Andytizer 269 Share Posted July 17, 2013 We've been planning to migrate to IP Board for some time - there are some very big and exciting benefits to using this system to manage and grow our community, including plans for a new community orientated News website focused on PC game fixes (to replace the Port Report), a proper Downloads system with comments, ratings, tags, filters, etc., as well as far superior Forum and community features. Ideally we would like to implement a single sign-on solution, so that a user logging into the Wiki can use the same credentials on the IP Board, as well as commenting on the News website, and also editing the sidewikis. The goal is to use IPS Connect to integrate with the master accounts on MediaWiki. However we've hit a roadblock in terms of development, and we will most likely need to pay for web development help externally to integrate to a professional standard. Our last Kickstarter in January was a resounding success and has helped create a large fund to purchase games for writing articles for almost every single release in 2013 - so far we have supplied over 80 full game keys. In order to fund the new Forum integration, I would like to discuss starting an additional new Kickstarter project to raise development funds. The goal would likely be between £500-£1,500, as this is the range of the quotes I've received so far. The final choice in developer would require careful consideration of their cost and their skill, experience and professionalism. Surplus funds could also be used for developing customisations to the board and integrate new features, for example, it would be good to have a proper comparison slider that would pop out into a Lightbox - the kind of custom work that a professional might be able to supply. Some of the Kickstarter pledge rewards could be repeated from the last one, and Pridit has also made a suggestion for opening up a private members forum for ALL past and future donators and Kickstarter backers, and run various competitions and giveaways just for those contributors. Interested in hearing feedback on this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hungry eyes 6 Share Posted July 17, 2013 Sounds strange, but I know for a fact that Jan (Masked Turk) has his own web design company (http://frontierlabs.co.uk/) which he manages with a friend. They are both students so their prices are more than reasonable and they have conducted numerous professional web design projects before. If we could hire his company it would guarantee his and his friend's undivided attention for the duration of the project. Also, we have worked with him before and have a good relationship. His friend is also an accomplished web developer so we would effectively be getting two for the price of one. Thoughts? EDIT: For the Port Report replacement we could look at something like CiMExchange (http://www.cimexchange.com/) for inspiration - its very well designed - clean and compact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andytizer 269 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 Hi hungry_eyes, this is great, I would much rather work with Jan and his company rather than gamble with an unknown developer. I will get in contact with them about doing this specific IP Board bridge. However I do hope that Jan continues some of his free contributions to the site, including his fantastic CSS skills :). CiMExchange looks really good, similar to Simtropolis. With this type of setup we'll have a much tighter and more integrated community website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andytizer 269 Author Share Posted July 17, 2013 Just to update everyone - I have put out more feelers to the world for developers, including Masked_Turk's company who I hope will reply soon. I've received an interesting proposal from an experienced IPB developer who can give a good rate and will be able to start work on the 2nd August. However we still have yet to make a final decision, more offers are still appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hungry eyes 6 Share Posted July 18, 2013 I've spoken to Jan directly on Steam about it so hopefully he should get back to you soon :> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andytizer 269 Author Share Posted July 22, 2013 I have spoken to the developer I was in contact with, and he may be able to start as early as Friday. I'll keep everyone posted on the progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andytizer 269 Author Share Posted July 23, 2013 Just to update everyone - we started early and our developer Chris aka Geonode, has nearly completed integration of IP Board and MediaWiki. We have hit a small snag because of DNS propagation but we may have something to show in the next day or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hungry eyes 6 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Just to update everyone - we started early and our developer Chris aka Geonode, has nearly completed integration of IP Board and MediaWiki. We have hit a small snag because of DNS propagation but we may have something to show in the next day or so. Wow he works fast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andytizer 269 Author Share Posted August 6, 2013 Small update: The bridge between IP Board and MediaWiki is not yet complete. We encountered some problems last week which forced us to do a rollback, but thankfully JRWR was there to fix everything with a short downtime and minimal data loss. The original developer is no longer working on the project and didn't charge for the service. Invision Power Services, the company that creates and maintains IP Board, has recently revamped their enterprise services, and we have purchased their bespoke SSO (single sign-on) bridging service, although at a hefty rate. They routinely do custom SSO for far more complex systems than MediaWiki, so I am expecting a very good result soon. The developer has already begun poking around and developing a plugin for the SSO. Here's a sneak peak at what I've been working on lately- a new community news page - FYI don't create an account yet, I don't want anything to interfere with the forum conversion which will be happening soon: http://community.pcgamingwiki.com/index ... index.html It doesn't look like much, but it's a radical departure from the stock IP Board layout. Some features I can't wait to start using: - emails which state who the author is (in fact PHPBB3 doesn't even show the message in the email, I had to hack it in) - setting an 'answer' to a post (very useful for Assignments, Improvements (to mark when something is resolved), technical support threads, etc.) - post tagging - proper file system with ratings, comments, sorting - proper mod/hook support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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