restructering CDZ

[ProPain]

CDZ has been around for over 2 and a half years now and I think our little site is a much appreciated 'internet home base' for quite a few of us. We've been slowly growing and have seen quite some new initiates and improvements as well.

However our current structure is posing some practical problems. The fact that anarres and me are the only ones able to start new fora and upload avatars is just one example. Also lately anarres has been very busy and the same goes for me. This is causing unacceptable waiting times for regular ‘maintenance’

To be flexible anarres and me would like to implement the following changes
- have 'real' mods next to 'pbem/personal forum mods'
these mods can open fora, mod posts, upload
- have players upload their own avvies
- have the upload problems with large files fixed

To address these problems we basically have 2 choices:
- heavy modding of Snitz
- switching to VB

Apart from CDZ I have several VB fora running and I’m quite happy with them. Easier maintenance and more flexibility. (And I know some of you would be very happy with VB as well! ;))

However there’s one drawback to switching: data loss.

I;m not capable of transporting data from the Snitz format to the VB format. Anarres was going to look into this but it seems he doesn’t have the time to do this.

So the big questions to all of you :

- Do you feel that real mods and better upload abilities would fix our problems or do you have more wishes?
- Is there anyone out here that can transport the data?
- If we can’t move our data would you mind ‘archiving’ the old Snitz forum in a separate directory and ‘starting over’ again in VB?
- Or is anyone able to fix stuff in Snitz/windows 2k3 SE?

Of course all other feedback on CDZ is appreciated as well.

PP

[Lt. Killer M]

SWITCH!


Why? Well, VB will give us the future, we can always link to the past ;)

I hereby offer my services as mod - no promises on time I can spend though.

[Shabbaman]

Ahem.

You already are a mod.

And I thought we already had more mods? Or are you talking about modding the pbem sections? Then just adding another mod would do the trick as well wouldn't it?

I'd miss the snitz style, I'm getting used to it. But it surely has it's deficiencies (like, you know, no thread splitting). I think access to the "upcoming archives" is a requirement though. And the loss of post count would be horrible ;)

[Ginger_Ale]

Shabba, I think he means add mods that have more powers (ie; create forums) so people aren't relying on the admins. Or maybe I misread your post..

VB would be fine with me...a link to the 'old site' would be a must though. It's not like there's much good content to bring over ;), spoilers can easily be created.

[Lt. Killer M]

[shabba], am I? I never noticed [lol] I thought I only was a mod for my own forum.....

no, I meant mod-who-can-take-workload-off-admins.

[Tubby Rower]

I'm in favor of switching. like you said PP, I have a couple fora that are in VB and it's easier to use IMO. Linking to the old forum for transfer of Spoilers would be great.

I could help by being a super-mod if help is needed. Although I'm not sure how much help I can be that other, more experienced, memembers™ couldn't do.

EDIT:: sorry, I forgot the ™... added.

[Shabbaman]

quote:Originally posted by Lt. Killer M

I never noticed [lol] I thought I only was a mod for my own forum.....

Which probably explains all the spam in our OT section [tongue]

[Lt. Killer M]

hey, [shabba], there's no creationist or 'that ain't torture' SPAM here - thus nothing I would hand out bans for ;)

[Rik Meleet]

killer:

Are you sure? http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3254

[Lt. Killer M]

hm, leads to http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/default.asp

[Darkness]

It does now, yes... ;)

[Socrates]

My take on this.

- I'm fully in favour of switching to vBulletin3. I'm not in a hurry though, but before we all make Civ4 spoilers would be fine (end of the year ?). I'd prefer to try to save the database and convert it to vB if possible. I don't know if anarres is the only one capable of this though. [hmm] Otherwise an archived forum would be fine, though not as good. Is it possible to run the 2 softwares ? There is a certain huge game which will get messy if we seperate the posts like that.

- It's high time we renamed this site to "Civ Duel Zone". ;) And switch to the same URL without the "3".

- I don't think adding mods can do the trick. Frankly, uploading avvies for other people is more than boring, and this is the only site where I see that. I see that Shabba and Meli have become 'admins' ; on the same level as anarres and PP, or is there something missing ? I remember a post a few days after the beginning (wasn't there, but found it later) where anarres said that PP had now become admin with equal powers all the way.

- I think vBulletin v3 is a must, but then, is v3.0 cheaper than v3.5 for example ? Might be worth getting a cheaper but older version to limit the costs, no ? And repeat it with a delay when new versions kick in. Just a thought.

- It would be super if we could add sub-forums in our personal forums. I'm thinking of putting all my Civ3 shameful losses in a Civ3 subdirectory, and start anew with Civ4. :D If only an admin can do that, that's still fine, it's not like we'll ask this all the time anyway.

- If we just switch and start from scratch, it'd be interesting to reorganize the forum's display a bit (no need for Civ3, except if we can't post in the other software anymore). I'm there on MSN to help with it, if you want. :)

[Melifluous]

Well in answer to PP's first post, before we drown in spam guys ([nono] [meli])

I think I have worked a way to allow users access to the avatars they want.
They will still have to ask a Mod or an Admin to do it, but it's possible still on Snitz.

[meli]

PS. I wanna stay with Snitz but that's just cos its our damn forum in our own quirky code...
PPS. Will try and PM Shabba and let him know how to make Avatars available :)
PPPS. Also if you want get hold of me, just bother Mistfit and he'll get me :)

[DrAlimentado]

I say lets switch to vb, its a million times better software.

If you want help migrating the data I can probably help out too :)

[Mistfit]

quote:PPPS. Also if you want get hold of me, just bother Mistfit and he'll get me
Mistfit = Intermediary - Facilitator - Go Between for hire... I'm cheap too [mistfit]

[Matrix]

I too vote for switching to VBulletin!

Loss of data is a pity, but if this forum stays in existence, memebers™ will be able to copy-paste their original threads.

[grahamiam]

any chance we can get a decent site map so new people know were to go?

something like this perhaps?

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/uploaded/grahamiam/2005112319516_shitthing.jpg