Forum migration: internal plan & appreciating IT Guy
Ken Gracey
Posts: 7,401
Hey all,
The forum port to vBulletin was a rough one. Our internal tests didn't sort out the variety of problems that we encountered. I think we encountered a few new issues along the way, too.
Considering the forums are the single most important communication, support, marketing, and customer-focused aspect of our business we're working to find solutions to the broken links, missing images, etc. This morning I met with Jim Ewald, Jeff Martin and Phil Pilgrim (remotely) to evaluate a few options. The preferred approach is to provide Phil with the additional access he needs to expand his scripting tool. Then, we'd run the tool on the forum again. No promises can be made about the outcome - this isn't as easy as it might appear. Our goal is to keep your posts in tact as they used to appear.
Many of the other issues relate to configuration. We're starting to knock those out, one by one. You'll see more skins available, larger file uploads, smaller icons that determine row height, etc. It just takes a bit of time to get to these issues under control. I've made myself an Admin for some configuration details.
Jim Ewald is a one-man IT Guy at Parallax. He handles a huge number of IT issues in this 43-person company. We've got staff across the country and world, all needing constant connectivity via VPN, Blackberry, PCs, virtual machines, web, etc. He runs the integration of our business software with the web, and provides all the structures we need to do our job. A day can't go by without him being pestered by somebody with a great new idea (or problem), too. Once a Parallax person is identified as being as capable as Jim this business would gladly "own" them. Therefore, let's be sure to show our appreciation to Jim and do our best to give him some breathing room right now. You'll see more of our other forum moderator staff jumping in to help people get their logins figured out or find missing threads in the meantime. Thanks for getting us on this new tool, Jim!
I've used vBulletin elsewhere and I know you'll like it once we've got it running smoothly.
Sincerely,
Ken Gracey
P.S. Our HR department is looking for a second IT person to help Jim. A job description is on our web site.
The forum port to vBulletin was a rough one. Our internal tests didn't sort out the variety of problems that we encountered. I think we encountered a few new issues along the way, too.
Considering the forums are the single most important communication, support, marketing, and customer-focused aspect of our business we're working to find solutions to the broken links, missing images, etc. This morning I met with Jim Ewald, Jeff Martin and Phil Pilgrim (remotely) to evaluate a few options. The preferred approach is to provide Phil with the additional access he needs to expand his scripting tool. Then, we'd run the tool on the forum again. No promises can be made about the outcome - this isn't as easy as it might appear. Our goal is to keep your posts in tact as they used to appear.
Many of the other issues relate to configuration. We're starting to knock those out, one by one. You'll see more skins available, larger file uploads, smaller icons that determine row height, etc. It just takes a bit of time to get to these issues under control. I've made myself an Admin for some configuration details.
Jim Ewald is a one-man IT Guy at Parallax. He handles a huge number of IT issues in this 43-person company. We've got staff across the country and world, all needing constant connectivity via VPN, Blackberry, PCs, virtual machines, web, etc. He runs the integration of our business software with the web, and provides all the structures we need to do our job. A day can't go by without him being pestered by somebody with a great new idea (or problem), too. Once a Parallax person is identified as being as capable as Jim this business would gladly "own" them. Therefore, let's be sure to show our appreciation to Jim and do our best to give him some breathing room right now. You'll see more of our other forum moderator staff jumping in to help people get their logins figured out or find missing threads in the meantime. Thanks for getting us on this new tool, Jim!
I've used vBulletin elsewhere and I know you'll like it once we've got it running smoothly.
Sincerely,
Ken Gracey
P.S. Our HR department is looking for a second IT person to help Jim. A job description is on our web site.
Comments
I understand Jims and others that work with migration to NEW forum.
And In my opinion Highest priority NEED be Functioning ATTACHMENT's
As it is now old ones are broken AND new ones not function correctly.
Look on this thread new forum limits? - It can collapse entire community if it not be functioning as fast as possible.
(spoken from somebody, who is currently doing the one man IT gig right now)
Please forgive anything I might have said while cranky. This new software is good stuff.
Did you notice that the "Chief of Crankiness" (Phil Pilgrim) is even helping us solve our problem? Kind of like politics, unless you've got an extreme opinion nobody hears you. Be yourself!
-Phil
Well it appears nearly impossible, so you're doing a tremendous job so far! A transition like this is all work and no fun--I don't envy you this task.
If I didn't already have an awesome job I'd drive down from Nevada City and camp on your doorstep until you gave me a job. I'd love to work for Parallax. Maybe someday
Someone should start a thread as a "New Forum User Issues List" and keep updating the top post with the list and each item's status (IE: open/fixed). This will help Parallax track issues rather than reading threads to find them. I would rather have them fixing the issues.
Along with that, I would like to see a Parallax Specific FAQ/How-to Guide. The FAQ up now appears to be the default for vBulletin.
As for Jim, I am sure he will return to IT Hero status very soon (he sort of already has after seeing his late night "i fixed that" posts). While it seems the migration was premature, I doubt it was due to lack of testing. Interestingly, I just read an article by the editor of NutsnVolts where h basically stated that "Parallax's user forums are second to none". Parallax knows this, so with Jim's efforts (and others), you'll have us loving the forums again.
You mean like this? http://xkcd.com/208/
Have a beer (or some Wheat Grass Juice) and relax, you deserve it.
For the SX Best Threads and Code examples, If it would be helpful, I could use the new search engine to reestablish all my old links. But not the code examples by Jon and Bean.
Bill M.
I was spending the day yesterday digging out forum gems to update my Games and Demos page. Every time I logged into the forum, Jim was logged in working on something. Heck he was still until late last night. Sunday!
Any new major software installation is going to have it's share of glitches to overcome. Jim is a doing a FANTASTIC job handing the issues. (And Grumpy Phil.)
OBC
I've restrained my comments so far, or I'd also be extreme...
But, I'm glad Phil's on the job because I think he shares my consternation...
Jim Rock's!!!!!!!!!!!
As an IT man myself and working on a very large and expensive network conversion project, I can fully appreciate Jim's job.
Been there, done that, still doing that and even bought the T-Shirt!
Rah! Jim!
To Jim, Ken, and anyone else who are trying to fix all issues, Thanks!!!
Tony
I agree that of paramount importance is to recondition the original forum postings so that a new transfer will be picture perfect content, especially for our previous project presentations and displayed work found distributed all throughout the forums. Not only that, we appreciate new functions and expansions that can increase our presentations, add flexibility, and finesse information shown to viewers.
Humanoido
Also a big thanks to Phil and others: fill in your names here ______, _______, _________, ___________, ______________, __________________, __________, _____________________, _________, ______, _______, _________, ___________, ______________, __________________, __________, _____________________, _________, ______, _______, _________, ___________, ______________, __________________, __________, _____________________, _________, ______, _______, _________, ___________, ______________, __________________, __________, _____________________, _________, ______, _______, _________, ___________, ______________, __________________, __________, _____________________, _________, ______, _______, _________, ___________, ______________, __________________, __________, _____________________, _________,..
For example, here is a 700 page vBulletin forum software document...
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/
Then the documentation might not explain something very well, so next you might search through forums like this to see if someone else had the same issue...
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/index.php
And if that does not find what you are looking for, then next ask your question on the forum, and then wait for an answer which can take a day or more to get a response.
You can spend hours tracking down just one issue!
Sorry for ranting. We'll get things fixed around here. Thanks for the virtual pats on the back. Now - back to trenches....
Is there any way to slow that down? They're loading too fast. I liked the slower loading that you got with the old forum.
Yes, I'm kidding.
/me tosses a dead trout in Syvie's direction....
-Phil
He likes time off more than anything. You always want what you don't have, right? He just has to walk away once in a while so that's what we're making him do.
Ken Gracey
Healthy people are always a good call.
@Jim: Hope you did something fun!
Anyway, I say all of this so everyone can appreciate the work that Jim has and is doing by himself and while not perfect, I think this transition has gone well.
Thank you Jim.
He deserves some time after all this!
THANKS JIM!
OBC