Unless someone out there has strong laravel skills there are not really any easy avenues for people to help with the new software. I am probably going to re-work some of what I have already done so that perhaps existing discussion threads and story comments can be preserved. My current plan is to get a working version of the existing site up and running at a different URL (like 2018.ararchive.com or old. ararchive.com) then put up a minimal version of the new software with discussion and stories at the main url and keep refining it from there.