I think I’m ready, or as ready as I’ll ever be to migrate to Discourse. There is still work to be done but a lot of that can be done once we’re using the new system so there’s no reason to delay further. The plan is as follows:
Some time tomorrow (Tuesday 7th March 2023) morning (UK/UTC time) I will put this forum into Maintenance mode. That will lock you out. I will then do a final migration of data from this forum into Discourse. That will take about 2.5 hours. I’ll then do a final check to make sure that things are OK. If there are no show stoppers I’ll move the current forum away somewhere safe and replace it with the redirection script. Once I’ve done that if you try to access https://www.weather-watch.com/smf/ you’ll be redirected to the new forum. I’ve no better way to let you know that the new forum is ready to use other than opening it up for access and having you trying to access it. You will be able to log in with your existing username and password. A that point you can swap your saved URL for the forum to the new URL.
I’ve deliberately not given exact timings for any steps because some steps might take longer than I expect and I’m not 100% sure what time I’ll be able to start in the morning.
See you on the other side!