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Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 2:46 pm
by Mikey
Hey folks,

Mikey here with an update on the forum.

A major upgrade is needed. We had a server outage late last week which had the forums down for a while, and once we were back up, we decided to update the software, but that failed in a major way. We returned to a backup of the forum, but I notice some avatars are missing. Sorry about this. For the moment, I'd advise you to re-upload them.

We're going to look at a move to a faster server also - which will help make things zippier.

So here's the plan:

After consulting with Dev on the time frame, we're going to do a fairly large upgrade, and import the old forum into a fresh new install of the forum database. This will bring us up to date software-wise, but we'll then look at installing mods and upgrades to the forum.

Although a fairly simple process, things can and do happen that mean that pieces of data are lost, posts go missing, or we could experience downtime longer than we anticipated.

What does all this mean to you?

Well, the number one thing we ask you to do, is back up, copy or download things that are important to you - such as private messages, images, etc.

We'll announce ahead of time when the upgrade will occur. Be prepared for us to be down for a few days - as much as 5 if things are tricky.

Thanks.

Any questions, feel free to post below.

Mikey
hevydevy.com

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:41 pm
by Amber
Sounds good!

What new stuff are you planning to put onto the forums? or is it just upgrading servers and stuff at the moment?

I know a few people are pining for a shoutbox. :P

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 3:44 pm
by AlucardXIX
Shoutbox and quick reply. Anything else is just added awesome.

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 4:40 pm
by Mikey
First thing is to get a stable foundation happening. Once that's in place, we can add bells and whistles :)

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:09 pm
by PraiseTheLard
AlucardXIX wrote:Shoutbox and quick reply. Anything else is just added awesome.


I miss the old shoutbox :(

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:41 pm
by The Dev
Yay for Mikey!!!

Everybody: hip hip...

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:49 pm
by kyl88
HOORAY!!!

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 5:50 pm
by Robert23
The Dev wrote:Yay for Mikey!!!

Everybody: hip hip...



HURRAY!

Dammit, somebody beat me to it....

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 8:02 pm
by Tree
HOOOOORRRRAAAYYYYYYYY. Although I haven't had any probs so far in the edition

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 11:41 am
by Chasezas
please update the look of the forums. the new site looks so very nice, it would be awesome if we could get the same treatment here.

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 12:02 pm
by Propane
You could look at getting vBulletin. You have to buy it but it's well worth it and not that much for a great forum. You can transfer the database from phpBB to vBulletin no problem.

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 2:29 pm
by Ageia
vbulletin is horrible

sorry, you must wait sixty seconds between our inaccurate and highly underwhelming searches....

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 3:02 pm
by Propane
Ageia wrote:vbulletin is horrible

sorry, you must wait sixty seconds between our inaccurate and highly underwhelming searches....


Not to start an argument here, but the forums I use which have vBulletin don't share this problem. Searches are pretty instantaneous for me, perhaps their search capability could use work, I can't really speak to that, but in my experience vBulletin works much faster and is more intuitive than phpBB.

Each to their own though, I guess :)

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:40 pm
by islandsinthesky
Let's get some motherfucking strobe lights in this bitch.

Re: Major Forum upgrade in the works

PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2009 6:23 pm
by Mikey
Propane wrote:
Ageia wrote:vbulletin is horrible

sorry, you must wait sixty seconds between our inaccurate and highly underwhelming searches....


Not to start an argument here, but the forums I use which have vBulletin don't share this problem. Searches are pretty instantaneous for me, perhaps their search capability could use work, I can't really speak to that, but in my experience vBulletin works much faster and is more intuitive than phpBB.

Each to their own though, I guess :)

We'll stick with phpBB for the time being. Right now this whole place is slow for a couple of reasons:
- it's on a shared server that is being spanked for bandwidth by other users
- the forum backend is a bit of a mess.

I'm hoping you'll see a significant improvement in response times after the upgrade.

Stay tuned for an announcement about that.

Mikey
hevydevy.com