starts restricting and editing posts so as to not offend advertisers, I think folks here would loose interest. If my posts are edited to appease a advertiser, I'm gone!

 

[Andy R]

@Conrad - I agree about the pessimism but understand where the members are coming from. The temporary closure of OTDE was obviously not a very popular move but our team needed the time to chat about how to handle issues. We have been doing in the last couple weeks. The new software will send out alerts to the whole team when issues arise and we can discuss them together rather then the sole team member who is online having to decide the best path forward.

I agree about the magazine publisher not understanding forums was probably a big issue. I started my founded my first forum over a decade ago and have been a forum fanatic ever since. We live and breath forums everyday. I have no idea how to write a magazine and never intend to become a magazine publisher.

@sunchaser - We will NEVER sell your email to advertisers. We might send a forum newsletter here and there but they are very infrequent. When we do send them, they usually include some relevant links back to current topics. There is always an opt-out link at the bottom of the newsletters if you don't like them. Did I mention they are infrequent? On some other sites we might send one out once a year or even once every couple years...

@Larry H - One thing to realize is that more ads are shown to guests then members. We hope that encourages lurkers to sign up and log-in. As for the type of ads, that is decided by Google. We use them as our ad provider and they show ads based on where you are located, others sites and searches you have made, etc. You can see how they have you profiled and opt-out from this link:
www.google.com/ads/preferences/

The ad supported internet has fostered a lot of innovation to provide tons of services for free.* Could you imagine having to pay for every search engine query or to have a free email account (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc)?* Although I understand people don't always like the ads, they do provide tons of resources for free.* I'd love it if I could walk into a bookstore and pick up all the magazines I wanted free because the advertisers paid to distribute them (talk about double dipping).

I like you idea about an upgraded account and ability to turn off ads.* We actually have that running on some sites and once we get settled we will look at adding that here.* In the meantime (you didn't hear this from me) you can install and ad blocker and enjoy almost all sites without ads.

I know change can be difficult to swallow and that we will need to earn your trust.* Temporarily shutting down OTDE was a tough choice to make because I knew it would cause some pushback but our team needed the time to get our ducks in a row.* It will be back as it's own section called "Hot Topics" very soon.* Please try to keep an open mind and give us some time to earn your trust.* I feel confident that when we look back in 5 years everyone will continue to be happy that we are all part of this fine community.

 

[dwhatty]

Andy:

Thanks for the Google opt out link and the tip on as blockers.

I, with others, await how this site will evolve and would have no objection in principle to a subscription based forum provided that it will retain its present clean look and will include a reopening of a, hopefully, lightly moderated OTDE. Not that I spent much time in OTDE, but it did give the politically oriented A types a place to growl and snarl at each other in a contained area where they could be observed from a distance in relative safety.

 

[Andy R]

I want to make sure everyone is clear on one thing, this site will ALWAYS remain free. If we add an account upgrade feature it's usually just for more "perks" for accounts (ie. server resources). On the other sites we usually giveaway the account upgrades to members who have been significant contributors as a way of saying thank you. So, once again, it will always be FREE to join and participate in the discussions but if we offer an account upgrade it would simply be to have some more features added to your account.

David: OTDE will be back. The setup will be an Off Topic forum for all the general off topic stuff (cars, travel, booze, football, etc) and a Hot Topic section that will be very lightly moderated for the Hot Topic stuff. We are planning to roll out some basic community guidelines in the near future and all the details will be in there. No big changes but as the community grows we feel it's important to have something in writing.

 

[Art]

dwhatty wrote:
Andy:

Thanks for the Google opt out link and the tip on as blockers.

I, with others, await how this site will evolve and would have no objection in principle to a subscription based forum provided that it will retain its present clean look and will include a reopening of a, hopefully, lightly moderated OTDE. Not that I spent much time in OTDE, but it did give the politically oriented A types a place to growl and snarl at each other in a contained area where they could be observed from a distance in relative safety.

David this is meant respectfully to all persons, contributors on TF or otherwise.

As I see it: In this*global economic, environmental, and political upheaval decade... American public needs to*take notice and enter debates in hopes to collectively define the best way forward*for our Country's political, economic, energy, and social agendas.* This election year is a calm before the storm.* I hope you join the discussions when OTDE returns.* Your posts always appear clear-eyed and level headed.* America needs your intelligent input.* In general, boaters are the most honest people I deal with; and, by need-be I deal with many levels of society in my businesses.

I must ask, regarding your statement quoted below, should OTDE new acronym become TFZ; i.e. Trawler forum*ZOO?? LOL* In this decade OTDEs new acronym might better incline... NTBD, i.e. Need To Be Discussed.* IMHO
"Not that I spent much time in OTDE, but it did give the politically oriented A types a place to growl and snarl at each other in a contained area where they could be observed from a distance in relative safety."
Cheers! Art

*

 

[Peter B]

Bring it ooorn. The suspense is killin' me...