Before we get to the ‘meat’ of this announcement, we would like to thank you ALL for making tMP what it is today. Ever since it’s humble beginnings nearly two years ago, the success of tMP has taken us all by surprise and has now grown to be THE place to get the opinions of banders the world over.
As with all things, tMP has to evolve as it grows, and you are all aware that we have already had to move to a new webhost because of the growth in the usage and in the number of active users we have. This was just the start of the development of the next phase of tMP!
The tMP Team, like some of you, no doubt, have found, as the userbase and information increased, that the current forum software, phpBB, had some serious limitations. It was decided a while ago that it was time to move to another, more customisable, forum application. Extensive research was carried out, taking into consideration various things such as cost, ease of migration from current software, customisation, ability to growth, size of database, options available to users and options available to moderators.
The outcome of this research was that theMouthPiece.com is to be migrated to a new forum software – called vBulletin. We believe that this will be the correct decision to ensure the future of tMP – and more importantly, gives you, our members, the correct platform to air your views on all aspects of banding – as well as other issues!
The whole of tMP as it currently stands will be migrated over to the new forum – so no posts or profile information will be lost. However, some of the functionality will be completely different so it will take a bit of getting used to. To help you with the transition we will set up a section on the new forum where you can post all your ‘How do I?’ questions, as well as any general comments on the new forum.
Of course, once we decided on this, and found the possibilities offered by vB – we found ourselves wanting to use more and more of it’s functionality! One such development, is the introduction of a ‘portal’. This will be the page you first see when you visit theMouthPiece.com – and contained on it will be a brief summary of recent posts, number of users online etc. as well as some important announcements, polls and various other tMP related information.
Look out as well, over the coming weeks, for a new 'Article' feature where a number of interesting documents will be posted. These are currently in development and will cover a range of brass-related topics – all of which will hopefully provide some further fuel for discussion at our already busy forums!
With the migration to vB it became apparent that the ‘look’ of tMP as it currently stands would not fit in – and in fact, we had been thinking for a while, that the logos and typefaces were beginning to look dated, to say the least. One exciting option with vB is the ability to have custom ‘skins’ to modify the way the forum looks. After much tinkering it was decided to contract with and commission a 3rd party developer to design a new and totally unique skin for tMP. We firmly believe that the ‘new look’ tMP is much more pleasing on the eye, and while it may take some getting used to, the colour scheme is just a progression of the one we have currently. Because this new ‘skin’ is very graphically intensive, and might be slow on some dial-up accounts, we will also provide a ‘scaled down’ version in an attempt to keep everyone happy! As a little teaser of the new layout, you may have recognised that all members of the tMP Team have recently been using new avatars – this is in-keeping with the design of the new forum. And because we belive in teasing you even more, here’s a sneak preview of a sceenshot of the new tMP look:
So, on to timescales! All being well, I will be migrating the posts, threads, members etc from the current forum to the the new forum on Wednesday 25th August and we will be ‘live’ on the new look tMP from the morning of 26th August. To facilitate the migration, tMP will have to be shut down for a period of around 8 hours on the evening of 25th whilst I carry out the essential work. I will post an update closer to the date as to the exact time. During this time, all profile information and all posts, indeed all current tMP data (including pms) will be migrated to the new forum. When you next log in after that, the old tMP will be gone forever – and we will be at our new home!
I will post regular status updates during the migration process on our .co.uk domain so you can see what (if any!!) progress is being made.
I must add here though that this is a massive task, and I am hoping to complete the migration during the silent hours. We have made a significant attempt to identify all of the tasks associated with a significant application migration but just-in-case, it might be that we experience issues we had not identified. If this is the case we will ensure that the current forum is reactivated until we are again ready to have another attempt. I can also add that once we have totally migrated, there will be be a high probability of several glitches and anomalies etc appearing. Please be assured that we will do our utmost to deal with these issues as they arise, and I would ask for your patience and cooperation whilst we do the migration.
We really hope that you all like the new forum, but as with all new things, it will take a bit of getting used to, but please persevere with us – as we are 100% committed to taking tMP forward – and in order to do this – we need the software to be able to grow with us.
So, please be patient with us during this transition, but if you have any questions, please post them here and we will endeavour to answer them truthfully.
Wish us luck guys and gals!
John and your tMP team :wink:
As with all things, tMP has to evolve as it grows, and you are all aware that we have already had to move to a new webhost because of the growth in the usage and in the number of active users we have. This was just the start of the development of the next phase of tMP!
The tMP Team, like some of you, no doubt, have found, as the userbase and information increased, that the current forum software, phpBB, had some serious limitations. It was decided a while ago that it was time to move to another, more customisable, forum application. Extensive research was carried out, taking into consideration various things such as cost, ease of migration from current software, customisation, ability to growth, size of database, options available to users and options available to moderators.
The outcome of this research was that theMouthPiece.com is to be migrated to a new forum software – called vBulletin. We believe that this will be the correct decision to ensure the future of tMP – and more importantly, gives you, our members, the correct platform to air your views on all aspects of banding – as well as other issues!
The whole of tMP as it currently stands will be migrated over to the new forum – so no posts or profile information will be lost. However, some of the functionality will be completely different so it will take a bit of getting used to. To help you with the transition we will set up a section on the new forum where you can post all your ‘How do I?’ questions, as well as any general comments on the new forum.
Of course, once we decided on this, and found the possibilities offered by vB – we found ourselves wanting to use more and more of it’s functionality! One such development, is the introduction of a ‘portal’. This will be the page you first see when you visit theMouthPiece.com – and contained on it will be a brief summary of recent posts, number of users online etc. as well as some important announcements, polls and various other tMP related information.
Look out as well, over the coming weeks, for a new 'Article' feature where a number of interesting documents will be posted. These are currently in development and will cover a range of brass-related topics – all of which will hopefully provide some further fuel for discussion at our already busy forums!
With the migration to vB it became apparent that the ‘look’ of tMP as it currently stands would not fit in – and in fact, we had been thinking for a while, that the logos and typefaces were beginning to look dated, to say the least. One exciting option with vB is the ability to have custom ‘skins’ to modify the way the forum looks. After much tinkering it was decided to contract with and commission a 3rd party developer to design a new and totally unique skin for tMP. We firmly believe that the ‘new look’ tMP is much more pleasing on the eye, and while it may take some getting used to, the colour scheme is just a progression of the one we have currently. Because this new ‘skin’ is very graphically intensive, and might be slow on some dial-up accounts, we will also provide a ‘scaled down’ version in an attempt to keep everyone happy! As a little teaser of the new layout, you may have recognised that all members of the tMP Team have recently been using new avatars – this is in-keeping with the design of the new forum. And because we belive in teasing you even more, here’s a sneak preview of a sceenshot of the new tMP look:
So, on to timescales! All being well, I will be migrating the posts, threads, members etc from the current forum to the the new forum on Wednesday 25th August and we will be ‘live’ on the new look tMP from the morning of 26th August. To facilitate the migration, tMP will have to be shut down for a period of around 8 hours on the evening of 25th whilst I carry out the essential work. I will post an update closer to the date as to the exact time. During this time, all profile information and all posts, indeed all current tMP data (including pms) will be migrated to the new forum. When you next log in after that, the old tMP will be gone forever – and we will be at our new home!
I will post regular status updates during the migration process on our .co.uk domain so you can see what (if any!!) progress is being made.
I must add here though that this is a massive task, and I am hoping to complete the migration during the silent hours. We have made a significant attempt to identify all of the tasks associated with a significant application migration but just-in-case, it might be that we experience issues we had not identified. If this is the case we will ensure that the current forum is reactivated until we are again ready to have another attempt. I can also add that once we have totally migrated, there will be be a high probability of several glitches and anomalies etc appearing. Please be assured that we will do our utmost to deal with these issues as they arise, and I would ask for your patience and cooperation whilst we do the migration.
We really hope that you all like the new forum, but as with all new things, it will take a bit of getting used to, but please persevere with us – as we are 100% committed to taking tMP forward – and in order to do this – we need the software to be able to grow with us.
So, please be patient with us during this transition, but if you have any questions, please post them here and we will endeavour to answer them truthfully.
Wish us luck guys and gals!
John and your tMP team :wink:
Last edited:
been looking forward to this!
