MyBB conversion work has begun

**Darth-Apple** · July 18th, 2013 at 4:17 PM

Hello fellow members of the community,

I have begun work on designing the new version of Makestation, which will be powered by MyBB. After running a poll and asking members, it seems that the community is interested in the conversion, and I think that it will help us significantly as the community grows.

MyBB is much easier to use from an administrator's standpoint as well, so I expect that the new version of makestation will be ready within about one week or so. I don't have any information on downtime info yet, but I do not expect very much downtime when it comes time to release the new community update unless I should happen to run into any technical issues. Also, we will be seamlessly converting all users and posts to the new makestation, so it should be a pretty easy transition. Big Grin

So, what are your suggestions for the upcoming makestation? Suggestions will definitely be given serious consideration, so feel free to express any concerns or ideas as they come up. I will be keeping you guys updated. Big Grin

**Acko** · July 18th, 2013 at 4:35 PM

Great news! In my opinion, MyBB is much better than SMF, anyways. Are suggestions in the suggestion box counted as already suggested here?

**Darth-Apple** · July 18th, 2013 at 4:36 PM

Most of the suggestions in the suggestion box will be implemented in the new makestation already, so I'd say yes. Any new suggestions specific to the new version of makestation can be made here. Big Grin

**simlink** · July 18th, 2013 at 10:46 PM

Yay, new software!

**Darth-Apple** · July 18th, 2013 at 10:51 PM

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it. I've begun working on the new theme, and quite a lot of work has been done. I expect things to start coming together within 2-3 days, and I'm going for a new look and feel altogether. I think it will be great for the community, and we'll be able to launch awards and badges again given that the plugin will probably be working this time. Big Grin

**simlink** · July 18th, 2013 at 10:56 PM

If you need help with some components of the theme let me know. Smile

I can re-render the logo so it is transparent, as well. May have lost original so it may end up slightly different, but mostly the same.

**Darth-Apple** · July 18th, 2013 at 11:02 PM

I can do that myself in the GIMP. The main difficulties I've been running into have been with the header (which is still a mess between the toolbar, navbar, and logo area). I have made a lot of progress, but it's a complicated thing to design.

Also, do you know of a good resource for generating gradient images and textures? It might be useful for .thead gradients and a header texture.

**simlink** · July 18th, 2013 at 11:08 PM

Yep, colourzilla has one. Here's the link: http://www.colorzilla.com/gradient-editor/
They have some premade ones that are nice, and can be edited. As for the logo, only problem with that is the black will stay around the lettering and icon slightly because of the poor resolution.

**Darth-Apple** · July 18th, 2013 at 11:10 PM

Ah, well we may need a new one then, since the header will be over a greyish texture instead of a black one. Also, thanks for the colorzilla suggestion. I'll give it a shot and see how that works. Big Grin

**Darth-Apple** · July 19th, 2013 at 12:48 AM

I'm not sure yet, since I'm still playing around with different settings. I'll PM you as soon as I'm home though. Should be tonight.

Thanks for the help!

**Darth-Apple** · July 20th, 2013 at 1:08 AM

The redesign of the website using MyBB is going very well. The look and feel will be completely new and fresh, and the forum will be much more user friendly. Stay tuned!

**Darth-Apple** · July 20th, 2013 at 11:03 PM

The new theme is now designed. Now it's just a matter of preparing for the conversion. I will be using the MyBB merge system, which generally works very well, so I expect a very smooth transition with only a few hours of downtime. Again, no posts should be lost during the conversion.

My hope is to convert either tomorrow or Monday. Stay tuned!

**Acko** · July 21st, 2013 at 10:19 AM

Well that was kinda fast Tongue

**Gmdykfuiygh66476** · July 22nd, 2013 at 5:31 PM

Nah, that didn't take long Tongue

**Darth-Apple** · July 22nd, 2013 at 5:32 PM

Just to compare...

It took three weeks to get the old Makestation's design complete using SMF.
It took 3-4 days to design the MyBB version of makestation.

**Acko** · July 22nd, 2013 at 5:34 PM

Wow. What a difference. So is that actually trying to imply that mybb is more theme friendly than SMF?

**Darth-Apple** · July 22nd, 2013 at 5:35 PM

Heck yeah, it really is. I was shocked at how easy it was compared to the SMF work that I did.

**Acko** · July 22nd, 2013 at 5:37 PM

The conversion process to me actually sounds like a daunting task. You should do a tutorial or something on it sometime Tongue

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