The Lead Adventure Forum will go offline for migration

[Orctrader]

Thanks for the info.  Good luck with the move. 

[Silent Invader]

No data will be lost in the move. This is a complete migration. 

That's great news. Thanks for all you're doing

[CapnJim]

A.  Thank you for the update.  It's good to know what's going on, as well as what ain't.

B.  Thank you for the LAF.  I echo what the others have said about its value.

C.  I don't do faceplant, er, I mean facebook.  But I'll likely begin checking in here on/about 15 Sept. to see if it's back up yet.  One day, it will be.  I'm not always a patient man (just ask my wife), but I'll get by until then...

[traveller]

Great news!

Many thanks!!!

[TheBlackCrane]

Echoing the the thanks of others for keeping the forum going and the efforts to fix it.

I'm not a frequent poster, but I browse it every day, so I shall eagerly look forward to when it returns!

Many thanks!!

[sir_shvantselot]

Thanks for all of your work with the forum. It’s very much appreciated

[Belligerentparrot]

Just joining the chorus of thank yous - this is by far the nicest corner of the internet I inhabit, and I am very grateful to all the mods and also all the members who make this such a great place.

[armchairgeneral]

Just echoing what others have said. This is a great place to hang out and is a regular go to for me. Thank you so much for all the hard work sorting it out. Trust it will all go smoothly.

[boneio]

This is great news in terms of the server migration, IONOS are...not good.

However I'm concerned at the suggested downtime and that there may be issues to iron out on the new server.

A server migration should have next to zero risk of many post migration issues, and literally zero risk of data loss.

Downtime needn't be any longer than the time it takes to import a fresh database copy, test via hosts file, and change DNS.

Hopefully its just an exaggeration to set expectations in the case of problems!

Im sure its in hand but I love the forum too much to take the risk of saying nothing and it going wrong over saying something and patronisingly repeating the existing plan 

Hopefully, that looks like this (some steps simplified!):
LAF stays online until the point noted later.
Create new server instances
Configure basic software which doesn't have a version dependency for SMF (Apache and mysql, and the email service, amongst others, can likely all be current release version).
Configure version specific dependencies which might include mysql and will almost certainly need an older php version. Using Remi repositories and php-fpm its possible and quite easy to run an old version alongside a newer one so that the upgrade to SMF can later be done on the same server.
So by this point we should have a server capable of running the version of SMF that LAF is using.
Add LAF to a git repo (current server).
Take a database export (current server).
Clone the git repo (new server).
Rsync the database from current to new server. (Scp it down to local machine and back up if firewall proves a problem).
Configure the db connection on new server if not already done.
Point local hosts file at new server IP and test.
Probably the most difficult step: Resolve any inevitably missed php extensions etc  And any other obvious server related bugs.
Rsync the media from current to new server.
Retest - it should just work now with all images present etc.
*Only now* is it necessary to put the holding page up on current server.
Reexport, transfer, and import database to capture the last data.
Quickly retest, only basics as little should have changed.
Repoint DNS.
Cancel old server after a suitable paranoia overlap period.

Now, a second instance of the forum can be created on the new server but on the new software version and a parallel php process.
Then a similar process can be used to test and dry-run the forum software update safely without risking the actual forum.

I've helped before and would be more than happy to help again even if just with planning, please just ask.

Godspeed - there's a lot of us who love and rely on this forum! 

[boneio]

Ugh, sorry, I feel like I'm being a pain.
Bluehost are not well regarded, its owned by Newfold Digital. Have a poke around reddit, they're not a good option.

I would look at:
Zume
Gandi
ANS (we host multi million sites with ANS...!)

Or if going fully unmanaged just go with Digital Ocean, they never have hardware issues (in our case 40+ dev servers on DO for years with zero issues).

[nicknorthstar]

Thanks to Joe for the post spelling out what is next.

In case some of you don't know, I'll give you some recent history of LAF.

My name is Nick and I'm the owner of North Star. https://www.northstarfigures.com/
Back in 2017 I was approached by the owner and founder of LAF, Alex. He basically wanted to walk away from LAF, for personal reasons, but didn't want it to die or lose it's character. I was a long term 'LAFer', and equally I didn't want it to end so I agreed to take it on. IT is not my thing, so I approached my chums at Wargames Illustrated to ask if they could take that side on. They agreed, and so it has been a joint effort between North Star & WI to keep LAF going.
Apart from the banner adverts you see, we have not interfered with the nature of The Lead Adventure Forum. I don't think anyone could accuse us of making it a North Star or WI 'vehicle'. A lot of the hard work is done by the moderators, volunteers who keep this forum from degenerating into the kind of internet squabble fests that you find elsewhere. A huge thank you to them.
None of us make any money from LAF. We have the banner adverts running, there is the Paypal donation button, but neither compensate for the time taken running the forum, nor the money it costs for it's place on the Server. That's not a complaint, just a statement of fact and something we chose to do.
I hope you'll all keep being active participants in The Lead Adventure Forum, in this age of Social Media it's becoming a bit of a 'Shire' on the internet and that is thanks to you.
Cheers
Nick

[Silent Invader]

It is indeed a shire (which spells remarkably close to something significantly less attractive!)

Thank you mods, Nick, NS and WI!

[bluewillow]

All the best with the move and see you hopefully in tip top shape on the other side.

Please email everyone as I have quite a few mates not on Facebook.

Cheers
Matt

[Will Bailie]

Thanks for keeping us in the loop.  Best wishes for the move and keep up the great work.  As with others, LAF is my favourite destination on the interwebs!

[commissarmoody]

Thanks for the update, may it go smoothly with little to no hiccups.