Websleuths is MOVING to a new home

[Amonet]

A request,

Can you leave a placemark at the old site, so that we can get to the new site without a problem?

Ie. "We've moved! Please update your bookmarks." And will you keep this placeholder in effect for some time so that our WS community members can all find our new home?

Much appreciated! Thank you all!

Satch

Normally when a website does something like this it will keep the URL (websleuths.com) and we would come back on Wednesday and refresh every now and then until we see the new forum appear. All the work is done by clever techy people behind the scenes, and your ISP and your browser automatically do the rest. Sometimes you get a situation when a site comes back that some people can get in earlier than others, some ISPs take a bit longer to catch up, but a lot of that depends on how the techy people choose to do the moving. But we shouldn't have to do anything except wait for Wednesday and refresh now and then until the new forum appears. And when it appears, sign in and get reading and get used to the new format.

nb. I am just going by what I know from other sites moving servers and upgrading software.

 

[jnblsm]

BUT WEDNESDAY IS SOOOO FAR AWAY!!!!!!

Normally when a website does something like this it will keep the URL (websleuths.com) and we would come back on Wednesday and refresh every now and then until we see the new forum appear. All the work is done by clever techy people behind the scenes, and your ISP and your browser automatically do the rest. Sometimes you get a situation when a site comes back that some people can get in earlier than others, some ISPs take a bit longer to catch up, but a lot of that depends on how the techy people choose to do the moving. But we shouldn't have to do anything except wait for Wednesday and refresh now and then until the new forum appears. And when it appears, sign in and get reading and get used to the new format.

nb. I am just going by what I know from other sites moving servers and upgrading software.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

[Tricia]

Hey Everyone,

My apologies. My phone lost all its charge then my Internet went down. I was sure I had just entered the bowels of hell. Thankfully both are working now.

Going to start answering all your questions right now. BRB with my first answer.

Tricia

 

[Roswell]

Any outreach being done in tandem with the changeover to increase membership?

With the recent popularity of true crime, it would seem there are many fields to till and then to harvest. Many young sheaves to gather and bring in!

I've noticed podcasts, some of them, increase brand awareness and monies, too, by offering items for sale bearing the trade name - sort of an "exit through the gift shop" approach.

 

[Tricia]

will there still be a most recent thread replies area?

Yes I believe so.

 

[Tricia]

.

Hate to say this but I have been on other forums (technical aviation related) and when they moved to "new and improved" software nothing worked properly after that and the forum faded away to nothing

Sad situation because there was tons of historical archive content that members had contributed for 15 years.

I warned them and warned them not to change , but they went ahead anyway. Thousands of aviators around the world had bookmarked thousands of posts and referred back to them in classroom settings etc .... after the new software no bookmarks worked . Even internal bookmarks did not work.

I hope I am wrong and everything here survives , but if it does it will be the first.

best wishes

EDIT to also mention .... on the aviation forum no members could even get signed in after the update

WOA HOLD YOUR HORSES PLEASE. All of the threads will be moved over to the new site. Nothing will be lost. Other than the separate blog area that 99 percent of the members didn't even know we offered personal blogging. That is the only thing.

Not sure why you think this is all glum and doom and all will be lost and nothing will be the same. Websleuths will still be Websleuths with the same posters and the same posts the only difference is the new software will be so much easier to use.

In case you hadn't noticed we have had so much trouble with vBulletin. In my opinion they used to be a great company but now you can't even ask a question and get a straight answer if you get an answer at all from vBulletin.

Sorry you had such a bad experience but it is not going to be like that here. We have hired a professional who is very well educated on moving forums off of vBulletin onto Xenforo. It wasn't cheap.

Of course, we will have issues and it will take time to work the bugs out but we do not foresee any major problems at all. We are ready for whatever happens but the software we have chosen is state of the art and has great reviews. No reason to think things won't be even better when we move.

 

[Tricia]

Oh no, I sure hope this isn’t the case.

neesake, I promise this is not going to happen. We will have issues but the forum will be much better than it is now. We took our time in choosing the right software.

Don't panic if some people do have problems. It is going to happen.

We will have a complete back up of Websleuths on the extremely unlikely chance we lose any information.

 

[Tricia]

Sounds exciting, I do have a few questions though:

Will we have to re-register?

What about avatars and sig lines? Will those be saved and transferred?

You will not have to re-register. Let me double check on the Avatars and sig lines.

We have a problem now on Websleuths with many members taking advantage of the signature lines by having a novel posted in their signature line.

We have limited the number of lines in a signature. Let me check with Dave and make sure these will transfer over. Good question.

 

[Tricia]

I think this is a good question about the old bookmarks. I’m really not sure how that will or won’t work. The beta site for is not the full site packaged for testing. But I can attest that the majority, if not all, errors I experienced (and there were some) were operator errors due to my own fault. Change is stressful but is inevitable. Keep the faith. I believe our IT guy and WS Admin have this under control.

I love you. Thank you. :hug:

Let me double check with Dave before I give you an answer.

 

[Tricia]

I don't know what I'll do for 48 hours without WS! Is that for the resolving of the new IP or is that for physical transfers of files or both?

Good luck to those working behind the scenes for the move, and thank you for all you do to provide us with this forum and keep it running smoothly as a source of information and discussion!

Both. Resolving the new IP and transferring files.

Remember to check the Websleuths Facebook page and Twitter. Both links are in my first post of the thread.

 

[Tricia]

I only use tapatalk because I was having issues with WS on my mobile browser. I was only able to view one post per thread. It was super frustrating. I posted in the IT type threads for help but never got a resolution. Will this still be an issue on the new layout?

Sorry for not getting back to you on this. I do know this issue sounds like something that has to do with your settings somehow. We did not see a complaint like this one before but maybe we did have complaints and I don't know about them which is possible.

The new software will adapt to whatever machine you are using. Websleuths will look the same on your phone, iPad, laptop, and desktop, The beauty of this new software is its ability to conform to the device you are using. Everything should look the same on anything you can use to log into the web and participate on Websleuths.

 

[Tricia]

I’m not really sure what you’re talking about to be honest. I had a problem viewing the websleuths website on my iPhone browser. It would only show one post per thread. Idk what you mean by “even my old, old first generation iPad handled opening it with posts viewable as before”. Before what? Were you experiencing the same issue as me before?

I’m 31 and pretty tech savvy. However I was not able to figure out the issue with my phone vs the websleuths website which is why I downloaded tapatalk. I am hoping it is not still an issue for me on the new platform.

I think what ima. grandma is saying (I think) is the old Websleuths didn't work very well but the new Websleuths worked great even on her old device.

We had members volunteer to test the forum out. That's why you are reading about posters experience with the new forum. They have already been on the new forum playing around

 

[Tricia]

So will we only be able to access via browser?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is where my extremely large lack of understanding tech stuff comes in. I'm not sure what you mean. The only way you can view websites is through a browser right? Unless you are talking about tapatalk. Tapatalk will not be available for our new forum.

 

[flute4peace]

Hi Tricia! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. Will/can it be possible to access WS through tapatalk? I understand that the new site will be usable with mobile, but TT is significantly more convenient, and preferable for my usage.

Thanks!

Sent from my SCH-I435L using Tapatalk

 

[Tricia]

I'm curious about this too. I actually like tapatalk because I follow several different forums with it.

Sent from my SCH-I435L using Tapatalk

The software is specifically designed so you will not need Tapatalk. It will look the same on everything you use.

 

[ScarlettLin]

This is where my extremely large lack of understanding tech stuff comes in. I'm not sure what you mean. The only way you can view websites is through a browser right? Unless you are talking about tapatalk. Tapatalk will not be available for our new forum.

Thank you! I appreciate your taking time to answer my question and I apologize for you having to repeat yourself I just wanted to be sure that by ‘whatever you are using’ didn’t mean other forum apps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[flute4peace]

I understand that, but with TT I can quickly check for updates on the subscribed threads of several forums I follow, all in one place, without having to even go into a browser. It's just all there together - new posts on bookmarked threads, new threads in subscribed forums, posts I've been quoted in, and private messages. Here are a couple of screenshots of what I see when I open it. I'm sorry to seem like I'm whining - just thought it might help to visualize.

The software is specifically designed so you will not need Tapatalk. It will look the same on everything you use.

Sent from my SCH-I435L using Tapatalk

 

[Tricia]

So we can sign in with our usual usernames? I’m a little uneasy about it all.

and, all the previous posts with all of our research, that’s all going to be there, as well, right? IOW, nothing will be lost. Right?

Yes, you can sign in with your username and password and nothing will be lost. To be sure we are making a back up about 1 day before the site goes down. Worst case scenario we would lose one day of posting at the most but that is not going to happen.

 

[Tricia]

I am perfectly happy with the status quo. But just call me old fashioned I guess.
Im sure Ill be able to adjust. Hopefully.

Truly? I am sure I am worse than you when it comes to keeping things status quo but we had to do something. Websleuths was barely functioning for some members. Which means there were more members who never complained and who knows how many visitors had problems.

 

[Tricia]

Also, what about posters that haven’t been on in a while, and they just show up and don’t know what’s going on. Will they know what’s going on, will they be able to find us? Or, should we prepare for an empending anxiety attack.

i have no idea!

What we are doing with the move is being done all the time. All someone has to do is type in Websleuths.com and they will be taken to the new forum. When the new forum is up and running there will be an announcement explaining what is going on.

Neesaki, I always say be prepared for an impending anxiety attack. Have your favorite adult beverage handy, your favorite movie ready to play and drink heavily if possible.