Ski Builders Forum

My 2 cents... Stay w/ phpBB. Not that I'm partial to it or to another BB/forum software. I deal with database conversions all the time and there's always some kind of problem that requires manual intervention and it becomes a real PITA. I see no reason to give yourself a headache over it.

I'm a big believer in the KISS principle.

And I second Tuftys suggestion of backups and a test recovery.

Yes, I've started a beta site and when things are mature, I'll preview. I've been doing routine backups of the db. I do believe in keep good backups just in case.

Simon -- thanks for the offer. I may contact you via PM just to chat. Are you familiar with editing php.ini file? Our new host limits the size of the data file that can be uploaded and right now our db is about 75 MB so cannot be uloaded, so looks like I have to go monkey around. Anyway, it shouldn't be a problem.

I agree with the KISS principle, too, skidesmond and will try to keep things as simple as possible. Like I said, I do like phpBB so we'll stick with it.

Thanks again for the input and suggestions, guys! This is really help and thanks for your patience.

Glad to hear the site is headed for more stability.

I would echo the others and say that I don’t care about a uniform theme between the site with your information on it and the forum. A functional, low “glitz” forum is sufficient. I would also contribute cash, as others have offered, if it would be accepted.

On WP, forums, wikis, etc.: I’ve used WP for my blog for a long time now and I got sucked into trying to make the perfect theme a while ago. I’m a software developer, but asm, C, and C# are really my domain. PHP was new to me, but simple enough to pickup, as were the Wordpress API’s. My goodness, what a time sink! You can tweak a WP theme seemingly indefinitely, and get lost in doing so. You can also make a theme which falls apart with future WP upgrades, which is really annoying. I was much happier when I went back to a standard theme.

Make sure you keep WP up to date… it is commonly attacked, and there are frequent updates. If your host supports it, consider enabling automatic upgrades for minor versions. Otherwise, stay vigilant manually.

I used WP as a content management system for a while in addition to a blog. You can make WP do this, but honestly that’s not what it’s for. I’ve found that trying to use any of this stuff beyond its intended purpose, while possible, leads to a lot of extra work on your part. WP is an excellent blog system… consider something else for static pages where you want to control the formatting.

My opinion is that Wordpress is good for blogs, a forum is good for discussion, and a wiki is good for more static/slow changing content, especially where public change history is desired or where public contribution is desired. I’ve been pretty happy with MediaWiki so far for my own static pages even though I keep edits restricted. The wiki is pretty limited in terms of making the content pretty, though, so if you don’t care about history then some other CMS would be better.

Beyond that, the most practical advice I want to give is this: make very, very sure we can get to the forum without hitting anything but the forum. I.e., make www.skibuilders.com/forum work. See if you can contact Reid, the admin at www.snowboardseattle.com and chat about his experience moving to a new forum and WP-based front-end, which they did recently after having a site that was pretty much unchanged for many years. It was awesome and fancy for a few months, then it all went to hell. The WP portion of the site got hacked and corrupted, and became an unwitting distributor of malware. He’s been unable to get it fixed up, and has temporarily given up and made their main site simply redirect right to the forum

Good luck!

Head Monkey wrote: I would also contribute cash, as others have offered, if it would be accepted.

You can add me to that list as well, more than willing to donate whatever is necessary.

Mike -- excellent summary, and I agree with you about the pros/cons. I've sunk some time recently working on a WP-based site for another project ----tweaking the look, and tweaking and tweaking and.... I'm concerned about the security issues as well. I've had my share of dealing with this problem, such as a few attempts to hack into our store. So if it's going to be WP, it'll be something simple for the main site.

Anyway, whatever we decide we'll consider the long-term impact. I don't want to lose any information or have to deal with major issues down the road.

Thanks again for your suggestions and feedback. I really appreciate them.

Also, thanks again to those who are willing to donate. We really appreciate it and we'll consider it an option in the near future.

Kam

I'm sorry. I just get a little wild sometimes when things don't move as quickly as I think they should. Thanks.

you just drink too much, but whateva.

Too each their own.

I'm starting to get used to you.

Is the new SB store up and running? I know it's separate from the forum/website now and I see the "Store" has been removed from the home page. Has it been announced yet?

makes no sense as to why you would ostracize or separate your most potential customer base by not promoting this site here but whatev,

http://www.blankslateskis.com/

Perhaps there is more to the story that we do not know? I suppose it's none of our business, as long as someone still has materials, and someone maintains the forum, I'm happy.

Dear all -- more updates.

1. FYI, official SkiBuilders.com posts will be made under the Administrator account, or clearly stated.

2. The SkiBuilders store has closed. SkiBuilders.com is now a non-profit LLC. Materials and supplies will be available through Blank Slate Skis (www.blankslateskis.com), owned and operated by Kelvin Wu. BigKam (Kam K.) has created The Ski Lab, LLC focusing on custom skis and on occasion offering materials and supplies (www.skilab.com). Both of these businesses are NOT affiliated with SkiBuilders.com LLC.

3. We are currently working on a new look for the main site, and will make the switch soon. We originally wanted to release it earlier, but was delayed due to our busy schedules.

4. Some of the earlier forum issues have been resolved on the server side (hopefully for good). We will be updating the forum's look soon as well, so stay tuned.

Thanks for your patience.
- SkiBuilders.com

It would be helpful if both websites were posted on the "Links" page. Thanks.

skidesmond wrote:It would be helpful if both websites were posted on the "Links" page. Thanks.

The links page has been updated with both new links: www.blankslateskis.com and www.skilab.com.

I guess we have all noticed the changes to the site, but it this the new site or are their new updates in the pipeline?

Perhaps it would be good to generate a few more sticky's, one's that highlight the various options for anyone who is new to the forum?

Tell new people to do more research is getting old.

Any chance we'll see a phpbb3 update soon? Or at least Tapatalk compatibility?