Securise Alizeeamerica.com with https

[Bamagirl]

Even if the ownership of the domain name were to change, that does not give the new owner access to any of the current content. Whoever owns the content now would have to do that. Also, when before a domain name becomes available, the current owner is sent multiple reminders and opportunities to renew before the name is deactivated. And it is a requirement of all domain name owners to keep their contact info updated or risk losing the rights to the domain name. I own several domain names. I happen to have most of my domains registered with Network Solutions, so the notices come to me from them, but they reference the rules for everyone. Here is part of one of the notices I get every so often:

>> “This notification is being sent to you as a contractual requirement of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) WHOIS policy. When you registered your domain with us, you agreed to keep your contact information....current, and the WHOIS policy mandates that we ask you to verify and/or update this information periodically. Further, ICANN requires us to remind you that providing inaccurate or dated contact information may be grounds for domain name cancellation...
...Remember, if you use Private Registration, you are still required to maintain accurate contact information... You may review the ICANN policy here.
...Thank you for your attention to this important ICANN-required message...”<<

[CleverCowboy]

I am hoping that Ben would offer the domain and the content as a package. I wouldn't know if he would request some kind of compensation for the content or would be happy to just pass the torch down the line (I would hope for the latter).

I have a domain registered with GoDaddy and they never let me forget that expiration is coming well in advance. I had several others at the same time that no longer exist today, so I know they have an auto-renew option for domains, because the defunct ones renewed by default when I didn't want them to. I learned the hard way.

The odds are that alizeeamerica.com will auto-renew. We are within 30 days of expiration, so maybe I am a teeny bit nervous about it though.

[RadioactiveMan]

At the risk of getting off topic, I have some thoughts about upgrading the site.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by RadioactiveMan

At the risk of getting off topic, I have some thoughts about upgrading the site.



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.



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.



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?

Radioactiveman!!!!.....How's life in Canada?

[CleverCowboy]

Originally Posted by RadioactiveMan

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.

Back when the subject of upgrading the site came up the last time, the younger members tended to be least resistant to big changes, as to be expected. Many of the older members wanted some changes, but generally liked the overall format of what we have. Again, this is to be expected. I fall in the "older" demographic, but being in IT all my career, I have to roll with the changes to stay employable.

I am assuming this vBulletin site uses MySQL and Drupal supports it as well. My guess is that the data migration would not be easy and there is a risk of the loss of content. I never used Drupal, so you will have to provide the answers, but what do you see right off the bat that will not migrate? Attachments used in posts? What about the URL links? Would user accounts migrate cleanly, or would there be a re-registration process?

Originally Posted by RadioactiveMan

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.

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?

I like the chat box as well. It's a quick way to send a note to everybody.

It's almost hard to believe that vBulletin hasn't developed a helper app to aid in upgrades.

The worst case scenario that we brushed on lightly is starting over from scratch with a brand new site, brand new domain. We hope to avoid that situation, and would rather keep things exactly the way things are right now instead of having to start over.

[RadioactiveMan]

Originally Posted by CleverCowboy

what do you see right off the bat that will not migrate? Attachments used in posts? What about the URL links? Would user accounts migrate cleanly, or would there be a re-registration process?

There's nothing that would be impossible, but I could see us having to make decisions about what kind of issues we could live with, to save with time and effort. User accounts would be easy so people would not have to re-register, but it's probably not worth trying to keep their old password working, since we could direct people to reset their passwords. The friends lists could be moved over to Drupal too, but only if a friends list is implemented there first. Maybe that's already a feature of the forum module for Drupal, but if not you either have to fill that gap (not *hard* to do, maybe it'd be OK to miss that feature. Do friends lists actually do anything?). Visitor messages, personal messages, and albums would need work to have on a Drupal site, then the data could be migrated.

Attachments and other post content could be migrated, but I don't think we'd get off as easy as just copying the post content. For example, this post I'm writing has a quote, so there's this markup:

[QUOTE=CleverCowboy;270088]

That makes vbulletin wrap that part of the post in HTML so it looks like a quote, plus it adds a link to post #270088. When migrating content like that to Drupal it might need to be modified to replace the post ID with a new one or replace the [QUOTE] part with equivalent code. Posts also contain lots of Smilies, which in the post content are just works with colons on either side, like

:bow:

The Drupal site would need a feature to convert tokens like that to an image - and support the same images we use today - or old, pre-Drupal posts would show that text instead of the image.

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Radioactiveman!!!!.....How's life in Canada?

Excellent! Thanks. I hope everyone here is doing well.

[Ben]

Hey all, sorry for not being around. I just renewed the domain and hosting. I also started a transfer of the domain from GoDaddy to Hostmonster, which will take a few days, so it can all be under one account that I could give someone access to.

[Ben.Daly]

Originally Posted by Ben

Hey all, sorry for not being around. I just renewed the domain and hosting. I also started a transfer of the domain from GoDaddy to Hostmonster, which will take a few days, so it can all be under one account that I could give someone access to.

The man we've been looking for! That's good to hear the situation is under control Will there be any significant changes to the site that you know of with this renewal and transfer of the domain?

[Ben]

Originally Posted by Ben.Daly

Will there be any significant changes to the site that you know of with this renewal and transfer of the domain?

There should be none at all. It's just a behind the scenes thing hopefully making it easier to hand control over to someone who actually has time to work on the site.

[CleverCowboy]

Today was "D-Day" for the domain. I checked this morning and found the registration was extended for two more years.