Forum update!

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Zanniej
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Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:28 am
Location: The dark parts of the forum

Forum update!

Unread post by Zanniej »

Hello all you lovely people.

I have not forgotten you, and never will!
Why I haven't been around much lately:
Hidden: show
However, I've got a new job with more to do. That's all good and I'm really enjoying my time there, but at my previous work, I had more moments without work, so more time for you guys.
Now, that's not the case. Added to that, the internet at my house is gone, and there still is little hope of regaining internet anytime soon... Right now I'm borrowing the internet of family, so I'm using this time to ensure that you guys can use the forums with as little fall out as possible.
The update:
So, the forum is running on an outdated system. We knew this, but it was never a problem ... until now. In 2 days our hoster will join the rest of the world, and will drop support for the outdated programs we rely on. In technical terms, we're running the forum on PHP 5.6, and that version has reached the end of it's life (and rightly so). We'll be forced to upgrade to PHP 7.2.
That's all good and nice, but our current software version of the forum uses too much outdated functionality, and will cease to work on that newer version.

Now what?
I'm going to kill the forums at 12:30 GMT (so about half an hour from this post). We've been working on an update. That meant a rebuild of everything we had. Please bear with me in the first weeks of the new forums, as there might be bugs, things missing, etc.

I'll update this post with more info the coming minutes.
Zanniej
(Zahn-nie)
Barn Manager: We do not have a barn, nor anyone in there to manage... yet here I am!
Server Owner & former Global Admin. Still always around (and still playing), but not as involved.
Keeping a close eye on the Server Finances.
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Zanniej
Barn manager
Posts: 2375
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:28 am
Location: The dark parts of the forum

Re: Forum update! Temporary downtime

Unread post by Zanniej »

What will happen?
We'll get a new layout, better mobile support, and actually a completely new system.
This'll completely renew the forum bug cycle. We'll get bugs, new requests, stuff missing, etc. etc. etc.

I'm hoping to get this done in about an hour or two, but it might take me the whole weekend, depending on issues I might, or might not face.
I'll keep you guys posted on Discord, until we're back online (and in proper working order).
Zanniej
(Zahn-nie)
Barn Manager: We do not have a barn, nor anyone in there to manage... yet here I am!
Server Owner & former Global Admin. Still always around (and still playing), but not as involved.
Keeping a close eye on the Server Finances.
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Steve
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Location: Paradise in GMT +1

Re: Forum update! Temporary downtime

Unread post by Steve »

Hey Z-man,
Is there a way Players could do a backup on their individual posts/messages?
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Theodore01
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Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2011 5:32 pm

Re: Forum update! Temporary downtime

Unread post by Theodore01 »

Thank you very much and good luck.
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Zanniej
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Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:28 am
Location: The dark parts of the forum

Re: Forum update! Temporary downtime

Unread post by Zanniej »

Will I lose anything?
Nope :-)
I might remove some outdated and/or unused stuff, but no posts or PMs wil be lost.
Added to that, I will make a backup of our old (current) forum. So should you have lost something then feel free to let me know and I'll recover it for you.
Zanniej
(Zahn-nie)
Barn Manager: We do not have a barn, nor anyone in there to manage... yet here I am!
Server Owner & former Global Admin. Still always around (and still playing), but not as involved.
Keeping a close eye on the Server Finances.
User avatar
Zanniej
Barn manager
Posts: 2375
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:28 am
Location: The dark parts of the forum

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by Zanniej »

Image
Please use this topic to give your opinions, praise, dislike, whatever! :-D
Zanniej
(Zahn-nie)
Barn Manager: We do not have a barn, nor anyone in there to manage... yet here I am!
Server Owner & former Global Admin. Still always around (and still playing), but not as involved.
Keeping a close eye on the Server Finances.
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DM Gargoyle
Posts: 308
Joined: Tue Sep 04, 2018 12:07 am

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by DM Gargoyle »

Fourms are looking fantastic, however I also run from my phone on the go, while everything "Fits" it's odd. (Most likely cause I'm not used to the new lay out). I wonder if sometime in the future we can hammer out a more moble friendly web page to an app. (Ah if dreams came true)

Again FANTASTIC.
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Maecius
Retired Admin
Posts: 11640
Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 4:24 pm

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by Maecius »

Thank you for tackling this, Zanniej!

As Zee rightly said, we've known about this for a little while now. And had about two months warning to get things figured out.

Unfortunately, that's right about the time Zanniej got a new job and found his home access to Internet extremely limited. Nonetheless, he staged a test forum and had staff help with testing to try and work out as many kinks as possible ahead of time. And then, of course, he made the live update this morning!

I was concerned that we might have a few days, even a week, of downtime if he didn't get to this this weekend. I had a bunch of "how do I update PHP??? For Dummies" guides bookmarked in case I had to try to do it myself. :lol: Suffice it to say, everything would have been on fire if we left it to me. Everything.

So big, BIG thanks to Zanniej for making this happen. He's definitely the Forum Hero we needed and deserved!

As noted, there will be a few bugs. There will also be lots of optimizing still to do (for mobile, etc.). But we will get through the update growing pains and soon be better than ever before!
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azermas
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Joined: Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:48 pm

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by azermas »

Not sure this works properly yet.
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Zanniej
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Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 11:28 am
Location: The dark parts of the forum

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by Zanniej »

It works, and mostly works "properly", but could use a lot of polish.

I'm very aware of that, but due to time constraints, and internet constraints I've been unable to iron those out before the forums had to go live.
As I said before, you are very welcome to give your feedback in this topic as I try to work my way through it with somewhat limited time.

Unfortunately I had no choice to postpone the forum move, as our hosting provider stopped supporting the outdated software the forum was running on. Though it's a good thing for the internet as a whole, it was not such a good thing for our forums. Had we not moved, we would have no forums whatsoever after the 3rd of December.

I apologize for the state the forum is in, and hope you can bear with me while we try to get everything in good order.
Luckily I've got a lot of help and support on that matter, so we should be able to get this forum up, running and better than before in a couple of weeks or months.
Zanniej
(Zahn-nie)
Barn Manager: We do not have a barn, nor anyone in there to manage... yet here I am!
Server Owner & former Global Admin. Still always around (and still playing), but not as involved.
Keeping a close eye on the Server Finances.
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Maecius
Retired Admin
Posts: 11640
Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 4:24 pm

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by Maecius »

I'm already liking a lot of the changes. We're definitely making progress!
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Marathados
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Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2016 4:13 pm

Re: Forum update!

Unread post by Marathados »

Although I have not been much around due to rl work and Pathfinder Kingmaker, I really like the new forum layout!
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