VAMWorld Migration Update

I've been keeping people on the new VAMWorld discussion board updated with what's going on regarding the sun setting on Wikispaces and the migration of VAMWorld, but I figured I should update people that use the wiki, but not the discussion board.
For those that don't know, Wikispaces, the platform that has hosted VAMWorld for 12 years, is going away at the end of September. I've been moving things to a new platform. The discussion board is already up, using a phpBB-based forum. It's linked from the old VAMWorld site, or is directly accessible with a temporary URL vwtest.varslab.com. The VAMWorld wiki, which comprises about 8000 pages of stuff people have added to VAMWorld, now needs to be moved. I just locked it for editing and downloaded all the pages. Next step is that I have to download all the images stored there that are linked from the pages. I'm estimating a total of 16 GB of data I have to download, and I hope to do this tonight.
The new wiki will be based on the MediaWiki platform, so it will look and behave a lot like Wikispaces, which also uses MediaWiki. I've developed some Python scripts to convert the Wikispaces format of the downloaded pages to Mediawiki, and after a bit of testing, it appears that it will work 99% of the time. The other 1% will probably give us some broken links or funny formatting, but that's resolvable on a page-by-page basis as the problems are discovered. (No, I will not be proof-reading all 8000 pages.) After I import all the pages, I'll have to import all the images. If everything seems to be working after that, the last step will be transferring the vamworld.com domain. My goal is to have this done by the time I leave for the ANA show next Wednesday.
Wish me luck.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Comments
Good luck John and thank you for all that you do!
Thanks for the update! We appreciate all the effort you are putting into this John.
AMEN! Thanks, John.
You, sir, are a Mensch.
I shall name my next child Eratosthenes in your honor.
Primely yours,
George
Absolutely, good luck! Can't wait, use it almost every day!!
bob
Cool! Although I have to wonder if that might get him beaten up.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
@messydesk No more than I did ...
Kind regards,
George
Thanks, that is a lot of effort. It is appreciated.
I appreciate your efforts. I can't wait to spend more time learning about VAMs.
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Thanks, we appreciate all your efforts.
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Man, that is great John. Please do this at a comfortable pace. Thank you so much for stepping up, sharing your talents and time, and most of all your passion into this project!
Immense undertaking! Hope all goes well.
Thank you!!!
Thank you for the update!!!
Thank you for your efforts. Vam World is the heart of Morgan dollar collecting. Best of luck with this.
I don't think we can thank you enough for what you do for our benefit.
Great job.
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain