I realize this is premature, but can we expect any period of time where both this forum and the one following it will be active? It would be far easier to move information over then attempt to store it anywhere temporarily. Even if we were doing it manually.
Additionally I weep for the potential loss of our history T_T
I had not seen this. Apologies. I will gladly answer questions and engage in discussion about this topic but you may have to send me a PM or poke me in IRC to get my attention.
You will know up front as much as I am able to tell you, such as to what extent we will be able to migrate content, and of course relevant times. The switch should come as no surprise to regulars but if you decide to take a three month hiatus now, odds are you'll miss out.
Do not expect to have both pieces of software available at the same time. The primary reason for switching is precisely that this software does not support the PHP version our host will be upgrading to in November. While it would seem that that should give us plenty of time to run in parallel, there is no guarantee that the replacement will work with the (grossly) outdated PHP version this vBulletin version is using. It is not that I will not consider it, I simply will not prioritise it.
Whatever happens, content will not be strictly
lost. I weigh migration capability very heavily, but if I can find no way to make it work I will take a database dump. This way the content will keep existing, although players should not expect to have access to it. We might find a way to make it available in a filtered form but you should be prepared to have to go through DMs for access. I emphasise that this is a worst case scenario.
phpBB is not excluded from consideration, I just happen to already know about it so I don't need anyone to suggest it. It is an old heavyweight, which has some advantages and disadvantages, and I would be reasonably comfortable switching to it. I would prefer a more modern solution but it is definitely on the table.
vBulletin is as close to being a non-contender as possible. It is obscenely expensive (in excess of 200 USD) while offering few to no special features for that price tag. It is a gigantic pain in a number of ways. Shallow Googling suggests that we can migrate to phpBB as easily as a newer version of vBulletin. That said,
the reason we're switching away from it is that our host is upgrading PHP (we're currently running 5.2 and 5.3 is end-of-life with 5.6 right around the corner). Newer versions obviously do not have this issue but I feel strongly that the trouble is not worth it in the long run.
Discourse has been suggested. It is an interesting project in many ways, and in some a big improvement on the past generation of forum software (e.g. vBulletin and phpBB). Yet, it has some problems that make me sceptical. The interface is noisy, and some of the features it promises exist only inasmuch as other users have taken the time to develop them, easy migration being one of these. It's on the table but I don't have high hopes for it.
Invision Power Board and ZetaBoards have been suggested. I recognise the names but have no experience with the products. The pricing of IPB probably makes it a non-option, and there is something about the ZetaBoards service that does not inspire confidence.
Desired features- We must be able to have fundamental permission control so that we can restrict visibility of DM-only content as well as content limited to privileged players (i.e., faction forums). This is a very basic requirement that any serious solution will fulfil.
- Themeability/customisability would be appreciated by a lot of players, but personally it isn't something I value highly. On that note, I will welcome any player assistance in theme creation but I will not engage in it myself.
- I am really sick of BBCode and WYSIWYG, so an alternative to that would be nice. It is necessary that BBCode remain available, however, and preferable that WYSYWIG also be.
- The one thing I think would improve user experience the most is for players to be able to manage player forum access on their own. This feature could easily be a deciding factor.
- Content migration is very important, but if all else fails I think we can migrate content to a new archive forum running phpBB, similar to the situation with our current legacy forum. I am not concerned about losing data, only about how easy it will be for players to access it afterwards
Preliminary research suggests that SMF 2 (http://www.simplemachines.org/) is the best candidate. It's free, feature rich, in active development, and appears to have a compatible vBulletin converter. I have not yet used it so I don't know if it meets our other requirements.