[Updated 2023-02-10] Migration complete

[Bort]

@raccoon

Toykeeper is a Goddess.
She can do six impossible things before breakfast.

+6

@ToyKeeper

@Bort

how you have that page from old BLF on your site?

… I saved it?

Years ago when I was playing with CSS to see what BLF would allow, I decided it was a bad idea to post what I found because it might set off a wave of really obnoxious posts and generally make a mess. But I didn’t want to just throw it away either, so I saved a copy. Hadn’t thought about it in a while, but now that the old site is retired, it seemed like it was finally safe to post it.

I really enjoyed the ability to use arbitrary markup with almost no limits, but I can definitely understand why social platforms almost never allow that. There are just too many ways to abuse it. My example was harmless, but not everyone is going to limit themselves that way.

A more apt question would be why did had saved it, which you have now answered.

I had asked @sb56637 if the old site would be kept online for reference, not sure if thats in the cards or not?

[sb56637]

@Bort

I had asked @sb56637 if the old site would be kept online for reference, not sure if thats in the cards or not?

Hi Bort, it won’t be online indefinitely. All threads and posts have been imported from the old site, and I tested the import process many times first to make sure the conversion was as clean as possible. But if there are any serious issues with an imported post we can still find a way to fix it.

[Bort]

@sb56637

@Bort

I had asked @sb56637 if the old site would be kept online for reference, not sure if thats in the cards or not?

Hi Bort, it won’t be online indefinitely. All threads and posts have been imported from the old site, and I tested the import process many times first to make sure the conversion was as clean as possible. But if there are any serious issues with an imported post we can still find a way to fix it.

Good to know.
How do we access it since the DNS is changed over to the new site?

[sb56637]

It’s not intended to be accessed by the public at this stage unless there’s a specific need.

[Bort]

@sb56637

It’s not intended to be accessed by the public at this stage unless there’s a specific need.

It would be useful for comparison for how to adjust the new site to solve some of the visual issues.

[thefreeman]

@Bort

It would be useful for comparison for how to adjust the new site to solve some of the visual issues.

You can still browse snapshots on archive.org for that.

[ToyKeeper]

@Bort

How do we access it since the DNS is changed over to the new site?

A local DNS override can do the trick. Like, putting something into /etc/hosts or whatever the equivalent of that is in Windows or MacOS… and then restart the browser or force it to clear its host cache.

The old site is read-only though, and not guaranteed to stay online much longer.

[Bort]

@ToyKeeper

@Bort

How do we access it since the DNS is changed over to the new site?

A local DNS override can do the trick. Like, putting something into /etc/hosts or whatever the equivalent of that is in Windows or MacOS… and then restart the browser or force it to clear its host cache.

The old site is read-only though, and not guaranteed to stay online much longer.

What is the DNS for the old site?
I tried to save it but they both seem to redirect to the new site:
170.75.164.123

5.161.81.229

[Sirius9]

This is going to be hard. I am not sure where to start quite confusing.
Where or how do I find my subscriptions (threads I was subscribed to) ?

[tercet]

subscriptions didn’t migrate, but can be recreated with these steps:

New site format

platform transition pain relief: a prescription for “subscriptions” on the old blf platform (drupal), one tool—subscriptions—served four distinct purposes: (1) to send an email notification when a new post was added to a thread of interest, (2) to set a placeholder to easily return where you left off reading a thread, (3) to gather a collection of useful/interesting threads, and (4) to keep a list of threads you participated in. the new blf platform (discourse) fulfills these same functions th…

[Sirius9]

Yes, those threads were/are gold of this forum (if it is still a forum ? ) that I collected over the years. And I am not talking about 1-2 years, I am member here for (I would tell you exact number but can’t find that either, but), I think over 10 years.
So how do I find all those threads so I could recreate my knowledge collection?
I only see description of new “tools” but not steps to find mentioned threads I was subscribed to!

[tercet]

you’re right: you need to first find your old subscriptions before you can mark them with watching/tracking/bookmarks. a good way to get started is to review “topics” (threads) and “replies” (posts) in your activity here:

https://budgetlightforum.com/my/activity

@sb56637 may have more advice.

[Hoop]

If you delete a post, it isn’t really deleted, and everyone can still read it if they click the edit icon. And you cannot then re-edit it to undo the delete, having discovered that delete is useless. So it’s even worse than useless.

[Hoop]

Not only are deletes always visible, but SO ARE EDITS. Any previous versions of a post remains available.

This means that you can never remove any statement by editing it, or remove a web link that you no longer wish to be publicly available. No longer can you correct yourself if you posted something in a poor state of mind, etc.

[sb56637]

Hi @Sirius9 , great to see you here.

All of the old threads and posts and private messages are still here. As mentioned in the tips that others have mentioned, I would recommend that you start here:

• https://budgetlightforum.com/search?expanded=true&q=in%3Aposted (List of threads that you posted in, which are often the same ones you were subscribed to. Note that you can sort them by date or by the size of the thread.)
• https://budgetlightforum.com/my/activity/topics (List of threads that you created.)

This forum software has been proven to work well for large forums with very active members that want to keep track of everything that’s going on, both previous activity and new activity. It’s definitely not lacking in features compared to the old forum engine. But I do need to do a better of job of explaining some of the new aspects and features, so my apologies for not doing that yet.

[sb56637]

Hi @Hoop , regarding the functionality/behavior that you describe, it’s an optional feature that I can disable. I’m still on the fence, but I’ll definitely take into account your comments.

[Hoop]

With the “reply” button integrating a “quote” every time it is used, there’s inherently less of an ability to edit and redact statements than there was on the old site, where I felt the quote feature was already overused. Now practically every reply in a thread features a quote of a previous post.

The aforementioned features in aggregate mean that I need to alter the way I use the site as compared to before. I used to edit my posts a lot in order to refine statements, correct information that I further investigated, and so on. It was like a living document, a work in progress which I refined over time. I used to delete a lot of posts too, when I considered it redundant, or if I decided I was not sure enough about some of the statements I made, or if in hindsight I decided it was rude, and so on. I’ve probably deleted close to half of my posts historically, none of which were quoted prior to doing so.

[roostre]

Being able to view past edits and deleted posts has advantages and disadvantages, so the choice will be difficult.

Theoretically I appreciate having the ability to view past edits and deletions, but practically that may not be the best overall choice for the forum and there have been times that I was thankful my edits and deletions were no longer visible.

To use a marine metaphor, I am glad sb56637 is an experienced “Sea Captain” capable of “steering large ships” and making these important decisions.

[thefreeman]

Seconding Hoop regarding edit and deletion, beeing able to see every edits and deleted post is just silly.

[sb56637]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughtful replies. It looks like there are more disadvantages than advantages to the post revisions button, so it’s been removed.