Importing Private messages from original site?

[Don E.]

Administrators - Great job in upgrading the system. I noticed that the database for private messages and historical posts has not been imported over. Will this be done at some future point -or- is this lost information?

Cheers,

Don

[John W.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

Don,

Administrators - Great job in upgrading the system. I noticed that the database for private messages and historical posts has not been imported over. Will this be done at some future point -or- is this lost information?

Cheers,

Don

I am not sure what you might be referring to. There were no private messages in the old board, and the Archives (except for late February to early November 2007, I intend to fix that issue.) were brought over. They are now in their own Forum called Technical Discussion Board Archives.

Did I miss something?

[Don E.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

John, Thank you for the quick response and hint that the original posts are classified under the archive database. Note: regarding the PM statement - I was mistaken and confused this migration with an alternate forum.

To Dave Perry's point, I was reacting to the fact that the tally of previous posts that existed on the original forum were not reflected under my new profile and at first I could not locate them on the original Tech Discussion database... naturally I assumed they were lost. However, based on your tip I was able to locate them on the archive database (e.g. '06 to present).

Something you might want to consider is the challenge that I (and others) will likely have regarding the old and new user name. In my case, if I want to search for archived information I will need to remember my original user ID vs. the new standardized format. While I am not interested in returning to the dark ages of the previous technology, is there a possibility of creating a reference between the archive posts and the new user name?

Best Regards,

Don

[Rob M.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

Something you might want to consider is the challenge that I (and others) will likely have regarding the old and new user name. In my case, if I want to search for archived information I will need to remember my original user ID vs. the new standardized format. While I am not interested in returning to the dark ages of the previous technology, is there a possibility of creating a reference between the archive posts and the new user name?

Don,

This will be virtually impossible, it would mean we need to change the forum software a lot which will cause big time problems when it needs an upgrade to a newer version (then all customisations need to be re-tested and if needed changed). I think this is something which won't be done, at least not easily...

But never say never, I might be able to figure out a work-around to update your old posting account name with your new account name when things settle down a bit...

Good suggestion anyway, I'll think a bit on it...

greetings,
Rob

[Don E.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

Rob, Thank you for the quick response! I can only imagine the number of e-mails that you are fielding as the forum migration is in full swing. And addressing suggestions on possible improvements, at a time that you are attempting to get the majority of uses up and running, has got to be frustrating.

What I have found is that for every minute I spend exploring the new site, the more comfortable I am with the new look and feel. More important is the experiences that fellow users are sharing with one another to help ease the migration.

Kudos to the team for pulling this off and rest assured that the user community can manage through the loose ends on the fringe.

Save the wave,

Don

[John W.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

Dave,

Again I am not sure what you are referring to. The number each post on the old board was assigned was lost in the import to the new board. Messages could be directly linked to by going to https://www.ncrs.org/forum/tech.cgi?/read/23456

This is not possible on the new board.

If you are referring to the Quantity of posts from the old board, yes I did loose about 6 months of posts some how. I still have them, and intend on importing them a little later. I have to delete all of the Archive Posts back to that time frame and rebuild the Archives from that point on. Roughly March 2007 to August 2007.

Hope this answers your question.

[John W.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

Dave,

I would say a reference between the old Usernames and the New ones would not be feasible.

First I wouldn't know what the match would be on a lot of them, and they would have to be hand connected for over 3000 profiles. If you are interested in finding posts by a member who used their membership number in the old board you should be able to search on that number and find what you are looking for.

Same with what ever name you are looking for. Like "Dave P 19643"

[John W.]

Re: Importing Private messages from original site?

Don and everyone else.

Thanks for you response. I am happy that you are finding the new format easy enough to use. I have had some who liked the old familiar format much better. New things are always a little intimdating when we are first exposed to them. We all have cars of 25 years to 55 years of age, so we have demonstrated that we like the way things were.

We all need to help them to become familiar with the new format and offer our suggestions and exiting new finds to all of the community.