Ken mentioned a point that I think many of the folks here missed the magnitude of: one of the top priorities is to save the archived threads and especially save the archived photos.
Someone said that that it all would have been faster if they just started from scratch..."Too Right!!" It would have, and we would be on a really fast and shiney new RCU...unfortunately there would be no archives because just setting up a new site doesn't do squat for preserving over a decade's worth of posts and pictures. Thankfully IB is trying to be faithfull to the "history" within RCU and has not decided to just "start over", but rather do their best to preserve everything to the best of their ability.
How long do you think it takes to transfer over the content of over 15 million posts and a 1/2 of a million photos in the threads alone? Add to that several 10's of thousands of pics in the member galleries, hangars, garages, etc. Not to mention all of the membership data, profiles, market ratings, models, blogs, etc.
Then there are those who don't actually upload their pics to RCU but link them from Photobucket etc, so when you view the thread RCU is having to retrieve those photos on a regular basis and if the account has been wiped, corrupted or otherwise not instantly available then RCU's server is devoting increased resources to try to re-ping the request which takes resources away from active users; and the new servers and the new code has to allow for that feature as well.....the litany goes on.
Just a few items to ponder:
RC Monster Trucks forum; over 826K posts
RC Jets Forum; 789K+ posts
ARF's and RTF's forum; 376K+ posts
Club Saito thread: 972 pages, 25K+ posts, 1.38 MILLION views!
I have a few friends in IT with the banks here in Charlotte and have learned that within the "techie" community the issues here at RCU are known and discussed. The overwhelming consensus is "thank goodness we aren't having to figure out a transfer of that magnitude!!"
The insane thing is; We, as the casual member of this communiy, pay NOTHING for all of this to happen. The entertainment and social/technical tool we have available to us is incredible and we pay NOTHING!
My hat is off to IB for buying this site in the first place, thereby saving it from it's demise years ago; and then trying to save/retain the entirety of the info during a major upgrade in hopes of a decent (not humongous,) return on investment. This entire excercise is no mean feat. And folks want to punish IB, take their ball and go home, for it not being accomplished and perfected "really fast".
And because we aren't given instant gratification, all we can do is cry and moan over OUR inconveinience...WOW!!
Don't think for a minute that I haven't been been right there with you, griping about the whole thing too! Then I mentioned RCU to one of my clients who then "splained the whole thing to me"...He was slack jawed with amazement that IB was even attempting the wholesale transfer at all
AND providing an operating mirror site which is still open, active and growing
at the same time!
Cheers