Breaking News (about the Planet)

Executive Summary:
With all the popups and other BS on this site being so annoying, (and the site owner, (which we've been piggybacking on for free) apparently not being interested in dealing with the problems), we have decided to embark on a project, to look into moving onto a new site, with the intent of eventually doing so.

The benefits (assuming we don't eff things up too bad):
- We'll be able to get rid of the current popup problem.
- We'll be running on newer (and hopefully better) software.
- If any new issues arise, we will be able to handle it ourselves.

The bad:
- If we can't get everything we need from this site, (specifically, the current underlying database (DB) that the site runs on), then we might not be able to migrate everything onto the new site.
(Basically, we are hopeful, but there are no guarantees, though).
- Also, there may be a few (hopefully brief) shutdowns of this site, to facilitate trying to get some of the DB tables from this site.

Planned dates:
Umm... We don't have any yet. Most of the Mods have jobs, and as for me, while I am retired, I'm also lazy. So for now, we'll just say it's TBD.

What can you do:
Nothing is required, but if you feel the desire to, you can provide feedback in this thread, on how you would like the new site to be. However, there's is no guarantee we will use any of the feedback. FWIW, if so moved, you can also post Positive feedback about what a great job the Mods are doing.


With that, wish us luck, and at some point down the road, we'll provide an update, (maybe).

Fine Print: If any of you comes up with a really good idea, it's likely that we'll use it, (and very likely that we'll also find a way to take credit for it).

What about Boston Sports Uproar? :shrug:

https://bostonsportsuproar.net/

dchester said:

Executive Summary:
With all the popups and other BS on this site being so annoying, (and the site owner, (which we've been piggybacking on for free) apparently not being interested in dealing with the problems), we have decided to embark on a project, to look into moving onto a new site, with the intent of eventually doing so.

The benefits (assuming we don't eff things up too bad):
- We'll be able to get rid of the current popup problem.
- We'll be running on newer (and hopefully better) software.
- If any new issues arise, we will be able to handle it ourselves.

The bad:
- If we can't get everything we need from this site, (specifically, the current underlying database (DB) that the site runs on), then we might not be able to migrate everything onto the new site.
(Basically, we are hopeful, but there are no guarantees, though).
- Also, there may be a few (hopefully brief) shutdowns of this site, to facilitate trying to get some of the DB tables from this site.

Planned dates:
Umm... We don't have any yet. Most of the Mods have jobs, and as for me, while I am retired, I'm also lazy. So for now, we'll just say it's TBD.

What can you do:
Nothing is required, but if you feel the desire to, you can provide feedback in this thread, on how you would like the new site to be. However, there's is no guarantee we will use any of the feedback. FWIW, if so moved, you can also post Positive feedback about what a great job the Mods are doing.


With that, wish us luck, and at some point down the road, we'll provide an update, (maybe).

Fine Print: If any of you comes up with a really good idea, it's likely that we'll use it, (and very likely that we'll also find a way to take credit for it).

Click to expand...

Thanks so much for undertaking the exploration. Not easy I'm sure. Going to cost money and I hope we'll all do our best to help as our ability allows.

Good luck

Cheers,

Thanks for all you all do! I’m good anyway you all choose just saying.

~Dee~

Joolz said:

What about Boston Sports Uproar? :shrug:

https://bostonsportsuproar.net/

Click to expand...

No changes that I'm aware of (it hasn't been discussed), but the crazy clown can address that, (if he feels like it).

:shrug:

dchester said:

No changes that I'm aware of (it hasn't been discussed), but the crazy clown can address that, (if he feels like it).

:shrug:

Click to expand...

You wrote:

“...we have decided to embark on a project, to look into moving onto a new site, with the intent of eventually doing so.”

Why not use Boston Sports Uproar as the new site? I’m confused.

Joolz said:

You wrote:

“...we have decided to embark on a project, to look into moving onto a new site, with the intent of eventually doing so.”

Why not use Boston Sports Uproar as the new site? I’m confused.

Click to expand...

As best as I understand it, the Undertaker never intended for that site to replace the planet.

What we hope to do with this new project, (but don't know for sure yet), is to bring as much as makes sense, of Patriots Planet onto a new server, that we would have full control over (and not have the popup issue, among other things). If it is successful, the new site would contain all the users, posts, history, etc. from this site.

Does that help to answer your question?

Joolz said:

You wrote:

“...we have decided to embark on a project, to look into moving onto a new site, with the intent of eventually doing so.”

Why not use Boston Sports Uproar as the new site? I’m confused.

Click to expand...

With ya on this one Joolz. It's a great site, good format and good folks.

johnlocke said:

With ya on this one Joolz. It's a great site, good format and good folks.

Click to expand...

I'm not aware of any plans for Boston Sports Uproar to go away. The plan is for this site to be better (on a new server). People can continue to use both, but without the popups (that drive me nuts).

Warning: Likely wall of text coming

When I took over as the primary admin here after the Time of Troubles, I poured a lot of myself and my time into building the community. The framework and a core group were here, so I spent my time improving the board, nudging direction, adding functionality, and marketing the place. There was a lot of work that went into getting the board out there and building the membership. It was a daily function to go and do that.

It worked, membership skyrocketed, and for a brief period of time, we were the largest online community of Patsfans (yes, in that time, we were larger than them). It was never my goal to be the largest, I just wanted a fun Patriots community.

We never owned it though. The fine folks at Chiefsplanet do, and the owner there practiced a form of benign neglect that worked. He gave me the access I needed to do the things I needed to do to build the community. The downside is we were always behind on updates. He tended to address major issues quickly though.

People have real life issues that happen they take them away. Happens to all of us. Happened to me, and I had to step back for awhile. This is when the moderators took some actions to deal with the rising lunacy. The crackdown, the separation of forums. I wasn't here and I know they did what they thought was best with dealing with the issues. I don't fault the actions they took, even though I might have done things a bit differently.

When I was able to come back and focus again, I really wanted the Circus again. The combo of football and offtopic. The tailgate atmosphere of Patriots fans talking about anything. By this point, people had gotten used to the separation, and I think it was hard on some to go back. But it was part of what I think was the core culture here. Friendly, community, and talking bullshit. All of it mixed together with a Patriots flavor.

But the culture had changed. People were banned at the drop of a hat. Not just suspended, but banned permanently. The politics forum was particularly bad in that in my opinion. And with a glance there now, it looks to be pretty homogeneous. So political opinions led to acrimony, banned users, and less people to contribute to the fun stuff.

I am getting way off track. I am sorry.

Once, the servers that hosted us crashed pretty hard. It was at this time I registered patriotsplanet.net to give us a temporary home for several weeks. I bought my own license of vbulletin, and purchased hosting.

When the board was restored, I tried to find uses for that server space. I even setup a Coltsplanet and offered it to our resident Colts fans. It didn't work.

I eventually setup Soxplanet.com. It ran for several years. I did not market it, just kept it running for those who wanted to use it. At the time I was like, why not, and also registered Celticsplanet.com. I could not get Bruinsplanet. The membership there never grew, and the site got hacked. I wasn't making backups and was unable to restore it. I was guilty of practicing that benign neglect, and I am sorry, especially to Joolz.

Around the same time, hackers got in here too. There is an infection here. At first I was able to find the hacked files and replace them and fix it, for it to only happen again. Membership and activity were declining. I couldn't fix it permanently with my access. I reached out to Chiefsplanet. Several times. I did not get a response. We were on our own and my hands were tied.

The software here is over 10 years old. That is ancient in internet terms. Its old and vulnerable, and we can't do anything about it here.

So, with the crash of Soxplanet and the neglect here, I still had that server space. I thought instead of all those different planets, why not create a new site, with completely modern software, that focused on Boston Sports as a whole? Thus, BSU was born.

My intentions for the site were to build a new community, that I had control over, to give the few that enjoyed Soxplanet a new home, and as a last resort, have a landing spot for when this site goes down. And it will go down, I have no doubt. It can not survive the neglect forever.

The software BSU runs on is open source and secure. Its modern. It has social media interfaces to share things on Twitter and Facebook and the like. It's designed to be slick and fast and social. Its pretty neat. I would love to have a larger community there, but marketing a social platform is completely different than it was 15 years ago. I am struggling building it, and it really needs all of the members to share things socially to attract new users.

It wasn't meant to replace patriotsplanet, but as a new place that the remnants could go to. Would I love more people from here to use it? Yes. But I never wanted to 'steal' people from here. This place meant so much to me. There isn't much left, most of the moderators are gone and activity is a fraction of what it used to be. It was killing me to watch this place just die.

So when dchester started a thread in the staff forum offering to help move the board to a new site that we had control over, I jumped on it, glad to finally have some discussion. With dchester's help, we were able to figure out a way that we might be able to SAVE all of the board's history. And I mean all of it. 76,000 some odd threads and 2.6 million posts.

I can't move the history to BSU. And I am not sure everyone would like it if I could.

So, all options are still on the table, but what I have been focused on this week is seeing if I can copy this entire site, and all its history and membership. It's a huge time consuming thing given the limitations on my access. But I am making progress. I've worked my job this week AND probably done 40 hours trying to see what I can do with saving the Planet (Still trying to find that damn cheerleader). If we can do it, I can then upgrade to the 2020 version of vbulletin, which is hopefully more secure and functional. We will lose some things and gain others.

But, all options are open. I have never strayed from the core philosophy that the community belongs to the members, not the owners. As the owner, I would be much more involved in defining the culture, so there might be some changes there too. But for those of you who have known me for the past almost 20 years, you know its not a power trip for me. I don't get involved in personal arguments, and I always try to foster community.

Sorry for the length. All options are open for discussion and nothing has been decided yet. If you have good ideas, as dchester might have said, we will steal them and probably take credit.

Thank you for your time.

This is a fun board so I'm in. Sorry, I have 0 knowledge about this 'undertaking' otherwise I'd be in line to help out.

Thank you, dchester and UT. I get it now, and thank you for all you do.

The site has been a very enjoyable place for me for a long time. Obviously change is always unavoidable. I'd welcome an upgrade, but for me the most important thing is retaining the history and the membership, whether active or not.
If donations needed, I'd pony up my share.

Another thing to keep in mind....

I am a technical guy. And I know dchester has some technical chops. I know a little about a lot of different areas in tech and computers. But I am not an expert at anything. I have to figure out shit as I go. So in a sense, with regards to some technical issues, we may be taking a step back. But if we do move, I will promise to do everything I can to learn and to keep the board safe and secure and running. But I will also create regular backups. (which is something I am not sure we even have today).

Just this week, I've had to be very creative in learning new ways to do things. And I like doing that. I can usually figure something out, but it takes me 5 times as long as someone who is an expert in that area.

So I guess what I am saying is, your patience and support are appreciated.

This is actually just AWESOME news.

I have been frequenting here less and less largely because of the pop ups...totally not cool on my work computer some of the stuff that comes up..lol.

And I would rather be screwing around on the planet than doing work....just saying.

This is a huge project, and whatever the outcome, be aware that the work undertaken and time spent by all who create this new site is appreciated. I don't know nothin' 'bout birthing no websites, otherwise I'd pitch in.

Good Luck!

I will follow to whatever site you choose.

If we lose some history, so be it.

Undertaker #59* said:

Another thing to keep in mind....

I am a technical guy. And I know dchester has some technical chops. I know a little about a lot of different areas in tech and computers. But I am not an expert at anything. I have to figure out shit as I go. So in a sense, with regards to some technical issues, we may be taking a step back. But if we do move, I will promise to do everything I can to learn and to keep the board safe and secure and running. But I will also create regular backups. (which is something I am not sure we even have today).

Just this week, I've had to be very creative in learning new ways to do things. And I like doing that. I can usually figure something out, but it takes me 5 times as long as someone who is an expert in that area.

So I guess what I am saying is, your patience and support are appreciated.

Click to expand...

I'm sure you are incurring some expenses UT (and maybe dchester). Please let us know if we can send you some $ to offset your cash outlay. Either Venmo or PayPal (sorry mikie - don't think casino cash spends here).

Undertaker #59* said:

Warning: Likely wall of text coming

When I took over as the primary admin here after the Time of Troubles, I poured a lot of myself and my time into building the community. The framework and a core group were here, so I spent my time improving the board, nudging direction, adding functionality, and marketing the place. There was a lot of work that went into getting the board out there and building the membership. It was a daily function to go and do that.

It worked, membership skyrocketed, and for a brief period of time, we were the largest online community of Patsfans (yes, in that time, we were larger than them). It was never my goal to be the largest, I just wanted a fun Patriots community.

We never owned it though. The fine folks at Chiefsplanet do, and the owner there practiced a form of benign neglect that worked. He gave me the access I needed to do the things I needed to do to build the community. The downside is we were always behind on updates. He tended to address major issues quickly though.

People have real life issues that happen they take them away. Happens to all of us. Happened to me, and I had to step back for awhile. This is when the moderators took some actions to deal with the rising lunacy. The crackdown, the separation of forums. I wasn't here and I know they did what they thought was best with dealing with the issues. I don't fault the actions they took, even though I might have done things a bit differently.

When I was able to come back and focus again, I really wanted the Circus again. The combo of football and offtopic. The tailgate atmosphere of Patriots fans talking about anything. By this point, people had gotten used to the separation, and I think it was hard on some to go back. But it was part of what I think was the core culture here. Friendly, community, and talking bullshit. All of it mixed together with a Patriots flavor.

But the culture had changed. People were banned at the drop of a hat. Not just suspended, but banned permanently. The politics forum was particularly bad in that in my opinion. And with a glance there now, it looks to be pretty homogeneous. So political opinions led to acrimony, banned users, and less people to contribute to the fun stuff.

I am getting way off track. I am sorry.

Once, the servers that hosted us crashed pretty hard. It was at this time I registered patriotsplanet.net to give us a temporary home for several weeks. I bought my own license of vbulletin, and purchased hosting.

When the board was restored, I tried to find uses for that server space. I even setup a Coltsplanet and offered it to our resident Colts fans. It didn't work.

I eventually setup Soxplanet.com. It ran for several years. I did not market it, just kept it running for those who wanted to use it. At the time I was like, why not, and also registered Celticsplanet.com. I could not get Bruinsplanet. The membership there never grew, and the site got hacked. I wasn't making backups and was unable to restore it. I was guilty of practicing that benign neglect, and I am sorry, especially to Joolz.

Around the same time, hackers got in here too. There is an infection here. At first I was able to find the hacked files and replace them and fix it, for it to only happen again. Membership and activity were declining. I couldn't fix it permanently with my access. I reached out to Chiefsplanet. Several times. I did not get a response. We were on our own and my hands were tied.

The software here is over 10 years old. That is ancient in internet terms. Its old and vulnerable, and we can't do anything about it here.

So, with the crash of Soxplanet and the neglect here, I still had that server space. I thought instead of all those different planets, why not create a new site, with completely modern software, that focused on Boston Sports as a whole? Thus, BSU was born.

My intentions for the site were to build a new community, that I had control over, to give the few that enjoyed Soxplanet a new home, and as a last resort, have a landing spot for when this site goes down. And it will go down, I have no doubt. It can not survive the neglect forever.

The software BSU runs on is open source and secure. Its modern. It has social media interfaces to share things on Twitter and Facebook and the like. It's designed to be slick and fast and social. Its pretty neat. I would love to have a larger community there, but marketing a social platform is completely different than it was 15 years ago. I am struggling building it, and it really needs all of the members to share things socially to attract new users.

It wasn't meant to replace patriotsplanet, but as a new place that the remnants could go to. Would I love more people from here to use it? Yes. But I never wanted to 'steal' people from here. This place meant so much to me. There isn't much left, most of the moderators are gone and activity is a fraction of what it used to be. It was killing me to watch this place just die.

So when dchester started a thread in the staff forum offering to help move the board to a new site that we had control over, I jumped on it, glad to finally have some discussion. With dchester's help, we were able to figure out a way that we might be able to SAVE all of the board's history. And I mean all of it. 76,000 some odd threads and 2.6 million posts.

I can't move the history to BSU. And I am not sure everyone would like it if I could.

So, all options are still on the table, but what I have been focused on this week is seeing if I can copy this entire site, and all its history and membership. It's a huge time consuming thing given the limitations on my access. But I am making progress. I've worked my job this week AND probably done 40 hours trying to see what I can do with saving the Planet (Still trying to find that damn cheerleader). If we can do it, I can then upgrade to the 2020 version of vbulletin, which is hopefully more secure and functional. We will lose some things and gain others.

But, all options are open. I have never strayed from the core philosophy that the community belongs to the members, not the owners. As the owner, I would be much more involved in defining the culture, so there might be some changes there too. But for those of you who have known me for the past almost 20 years, you know its not a power trip for me. I don't get involved in personal arguments, and I always try to foster community.

Sorry for the length. All options are open for discussion and nothing has been decided yet. If you have good ideas, as dchester might have said, we will steal them and probably take credit.

Thank you for your time.

Click to expand...

no matter what you 2 jahdroools do only 1 of them 76,000 threads must be saved ----- you know which 1


the 1 w/ 50,000++ images and ovah 6,000,000++ views

My time closing the board this morning has turned into great success. I am making a lot of progress very quickly now after that 4 hour ordeal.

I may ask for help later to test it if anyone is available to poke around and see if most things work right, as they stand now. There is a lot of work left to do to then upgrade.

I have not looked at the thread you mentioned RG, but if it has a chance to work, I need to wait to upgrade my hosting account to copy images over. I have just about hit my disk quota.