Forum Migration
Ok, so sometime over the next few weeks, I'll be migrating the forum over to our new server. This is either going to go one of two ways:
1) I'll be able to convert the database from MySQL (slow and crappy) to PostgreSQL (fast and epic), and we will slowly re-add features that are enabled by plugins (like Kudos).
2) The conversion will be an epic fail, and I'll be forced to reconfigure MySQL so it runs better.
Whilst I'm hoping the outcome will be (1), I'm not ignoring the possibility of (2) happening either.
In any case, there won't be much warning about this, other than me closing the forums down and them suddenly disappearing off the internet. DNS, the system which converts a domain name (atheistforums.org) to its IP address (213.251.175.189), takes some time to update when a site moves IP. If you don't mind waiting up to 48 hours before you can use the forums again, ignore what I'm about to tell you. If you do mind, copy this information down and keep it somewhere:
1) If you use Windows, open up C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
2) If you use Linux / Mac OS X, open up /etc/hosts (+1 for UNIX simplicity)
3) Add the following line somewhere in that file:
4) Save.
Your computer should now think that atheistforums.org is located at the IP address 91.121.26.127, rather than what any DNS server tells it.
Changes
We are always looking for ways to make the forums more attractive to our members, and so we'll be implementing a few changes after the migration. One of these changes will be the ability to change your username yourself, but we will be keeping a "trail" of all your username changes that will be publicly available on your profile, so everyone will know what you used to be called. This is so that trolls can't just change their name and confuse everybody, and also because we want you to have more control over the information you put on the site.
In that respect, we will also be creating a system which will purge all IP data from the database after a certain amount of time (probably 3 months). Currently, the forum collects all IPs from posts, and whenever a user registers / logs in. This is so that people can do security audits, and also so we can detect people with multiple accounts. However, we think that 3 months of IP data is probably enough to do this.
However... we cannot say the same thing about other external services that we use on the site. Google Analytics uses IP data to determine how many visitors came to the site, and DarwinBot will sometimes inadvertently record IP data as it logs everything in the chatroom. The chatroom is completely separate from the forums, and runs on a public IRC server that we have no control over.
Other Stuff
We are rethinking having adverts on the site in some form. It is clear that the cost of the new server requires us to raise far more money that perhaps can be taken in through donations. A few weeks ago, quite out of the blue, I was contacted by someone looking to buy the site from me and cover the costs of hosting, whilst keeping the same layout and staff team, etc. Of course, I politely refused, but we could potentially make quite a bit of money from advertising revenue, given that we get around 250,000 pageviews a month. Naturally, any adverts would be disabled from people who donated to the forum (although we might set a minimum 'subscription' fee). What do you think? Obviously in these days of ad blockers, most of you probably wouldn't be affected anyway, but it's nice to know what people's opinions are.
If you have any ideas for raising funds, or getting new members (preferably both!) then start a discussion in this thread. We're always open to change.
Ok, so sometime over the next few weeks, I'll be migrating the forum over to our new server. This is either going to go one of two ways:
1) I'll be able to convert the database from MySQL (slow and crappy) to PostgreSQL (fast and epic), and we will slowly re-add features that are enabled by plugins (like Kudos).
2) The conversion will be an epic fail, and I'll be forced to reconfigure MySQL so it runs better.
Whilst I'm hoping the outcome will be (1), I'm not ignoring the possibility of (2) happening either.
In any case, there won't be much warning about this, other than me closing the forums down and them suddenly disappearing off the internet. DNS, the system which converts a domain name (atheistforums.org) to its IP address (213.251.175.189), takes some time to update when a site moves IP. If you don't mind waiting up to 48 hours before you can use the forums again, ignore what I'm about to tell you. If you do mind, copy this information down and keep it somewhere:
1) If you use Windows, open up C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
2) If you use Linux / Mac OS X, open up /etc/hosts (+1 for UNIX simplicity)
3) Add the following line somewhere in that file:
Code:
91.121.26.127 atheistforums.org4) Save.
Your computer should now think that atheistforums.org is located at the IP address 91.121.26.127, rather than what any DNS server tells it.
Changes
We are always looking for ways to make the forums more attractive to our members, and so we'll be implementing a few changes after the migration. One of these changes will be the ability to change your username yourself, but we will be keeping a "trail" of all your username changes that will be publicly available on your profile, so everyone will know what you used to be called. This is so that trolls can't just change their name and confuse everybody, and also because we want you to have more control over the information you put on the site.
In that respect, we will also be creating a system which will purge all IP data from the database after a certain amount of time (probably 3 months). Currently, the forum collects all IPs from posts, and whenever a user registers / logs in. This is so that people can do security audits, and also so we can detect people with multiple accounts. However, we think that 3 months of IP data is probably enough to do this.
However... we cannot say the same thing about other external services that we use on the site. Google Analytics uses IP data to determine how many visitors came to the site, and DarwinBot will sometimes inadvertently record IP data as it logs everything in the chatroom. The chatroom is completely separate from the forums, and runs on a public IRC server that we have no control over.
Other Stuff
We are rethinking having adverts on the site in some form. It is clear that the cost of the new server requires us to raise far more money that perhaps can be taken in through donations. A few weeks ago, quite out of the blue, I was contacted by someone looking to buy the site from me and cover the costs of hosting, whilst keeping the same layout and staff team, etc. Of course, I politely refused, but we could potentially make quite a bit of money from advertising revenue, given that we get around 250,000 pageviews a month. Naturally, any adverts would be disabled from people who donated to the forum (although we might set a minimum 'subscription' fee). What do you think? Obviously in these days of ad blockers, most of you probably wouldn't be affected anyway, but it's nice to know what people's opinions are.
If you have any ideas for raising funds, or getting new members (preferably both!) then start a discussion in this thread. We're always open to change.
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