From what I've seen on the Rebelscum site, the consultant was handling planning for server upgrades and the Rebelscum conversion as well as ours. This was in addition to having to sort out unexpected security issues on Rebelscum. At some point it was decided to do the Rebelscum conversion first since it would be easier than ours. This is both due to the size of the conversion and the fact that ours has to be home-grown since VB doesn't have an import script for the IGN format. Rebelscum is currently in the testing stage.

 

The "consultant" (Astaran) is not involved in the Rebelscum conversion, to my knowledge. I don't know how he's being paid (if at all), but to be honest I haven't heard from him in months. His role in our move was to assist me in setting up the forum software and installing any plugins we suggested. And there really hasn't been any work done on that for a while (we're basically finished, save for a few things I haven't gotten to yet).

The person spearheading the Rebelscum move, Grahame, is a volunteer just like the rest of us. We're not being paid to do any of this and we're working on it in our own spare time outside of our regular jobs. So while I understand the dissatisfaction of this not being done yet, ZAP, understand that we can only move as quickly and efficiently as volunteers are willing and able to do so. I've mentioned this several times in the last few months, but we're kind of at a standstill at this point. We can't really do much else until the database conversion has been figured out, and the two people most involved in working on that are Grahame and Ben, Philip's business partner.

Also understand that the database file IGN gave us to work with is basically a gigantic 30 gigabyte raw data file, which not only needed to be initially converted into MS-SQL in order to be usable in the first place, but now needs to be converted into MySQL in order to be imported into the new software. There are plenty of other speedbumps in the way of that as well, the major ones being the fact that no conversion script exists to tell us which database tables our existing data goes into, and the fact that the character encoding needs to be converted from one format to another (which presents major problems when you're trying to read from a 30GB text file and figure out what data is part of a post and what isn't).

[Levar]But you don't have to take my word for it.[/Levar] Here's what the admins over at Rebelscum are saying about our move compared to theirs:

As far as IGN's role in this saga, they've all but disowned us at this point. The only reason this forum still exists right now is because 1) It would cost them more to help us migrate it elsewhere than it would to let us hang around on the server (which is why we never moved last time, BTW), and 2) They haven't yet gotten around to clearing the server space we're currently occupying to use it for something that actually attempts to make them some money. We're basically freeloading at this point with the promise that they'll take the time to do one last data export for us whenever we're ready.

So yes, it's been 16 months since we announced the move. Yes, we're obviously not moving as fast and efficiently as we would be if we were getting paid for this. And yes, this situation is probably a lot more complicated than most people will ever realize or understand.

 

When the Rebelscum move date is announced we'll probably start a thread here. In the meantime you can check their [link=http://threads.rebelscum.com/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=UBB40&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=]Announcements[/link] forum for updates. I take a look just about every day for updates.

 

The reason the move progress came to a screeching halt the first time around was because it got down to the date when IGN/zerosleep was scheduled to export the database and migrate it over to the new forum. When IGN realized it would take too much time and resources to do that, they decided against doing it and instead allowed us to stay. Since they control the data on their servers and we have no access to it whatsoever, we didn't have any choice on the matter and the move was cancelled. And that was not something that anyone here expected or could have seen coming.

This time around, it's been pretty similar. None of us really expected the data transfer to be such a big deal, especially since IGN told us they were going to export the database and provide the schema along with it. We knew there would be some issues trying to import it into vBulletin since no one has ever attempted that before, but I doubt any of us ever expected we'd still be sitting here over a year later waiting for that part to be figured out.

But really, do you think if we hadn't said anything at all until now, or even waited until we started seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the data transfer, that it would have made things better? I mean, you do realize that IGN can pull the plug on this place at any time without warning, right? That's the main reason we let people know what was going on in the beginning. And personally, despite the way this has gone the last year or so, I still think it's infinitely better that people know what is going on rather than us attempting to sit on all that info until the timing is right and we're ready to do the move. Deep down, I think you'd agree with that as well.

Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here, I'm not blaming anyone or getting upset at any of these comments. I'm actually in the same boat as the rest of you, to be honest. I too am rolling my eyes and getting impatient over how long this is taking. It's pretty ridiculous, but there isn't much we can do about that short of hiring a team of database experts and paying them to figure out the migration for us.

 

VBulletin comes with import scripts for quite a few of the popular database formats. The scripts will take the output of an export and convert it to what VBulletin's database wants. I believe that the Rebelscum format is one of those that is catered for.

Unfortunately the format IGN uses is not one of those database formats. It's their own system and the import script for it has to be developed by Philip Wise & co. Grimby and I have done some work as well using samples of data that were loaded to a test server for us. It's a lot harder than it looks, believe me.

 

I honestly don't understand why everyone is anxious to "move". If nothing superficial gets altered, most people probably won't even notice achange of address. Besides, I'm quite confident in the TOP MEN who are on the job.

 

What announcement?

 

Right now we're at a waiting point. Philip's crew is concentrating on converting Rebelscum so there won't be much happening with us until that's done. Grimby and I (and a few others, such as DarthXan) have done some prep work.

 

I don't really get the annoyance some posters have about the length of time this is taking. As long as it doesn't just get turned off (and data loss results) by IGN before we're ready to make the move, what's the big deal?

A question too, though... I know that the address boards.theforce.net will still work, but will the main page at theforce.net still have that "Forums" link in the upper left? Or no more because the forums will be on a separate server? And on that note, is this seen as a separation of the Jedi Council forums from theforce.net, as in they will be separate entities? It kind of sounds like it, but the retention of the boards.theforce.net address makes it not as clear. Thanks.

 

Grimby can correct me here if I'm wrong, but I believe it's just the board ASPX code and the board database that's on IGN's servers. I know that the images and board scripts are on TFN's server. If some tweaking is needed for the main site after the move then we can get that handled. The relationship with TFN Main and the forums won't be changing.

 

To add to what LAJ said, I've pieced together a bit of history here after going through old posts, talking to a few oldbies, and recalling some old rumors...

The forum itself, boards.theforce.net currently lives on the servers at IGN. In the beginning, the boards were actually hosted on TheForce.net. They were small, running on UBB software, and admins like Chyren, Jasman, and Yoda the All Powerful ruled the boards with an iron fist. Then, something happened.

The TFN owners at the time, Joshua Griffin and Scott Chitwood, struck a deal with IGN, who agreed to host our forums for free. It was during this period that the boards fell into the hands of zerosleep, who moved them from UBB to what he called SnowBoards. (It is said that zerosleep won the title of TFN Grand Forum Champion by defeating Kung Lao, a Shaolin fighting monk.) As the years passed, SnowBoards was further improved and upgraded, and IGN changed the name of the software to IGNBoards. They're more machine now than man...

In a nutshell, IGN hosts all the forum software and all data including users, posts, threads, boards, etc. (Conversely, all the images and miscellaneous JavaScript files that add cool things to the forum headers like announcements and forum mods are hosted by TheForce.net.) Now, I won't pretend to know the legal side of it (the only lawyer I talked to during my research was Johnny Cochran and he kept using the Chewbacca defense on me), but basically while IGN hosts the forums, TFN still owns them and controls their content. So really, more separation between TheForce.net and the Jedi Council Forums exists right now than will after the move.

When we move, the forum software and the data will be hosted on TheForce.net, most likely on a server in the same physical location that TheForce.net currently is (and RebelScum for that matter). So if anything, the relationship between the two will become closer because everything will reside in the same place and TheForce.net will be able to control all of it. And yes, TheForce.net will continue to link to these forums.