Controlling What Gets Converted

[aegersz]

it is possible that i may have to merge a huge vBulletin database in with my existing system.

is it relatively easy or is a potential nightmare ?

i was wondering about the forums, the child boards and the members.

it would be nicer to keep it all as an archive - is that possible ?

[margarett]

it is possible that i may have to merge a huge vBulletin database in with my existing system.

Great idea!

is it relatively easy or is a potential nightmare ?

You can't really tell until you try. I'm sorry but it's just how it is. I converted vB forums with click-click-click (and wait ) while others took HOURS of work: try, fix the converter, try, fix the converter, ......
Converters are really tricky pieces of software and all it takes is a slight variation of the origin database (comparing to what the converter is expecting) to make it fail.
What is your vB version?

i was wondering about the forums, the child boards and the members.

The converter usually converts: members, categories, boards, topics/posts, avatars and attachments. But it depends on the converter, really. Permissions are never migrated, there are just too many variations to make it possible.

it would be nicer to keep it all as an archive - is that possible ?

The converter always cleans any existing content. So you need to do the conversion to an empty database and then maybe you can try to merge both forums together --> http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=513684.0

[aegersz]

thank you for that reply.

if we manage to acquire a fairly large (7000+ members alone), I would prefer it's own database and keep my current system isolated.

are there any issues running two lots of SMF and even if one is a different version ?

is it just a matter if installing into another subdir ?

[margarett]

Yup. Different folder and database, done

[aegersz]

lovely. I think that's it's vB 4 or 5 system.

all this is very tentative but it's comforting that I have the support of you guys, if you're not sick of me yet.

I reckon that SMF is the best software - I did my research and chose it over vB and phpbb !

thanks guys - my membership base is not your regular bunch of guys - they are a difficult crowd but I have built a little ark for them since their original forum has shutdown, with the administrator/owner running off and spending the donations leaving a very fractured community that I'm trying to rebuild.