Yep, it'll be here.
Wasn't too fussed about it yet as there is bugger all to search thru so far!!
One of the aims I have is to create a user-contributable reference area.
So we'll have a new menu on the sidebar with a hierarchical (and searchable! ;) grouping of stuff that our whole community has to write about anything mountain bikey. Stuff about bikes and gear, maintenance, tracks, whatever! Aimed more at being a reference source than a discussion forum, though it will be open to be edited by everyone (registered).
If it works, great! and if no-one's interested we can take it down again :)
So I assume when the full site is back up you will reload all the archived forums? There is some useful info on there about bikes / tyres etc which would be a handy resource.
That's quite an assumption!
That little word 'reload' there is not as innocent as it sounds.
It's not impossible but it would be time consuming and annoying. I know that without even having taken a close took at it. ...In fact, thinking about it for a moment, trying to handle all the markup stuff - quotes, images, smilies... which existed in the old forum would be an extensive job.
I'd rather go ride my bike... ;)
We have a desire to make the old site (and the one preceding that!) available, in a read-only type manner. After this one has achieved an acceptable state. So, we'll get back to you on what's going on with the old forum stuff.
OK I can accept that we don't need all those images and smilies from the old site, which would take a bit of memory I'm sure.
But if we can access the text from the old forums that would be good. There were some good discussions on tyres suited to our pea gravel that would be a fairly commonly asked topic, as well as where is the best place to buy x, y and z bike part / service type questions. Seems silly to lose this information base. I'm not trying to live in the past, but you also don't want to keep answering the same questions to new riders every 6 months.
It sounds like you eventually intend to make the old sites text information available though, which is good.
I'll stop pestering you now and let you go ride. :D
Wasn't too fussed about it yet as there is bugger all to search thru so far!!
Fair enough.
I agree with Tom. We should find a way to capture the good stuff from the old site.
Going through every post and deciding if it's worthing for archiving would be a task I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Maybe we could come up with some keywords and we can capture any posts that have those words??
See, there's the thing. Everything is stored as text (well, not the images, obviously) - all the markup that can be applied to modify the way text looks. From bold and italic to quotes and smilies. The data is all there, but extracting the text from the markup will take effort and time. As well as figuring out the structure and procedures related to retrieving/storing forum items, against the correct users, for 2 different database/CMS systems.
To clarify, there are no "pages" as such - everything is generated from database records when a request come to view it.
I agree with you guys that the stuff is important and should be accessible, so I promise I will take a look at it and try to get a feel for how hard a job it would be.
Greg if I could search the old forum I would find a post that you wrote that would make you regret that comment. I'm sure you have posted some absolute shockers over the last year and a half : )
Turns out the indexes hadn't been built. I just did this, and now searching works.
However, I'm not convinced the indexes are being recreated on an automated basis - so please let me know if the search facility starts failing to find things that you know are there.
Cheers.
Searching
Yep, it'll be here.
Wasn't too fussed about it yet as there is bugger all to search thru so far!!
One of the aims I have is to create a user-contributable reference area.
So we'll have a new menu on the sidebar with a hierarchical (and searchable! ;) grouping of stuff that our whole community has to write about anything mountain bikey. Stuff about bikes and gear, maintenance, tracks, whatever! Aimed more at being a reference source than a discussion forum, though it will be open to be edited by everyone (registered).
If it works, great! and if no-one's interested we can take it down again :)
So I assume when the full
So I assume when the full site is back up you will reload all the archived forums? There is some useful info on there about bikes / tyres etc which would be a handy resource.
ouch
That's quite an assumption!
That little word 'reload' there is not as innocent as it sounds.
It's not impossible but it would be time consuming and annoying. I know that without even having taken a close took at it. ...In fact, thinking about it for a moment, trying to handle all the markup stuff - quotes, images, smilies... which existed in the old forum would be an extensive job.
I'd rather go ride my bike... ;)
We have a desire to make the old site (and the one preceding that!) available, in a read-only type manner. After this one has achieved an acceptable state. So, we'll get back to you on what's going on with the old forum stuff.
(Stop living in the past Marge! :)
OK I can accept that we
OK I can accept that we don't need all those images and smilies from the old site, which would take a bit of memory I'm sure.
But if we can access the text from the old forums that would be good. There were some good discussions on tyres suited to our pea gravel that would be a fairly commonly asked topic, as well as where is the best place to buy x, y and z bike part / service type questions. Seems silly to lose this information base. I'm not trying to live in the past, but you also don't want to keep answering the same questions to new riders every 6 months.
It sounds like you eventually intend to make the old sites text information available though, which is good.
I'll stop pestering you now and let you go ride. :D
I'm sure we could burn the
I'm sure we could burn the old website pages/text to a CD. Anyone up for going through it and distilling the gems of information into a FAQ?
Wasn't too fussed about it
Wasn't too fussed about it yet as there is bugger all to search thru so far!!
Fair enough.
I agree with Tom. We should find a way to capture the good stuff from the old site.
Going through every post and deciding if it's worthing for archiving would be a task I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Maybe we could come up with some keywords and we can capture any posts that have those words??
Just a thought....
But if we can access the
But if we can access the text from the old forums
See, there's the thing. Everything is stored as text (well, not the images, obviously) - all the markup that can be applied to modify the way text looks. From bold and italic to quotes and smilies. The data is all there, but extracting the text from the markup will take effort and time. As well as figuring out the structure and procedures related to retrieving/storing forum items, against the correct users, for 2 different database/CMS systems.
To clarify, there are no "pages" as such - everything is generated from database records when a request come to view it.
I agree with you guys that the stuff is important and should be accessible, so I promise I will take a look at it and try to get a feel for how hard a job it would be.
.
Why not just save all the stuff written by me and chuck the rest?
hmm
Greg if I could search the old forum I would find a post that you wrote that would make you regret that comment. I'm sure you have posted some absolute shockers over the last year and a half : )
Good plan.
"Why not just save all the stuff written by me and chuck the rest?"
Sure - good suggestion. We'll call the new site "iGreg". :D
Glad you agree Graeme
I stand by everything I've ever posted on the old site. An added bonus is that there are no smilies or crap like that.
Search enabled
A search facility has been provided.
Just have to give it a little while til the indexes have been built, before it can be used.
Should work - now,,,
Turns out the indexes hadn't been built. I just did this, and now searching works.
However, I'm not convinced the indexes are being recreated on an automated basis - so please let me know if the search facility starts failing to find things that you know are there.
Cheers.