At the risk of getting off topic, I have some thoughts about upgrading the site.
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Originally Posted by CleverCowboy
The option of starting over and building a modernized forum from scratch using a CMS tool like Drupal sounded good on the surface, but if that means losing the rich history contained in this site, it is not an option.
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Losing content wouldn't have to happen. Drupal software development is my job and migrating content from the current system to it is certainly possible. No comment on the amount of effort though; it wouldn't be small. I'm not sure if that makes a ton of sense though; if you make an equivalent feature in Drupal for each current feature so the old content can be moved to the new site, have you just built an awkward vBulletin 3.8 clone instead of the shiny new thing you actually wanted?
One attractive thing to me about having a Drupal site is that it's so much easier to keep up to date. I've seen vBulletin's update process and it's absolutely revolting. Drupal actually does really well here, especially since Drupal 8, and it would make it easier to keep current.
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Originally Posted by CleverCowboy
Next option looked at is migrating the site to a vBulletin host. vBulletin techs will migrate the data to their servers, they will perform all upgrades and maintenance as part of the monthly costs, which is very reasonable. However, adding 3rd party web parts to our site would not be allowed. So things like the chat box would go away. Not a lot of chatting goes on these days anyway, so perhaps we would get used to not having one pretty quick.
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I'm turned off by the idea of removing the chatbox. To me, it's a critical part of the site. But that was eight years ago, so maybe it's not that critical anymore.
This option is appealing because updating vBulletin is a horrible chore that should be reserved for punishing violent criminals. Someone else doing that job is a pretty good deal.
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Originally Posted by CleverCowboy
Final option is upgrading the current version of vBulletin and continue to host the site at GoDaddy or move to another host. This is the most hands on approach and we would be responsible for everything maintenance wise. We can also transform the site to whatever we want it to be. Obviously, this option would probably sound the best, especially for web developers  But when you look at the situation we are in right now, with a site owner who is no longer interested in supporting the site (or is too busy with other things), we are stuck and cannot move forward. |
Has a worst-case scenario been discussed? If we really can't contact Ben to renew or take over this domain and server, should we make alizeecanada.com this month so there's a way to continue, even if we lose the existing content?