I'd like to archive my board and somehow have an archive category in which a new forum can serve as a perfect snapshot of all current forums within the board (Ex. All the current categories, forums and sub-forums should remain in their exact order and posts within them should remain in their exact order.)
I'm not certain how to go about doing that. Hopefully it makes sense.
I think what you want is a Database Backup. To do this go to your AdminCP -> Tools & Maintenance -> New Backup -> and select your desired compression format and save method, I would keep Structure and Data selected for the backup contents as that will backup everything from your forum's information.
Hope that helps!
Ah...almost!
I want users to be able to browse this archive.
Maybe think of it as "this was chapter one of the forum" and then the live and playable forums are "chapter two".
Ah no you'd need a mod for that.
You could merge the DB into the playable forums and then lock the forums that the old DB posts are in.