More changes coming.

[CafeDave]

I just wanted to let everyone know that in the face of increasing server costs, I have decided to look again at moving Cafe Tropico over to Strategy Planet as host.  I have already signed on for an account and will be testing things out in the new year, but you can be assured that if things do not work out or I don't like what I see, the move will not happen.  After the last move fiasco, I surely don't want to go through that again.  But so far, they seem very helpful and welcoming.  I had applied over a month ago and hadn't heard back but just discovered that my email was not being downloaded from my server.  Ack!!  

As always, you can post your opinions here!

[Morticcia]

So CafeDave, I went fishing over at strategy planet after testing out your link on the news page.  Exactly where will we access Cafe Tropico?  Will we go through their forum page?  Will the site be accessed via a forum board?

[Mr.P]

I like it Dave, seems very stable to me.

[CafeDave]

Tish, if you mean the Cafe Tropico forum, that is not set up yet at Strategy Planet.  I just received my cgi access password today so will have to try loading up a test board soon.  I also am looking into using the MySQL version of YaBB SE.  It is reportedly faster and more stable for a large forum.  So I will try that out too, although I know absolutely nothing about php or mysql.  Oh well, another learning experience.  

Thanks Mr.P!  I'm cleaning up more broken links every day!  So far I like SP.  They have lots of tools and things too that I haven't begun to investigate yet, so more good things to come!

[Morticcia]

I was just wondering how we go about accessing the cafe/forum, after the entire move takes place (or even now, to poke around to see how much you've gotten done so far), via the www.strategyplanet.com site.  I know the address, based on the link in the news, but I was hoping to see how to navigate via strategy planet.

When you go to strategyplanet.com and click on the 'forum' link, you get led into this general area with tons of boards.  Will the multi-site forum be accessed this way?  My gut says no, so if no, where will one find the link for the cafe, as well as the forum, on their site?

Hope that is clearer.   :-/ :-/

[CafeDave]

Ahh, now I understand.  Good questions Morticcia! It's a good thing you're around to keep me on my toes!  

First off, the only link from the main StrategyPlanet site will be a Tropico link in the hosted sites menu on the right side of their page.  But it will not be posted there until the site is all moved and ready for the public.  Other than that, all links for the new site will be found on the Cafe menu from any page as usual.  The link for the main page will be:
http://www.strategyplanet.com/tropico/    or
http://www.strategyplanet.com/tropico/index.shtml

Note that most files will be changed to an extension of .shtml to allow ssi parsing, so you will need to use the menu and not old bookmarks.  I have been very spoiled by my present host in terms of ease of website administration, so it's a big job to change everything to meet normal standards.  

The only drawback I have seen so far is that SP insists on using the FilePlanet download script for file downloads, so you will have to register for that system to grab scenarios and such.  But it works fairly well I think, though a little less convenient.

As for the forum, I successfully set up both the current version and the mysql version yesterday.   Yay!  Feel free to poke around and see them for yourself.  Just don't expect it to be error-free or to see any messages or members, since these have not been transferred over yet.  The url for the current version forum is:
http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/YaBB.pl
The url for the Yabb SE mysql version is:
http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/yabbse/index.php

This is the standard template and I have not customized anything yet, so it will not stay as is.
The mysql version is database driven rather than flat textfile based and so is reportedly much faster and stable.  Just what this place needs.  There is a converter to convert the existing board over to mysql so everything should translate over with some minor exceptions.

One bit of bad news is that all file attachment links in posts will be lost, although YabbSE does have the file attach feature, so new attachments can be added.  The other bad news is that I won't likely be moving over the library, since it's not that much used and scenarios can be posted in the scenarios board.  Also, the Railroad Cafe will likely be dropped since it doesn't fit with the theme of Tropico and is hardly used anyway.

This is a busy week for me, so the final conversion probably won't happen until next weekend at the earliest or maybe the weekend after that, so you will have to bear with the slowness for a little longer.  

[Chris]

The MySQL version is very fast indeed. Also has a smooth look to it! Very nice.

[CafeDave]

Well, it's done and finally seems to be functioning properly.  Whew!  As you may have noticed, I also made some changes to the boards while I was at it.  The Caribbean board has been removed but the posts are still there at the bottom of the Arena.  There is a new board called the Archives which holds all the older posts from the Night Club.  Hopefully this will keep the Night Club faster but still allow access to the old ones.  The Yabb Info board is now rolled into the Cafe Tropico board at the bottom.  And I resurrected some of the early posts that had been deleted and put them back in either the Archives or Cafe boards.  Confused.   :-/  

There may be the odd file missing or corrupted, so please let me know if you come across any.  Also, I have not transferred any uploaded files over and the links would be incorrect anyway, so I may not bother.  These will be lost anyway if I make the final move to YaBB SE, so I will see what happens there.  Hope everything keeps working.

[Coffeebean]

Great work Dave - it's sooooooooo much faster and I like the archive board - it's a good place to drop in for a read and a laugh at all the historical poooooooosts of yore!

I do seem to be posting 24 hours in the future at the moment - which is interesting.

[el_malo]

Bean, PPPPLLLLLEEEEEZZZZZZ, tell me what the winning numbers are for the Texas Lottery tomorrow (my time) .  I will split it with you .

[Coffeebean]

ROFLOL - I'd make some up but I don't know how many numbers you need!

[MadamPresident]

Good job on the move Dave, its tons faster!

I can get to the recent posts for once after a verrrryy long time.

[Eddy]

Dave, how did you put in posts that were deleted?  Are you doing some weird moderator thing or something?

Also, I need to know if this will affect people's posting ranks.

Thanks.

[Chris]

Eddy, he's the site Admin. He can do anything.

[CafeDave]

To answer your question Eddy, yes, Chris is right, I can do anything.    But the reason I could do it was I had a backup from before the Great Purge as Railnut put it.  So I just uploaded the files again and added the references to the bottom of the board index files.  Now we have the entire history of the forum at our fingertips again.    And no, it will not affect anyone's post count since deleted posts are not subtracted from post count.  I hope you weren't expecting to have the missing posts added to yours again.  

And thanks for the compliment Em.  I appreciate that.

[Eddy]

Whew! I am very grateful that my count is intact.  I worked very hard to ensure my position as the number one poster of the board.  The history of the board is important though and I am pleased to see the original posts of the baord back in their rightful place.

What was the first post anyway?

[Morticcia]

psst...

I think I found the original strawberry fizzie thread today.  

[Coffeebean]

Where Tish? - can you give us a link?

[el_malo]

Dave... a change that I would like to see is... more smileys.

[robbo]

just like to say the board is fast and all the chnages look good.
Well done!!

Not e that most files will be changed to an extension of .shtml to allow ssi parsing......I have been very spoiled by my present host in terms of ease of website administration, so it's a big job to change everything to meet normal standards.  

welcome to my world  

[Morticcia]

Bean, I could be wrong, but lookey here.

The second page of the thread has the mixing guidelines provided by the deity, himself.

[Eddy]

sniffle.  oh the memories.

[Morticcia]

Thanks CafeDave for all your work.  

The archives have been a great read.  

[CafeDave]

Thanks Morticcia!  Whoa!  That thread is almost embarassing to read.  Did we really do those things back then.  

This is to announce that the site is now officially moved to StrategyPlanet at http://www.strategyplanet.com/tropico/

Most links should work now and if you find any broken ones, please let me know.  There are still a couple of things not working, namely the News Publisher script, so I may need a workaround for that, and the page counter script.  CGI is on a separate server as you can tell, and these cannot be called apparently from the main site, so I'll need to do some changes there.  The old site will remain open for the foreseeable future with the www.cafetropico.com url as a referral page only.  All links on that page will now direct you to the new site.  

Also, my new email address is cafedave@strategyplanet.com but the old cafetropico.com addresses will also still work.

[robbo]

lookin good dave