10 May 2008 - Elsmar Cove Forum Offline for Major Software Upgrade

[Marc]

TENTATIVE DATE - Saturday, 10 May 2008

The forum will be off-line for several hours while I upgrade the core forum software (vBulletin). This is a MAJOR upgrade.

For those of you who are Moderators or Regular Visitors, you may want to read about the changes in advance so you know what to expect. The changes are detailed in these links:

vBulletin 3.7 First Look

Bulletin 3.7.0 'Gold' Released

What to expect during the upgrade:

1. The forum will not be open for approximately 2 hours. I am not sure of the exact time this will happen. During this time you may get a 'Forum Closed' message or you may get a 'Page not Found' message. I will do the best I can to get the core forum functions back online as quickly as I can.

2. When it does open up again you will notice many differences in the layout (look and feel) of the forum. My plan is to 'restore' the current 'look and feel' of the forum as much as I can. However, some installed 'mods' (aka 'hacks') may not work with this version so (in short) expect some changes.

3. After the actual software upgrade I will bring the forums back online. I will be working on the 'look and feel' while the forum is back online so you may note changes for 24 to 48 hours after the upgrade. My hope is to get the major aspects of the forum 'look and feel' back within that time, but...

Some changes will be made during the following week as visitors notice and report things that they are 'used to' that they want to have/see again that I have missed. This is because I will be reinstalling 'mods' which work with this new version and I will be editing 'templates' (which give the forum the 'look' it has). NOTE: Some mods have not been updated for the new vBulletin version and may never be updated (some mods have been 'abandoned' by their authors). These mods will, obviously, not be available.

In short, I will get the forum back up for use, but the master code update is is only part of what I have to do.

4. Expect some differences in different parts of the forum. As an example, the way headers in posts are displayed are a code mod I made so you will see that change. Another is when one starts a new thread there is a button to 'Check for Similar Threads' which is a code mod.

You may see something missing that was there before that you want and like. Please give me 24 hours before asking about them. As I have said, the forum has a lot of 'mods' installed, and I have done a lot of manual editing of the core code in the current software. That said, there are some things which will be different which I will not be able to 'bring back'. And there are some things I made changes to years ago which I have forgotten I made back then.

5. Expect it to take up to a week for me to address every aspect. This is because I am sure there are some 'mods' and code changes that I miss which I'm sure some (many?) of you will point out to me.

If you have any questions or comments, please use this thread to ask / discuss.

That's it for now. I have to get some ZZZzzz so I'm 'fresh' for class in the morning.

[Marc]

Here is a brief but far from comprehensive list of some of the new features making their debut in vBulletin 3.7.0:

* Inline spam management & prevention
* Thread tagging
* Search cloud / tag cloud
* Thread prefixes
* Reciprocal friendships between users
* Public visitor messaging on profile pages with 'conversation' feature
* User picture galleries with user comment facility
* User-created social groups with invite only and moderated membership options
* Extended member profile pages
* Customizable member profile pages with admin-controlled styling abilities
* Inline editing of custom user profile fields
* Lightbox viewer for attached images
* Viewable and comparable history maintained for post edits
* Extended re-authentication for inline moderation actions
* Notices system for navigation bar
* New human-verification tools including reCAPTCHA, and question/answer
* User change history
* Social bookmarking integration

For further details on these features, take a look at the 'First Look' thread, available at vBulletin.com:
http://www.vbulletin.com/go/37features

Full details of the 3.7.0 release, together with links to install and upgrade instructions and all the usual vBulletin release information can be found in the vBulletin 3.7.0 release announcement thread:
http://www.vbulletin.com/go/370

[Wes Bucey]

Wow! If these all work smoothly, this will be a MAJOR value-added set of improvements. I can hardly wait. Thanks for taking the time and making the effort!

[Claes Gefvenberg]

Originally Posted by Marc

This is a MAJOR upgrade.

I'll say it is... and some of the new gizmos are things we have been longing for for years. When this upgrade takes off we all have some learning to do.

/Claes

[SteelMaiden]

wow, i don't even know what most of that means, I guess I have some learning to do in the near future. It is sure a good thing that I'm not one of those old fogies that are afraid to learn new stuff. bring it on!

[Marc]

I have been doing prep work for the upgrade and it is still on schedule for Saturday. To remind everyone,

Originally Posted by Marc

What to expect during the upgrade

I am relatively sure some of the current 'mods' will not work. Several HAVE been updated for this version, but most haven't been updated for this version.

I have downloaded updated mods so those will be installed after the vBulletin update.

I have started this discussion thread for Reporting problems, etc. Post- 10 May 2008 vBulletin Upgrade Bug Report discussion thread

It's been a while since I've done a major update like this, so.... Cross your fingers . I'm working on a 'production server' which is dangerous, but I don't currently have a 'test bed' computer with Linux to test everything on before working on the production server.

[Coury Ferguson]

I am crossing my fingers. I know everything will work out.

[Marc]

It wil probably happen early afternoon today. I'm wrapping up some last minute stuff.