Time to immigrate to another forum?

Discussion of anything and everything relating to chess playing software and machines.

Moderators: hgm, chrisw, Rebel

With all the current troubles through the years isn't it wise to move to another forum?

Yes.
51
45%
No.
44
39%
Undecided.
18
16%
 
Total votes: 113

User avatar
Rebel
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:04 pm
Full name: Ed Schröder

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by Rebel »

smatovic wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 1:04 pm "Verify you are a human", with the Cloudfare check in front it won't be easy to scrape oldTC topics and posts, maybe Quentin would be so nice to give a backup/archive of the database w/o user data like pw, email, PMs, to someone to host an archive of old posts in a case he sells domain+DB.

The old CCC archive by Sean T Mintz is still online:
https://www.stmintz.com/ccc/

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Srdja
Is it possible for you to add some extensions, for instance a video plugin, then I am game.
90% of coding is debugging, the other 10% is writing bugs.
smatovic
Posts: 2946
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Full name: Srdja Matovic

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by smatovic »

Rebel wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 7:12 pm Is it possible for you to add some extensions, for instance a video plugin, then I am game.
Installed phpBB Media Embed PlugIn, there is now a media button in the post editor present, works with multiple sources:

https://computerchess.club/viewtopic.php?p=21#p21

I myself do not like embedded media, or chat, bloats things up, but the user is king, or alike.

I have FTP access to upload extensions, the Admin has the rights to install extensions.

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Srdja
smatovic
Posts: 2946
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Full name: Srdja Matovic

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by smatovic »

towforce wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 3:27 pm [...]
If the data belongs to us, then there can be no ethical objection to using a Cloudflare hack. Here are 8 of them - link.
I am not able to scrape TC, even if we at first clarify if it is legally OK.
CornfedForever wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:44 pm [...]
I also voted 'no'...just mainly because the history is so important. Solve that...and I would be okay with changing to yes.
If this is the blocker left, then a call to other techies out there, if somebody has already an archive of TC running, or alike.

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Srdja
CornfedForever
Posts: 645
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:08 am
Full name: Brian D. Smith

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by CornfedForever »

smatovic wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 8:33 pm
towforce wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 3:27 pm [...]
If the data belongs to us, then there can be no ethical objection to using a Cloudflare hack. Here are 8 of them - link.
I am not able to scrape TC, even if we at first clarify if it is legally OK.
CornfedForever wrote: Sun Jun 04, 2023 6:44 pm [...]
I also voted 'no'...just mainly because the history is so important. Solve that...and I would be okay with changing to yes.
If this is the blocker left, then a call to other techies out there, if somebody has already an archive of TC running, or alike.

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Srdja
I would think that 'belongs' legally to the owner of the current forum. I am no lawyer though.

As with anything though, it's the loud people whom we hear from most...but then they are the ones who shape the world for the rest of us. Be careful of whom you throw your lot in with.
smatovic
Posts: 2946
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Full name: Srdja Matovic

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by smatovic »

Well, the community is split in this regard, you can not serve both parties. The best thing would be if TC would be just in working condition, but according to this poll for more than half of the members the site is not working proper, since years?

I offered my tech expertise to the elected moderators, I offered it to the founders, now, @ChessUSA:

Grant me FTP, database and phpBB admin access and I will implement:

https://computerchess.club/viewtopic.php?t=5

on talkchess.com, for free (as in beer). A nice "thank you" in form of:

https://www.chessusa.com/product/SW-765.html

would be appreciated though ;)

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Srdja
smatovic
Posts: 2946
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Full name: Srdja Matovic

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by smatovic »

Well, this is now something to ponder on:

https://computerchess.club/viewtopic.php?t=19

people ask on the demo forum why they can not search on TalkChess. TC really isolated itself, no search engine indexing, no search function for unregistered members, it might work for the ~half of registered members in here, but it is really an kind of isolated island meanhwille, or alike.

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Srdja
CornfedForever
Posts: 645
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:08 am
Full name: Brian D. Smith

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by CornfedForever »

I wonder if it is a coincidence that that the auto-login issues started (in Chrome) at the same time I started having trouble logging into other sites. Fitbit for example: every morning I open the site and a page pops up prompting me to log in and even when I hit 'save' the log in info, I have to do this. All I do is let my computer ''sleep" at night.
smatovic
Posts: 2946
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Full name: Srdja Matovic

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by smatovic »

yes:34, no:36, undecided:14.

I interpret this as clear signal that the majority of members is not interested in a new forum and wants to stay on current TC. The new kids on the block moved on to Discord channels anyway.

I stand by my offer @moderators, @founders, @shop, webprogramming+DB+Linux, if there is anything I can fix let me know, PM me.

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Srdja
CornfedForever
Posts: 645
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:08 am
Full name: Brian D. Smith

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by CornfedForever »

smatovic wrote: Sun Jun 11, 2023 7:29 pm yes:34, no:36, undecided:14.

I interpret this as clear signal that the majority of members is not interested in a new forum and wants to stay on current TC. The new kids on the block moved on to Discord channels anyway.

I stand by my offer @moderators, @founders, @shop, webprogramming+DB+Linux, if there is anything I can fix let me know, PM me.

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Srdja
I only partially agree with you. I would argue that "clear" is not the correct description. Basically 'even' =/+ to = in traditional chess terms would be more accurate.

The real world is rarely binary. Perhaps the common sense thing to do is create a 2nd forum and let the two co-exist. If the 2nd forum offers more, more might pack and migrate to it as their sole choice. If at some point the 'history' here can be ported over, great. If not...may the forum that offers the most... 'win'...if there even needs to be a 'winner'.
smatovic
Posts: 2946
Joined: Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:18 pm
Location: Hamburg, Germany
Full name: Srdja Matovic

Re: Time to immigrate to another forum?

Post by smatovic »

CornfedForever wrote: Sun Jun 11, 2023 8:06 pm [...]
I count the undecided as wanting to stay. Ed already has his ProDeo forum running, with ~180 registered members, there is already an alternative present for those who want to move on. I won't own and run a forum by myself, if Ed+Chris/founders want me to pimp up their ProDeo forum, I am willing to help.

https://prodeo.actieforum.com/

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Srdja