Feasibility of converting a phpBB 1.x.x board to a phpBB 3.3.x board?

[boringusername]

So, for context, I'm just a user of a seldom-used, rather old forum which still uses phpBB 1.x.x, and I'm ultimately trying to work out what the least unfeasible way is of somehow making it possible to create a link to a specific post in a topic on said forum.

And, of course, I don't want to be That Person who turns up and starts asking for completely impossible tasks to be performed (for potentially very little meaningful gain), hence why I'm currently checking here to see if this would be somewhat feasible before I actually, y'know, suggest it.

I know nothing about the backendy bits of how that phpBB instance is being hosted, besides that 'it uses a version of phpBB from 2001'.

Sure, one alternative solution would probably be a hacky workaround of effectively bodging the functionality of https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/single_post_link into the phpBB 1.x.x instance, but I doubt that's gonna be any less of a pain in the backside than trying to migrate the whole thing to 3.3.x anyway.

So, let me know if either approach is likely to be remotely feasible, and how one would theoretically go about doing it.

[Mick]

I'm ultimately trying to work out what the least unfeasible way is of somehow making it possible to create a link to a specific post in a topic on said forum

I’m not quite sure what you mean by that. You do realise that V1 is way beyond any kind of support we can give here but it may help if you could supply some more information so please fill out the Support Request Template and post it back here to enable us to assist you better. A link to the existing board would help a lot.

[boringusername]

Yes, I'm well aware that v1 is completely unsupported nowadays. I also wasn't sure what to do with the support request form because I genuinely don't know what the answers to those questions are.

The forum in question is [ ]. I am not an admin on there, just a regular user.

I'm trying to work out what the least unfeasible method would be of potentially trying to get 'links to individual comments of topics' working on there (y'know, like this and this) - but it appears that the only methods of that functionality being added would either be 'trying to migrate from 1.x.x to 3.3.x' or 'doing some hacky workaround in the completely unsupported 1.x.x codebase'.

The reason why I'm asking about the feasibility of each approach here first is because I don't want to be That Person who shows up out of the blue with a completely impossible task without even bothering to check if it's even theoretically possible. I'm struggling to find any guides on how one would convert from 1.x.x to 3.3.x (so I'm guessing that's unlikely to be possible), but I'm also assuming from your response that the other approach of 'bodging an implementation of that feature on top of 1.x.x' would be completely impossible.

But ultimately, as it currently doesn't look like there's a snowball's chance in hell of either of those approaches being theoretically possible, there's probably no point in suggesting either of those approaches over there, y'know? Or maybe I'm just overthinking things. idk. sorry about that.

[Paul]

I doubt there are many people here left over that ever did a phpBB 1.x to 2 conversion. I have done like 1 nearly 20 years ago, and that's it.
And, if you are just a user of the forum, it is in any case impossible. As far I remember you will need full database access to do the conversion.
If you have database access, it might be possible to convert from 1.x to 2.0, and from there up to 3.3. However, I don't think anyone really remember how it works, and how to do it.
If my memory serves me well phpBB 1.x wasn't even supported back 20 years ago. So you are basically 20 years late with your question .

[KevC]

I just had a look at the site. There are only about 8-10 topics that have had any posts in the last 2 years. Isn't it easier just to start a brand new site? Replicate a couple of the key topics, tell everyone you're moving and start over.

If there's any archive type content that you want to bring forward, there aren't so many topics on there that you couldn't copy/paste the important stuff.

[ftsservice]

I have done a few phpBB 1.x imports over the last 5 years, but frankly with the number of topics involved and the work (cost) involved, it's probably not worth it for you.

[Mick]

@OP: I agree with Kev, it would be far easier to create a new up to date board and copy any stuff over that’s relevant rather than trying to convert. And, has already been mentioned, you’d need server access to do a conversion even if it were possible. I see what you mean about having links to specific posts, V1 doesn’t seem to generate a url for each post only topics.

[rxu]

From phpBB2 INSTALL.html, upgrade from phpBB 1.4.x to 2.0.x looks like pretty straightforward procedure.