Greetings. /qa/ probably isn't the right board to post this on, but I'm at the end of my rope here.
I adopted an imageboard last year after the Admin decided he was done with the internet in general. I've moderated the board since 2016 and it has over 10 years of history. It's a small site, but it means the world to me and a few other guys on the internet who don't have many other places to go.
I am completely unqualified to do the technical duties of an Admin however. The board runs some version of NPFChan which was installed as an upgrade to Vichan. I've tried setting up a local install of either one but the process escapes me. Configuring databases? No idea what that means or even how to go about learning it. I'm not going to say the instructions are vague, because really the whole process of getting a board package online would be trivial to anyone with a hobbyist understanding of system administration. But that's not me, and I have no idea where to even start.
So I ask, can anyone recommend some basic instructional guides, books, videos or whatever, that will give me the knowledge to at least competently migrate the entirety of the site to a new host? The board is falling apart at the seams due to AWS not permitting us to upgrade our disk size (Fuck AWS in general; learning webdev is hard enough without AWS's pajeet approach to hosting), and we're facing waves of gorespam at the hands of some guy with unlimited VPNs. Even our captcha implementation is disfunctional. Why? I don't know, and I don't know how to know.
If there is no hope for my dumb ass to figure things out, are there at least some trustworthy developers anyone here knows who I may be able to pay to look in to things? I'm not asking for new features, I just want the built-in spam protection to function as it should. I've been contacted by others and have sought help before, but every time it ends up being some depressed man in a dress who wants full access to the site so he can nuke it in the name of homosexualism or something.
I want a Trixie plush.
-Badmin
/qa/ - Questions and Answers
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>>8069
Moving to a new host should be pretty straight forward.
1. Download all files from current host using FTP
2. Export the database using phpMyAdmin
2.1. In phpMyAdmin Click on the database left hand pane
2.2. Click Export in top row mid pane and then the Export button
3. Upload files to new host using FTP
4. Create database (MySQL) on new host (if not already created)
5. Go to the database on new host using phpMyAdmin
6. In phpMyAdmin Click on the database left hand pane
6.1. Click on Import in top row mid pane
6.2. Add the file you Exported in "File to import:" and click Import button
7. Edit the config file in `inc/config.php`
7.2. Go to the " * Database settings" section and fill in correct info for new host database
8. Change the DNS setting for domain
8.1. If using Cloudflare go to Cloudflare and change the IP for the domain to the new host
8.2. If not using Cloudflare go to the domain registrar and change DNS setting to point to new host IP
8.3. The DNS change can take some time if not using Cloudflare unless you have set DNS to be updated every 5 minutes or so in DNS setting
Side-Note: Make sure the new host have all the PHP packages it need - usually it has them by default but just be aware in case NPFChan starts to complain when doing certain operations.
To test prior to switch just wait with changing DNS and visit the new host site using IP or temp-/alternative domain you set up.
Moving to a new host should be pretty straight forward.
1. Download all files from current host using FTP
2. Export the database using phpMyAdmin
2.1. In phpMyAdmin Click on the database left hand pane
2.2. Click Export in top row mid pane and then the Export button
3. Upload files to new host using FTP
4. Create database (MySQL) on new host (if not already created)
5. Go to the database on new host using phpMyAdmin
6. In phpMyAdmin Click on the database left hand pane
6.1. Click on Import in top row mid pane
6.2. Add the file you Exported in "File to import:" and click Import button
7. Edit the config file in `inc/config.php`
7.2. Go to the " * Database settings" section and fill in correct info for new host database
8. Change the DNS setting for domain
8.1. If using Cloudflare go to Cloudflare and change the IP for the domain to the new host
8.2. If not using Cloudflare go to the domain registrar and change DNS setting to point to new host IP
8.3. The DNS change can take some time if not using Cloudflare unless you have set DNS to be updated every 5 minutes or so in DNS setting
Side-Note: Make sure the new host have all the PHP packages it need - usually it has them by default but just be aware in case NPFChan starts to complain when doing certain operations.
To test prior to switch just wait with changing DNS and visit the new host site using IP or temp-/alternative domain you set up.
>>8080
Might add step that you need to install and set up webserver Apache or Nginx if not already set up on new host.
Might add step that you need to install and set up webserver Apache or Nginx if not already set up on new host.
>>8069
When it comes to spam it is hard to combat and you just have to try to set auto ban and such. As an example even Google and YouTube is incapable of fighting spam so it is a complex problem.
Why captcha don't work I'm not sure about. To speculate it could be that NPFChan is using an old version of reCaptcha that Google have retired and no longer support (Google have a long history of abandoning thigs willy-nilly and older stuff). It has been a while since I worked with that code so I don't remember which captcha method it used, so I'm guessing from looking at the config file.
When it comes to spam it is hard to combat and you just have to try to set auto ban and such. As an example even Google and YouTube is incapable of fighting spam so it is a complex problem.
Why captcha don't work I'm not sure about. To speculate it could be that NPFChan is using an old version of reCaptcha that Google have retired and no longer support (Google have a long history of abandoning thigs willy-nilly and older stuff). It has been a while since I worked with that code so I don't remember which captcha method it used, so I'm guessing from looking at the config file.