Bringing over older threads

[JCreager]

Previous members

If you would like to bring over your older threads from the previous forum, we suggest that you copy and paste the sections of the older forum that you wrote into a new thread on this forum. You can see how drmoss_ca copied over his. We are unsure if there are issues with copying over other peoples contributions to your thread, so for now, don't copy over those parts. The members that come over to this forum can make new responses here to your thread so the conversation can continue, and we don't lose the valuable historical data.

Thanks so much!
JCreager

[JCreager]

When I bring over older threads, I am using this approach, I put at the top who made the post and the month/year they made it. For example:

lovesbooks Feb 2020:
Hi there!

Just a suggestion so people who read them can see that its information from the past.

[New_Foothill_Lynn]

Where do I see how DrMoss did his migration from old Forum?

Thanks
Lynn

[drmoss_ca]

Right here!
I copied and pasted my individual posts to a text document, then added dates, and edited out answers to questions in posts from others between mine. Then I pasted the lot into three posts here, as there is a limit on how long a post can be (about 60,000 characters).
A grossly unsatisfactory way of doing things. It took a long time and I don't plan to do it again. We had hoped to be able to download all the content of the old forum and convert it to this forum's software (we won't know if that will work till we try), then put it all up, maybe as a read-only archive, in a sub-forum here. That way nothing would be lost.

[wildroseao@aol.com]

Hello, all--

I've been using the only useful computer skills I have, mostly word processing. I've been trying to save threads from the old site that are likely to be useful to a broad range of us, saving whole pages of threads at a time by highlighting, then hitting control/copy, then coming over to the new site to unload. It looked pretty smushed together, so I just went through Scott's whole thread (wife diagnosed with cll) and added a divider between different posts (just made a long underline, copied that, and that's what I'm using as a divider).

I need feedback. Is adding the divider useful? Is it worth the time it took (see any other multi-poster thread I've done for comparison)? Do you have any particular threads that you think should be prioritized for transfer? As I never made a monetary contribution, I think of this as doing my part for the team. Besides, I've got a cold....

[drmoss_ca]

I think the divider is useful. Ideally, each post in the thread would have date and poster name, rather than all their profile details, but it is such a pain to edit everything!
Thank you for your efforts!

C.

[drmoss_ca]

Anne (wildroseao) very kindly imported a lot of threads over the last couple of days - thank you, Anne! I have been through them and tried to edit them so that they make sense - I'm looking at this from the point of view not of one of us old hands who know why they might not look like the usual forum post, but maybe someone new, who finds us shortly after diagnosis. I don't want them to look at what goes on here and decide not to come back!

So take a look at the format we have ended up with, for example at:
48 year old female just got diagnosed

Each old post is headed with date and username, then the body of that post, and then separated from the next with a line. If you want to copy an old thread at the old site and import it here, that would be a good and readable way to do it. I find it easier to paste into a text editor or word processor, clean up there, and then copy and paste here. But you could paste directly into a post here and edit what you paste before submitting. There is a limit on post size (about 60,000 characters) so a multi-page thread may take more than one post.

I hope this helps.

C.

[drmoss_ca]

Sadly, we are told by an admin at the old site that they will not permit us to save your old threads. I replied:

I strongly agree that we must protect the privacy of all members. Any threads that have been copied have been placed on an SSL-certified secure server, running a system that is itself up to date and far more proof against hacking than UltraBB from 2008. The site can only be read by logged in members, just as here. Currently just over 200 threads have been migrated, out of about 15,000, or just over 1%. All members are welcome to continue participating there, just as here. We have tried to make the changeover as seamless as we can in the circumstances.
If any member here would like to have any content they have created here removed, just let me know your username here and I will see to it.

Let me re-iterate, if you were a member at the old site and see that a post you wrote there has been brought over here and you are unhappy about it, please contact me, or Jen, with the username you used there and it will be disappeared, no questions asked.

Chris