The problems caused by repeatedly changing forum software

EVE Technology and Research Center Forum Feedback & Requests
1

The new forums are fine. Who really cares what they look like as long as they serve the purposes needed?

I call this Forum V4. I have been using them since V1.

V0 - No longer exists. No evidence of it ever existing on the web. Ran until 2005.
V1 - Text Only. Ran from 2005-2006
V2 - First software with images and links. Ran from 2006-2011
V3 - This is what you find 99% of current google hits on. Ran until Summer 2017
V4 - Now. No ability to find topics on Google, at all.

What changing the forum software results in is a massive data loss and complete severance of communications on all topics. 100% of EVERYTHING you search for EVE forum related on Google lands you in a message chain in forums V3 which has been closed. So no way to add to it or ask any other questions.

I would urge CCP to quit changing forum software as of present it is extremely disruptive and eliminates all use and thus purpose of such.

4 Likes
2

So we should all go back to low res monochrome monitors because old games can’t support high res? No new operating systems because old computers can’t handle it? Nothing but old tape drives because old systems can’t support new storage media.

Look, I understand change is painful. But to sit there and expect no change to ever occur is foolish. Things have to adapt. They have to grow.

And if the preservation of knowledge is that vital to you, start copying the old forum threads and get them in a Google doc or wiki or something.

1 Like
3

Nice strawman, and the rest is nonsense, ‘things have to adapt’ to what? For what purpose?

The only ‘feature’ I see with the new forums is supposedly improved usability on small form factor screens (phones and such).

Lots of possibilities to handle phones, many sites add a mobile.whatever.com and so some simplification and formatting magic for phones.

So the spurious suggestion that ‘things have to adapt and grow’ needs to show a target worth adapting and growing towards.

In the meantime the op points out a reasonable complaint about one of the many pitfalls with migration of forums.

2 Likes
4

Claim straw man all you want. The forum software, as the OP pointed out, was 6 years old.

As mentioned in the Dev blog:
(https://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/introducing-the-new-eve-online-forums/)

“Since April 2011, our forums have been based on software that has remained relatively unchanged and was heavily customised in house by CCP for it to be able to interface with Tranquility’s database. This direct tie to our infrastructure also means that whenever we suffered from server outages, sometimes we would lose access to the forums and must rely completely on third party services to keep the community informed about ongoing problems (notably @eve_status and @eveonline on Twitter).”

So the software was old, cumbersome, and if you read the dev blog more, causing back-end problems. It was time for a change. Again,if preserving the past info is that important, start copying. And accept that to improve things, using 6 year old software was not the way to go.