I'm not sure how much control we'll get over the layout. I'll look into it.
Hey Lumbago, how are you? I'm seeing lots of familiar names in this process 
I've updated my earlier post (not sure if that is obvious if you've already read it). Old forum used to set the "date" on the thread to "now" if an old post was re-edited, so maybe my editing it brings it to light ...
(By the by, if not, then is there a risk that spammers go back and re-edit old threads to add LINKs? Maybe spam is now impossible? --- Ah! and I've just seen a herd of pigs flying past my window 
)
I haven't explored it fully, but clearly there is a lot of control over "tracking" of threads:
(Just dragged that image from my Windows Explorer into the Reply box, previously tried that via the IMAGE toolbar icon, which also works, but clearly very easy to just drag & drop into a reply)
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@Kristen, covering off on a few of your points....
I think as people get more posts on here we'll be able to explore better tools to recognize valuable contributors. One thing that people can do is like a post. I'm curious how that will play out.
(And I just noticed I can scroll the thread while typing a response. That's handy!)
The link from the old forums to here is going up this morning.
I was also looking for a way to make the reply box bigger. Thanks for finding that!
I think that posting code will be pretty easy:
SELECT *
FROM dbo.MyTable
WHERE Formatted=1
Highlight it and hit control-K.
I notice I can edit a TITLE, change a CATEGORY and add (maybe change, didn't dare try!!!) TAGS. not sure whether I have just acquired that ability, through "activity count", or because you have set me to a privileges user, but either way I think it is an excellent feature. I don't feel anal about fixing these things, and my abillity to sell correctly is limited to what my spell checker spots - which of course does not include spelt-correctly but used-wrongly but I'm happy to fix the occasionaly thing, particularly that a foreigner might mis-type in a Title.
Re: Importing old threads.
Is that something I could help with? I'm sure you are far more able than me, and know the new forum already, but we do a lot of data gathering from clients' sources that are not fit for anything!! and I'd be happy to explore exporting from SQL database into the format that you need for import. Let me know if you think there is any mileage in that? (I'm thinking of sorting any LINKs back to SQLTEAM threads, changing [B] to two-stars and all that sort of stuff.
I think I could do with writing an Aunt Sally on features available here. I wanted STRIKEOUT earlier, which is not in the Toolbar (that I could see) but might well be in the formatter's abilities. I'll have a go at an INFO post when I have a moment
Me again!
If someone posts some CODE which includes TABS etc can I then edit the post and Control-K that bit to convert it to [CODE] formatting?
We got a lot of "unformatted" posts but when I actually pressed REPLY all the TABS etc were there but often the only reply was a "Please format your code" ...
If someone wants to post some code that contains TABs but without using the </> [CODE} formatting option I'll find out if I can apply that to their post ...
I increased your "trust level". That grants you the ability to do some basic editing. It's normally something that is granted with activity. But having 22,000+ posts on the old forum should count for something
I'll do that for some of our other long-time regulars here too.
Let me think on the importing. The challenge is that it's a hosted platform so we don't have direct database access.
Just in case I wasn't clear, I was just thinking about exporting from existing SQL database - exporting to some format that the new system allows to import from (assuming such already exists). Could be CSV or XML, whatever.
(I'm also assuming you'd be happy for me to have access to the existing SQL DB, or you could shove the relevant tables for POSTS / THREADS etc. into a cut-down DB for me to then work from).
Yep, that's exactly what I was considering doing. The more I thought about the less simple it turned out to be.
If you can point me at the Import format that Discourse needs I'll let you know whether I have stuff in my grab-bag that might enable me to do anything useful, or whether I should just slink off with my tail between my legs!
I don't know where the import format is. You may be able to find it on their site at www.discourse.org. I may have found it at some point but I don't recall. I seem to remember it had a lot of Ruby coding involved.
Just for completeness:
User Import Script
discussed here:
(its the next post AFTER that one - for some reason the permalink to /22270/14 seems to just redirect to /22270/13 )
"Migrating to Discourse from another Forum software" discussion (Jun-2014)
The canned solutions, for popular come-from Forums, seem to require restoring a local copy of the (e.g. MySQL) database and then the import runs direct-from-SQL. Can't see me getting rich writing a Snitz-to-Discourse APP and selling it for $0.99 
I haven't uncovered if there is a CSV / XML / JSON file format available as yet. I reckon next-step will be fastest if I register on Discourse Meta and ask "How To".
It's nice not having to calculate time difference to my local time 
Have been waiting for this feature on the old forum for a long time.
Things I really like are:
Remembers where in each thread I have read upto.
Allows me to Ignore Categories / Threads that are not of interest
Excellent editing tools for reply, maximising the help that I can give in the time that I have available
The Image Upload facilities are First Rate, although not particularly relevant for SQL Subject matter (and I do worry that people will upload Screen Shots of SSMS listings of data etc. instead of Sample Data which people here can use to simulate a user's problem ... we'll see on that one
I haven't really looked at it closely, but it seems to me that the "open"and "uncluttered" formatting style of this forum would mean that it would be suitable for an initial BLOG-type article, with follow-up discussion. I find that long posts read really easily ...
Posting date is good too - mm/dd/yyyy is ambiguous and non-intuitive for those of us on the right side of the pond!
Showing change-history will be good for those prats that think they should delete their post after getting an answer, thereby mucking up the thread.
I expect that TAGs will help slice & dice the threads ... and the fact that trusted members can edit them to tidy them up should help with consistency, particularly for Newbies who can't be expected to know best-practice. A bit of effort by the regulars here should mean that Google indexes the site well, which bodes well for Graz retiring rich after selling SQL Team on eBay 
looks good
Here is my first post - I am alive
Just a thought: If old forums are closed for new registrations and perhaps closed for new threads (you may be at that stage already), but if you leave them open for replies that would mean that I could use EDIT on the old forum to get the actual "source" of one of my posts (including [CODE] tags and all), and then I could cut & paste that into a new thread here. There may be a number of threads where that is worth me doing (maybe others too? Madhi's insanely popular Excel thread for example ) If the old forum moves to READ ONLY then I can only cut & paste the displayed text, without any formatting [tags]
The old forums allow reply to existing threads and you should be able to edit any of your old posts.
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Yup that works fine thanks Graz, was just hoping you might leave it like that for !quite some time" so that cherished posts, that it turns out are relevant over here, could be harvested 
It will stay that way for a long time. At some point a few months down the road I may restrict the ability to reply to existing threads.
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