Migration update: IMPORTANT DATES

TuDiabetes Website
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Hey all,

We're in the home stretch of our great migration to a brand new home (see the initial announcement of this move)!! Starting now, I'll post an update on our progress each week until the new site launches, including important things for you to know and prepare for. Today's update: Important Dates.

April 6: we will begin the process of downloading the content from the site we're on right now (built on a Ning platform) and uploading it into the new platform, which will be a combination of WordPress and Discourse. Some things will not come with us, including photos and many of the videos in our video archive.

Content added to the Ning site after April 6th will, unfortunately, not be ported into the new site. This is due to the process of downloading content from Ning and uploading it into Discourse. As a result, all content posted between April 6 and the new site launch will disappear once we move to the new site. However we will still be moderating member participation as closely as ever, and all our Community Values and Terms of Service still apply during this period.

April 20: our new site will officially launch! On that date, when you go to www.TuDiabetes.org you will automatically be directed to our beautiful new home. If you have uploaded photos or videos to the Ning site that you don't want to lose, please download and save them onto your computer before April 19th. After this date it will still be possible to retrieve things from the Ning site for a few more weeks, but it will not be as easy.

We will not be approving new members during the period from April 6 to April 19, but will ask new folks to submit an e-mail address so we can contact them once the new site is launched, with an invitation to apply for membership there.

May 8: the TuDiabetes site that is currently built on the Ning platform will be shut down permanently. This means that May 8 is the very last possible day for you to come back here to save any photos or videos that you have uploaded in the past, which did not come with us to the new site. For more information about what will and will not come with us to the new site, please read the Migration FAQ.

Read more posts about what will be different about our new home, how it will look, etc:

Big Changes are Coming for TuDiabetes!

Features that Will Change

Features Gained

New Forum Structure

Screen Shots of New Pages

Migration FAQ

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Thank you for the update ... looking forward to the new Tu!

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Thanks for the timing update, Emily.

I never got an answer to my question of how to have my personal sign in page be one with all the latest posts in all categories which I currently do by clicking on the "forum" tab.

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Hey Zoe,

Please see my response here: https://forum.tudiabetes.org/topics/migration-update-screen-shots-of-new-pages?commentId=583967%3AComment%3A3654867 :)

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Thanks, Emily!

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Emily, I'm not quite clear on the timeline for the migration of the user accounts to the new site.

Clearly, the intent is that every account created before April 6 will be working on the new site by the April 20'th cutoff, correct? But will the current general users be allowed to electively start using the new site before the April 20'th mandated change?

I was also wondering if there are plans to test/debug the new user signup process during the migration interlude period. Would it make any sense to offer folks who to sign up between April 6 to 20 the option of either waiting for the "It's ready!" email or to participate in using the new site on a beta basis?

If given the choice I would expect most people would wait for the 20'th. But you might learn something if some brave new souls volunteer to beta test the account creation process on the new site.

Is notification about the impending site migration automagically tossed in the general direction of the new folks who may create accounts before the interlude period begins on April 6'th? Granted they probably should see the news on the site itself. But they might also miss it because the site is new to them and they are still feeling their way around.

-iJohn

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OMG its coming soon! cant wait, this is gonna be awesome!!!

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Thanks for the update! I'm looking forward to seeing how the new site works in action!

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Not to open up a can of worms, but after the migration is completed, will we all be immigrants? [INSERT GROAN] :O

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Hi iJohn,

Thanks for the good questions! You are correct that the plan is for members who join the community before April 6 to automatically be ported into the new site. Unfortunately it's looking like there will not be an opportunity for members to try out the new site in advance of the official launch. We had hoped for a working beta site that interested members could play with pre-launch, but that hasn't come together. However, there is a possibility that the new site will be ready to launch earlier then April 20th, and we'll all start using it as soon as it's ready. The April 20 date has a lot of time built into it in case our developers run into any last-minute glitches in the process of migrating our archived content from the Ning site to the new one.

You raise a good thought about testing the new user signup process and pre-launch site, but we don't want brand new members to be our guinea pigs if we can avoid it. The concern is that it could create a lot of confusion for new users. So instead we'll be testing and debugging the user signup process ourselves (DHF staff and TuDiabetes administrative volunteers), pre-launch.

Great point about warning brand new folks that we're moving soon! I'm going to add a message to that effect to the new member welcome message I send out. Thanks for the suggestion!

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... in case our developers run into any last-minute glitches in the process of migrating our archived content from the Ning site to the new one.

Oh, I would almost bet that last-minute glitches will definitely happen. And when/if it does happen there is also a very good chance folks will look around at each other muttering, "Why didn't we take that into consideration?"

It's the nature of projects like this. It's like physically moving to a new residence. You don't really have an adequate understanding of just how much ju ... uh, STUFF, nay Precious Treasures you've accumulated over the years until the day you actually get around to picking it up and moving it. No? ;-)

Have fun! Talk at you again in a few months when you might have time for it again.

-iJohn

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... we don't want brand new members to be our guinea pigs if we can avoid it.


In hindsight I think my point was that you simply can not avoid making the newbies your new sign up guinea pigs. You'll be limited to the extent you can test the process yourself, so, if possible, better to ask for volunteers.

The problem one always runs into when doing in house testing is that you know to at least some extent how things are supposed to work. But the bugs you are likely to encounter will be ones where you scratch your head and say to yourself, "Huh.Why on earth would anyone ever think to try doing it THAT way?"

The problem with knowing something is that it can be very hard to impossible to put your stupid hat back on again.

Oh, well. It is what it is and we do what we can. For me at least it will all be fun. (But perhaps that's a part of why I live with cats instead of people?)

-iJohn

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Good points, iJohn! I guess we are all going to be guinea pigs, in a sense.

Don't underestimate my ability to put on my "stupid hat" in questions of technology ;) Thank goodness for our tech-savvy members and volunteers who will help us figure things out!

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I,m already very confused

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I'm already very confused

If you would like some feedback to your post & possibly your confusion, I feel it would help if you could give a bit more detail about what confuses you.

Does the current way TuDiabetes works also confuse you?

Can you give at least one example of how either the migration or the new platform confuses you?

I guess I'm confused by your confusion. ;-)

-iJohn

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Let,s wait & see how things look & feel

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Shoshana, just know we are all here for you to make this change as easy as possible for you! we will come and dig you out wherever you get stuck, dont worry!
hugs <3

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Thanks Swiss
I don,t plan to go that deep

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Yesterday I backed up all my photos that I don't already have in my pictures folder in my computer.