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The Anonymous problem in phpBB conversion

candymancandyman ✭✭
edited August 2010 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8
I'm tryin' to switch from phpBB2 to Vanilla2.
I've a lot of post of deleted users (people that wanted to be cancelled): in phpBB their posts remain with the name of the authors, after the conversion, in Vanilla all these posts are by "Anonymous": the reader knows that they were written by a cancelled user but doesn't know what his/her nick was... How can avoid this? Thanks in advance.

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    ToddTodd Chief Product Officer Vanilla Staff
    That may be something to look into. Can you create a github issue?
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    candymancandyman ✭✭
    edited August 2010
    Sure.
    I've upgraded from phpBB2 to phpBB3 before migrating: I'll check the problem is not due to the version upgrade, first to investigate Vanilla... :P
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    candymancandyman ✭✭
    edited August 2010
    I've another doubt: that the Comments by deleted users (by Anonymous) aren't counted properly: I've migrated a +100000 posts forum and now I've got a 95000ca posts forum in Vanilla. I'll check this is due to Vanilla and not to phpBB3 upgrade as well before creating a github issue.
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    tmilovantmilovan New
    No, it counts fine.

    I had the sam situation and foun out that discussion starting posts are counted as discussions and are substracted from post total. You can confirm this by substracting discussions number from phpbb total number of posts.
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    LincLinc Detroit Admin
    edited August 2010
    Yeah, @tmilovan nailed it. I carefully calculated the difference on my import to confirm that's what was happening.

    @Todd, we talked about this briefly once (or maybe it was with @Mark when you were deciding how to deal with deleting users). Other software products let you keep a name associated with each comment even if the UserID gets deleted. Interesting pros & cons to it. On one hand it causes a lot of redundant data, but have you ever tried to read a discussion with 2 deleted users? :)

    My main concern is that it doesn't allow anonymous comments without a field like that. I use my forum to power my WordPress comments, so the ability to store more user data per post is a change I'm going to be making to my install.
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    candymancandyman ✭✭
    @tmilovan was right. The number of post doesn't keep the one which start the discussion: will this be corrected or remain in this way? It's not so important, anyway.

    @Lincoln: I've never thounght about redundant data: I've thought was about an error during the conversion. It's a pity 'cause, in my forum, some users were banned just because of content of certain posts. Signing this content with a generic
    "Anonymous" is a solution that does not fit in my case.
    Can I do something on phpBB database before migrating?
    Unfotunately these users was not banned but cancelled.

    Thanks in advance.
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    ToddTodd Chief Product Officer Vanilla Staff
    I think having the redundant data is something we'll have to give serious consideration to for core.

    In the mean time @candyman, I would consider restoring the deleted usernames from phpbb to the GDN_User.Name column so their posts show up. If you want some guidance with this let me know.
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    candymancandyman ✭✭
    Unfortunately I need some help: if I've understood well, I have to reactivate the deleted users... but the DB is huge and I don't know from where to start.

    Then I will have to ban the deleted users in Vanilla, won't I?
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    candymancandyman ✭✭
    Somebody can help me to write an easy script to recreate deleted users only if they have posted something (at least 1 message) in phpBB? I know, it's better to ask in a phpBB-related forum... but I think it isn't an elegant move 'cause I'm leaving phpBB... ;)
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