The technical support on the old forum was really bad (I personally admit it). This wasn't because we didn't care, but because this forum was falling apart and we didn't have enough resource and time to fix it and maintain it.
Here we have years of accumulated plug-ins, quick-fixes, customizations, etc. (all the way from 2005!), with a really huge database (~5GB). Because of the phpbb's complicated system of plug-ins (manually editing files!) updating forum was a real pain in the ass with our set-up... Add to all of this the painful spam issues you were all witness (we tried tenths of different anti-spam methods without success!) and you can understand why the clean start was the only possible outcome. I mean, the last couple of months the site could only function with a closed registration! As a consequence, we were getting numerous mails on a daily base begging to register, or to restore an old account etc.
So we start searching for a new platform which will have strength where this platform utterly failed:
* good anti-spam system built-in,
* easy maintenance,
* usable on every (modern) device.
On a top of that, we needed some other requirements (free software platform, the possibility of transferring old accounts, flexible categorization of topics, active community etc.). So our choice was Discourse. We do know that there are some downsides, but inside defined constraints it was a really good option.
And here we are: closing this forum and migrating to a new one. Of course there will be plenty of room for improvements, but now we are not imprisoned by trivial and cumbersome things. DSF is dead, long live DSF!
Now you can freely join our new forum:
community.dsf.ninja.
A neutron walks into a bar; he asks the bartender, 'How much for a beer?' The bartender looks at him, and says 'For you, no charge.'
