Upcoming Major Changes and Updates to the ES Site

[justin_le]

Hey everyone, I'm posting here for a long time update on the ES platform. First a quick background synopsis since there are plenty of people who weren't around for what is now ancient web history.

Origins
This forum was created in 2006 after the then popular V is for Voltage website unexpectedly went offline with a huge loss of content, and members of the early EV community sprung together to create a new forum space. Endless-Shere.com was a domain one of those people used for his business on which they placed a phpBB forum, and the site attracted most of the 2-wheel / ebike crowd.

Growth
The site really took off in the early heyday DIY ebike movement, and attracted an amazing community of technically minded individuals helping each other understand / hack / build / repair ebikes and other PEV's. It was also something of a springboard for people launching small businesses developing products useful to the DIY ebike scene.

I myself joined in 2007 moving from the yahoo power-assist group, delighted to find a space with such free sharing of information that was outside of commercial interests. Sometimes rowdy, always interesting, and a very eclectic mix of individuals doing crazy and creative stuff, with a common goal of helping each other.

Buyout
But things took an unexpected turn in 2011 with the entire forum getting unexpectedly sold to a 3rd party, which anyone who wasn't around then can read about here, it was a wild time:

https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30842
and then
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30961

The fallout resulted in me purchasing the forum itself back from this "new" owner, pledging to keep it as it was as a community space and not an inline ad-driven revenue generator. In the first few years we initiated a number of fixes and enhancements to the site, but since then both my and Grin's energy have been almost wholly consumed elsewhere.

 

[justin_le]

Fortunately, the guy you know as Neptronix stepped up in a massive way, first helping out with many of the IT/hosting challenges of the site and then a large part of the management and moderation too. It's an enormous (mostly) volunteer effort to keep the site going as it has.

But the arrangement has been a bit awkward too, as I was still seen as something of a gatekeeper for decisions / improvements but haven't actually been available to participate that way.

So the first thing I want to make very clear that the torch of managing the direction and development of this forum is very clearly in Neptronix's hands. He has a unique mix of having the technical IT/skills to maintain and upgrade the site, a passion for electric bikes themselves, and a deep appreciation for the community that's developed here.

Of course not everyone will agree with every decision, but I've worked enough with Neptronix over the years both personally and professionally to say that he has fully earned my trust and should have yours too. Myself/Grin still technically own the forum and will continue to ensure that it sticks to the promises we gave when taking it over. But Neptronix officially has a wide 'cart blanche' to build and manage a team to develop it in a way that fulfills that vision.

 

[justin_le]

So here's where things get most exciting. As you're likely aware the phpBB backend on which ES is hosted is quite dated and long out of development. After a few mis-starts with other platforms, Neptronix settled on XenForo as being the best modern web software to handle the needs of our community. And over the past year he's been laying all the groundwork to migrate this entire massive forum to run on XenForo instead. There is an active thread of that process here
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=110308&start=225
including links to trial sites (https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=118179) and many discussions if you want to dive in.

At this point the work is like 99% complete and it should be ready to flip things over THIS MONTH, which is momentous. It's hard to overstate how huge of an undertaking that is. All of the posts, files, threads, history, users accounts etc. needed to be migrated into a totally new database structure, and done in a way that preserves all the records and links as well.

The new platform will make replying to posts, uploading images, scrolling through threads etc. much easier and more convenient. It will also allow adding features that haven't been present (like post feedback), has a much better native mobile device view, and should serve us well into the future. Of course it also means a new interface to get used to, and there will be some things people don't like, but mostly this should be a much appreciated and long overdue update.

 

[justin_le]

Updates to the content layout:  The structure of the various forum topics on ES doesn't always reflect how we want to have posts content organized. There are some categories that are way overused, others that are barely used, and often quite a bit of ambiguity in where a given topic should get posted.

This has been an ongoing point for many years now and there have been quite a few threads on a options for a better category breakdown. We'll be using this migration as an opportunity to finally 'refactor' the discussion categories to better reflect the type of content people post about, and so you will see some previous topics merged together and other content split out into more discrete topics.

However, that also means a lot of existing threads will need to be categorized to properly fit within this 'new' framework. That's a huge job, but Neptronix has created a tool that will enable power users to be able to quickly reassign threads to the right places so that a number of hands can be involved in straightening this out.

Continued focus on purely EV topics: ES had long held a very loose leash when it comes to posting things totally unrelated to ebikes, with an entire section labelled 'toxic discussions' to carry charged debates venturing way off topic. This subsection was removed over a year ago to good effect, and the policy will continue only host on topics that are directly relevant to the goals of the forum. 

 

[justin_le]

At the time of the original forum buyback in 2011, there was a question of everyone simply jumping ship and launching a new forum with a new domain, as endless-sphere.com was simply a relic from the person who hosted the site on a domain intended for his private business. I had proposed offering up ebikes.com for this. To me it was especially special:

a) .com in this case can stand for .community !
b) I liked the idea of taking the most commercially valuable domain in this space and dedicating entirely as a non-commercial info site maintained by users and enthusiasts.
c) As a domain it is no doubt vastly more relevant to DIY ebikes (and other EVs), than the endless-sphere

Anyways when the final buyout happened the transfer of the endless-sphere.com was included, but I hung onto ebikes.com (in spite of countless offers from businesses wanting to snatch it) hoping that one day we could make it into that community homepage for all things DIY ebike and PEV. And I think that time is now!

The endless-sphere has taken on its own name recognition, and I'd like to still tribute to that. Perhaps with the URL for the forum at ebikes.com/sphere, and am open to ideas here.

In any case all links to endless-sphere.com threads will redirect to the associated threads at ebikes.com/sphere

 

[justin_le]

[Reserved]

 

[liveforphysics]

Congratulations my friend, I hope the transition to new software goes smoothly!

Cheers to your family and good luck in e-sailing too!

 

[marty]

The endless-sphere has taken on its own name recognition, and I'd like to still tribute to that. Perhaps with the URL for the forum at ebikes.com/sphere, and am open to ideas here.

If someone is looking for a ebike forum. They might type ebike forum into a search engine. Search engines use spiders to crawl all over the internet looking for what the human typed. All the spiders can do is read text. I know sphere is your forum. You know sphere is your forum. Spiders don't know that. ebikes.com/forum might work better for SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

If a ebike is a electric bicycle. Is a gbike a Gas Bicycle? What is a iPhone?

 

[trazor]

I'm very happy to hear all these new and welcomed improvements.

....
However, that also means a lot of existing threads will need to be categorized to properly fit within this 'new' framework. That's a huge job, but Neptronix has created a tool that will enable power users to be able to quickly reassign threads to the right places so that a number of hands can be involved in straightening this out.
....

That sounds ironic, coming from the operator that let the wiki die abruptly.

 

[goatman]

theres alot more going on than ebikes here but youre the one paying the bills
i guess it will depend on how someones feels posting about boats, motorbikes and cars on an ebike forum
but then again i came here for the ebikes and was drawn into the other topics
You can do it Nep
no pressure
im sure everything wont be deleted if something screws up.

 

[neptronix]

theres alot more going on than ebikes here but youre the one paying the bills
i guess it will depend on how someones feels posting about boats, motorbikes and cars on an ebike forum
but then again i came here for the ebikes and was drawn into the other topics

There will still be room to post about other stuff on ebikes.com.
The plan is:
+ A few more subsections for ebike related things.
- Some consolidation of non-ebike related sections that only got a few hundred posts over the course of our 17 year history.

You can do it Nep
no pressure
im sure everything wont be deleted if something screws up.

I'm not sure if you are being sarcastic or foreboding here.. but the conversion process is fully proven to work at this point!

 

[Two4Seven SuprDan]

Thank you Justin & everyone! If it wasn't for you none of this would be here now. a blessing and a great thing indeed! this forum is legendary in the realm of doers and builders!