Over the past 20 years, I have done my best to keep Acts-celerate a fun place to discuss ideas from a technology standpoint. Doyle was the one who took ownership of creating discussion, setting moderation policy for our moderator team, and overseeing the moderation of posts while I worked on the technology side of things.One thing I have seriously considered over the past five years is the possibility of moving Acts-celerate to a new platform on another website. There are several major pros and cons to making a move like this, and the cons have seemed to outweigh the pros in the past. However, as we become further and further removed from technical support on our existing platform (and pay a premium to our web host for them to maintain old technology to do so), it seems that the time has come to discuss the pros and cons with the members of this community and get your feedback on whether we should migrate to new technology.The first thing to note is that Actscelerate.com would remain an active domain. Next, just like when we moved from ezBoard to the current self-hosted platform, there would be a migration period.The
Shaun, what about Facebook? We could fix it such that only those who have been certified can post. You would also have the ability to lock someone out, if necessary. For that matter, maybe we can create FB accounts that are under our pen name, if we so wish. Thoughts?
Thanks for your suggestions and questions, Aaron. I appreciate you getting the ball rolling.I think there are a lot of challenges that would come with using Facebook, including the fact that it’s not really set up for discussion as much as other forum-style sites. I think people who prefer to be anonymous or use multiple accounts would be frustrated by needing to switch between their real personal Facebook account and other accounts all the time. Additionally, moving to another forum-based site would give everyone tools that make posting more fun that Facebook doesn’t have.Regarding moderation, our new platform would have the ability for us to ban accounts from our community.Unfortunately, I don’t know of a way to save the old threads. Like I said, my plan would be to leave this forum here and locked for a while if we moved. However, our web host has been pretty heavy-handed with their messaging that they won’t support the legacy version of PHP that we use forever. At some point, we will lose these posts anyway. We simply have no idea if that’s a decision our web host will make tonight or in another 25 years. It will likely be out of nowhere________________
Of course I will not be around long and being a former Burroughs and IBM computer programmer and maintenance man, today I am lost in the new technology and have a hard time grasping changes. BUT I still think you have a great idea and i would be glad to try to learn while I can. By great idea I am thinking of this new generation who catch on fast and may give more interaction.I wish I knew enough to make an intelligent amen or huh uh, I just know my grand kids grasp this new tech fast. And would have no problem grabbing hold.Thanks for what you and Bro Doyle have done here in the past…. ________________Some facts but mostly just my [email protected]/
Shaun, I think it’s wise to move on from this current platform. One question I have is will the new site allow the creation of individual Main Category Topics, which you as Admin would create, and beneath the topic allow for individuals to post their own sub topic for discussion? For example, say the topic “Baptism” was created. Could users then post their own sub topic such as “Immersion Baptism” or “Is Baptism really necessary”? There could be a dozen or so Main Categories that maybe the users could have input on. I’m thinking of categories like Second Coming, Sanctification, Current Events, Church, Prophecy, etc. Mix it up so it doesn’t come across as a CoG only discussion board. I think this would allow for a more structured discussion as opposed to the current method where discussions often stray from the OP’s perspective________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
You are welcome.
I’d also like to see a button or a link inserted on each page where members can contribute to the costs associated with this site. It’s just not right that you, Shaun, bear all the costs. If such a thing currently exists please point it out to me________________“Hell will be filled with people that didn’t cuss, didn’t drink, and may even have been baptized. Why? Because none of those things makes someone a Christian.”
Shaun, Doyle would want to forge ahead with the best available at a reasonable cost – perhaps we would gain some former posters back – and some new ones.If we can still view some old threads – great. If not, we lost some from EZBoard – we will make new ones________________
Thanks, everyone, for your feedback. We have lots of established members of the Acts-celerate community who have voiced their support. I hope anyone who is hesitant will give it a shot, and I hope we make a believer out of them. I do think a move will increase the quality of discussion, and I think a new platform will help alleviate some frustration that has started to form every time something small goes wrong (like a post not going through after time was spent drafting it).I will post some steps that everyone can take to start exploring the new platform. If you need help, please feel free to let me know, and I’ll do my best to help everyone get their new account set up________________
Facebook frowns upon pin names. Pen names won’t work on Facebook because if someone reports it as a fake account they will remove it because it’s not a person name. Also, I think accelerate would lose a lot of character if it required someone to submit their ministerial number or some crazy hoops like the excellent ministry of COG page on Facebook, I think it would have negative effects of pushing more more people out of the denomination and out of the discussion it is cult like to control all language. The issue with Facebook is that it will not get widespread apeal. Plus you have to have an account to look at facebook… On reddit You can see everything without an account but you still need an account to post.
Thanks for sharing your concerns, caviator. That’s a valid concern that’s worth addressing.I’ve been using Reddit for about 15 years now, and I moderate two other Reddit communities. I belong to several Christian-oriented (and one Christian-oriented) communities in addition to other communities that pertain to my hobbies and interests. I am certainly aware of some of the controversial decisions Reddit has made over the years, although I am unaware of the one you’re describing.Several of the other Christian Reddit communities of which I’m a part have a long history of giving Biblical advice and providing an orthodox Biblical worldview on homosexuality. While they are not communities solely focused on what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, it
Hi folks. I know this post is a little too late on migration terms, but as a relatively new member (6 years now) and even longer lurker, perhaps you can entertain some questions…What version of phpBB are we on now? How big is the database? And lastly, how much space GB is Acts-celerate taking up?
Thanks for your interest, Out of Paper.We are currently using phpBB 2.0. I have tried to upgrade us to 3.0 twice, and a trusted friend of mine who has decades of experience in PHP and database design has also tried to upgrade us to 3.0 twice. We were unable to migrate the database to 3.0 successfully in these four attempts. It’s the software rather than the host that’s holding us back.I also received a generous email from a viewer who let me know he had a contact that could upgrade us to phpBB 3.0. However, I’m not comfortable with that because even though I’m sure he’s a great and honest guy, I would not feel comfortable giving someone that I hadn’t known for years access to our database, which could then in turn be used to dox our users who believed they were posting anonymously. We have always taken the anonymity of those who have chosen to post here anonymously very seriously. I feel very responsible to do my best to protect that anonymity.Finally, the newest version of phpBB (3.0) does not have some of the features that Reddit has, which are listed above in the Pros section. I consider a voting system to be the most important tool to get Acts-celerate back to a place where no one person or opinion can dominate the board without the community’s permission. Voting allows our readers to help shape the culture of the board, upvoting posts and comments that contribute to a healthy, thriving community and downvoting posts and comments that violate the culture of this community (even if they don’t overtly violate the rules of the board). Additionally, I believe the threaded (nested) style of discussion rather than the flat style of discussion is vital to make a conversation of any real size readable. I have not been able to find a mod that works well to provide threaded replies for any version of phpBB.I do appreciate your input, and I hope you’ll stick around________________
There’s a LOT of history in the saved threads. There are people who are now gone…and we will have lost the last little link to some of them, I fear.
Thanks for your feedback. I’m looking into how I can publicly archive this site permanently on this old domain. Hopefully, I can figure that out.Hope to see you on the new board________________
Thanks for your feedback and your grand-nephew’s expertise. Without getting into the details of our specific software deployment, unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated than that to ensure the anonymity of all users over the past 20 years________________