Dave
Staff member
Instead of updating the thread that has all the statistics in it, I'm just going to give an update here and let people know of the plans.
On January 3, 2011 we will be switching to XenForo. This is perfect timing as it allows me to do some work during the holidays to get stuff ready, it's a Monday (which becomes important in a little bit) and traffic (if it holds historically) will be down on the 1st and 2nd so that there will be as little interruption as possible. We will be losing NO posts or anything like that. We may have about an hour or two during the final import where it will be madness - MADNESS!
Here's the plan. On January 2 at about 9 CST or so I will be backing everything up to the Test database. I will be doing the importing to XenForo from the Test bed so that I won't have to close the board. That means once I get the Test completed it's the fucking Wild West - post any damned thing you want because it won't be saved. At that point I'll be doing the import to XenForo and making sure the site looks the way I want. If/when it does, I'll put the redirects in and we'll be switched to the live site.
The reason I'm doing redirects instead of moving things around is because I want to leave vB there for a little while just in case. But after a short time I'll be moving everything to the root and take out the redirects.
So what changes will there be, you ask? And why is Monday so important? Well, I love Alfie and Bumble has done a great job keeping him going. But by far the biggest complaint has been, "We need MOAR!!!" So we're giving you that moar. Starting January 3, 2011 we will be having a new cartoon every weekday on the front page of Halforums!
Mondays: All on Alfie by Bumble
Tuesdays: Panel Shots by レズビアンの主婦
Wednesdays: House of Hal by me
Thursdays: Psychotic Episodes by Hylian (and friends)
Fridays: A Fistful of Fists by Bumble's brother
Other content on the site are going to be LittleSin's video blog posts and if anyone else has anything they'd like to add they certainly can come to me.
Soon we will be adding a store to the front where you can purchase individual panels from the comics, shirts, whatever. All profits for comic-specific items will go to the owners of the comic. So if we make a shirt that has Alfie on it, Bumble gets that money, not me. I will still keep any advertising revenue to pay for the site but that's it. Advertising on the front page will be sidebar only so that it does not detract from the comics.
Right now the site as well as the new forum layout are under construction, but you are welcome to check them both out and see them coming together right before your eyes.
Home Page: Halforums - Welcome to the House of Hal!
Forum: https://www.halforums.com/index.php
Please note that XenForo released their Beta 3 yesterday and it kinda broke the style a bit. That's being fixed as we speak and is no big deal.
Questions from the past:
Will there be a Shoppe like we have now?
Eventually. DragonByte Tech doesn't have their mods ported over to the new software yet. When it does I'll check it out. But know that because I'll be missing an Ame I'm not going to go as nuts as I did before. I had her as a safety net in case I broke something. Since I won't have that I'm going to be a bit more discerning in my addons.
What about an arcade?
Same as above, even though I think the arcade is very important. If nothing else, I love the daily game addon.
What about the blogs?
XenForo plans on having blogs but won't have them right away. The information will still be in the database though, so when they do come in we'll have the old posts. You won't lose your blog posts.
HalBucks?
As with the Shoppe, not right away.
tl;dr version:
January 3, 2011 we're switching to XenForo.
COMICS EVERY DAY!!!
So thanks for your patience. Trust me when I say that this will be the smoothest transition we've been forced to have. XenForo is everything vBulletin wished it was. We're getting usability, scalability and a lighter DB load.
Get ready, folks! We're going back....TO THE FUTURE!!
On January 3, 2011 we will be switching to XenForo. This is perfect timing as it allows me to do some work during the holidays to get stuff ready, it's a Monday (which becomes important in a little bit) and traffic (if it holds historically) will be down on the 1st and 2nd so that there will be as little interruption as possible. We will be losing NO posts or anything like that. We may have about an hour or two during the final import where it will be madness - MADNESS!
Here's the plan. On January 2 at about 9 CST or so I will be backing everything up to the Test database. I will be doing the importing to XenForo from the Test bed so that I won't have to close the board. That means once I get the Test completed it's the fucking Wild West - post any damned thing you want because it won't be saved. At that point I'll be doing the import to XenForo and making sure the site looks the way I want. If/when it does, I'll put the redirects in and we'll be switched to the live site.
The reason I'm doing redirects instead of moving things around is because I want to leave vB there for a little while just in case. But after a short time I'll be moving everything to the root and take out the redirects.
So what changes will there be, you ask? And why is Monday so important? Well, I love Alfie and Bumble has done a great job keeping him going. But by far the biggest complaint has been, "We need MOAR!!!" So we're giving you that moar. Starting January 3, 2011 we will be having a new cartoon every weekday on the front page of Halforums!
Mondays: All on Alfie by Bumble
Tuesdays: Panel Shots by レズビアンの主婦
Wednesdays: House of Hal by me
Thursdays: Psychotic Episodes by Hylian (and friends)
Fridays: A Fistful of Fists by Bumble's brother
Other content on the site are going to be LittleSin's video blog posts and if anyone else has anything they'd like to add they certainly can come to me.
Soon we will be adding a store to the front where you can purchase individual panels from the comics, shirts, whatever. All profits for comic-specific items will go to the owners of the comic. So if we make a shirt that has Alfie on it, Bumble gets that money, not me. I will still keep any advertising revenue to pay for the site but that's it. Advertising on the front page will be sidebar only so that it does not detract from the comics.
Right now the site as well as the new forum layout are under construction, but you are welcome to check them both out and see them coming together right before your eyes.
Home Page: Halforums - Welcome to the House of Hal!
Forum: https://www.halforums.com/index.php
Please note that XenForo released their Beta 3 yesterday and it kinda broke the style a bit. That's being fixed as we speak and is no big deal.
Questions from the past:
Will there be a Shoppe like we have now?
Eventually. DragonByte Tech doesn't have their mods ported over to the new software yet. When it does I'll check it out. But know that because I'll be missing an Ame I'm not going to go as nuts as I did before. I had her as a safety net in case I broke something. Since I won't have that I'm going to be a bit more discerning in my addons.
What about an arcade?
Same as above, even though I think the arcade is very important. If nothing else, I love the daily game addon.
What about the blogs?
XenForo plans on having blogs but won't have them right away. The information will still be in the database though, so when they do come in we'll have the old posts. You won't lose your blog posts.
HalBucks?
As with the Shoppe, not right away.
tl;dr version:
January 3, 2011 we're switching to XenForo.
COMICS EVERY DAY!!!
So thanks for your patience. Trust me when I say that this will be the smoothest transition we've been forced to have. XenForo is everything vBulletin wished it was. We're getting usability, scalability and a lighter DB load.
Get ready, folks! We're going back....TO THE FUTURE!!
