BYC's Software Conversion - Discussion & Information

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Nifty-Chicken

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Dec 26, 2006
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Short Version: BYC will be converting over to another forum software platform starting (hopefully) Tuesday morning PST, and we're bringing pretty-much everything with us!
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The site will be in "Read Only" mode for a few days as we move everything.

During the conversion, you can do the following:

  1. During the conversion, get official updates on the conversion here: https://www.backyardherds.com/threa...ion-progress-updates-discussion-thread.35849/
  2. During the conversion, if you want, you can ask your chicken questions on our sister site's chicken section here: https://www.backyardherds.com/forums/chickens-byc-conversion.98/


Longer Version:

The internet continues to evolve and change at an amazing pace! When I started the new BYC back in early 2007 (yup, 10 years ago), I never knew it would grow to be such a HUGE and amazing collection of people and information. It's amazing what we've accomplished in the last 10 years!

In 2007 we ran the tiny site on a little shared-server and clunky free software. At the time, it was sufficient for what we needed... but as the site grew, so did the complexities, problems, and resources required to run such an active site.

BYC quickly outgrew the servers and software that we were on, so 5 years ago we moved to a new forum platform, which we're on right now. Unfortunately the company that developed this software is going to be "sunsetting" the platform this year. Fortunately they are giving us plenty of time and support to make sure we find a nice new home for BYC!

So, for the past 4 months I've been CRAZY busy getting everything setup for the big move. This includes working with experts in design, programming, server management, and software / data conversion.

We've decided to move BYC to the same software platform that all of our "sister sites" (BYH, TEG, & SS) are on. This forum software is used by tens of thousands of forums all over the interwebs... many of which are much much bigger than BYC! Using this software will give us more control and access to do things we've been wanting to do for ages and couldn't do with the previous company's software.

The design of the new site is about 95% done, and it look FANTASTIC! In fact, it's so close to what we have here, that I often can't tell if I'm on the live site, or the staging test site!

We've also already run a test conversion of the site and are VERY happy to report that all of the most important information and data has already been converted successfully! This includes stuff like:

  1. Forum users and user info (avatars, subscriptions, etc.)
  2. Forum threads & posts
  3. User reputation (ovations / likes)
  4. Private Messages
  5. Images (this is a MONSTER task)
  6. Articles
  7. Galleries / Albums
  8. Badges, Awards, Medals (Like "Friend", "Spirit", "Greeter", etc.)
  9. GFM / PPM account upgrades
  10. TONS of other stuff!

There isn't much you need to do to prepare for this move (we've hired movers to do this for you!)
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. With that said, there are a few things that will help you prepare:
  1. IF YOU WANT (not required) you can familiarize yourself with the software on the other "sister sites". I'd suggest joining, posting, and interacting with the software on www.BackYardHerds.com to get a feel for that system.
  2. Reply here with any questions you might have.
  3. Keep being an awesome and supportive member of our group. We know that people really dislike change, so I, and our moderator team, appreciate your patience as we go through this monumental task!
  4. During the conversion, get official updates on the conversion here: https://www.backyardherds.com/threa...ion-progress-updates-discussion-thread.35849/
  5. During the conversion, if you want, you can ask your chicken questions on our sister site's chicken section here: https://www.backyardherds.com/forums/chickens-byc-conversion.98/

Thanks again for being such great supportive members of our awesome (and HUGE) community!!!

Questions Asked:


When the change is made, will there be a down time?
The site will be in read-only mode during the transfer. That's to make sure that any updates on the old system are not lost during the move. We have no idea how long read-only will be... it could be a few days (we have a LOT of data to move).

Will ovations be the same?
Ovations won't have the weird multiplier that we have here. It will be 1-to-1, so if you get a "like" your count goes up by 1. There unfortunately won't be any ovation comments, but we'll have an awesome "trophies" system that gives you points for all kinds of cools stuff, similar to these Trophies

Will post counts drop?
Nope, they should remain the same!

Will trophies start at zero?
Nope, it's calculated based on really cools stuff like how many posts, likes received, likes given, years a member, etc. We even have one for if you've added an avatar or not! ;)

What about info in PM's, pictures, etc? Will it all transfer?
All PM's, pictures, articles, etc. should be converted / moved over, but if there are any pictures, attachments, etc. that are super important, we suggest you make sure you have backups. It's always a good idea to have local backups of stuff you have on the interwebs anyway.


Why is it taking so long?!

Keep in mind the size and magnitude of this move. We have:

  • Almost half a million members, all their subscriptions, info, etc.
  • Over a million threads / topics
  • Almost 18 million posts
  • About 20,000 articles
  • Millions of private messages / conversations
  • Millions of uploaded images and files
  • ... and a ton more stuff!
 
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Wow!I never thought the day would come when BYC would have to move.AGAIN!

I can't wait to see the new website, I hope it's pretty simerlar to this!
 

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