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[MedO]

Hi everyone.

We have some serious downtime coming up in a bit over a month. No date yet, but we can't really avoid it without risking serious security issues.

Our trusty server still uses Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, and the support for this release will run out soon, so we need to upgrade to something newer. However, we can't just use Ubuntu's normal upgrade path since the virtual server environment is quite tightly integrated with the host and management stuff at our hoster. This means the way forward is to let them copy a new system image to our server.

Unfortunately at the moment they still have Ubuntu 10.04 as the newest Ubuntu version, which means we would be in the same place again in just two years (with 12.04 we'd have four years of peace). However, since we have to re-install all the things anyway, we could just as well move to a different hoster altogether. I've been pretty happy with Host Europe in the past, but they have some silly restrictions (no IRC services) and we sometimes get these mysterious performance issues that make our forums grind to a halt... besides, Host Europe have not lowered their prices or improved their offers for a bit now, so it might pay off to look for a better offer now. If we want to change, this is also the only time of the year where we can do that, since our contract always runs for a full year.

So, if you find a good offer please post it here. We currently use the L offer from here:
http://www.hosteurope.de/Server/Virtual-Server/
...except that we only seem to get 1-2GB of RAM at the moment, so they didn't pass that improvement on to us yet.

What I'm looking for is a server with at least 30GB of HD space, 1GB of RAM guaranteed and at least 2TB of traffic/month. More is always better of course, if we e.g. want to run a Minecraft server some time then we can use all the RAM we can get

I also don't insist on continuing to host the forums myself, so if someone else is interested and trusted by the community it would be something to consider. It could be an improvement to legal security as well because of the rather strict German laws.

Anyway, all this will probably mean a longish downtime unless we can keep using the old system while setting up the new one. We'll see.

[Catman]

Inb4 Ajf takes over and turns the site into some kind of cyborg

[ajf]

WELCOME TO AJF GARRISON 2 FORUMS

[MedO]

Oh I should mention, we'll probably roll a new forum software while we're at it. The most obvious candidate is SMF2, but if you have other suggestions I'll be happy to hear them as well.

AJF already brought up FluxBB. We're not limited to PHP solutions, but if there is a converter from SMF data that would be a plus.

[ajf]

I'm also looking at MyBB, a friend's forum uses it.

[ajf]

OK so MyBB looks really, really nice.

Andrea: there is a specific db package I had in mind
Andrea: I just need to find it again
Andrea: oh, it WAS MyBB
Andrea: it has some interesting features
Andrea: for example, custom moderation tools(!)
Andrea: lets you create a tool that does a bunch of mod things at once

http://www.mybb.com/features/administration - look at dat admin panel, it actually looks reasonably easy to use
http://www.mybb.com/features/threads - THREAD PREFIXES
http://www.mybb.com/features/reputation - POST RATING
http://www.mybb.com/features/warning - warning history
http://www.mybb.com/features/tasks - task scheduling
http://www.mybb.com/features/plugin-system - hooks and plugin system
http://www.mybb.com/features/moderation - delayed moderation
http://www.mybb.com/features/calendar - forum calendar

Plus everything SMF does, I think.

Yes it has a conversion tool for SMF.

[misty]

but who doesn't love SMF ;_;

myBB looks nice though, like not a total overhaul

[ajf]

but who doesn't love SMF ;_;

myBB looks nice though, like not a total overhaul

All PHP forums look the same.

[21Dan]

http://www.forum-software.org/forum-reviews - I've seen some good ones.. MyBB looks sexy.

[Luigibro]

Inb4 Ajf takes over and turns the site into some kind of cyborg

and then drops it after a week

[Phantom Brave]

SMF is by far the only forum software I'm completely comfortable with.

[ajf]

Inb4 Ajf takes over and turns the site into some kind of cyborg

and then drops it after a week

I don't drop things this big.

SMF is by far the only forum software I'm completely comfortable with.

Me too, but I also hate SMF.

[Phantom Brave]

SMF2 is pretty good once you figure out how to make the theme more like this one.

[Orpheon]

As long as we can keep this theme and stuff, I'm happy.

Also, we deliberately got rid of reputation a while ago, that's not a feature we need (just mentioning this because ajf listed it in MyBBs features).

[ajf]

As long as we can keep this theme and stuff, I'm happy.

Also, we deliberately got rid of reputation a while ago, that's not a feature we need (just mentioning this because ajf listed it in MyBBs features).

post rep is interesting though

and I'd probably get rid of this theme but restyle the default SMF2 or MyBB theme. Either way, we can't keep the existing one exactly, since it would be incompatible.