deskthority

Phase 1 is finally over! The forum migrated to a new server and all the software were upgraded. You find a summary at the end of this post

So let Phase 2 commence! The following is a preliminary and always growing list of things to do. PLEASE let me know if you can help with anything!

• Forum content
  • About page, a quick and straight to the point page about DT (moderation policies and whatnot)
  • News & Review, try to push the news/review sections
  • Better donation page
• Forum backend
  • Fix jump to the latest post
  • Fix dates not refreshed on forum spy
  • Add link to last unread post in forum spy
  • Remove users name duplicates from posts
  • Dark theme
  • Find out what it takes to restore some of the lost marketplace posts
  • Fix CSS glitches (mostly alignment, color, padding issues)
  • Remove post subject in a not hacky way
  • Add the "message" back to email notification
  • Visual Message Editor, check if we can integrate SCEditor, I believe everything works but we have to integrate the file upload API
• Wiki
  • We need a wiki maintainer, someone who checks software and plugin updates, makes updates/fixes to the design and whatnot
  • Find a way to install Parsoid and Visual Editor
  • Better image upload
  • Git integration if possible
  • Wiki Spy
• Misc
  • Find better ways to fight spam, possibly integrating stopforumspam
  • Check feasibility of a new forum software
  • Improve the Discord bot

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Phase 1 (over)

Okay, more as a note-to-self I'm using this thread to update the current progress on "The Great Deskthority Update" (GDU) happening in 2019.

Ongoing tasks, in order of when they will be performed. New tasks will be added/removed/sorted as we go

• Acquire new server
• Base server configuration
• Web server/database configuration
• Latest phpBB test
• Mail server configuration
• Move the current forum to new server
• Move wiki to the new server
• Check everything's working and lock current server
• Switch DNS and activate new server
• Create new ssl certificates
• Optimize phpbb database
• Open new server
• Set up multiple backups
• Recreate the forum spy
• Work on the new (mobile compatible) forum style
• Duplicate database and try to upgrade phpBB
• Duplicate wiki and upgrade
• Connect the new wiki with the new forum
• Import latest version of the database and migrate to the new version
• Import latest version of the wiki and migrate to the new version
• Restart forum and wiki

We may need beta testers. If you know how to modify the hosts file, you are recruited.

Why not just create an A record for something like beta.deskthority.net and point it to the IP of the new server. That way you don't have to have people mess around with host files to test

I don't currently have access to the DNS and I don't want to bother webwit every 5 minutes at this stage. Also there's a substantial change in the DNS management coming, I guess we'll take care of staging domains at that time.

Edit: actually I believe dns records are currently managed on cpanel, so yeah I have access to that.

matt3o wrote: ↑Also there's a substantial change in the DNS management coming

Are you moving the management of the DNS off to services like cloudflaire or dnsmadeeasy or something similar ?

we are currently managing the DNS directly, which is insane. So yeah we are going to off-source that

Just a heads up , cloudflair has one of them crappy modern form over function interfaces, be warned. I just throws everything in one ( far too spaced out) list and does not separate your different record types.

I mean what is this shitshow
If you need a hand with any sysadmin stuff my door is open.

thanks for the heads up!

the main thing I would need help with is with the software upgrade (php and wiki) and with the new forum design honestly.

yay! Mail server configured!

Now to transfer the forum! Hopefully the current version works on PHP7.2...

Should my avatar feel dizzy? Fingers crossed.

now transferring 50Gb of forum/wiki to the new server...

[====--------------]

Okay done!

Tomorrow we may have some up and downs as I'll be exporting the DB.

everything seems to be working on the new server, main problem the SEO (smart urls) plugin won't work anymore and we'll lose years of google indexing. I believe the easiest is to just redirect the old to the new urls. I don't want to install a new seo plugin that won't be compatible with future phpbb versions.

Today (and in the coming days) we may have some downtime because of the server update.

It has been a pretty hectic day. I had more issues than I anticipated moving to the new server, I hate cPanel and thanks god we got rid of it! Anyway it seems to be working now. I have to double check the mail settings though.

Please report any issue. I already turned off the SEO plugin because we won't be able to use it anyway when we upgrade the board, so better to start indexing the new structure asap. I've put in place some redirects from the previous system to the new, so search results won't be lost (hopefully).

The server is still at 50% of its potentiality but it's already visibly faster. I had to downgrade most of the software (notably php) because otherwise the old phpbb didn't work. Now the long journey to update the forum! Wish me luck!

so what's changed for us lambda users with no knowledge of anything about managing a site ?

Myoth wrote: ↑so what's changed for us lambda users with no knowledge of anything about managing a site ?

for the average Joe, very little has changed, but it was the first step to greater updates. You should experience a slightly faster site overall (please report on that). The database is now on SSD and we doubled the RAM, but until I can't upgrade to php7 and nginx we can't really enjoy the full power of the new server.

In the coming days I'll update the forum software itself and add new feature! Stay tuned, great times ahead!

matt3o wrote: ↑

Myoth wrote: ↑so what's changed for us lambda users with no knowledge of anything about managing a site ?

for the average Joe, very little has changed, but it was the first step to greater updates. You should experience a slightly faster site overall (please report on that). The database is now on SSD and we doubled the RAM, but until I can't upgrade to php7 and nginx we can't really enjoy the full power of the new server.

In the coming days I'll update the forum software itself and add new feature! Stay tuned, great times ahead!

matt3o: Many thanks for your ongoing hard work!

I don't think anyone here would admit to being an "average Joe". We are all well above average.

Seriously, though, everything seems to be working as expected thus far. Possibly somewhat snappier performance on navigation and reading, but slower on posting. However, I don't have any quantitative measurements for making objective comparisons.

Feels quite a bit faster now (especially when you go on a page with a lot of pictures [I hope I wasn't just lucky with some page which is still partly saved in cache ]). That's a good start into the "new year", thanks for your work!

Same here. Pleasantly surprised. I’m on my iPhone so definitely no cache, this performance increase is real. Nicely done Matteo!

(And a sweet relief from my irrationally feared fallback to default phpBB orange and blue ugliness. The nightmare!)

Edit: What bug I am getting is repeated “network connection failure” messages, instantly fast, after submitting this post composition form.

Muirium wrote: ↑Edit: What bug I am getting is repeated “network connection failure” messages, instantly fast, after submitting this post composition form.

I suspect that is a DNS issue. It should solve by itself in the next few hours. Please report if you keep getting it.

Hypersphere wrote: ↑[…] I don't think anyone here would admit to being an "average Joe". We are all well above average. […]

Myoth did precisely that a few posts ago, and I proudly join him in that regard.
I simply have no clue what the "SEO plugin" matt3o referred to is.
And I'm not even interested in an explanation

By the way, DT works the usual way for me.

kbdfr wrote: ↑ I simply have no clue what the "SEO plugin" matt3o referred to is.
And I'm not even interested in an explanation.

It's a little helper application, that's supposed to get you higher up in the search results of google and co.

I have problems submitting to the Wiki. I get error HTTP 500 when I click submit after I have previewed, and I could not get back to before the form submission in Chromium to salvage the edits I had written.

Findecanor wrote: ↑I have problems submitting to the Wiki. I get error HTTP 500 when I click submit after I have previewed, and I could not get back to before the form submission in Chromium to salvage the edits I had written.

thanks for your report! I'll check right away!

I just removed a link to the old piwik stat system and tried a quick edit. Everything seems to be working. Can you check now (save your work!). If it still doesn't work I need to know exactly what you are doing (what page, what kind of edit, and so on).

So far I've definitely noticed an improvement in loading times on multiple platforms since the move.
All hail the robot overlord!

matt3o wrote: ↑I just removed a link to the old piwik stat system and tried a quick edit. Everything seems to be working. Can you check now (save your work!). If it still doesn't work I need to know exactly what you are doing (what page, what kind of edit, and so on).

OK. The edit I had done seem to have actually gone through, but I did not see that the last time.

let me know if it happens again

hansichen wrote: ↑Feels quite a bit faster now (especially when you go on a page with a lot of pictures [I hope I wasn't just lucky with some page which is still partly saved in cache ]). That's a good start into the "new year", thanks for your work!

+1, much faster on big pages, always thought it was my crappy ISP! Many thanks...

Just opened this thread (from the Spy page),
and it loaded almost instantly despite the tons of pics contained in its first post.

So I decided to check with another thread with a lot of photos,
and this one too loaded almost instantly.

It seems to be a feature.
Well done!