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Forums Migration Update

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122 comments

  • ciao70

    Hi cPRex,

    In my profile I am a member of November 2023, in reality I joined the forum in 2006. :)  (No emoticons? :))

    Thanks

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    No emoticons are available for reactions like in Xenforo.

    I'm not sure there is anything we can do about the member dates, unfortunately.  It defaults to the date of the account creation in Zendesk and there isn't trickery we can do to make it go to pre-zendesk times.  Even with our admin accounts the oldest date you'll find is 2019.  I'd really like those to be there, but it just doesn't seem to be something we'll get.

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  • ffeingol

    cPanel learning the joy of hosted applications where you don't have access to the database back end.  Priceless :-)

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  • Metro2

    ciao70 - I joined in 2006 as well (maybe earlier, since I've been running cPanel since around 1999) and at first I was a little disappointed to see this new place showing me as joining in 2020, but after a few minutes it was just "meh... doesn't really matter". What I definitely will miss is the advantages of a real forum ;)

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    UPDATE - the old link mapping project hit a small snag so it's not getting finished today.  We're hoping to have it done tomorrow, but I'll be sure to update things when that happens!

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  • KJ

    Hey cPRex

    In your name, i'd like to thank all the cPanel team for trying constantly to bring us new, more modern content and technologies! Really appreciate your hard work! :)

    Regarding the change, it will have a learning curve as every change. I won't judge if this was a good or not move. We are also using Zendesk since 2016-2017 for ourselves. Zendesk has some pretty serious limitations comparing to Xenforo in regards to the community management and running. This is why, correct me if i'm wrong, large companies like you don't tend to use it for community management. Zendesk is very good for ticketing and other stuff, but not for forums.

    Considering you made the change, what i'd like to suggest is that you push Zendesk, considering you have the power for such "push", to change their community handling services to deliver better results. Right now, as everyone understands, there are limitations comparing to Xenforo that many of us miss. With this opportunity, i hope that Zendesk will deliver on your requests for a forum-like environment. At least imho, it's another thing for cPanel to ask you something and another thing for the "Zendesk community" to ask you something.

    Best of luck for your new beginning :)

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  • Emil Vals

    What a mess this is, you ruined perfectly good forum with this move. I had to register a new account because this damn system does not send out new password when requesting new password. This is a major downgrade in my opinion. Awful.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    KJ - we definitely are doing just that!

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  • ffeingol

    Some observations after using this for a few days now

    • No indication on the index page that you have unread replies in posts
    • The right sidebar/bottom of the index page are not great for seeing new posts/replies and they show very few.
    • When you go into a thread to see new replies, it takes you to the first post, not your first unread

    Don't mean to be negative, but this is going to make it harder to participate/reply to people.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    ffeingol - the lack of indication is global, unfortuantely.  I have/am still opening cases with Zendesk to see about improving and adding features.

    I have a plan to adjust the bottom section for new posts.  You can click the "see more" button on the bottom and that's what I have been using to see all the new things, but I have a tweak in mind that would make things easier.  I'm not actually sure if it's possible yet, but we'll see.

    I have a case opened on the thread not going to the unread post.

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  • lmstearn

    Hi cPrex,

    Still not seeing all my posts in the profile, specifically all of the replies to this one:

    https://forums.cpanel.net/posts/3018529/

    https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/redirect-rewriterule-different-browsers.716033/

    And the introductory one before this thread:

    https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/make-your-introduction-here.187781/

    Also the necro to the following post:

    https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/problem-moving-my-database-to-a-new-server.416332/

     

    Thanks very much for looking into this, do Zendesk say the migrations have completed?

    Cheers.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    I can't do anything using the old URLs, so I am not sure what those posts are.  It's best to search the subject line at the top of this page if you know the subject of old links.

    The migration was completed before we switched the DNS over, but we still haven't finished the mapping from old links to new.

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  • Bogdan I.

    I'm not really active on the forums myself, but this is such a downgrade.

    Never really liked the text editor on Zendesk on the rare occasion that I do submit a support ticket.

    WYSIWYG editors have always been terrible, there's a reason other services around the web have moved away from it... Can we have Markdown support?

    Also, what is up with the page count? The page count is gone everywhere. It's now just a "Next" or "Previous" button. You can't even tell how long a thread is.

    What's up with the post dates? It's all relative times. Now I have to calculate when 1 year and 5 months ago means... 

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  • mtindor

    There just has to be somebody on these forums, and even AT cPanel, who thinks these new forums are garbage.   You can't find anything.  New Posts since last visit do not stand out.   All of the historical knowledge passed along on the forums is gone.   How in the world could anybody think this was a good idea?   And what in the world did somebody at cPanel think was so wrong with the existing forums?

    What we have now is not forum software.   The only thing this change accomplishes is that cPanel staff do not have to monitor it anymore because nobody wants to post.   What a setback.    The featureset is like 1/10th (or less) than the old forums.   It's like stepping back 20 years.

     

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  • WorkinOnIt

    I think this decision is a mistake from cpanel and another example of blatantly riding roughshod over customer wishes (we didn't even get a vote!).  It seems the cPanel / WHM server software could be equally at risk from poor decision making too?   

    I can see the benefit of having support tickets and forum posts connected - but you can do it using Discourse too.  In comparison, Cloudflare and Virtualmin moved to Discourse which I find really useful and easy to use:  https://forum.virtualmin.com/t/what-forum-module-applicaiotn-does-virtualmin-use/118166

    At least restore the old posts and get rid of this sickly gray (depressing)

     

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  • lmstearn

    cPRex, thanks for the response - the topic I responded to was a 2014 post entitled  "Problem moving my database to a new server" was of the impression I had located it in the Databases forum, right now the oldest posts go back only six years. It still exists in a Google Cache, the most recent reply is missing from that as well.

    https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:mCAuOBTZBRYJ:https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/problem-moving-my-database-to-a-new-server.416332/&hl=en&gl=au

    There were also other missing responses to this thread:

    https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us/community/posts/19362521352727-Redirect-RewriteRule-Different-Browsers

    There is a cache of that with also responses missing.

    https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:l-7jVG3_NqYJ:https://forums.cpanel.net/threads/redirect-rewriterule-different-browsers.716033/&hl=en&gl=au

    Note the "Quote" tags are not parsed.

    The other topic was Make your introduction here..., sadly all those are gone as well.

    Thanks.

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  • rainboy

    Another failed attempt by cPanel, ever did hear of a roll back if something is not working. 

    - Can't search the forms, because if you use the link it will try to go to the OLD forums and doesnt let you search

    - Can't use google to find anything (SEO is now completely broken for cpanel too,i am glad its not my employee, lets leave it at that.

    and .. well, as everyone knows zendesk is shit. 

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  • clopezi

    Honestly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to understand this move from a company with polished software like cPanel.

    Did anyone try this before the switch or did the new owners just not care at all? The community is an important part of what cPanel is all about...

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  • kdean

    This change is pure garbage and everyone at cPanel should be embarrassed. This is not a real modern robust forum. Doesn't keep you logged in. Doesn't give you any indication of new posts or read posts. Nothing is easy to use or find regarding my prior posts.

    Tried editing my Profile to change my photo and that doesn't even work. Click and nothing happens.

    This is amateurish at best and seems to be just a way for cPanel staff to be lazier and not have to keep apprised with what the userbase is discussing unless it's forced into something more akin to a support ticket system where features are non-existing and not required.

    Likely also a way to cut down on cPanel staff, just you unfortunate workers haven't been informed you're on the way to being laid off.

    Welcome to Baby's First Forum.

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  • Bogdan I.

    This is not really a forum.

    This is a ticket system that dreams of being a forum.

    Some "product manager" saw the "forum" description and they decided that it's enough for that checkbox to be filled in.

    You can't even quote someone's post (in full or partial). 

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  • ITHKBO

    cPRex
    Is there a shareable list available of features that we gained, lost and are still planned with the new forum as normal user?  Before we start reporting bugs that are infact simply lost features we are going have to live with.

    Also are we correct in that the create ticket from post function is disabled at the moment or is this a function only allowed for staff? Submit ticket simply goes to https://support.cpanel.net/hc/en-us  Which has not made the procedure to create a ticket any different.

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    Hey everyone!  Thanks for all the feedback over the weekend.  I'll address these in a list below to ensure I get everything I can.

    mtindor - The "new posts since last visit" issue is also something I miss.  I reached out to Zendesk and created this case with their team:

    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/6447202432026-When-a-user-clicks-a-thread-they-have-already-replied-to-it-takes-them-to-the-top-and-not-the-first-undread-post

    so hopefully they'll be able to tweak that.  I do like their features of "official comment" so it pins things to the top of the reply list.  In the mean time, I've just been going to the bottom of the home page, clicking the "See More" button a few times so it goes back 24 hours, and then reading through all those.  So far, that has kept me from missing anything new.

    There are internal benefits for us to using this tool instead of Xenforo.  The option for administrators to create a ticket as well as the "similar threads" recommendations that appear are both very helpful features to have.

    Like I mentioned earlier, are are planning to add more data to include information from pre-2018.  We just wanted to make sure this initial batch of data was working properly, as well as the old link mapping, before we proceeded with a, potentially, even larger data migration.

    Unnamed user - would you believe it's the exact same gray as the old forums?  We pulled the hex color value of the gray background and moved it here.  What IS missing from this is the lighter gray delineation around each block of text - we're going to see if we can spiff this up a bit.

    lmstearn - thanks, that makes sense to me.  Only modern threads, not just replies in them, were moved over.  We ran into some issues with the "Make your introduction here" thread as it has over 5000 posts, but that's on the agenda for tomorrow.

    rainboy - I'm not seeing any issues with the search at this time.  All my searches point to the new cPanel Forums.  If there are pre-2018 posts, as of this time those have not been moved, but newer search results should point to their respective page here.

    clopezi - Yes, there was extensive testing done before the switch.  As with any major migration, we hit a few glitches, but I am extremely happy with how the work went.  If you have specific complaints, I'm happy to see what I can do!

    kdean - Ultimately, I think I might agree that it's "not a forum" - Zendesk markets this as a "community" and with the ability to link to our internal ticket system and article system, I think that's a good description.

    The one thing I didn't hear back on over the weekend was the avatars, but I'm still looking into that.

    I also promise this isn't some weird way of cutting staff, and I'm not really sure what that means.  I'm not going anywhere, and I'm alway here for your feedback.  Ultimately, you're typing to me, I'm typing back, an we're interacting in a community and that's what matters.

    Bogdan I. - see the kdean reply above, mostly.  Yes, I hate the quote thing too, and I'm going to reach out to them as soon as I'm doe typing this reply to see if there is something they can do with that.

    ITHKBO - I haven't sat down and made such a list yet, although I suppose I could?  The create ticket function is reserved for admins, as that'll be up to me to decide when that happens.

    The function itself is actually very cool, both for us internally and for the public.  When we create a ticket, the post doesn't get removed but a banner gets added to the post showing the ticket number.  On my end, I can click the link and get taken directly to our side of the ticket system - the end user gets taken to their side.  This allows me to track the issue without having to do a bunch of manual work on my end, and then when the ticket is resolved I can post a summary like I usually do.

    In general though, what you see available is what we have - they aren't any tools that we just aren't enabling on our side.

    EVERYONE: You guys all know me by now, and I'm here for you.  I'm not going anywhere, and I'll be here to take your feedback. 

    2
  • rainboy

    incorrect, search gives a Oops in many links, there is even no search button on ANY screen, except a link to a google search on the main 'cough' forum page (which is not working most of the time and going to an oops page) 

    i would expect a search on the forum,. but also sub forums at the most basic need for any forum.

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  • EthernetServers

    cPRex - I appreciate all the work you're putting in here :)

    Whilst change is very often a shock to the system, online or otherwise, it happens all around us, every second of the day, and there were always going to be things that need tweaking, but it's clear to me you're listening and on-board, and that's fabulous.

    I know there's plenty of companies that would have rolled out such changes, made an announcement and left it at that - no care for user feedback. An attitude of "if you don't like it, you know where the door is".

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  • cPRex Jurassic Moderator

    rainboy - there is a search bar on the top of every page - are you not seeing that?  Any search results that lead to an "oops" page are likely pre-2018 and data we haven't imported yet.

    EthernetServers - thanks!

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  • EthernetServers

    Glad to see the Jurassic Moderator is back in business ;)

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  • rainboy

    @cPRex found it, but seems i was always scrolled down a bit and did not notice it.

     

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  • WorkinOnIt

    @... thanks for keeping us updated - 

    1. Why the heck am I unnamed user ????  How do I get my profile back?  I tried the edit section but nowhere to change it and restore all my information, lost / gone.

    2. "here's the case for that quoting behavior I created just now - https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/6457749302938-Improved-quote-function-for-Zendesk-Community"

    Jeepers!  You are using "feature requests" ?  Sorry to sound morose, but - well, if they are anything like cPanel, we will be waiting a very long time.  I call it the "ideas graveyard" - not much really gets done, though cPanel is definitely faster than e.g. WHMCS, it's still pretty depressing.  We (the cPanel faithful) are still waiting +10 years now, for an update on Active Active Redundancy.

    3. My other concern is that as you are largely the only cPanel tech on the forums these days, all this transferring and updating nonsense is taking you away from answering pressing functionality questions.  Who is active in the forum now that you are managing a data migration project ??

    4. FYI here is a screenshot of the old forum the background is #fff and much easier for readability.

    Also - I don't know if it is just me but why is this forum not wide - it seems there is space for a sidebar on the right, but nothing in there....  Better to stretch it across?

     

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  • SimpleSonic

    The lack of contrast on this new forum is definitely not easy on the eyes or appealing :(

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