Question for the Wittmeister

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

I am not sure who the Wittmeister is or if that is the appropriate official to lodge this question but I thought I'd try.

Are there any general plan (or capabilities even) to add features or upgrade Wittenberg? We've been here for about three or four years and I am curious whether this board will evolve or if we will have to do another relocation at some point in the future.

I recall one change regarding the font and I've used some of the customization features but wondered if there will be more in the future.

[King Txec]

Sir Luc is the Wittmeister.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Sir Luc is the Wittmeister.

Thank you King Txec. @Sir Lüc ?

[Sir Lüc]

Actually, Dan T is the official Wittmeister as part of the Backend PermSec job description, with support from me in case of any technical issue that requires knowledge of SMF and of the modifications I applied to the base install.

That said, since it's the Chancery that calls the shots on Witt, and since I've already vented a bunch of times about SMF being outdated and obtuse, people can assume it is my intention to eventually move us to a better, fresher platform, rather than upgrading this instance of SMF, sooner rather than later.

The main issue is that unlike what happened with the transition from Proboards to SMF, this time my intention would be to migrate this forum's content to the new platform, which clearly would require some work. Replacing the existing database is also a way bigger priority, and that will receive my full attention in the coming weeks and months, with the goal being to hold the next GE on the replacement system. Therefore, I don't expect to be able to get to work on ditching SMF before that's done (ie, before Clarks, GEs and citizen management are all done on the new DB, at a minimum).

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

Actually, Dan T is the official Wittmeister as part of the Backend PermSec job description, with support from me in case of any technical issue that requires knowledge of SMF and of the modifications I applied to the base install.

That said, since it's the Chancery that calls the shots on Witt, and since I've already vented a bunch of times about SMF being outdated and obtuse, people can assume it is my intention to eventually move us to a better, fresher platform, rather than upgrading this instance of SMF, sooner rather than later.

The main issue is that unlike what happened with the transition from Proboards to SMF, this time my intention would be to migrate this forum's content to the new platform, which clearly would require some work. Replacing the existing database is also a way bigger priority, and that will receive my full attention in the coming weeks and months, with the goal being to hold the next GE on the replacement system. Therefore, I don't expect to be able to get to work on ditching SMF before that's done (ie, before Clarks, GEs and citizen management are all done on the new DB, at a minimum).

Thanks Sir Luc for this reassuring response. I look forward to your work on this matter with the Wittmeister in the future.

[Sir Lüc]

For future reference, this is a potential replacement platform I found: https://www.discourse.org/ (this was mentioned very fleetingly on Discord like a year and a half ago, so people definitely either missed it or forgot about it)

It seems to hit most requirements I have in mind: for instance, we can run it for free on our own infrastructure, it's heavily customisable, fully responsive, modern, open source, extensively documented and actively maintained.

[Breneir Tzaracomprada]

For future reference, this is a potential replacement platform I found: https://www.discourse.org/ (this was mentioned very fleetingly on Discord like a year and a half ago, so people definitely either missed it or forgot about it)

It seems to hit most requirements I have in mind: for instance, we can run it for free on our own infrastructure, it's heavily customisable, fully responsive, modern, open source, extensively documented and actively maintained.

Discourse looks fantastic