Forum Tweaking

Topic: Forum Tweaking (Read 1712 times) previous topic - next topic

Forum Tweaking

November 30, 2023, 02:54:03 PM

Yeah so we're trying to get our forum a little more modern, both front-side and back-end, and over the next few weeks we'll be experimenting with stuff. You might see some down time, or a white screen of death, or perhaps something will disappear. For all this, we apologize in advance. We are NOT shutting down the site, we have no intentions to ditch it, but we do need to get it compliant for future updates.

Our main issue right now is that even though the board software is at the latest version and is supposedly compatible with PHP 8.1, we have been unsuccessful to get it running at that version, so we remain at an older PHP version (7.3). For that, we are getting charged an extra $5/mo US, which is $60/year for...nothing, except maintaining an old PHP version. Hence the reason why we're trying to get the board updated, so that we can skip that fee and just have a single yearly hosting cost instead.

For now, we've installed some new themes which are kinda cool but have also messed up a few things. Our advice if you're having trouble: use the dropdown menu at the top for a different theme selection. It seems to work-ish for now. You can also try flushing out your browser's cache as well.

Again, we're sorry that things have to get done on a live site in this fashion. Message boards are tricky, not fun at all. But we gotta do what we gotta do.

Re: Forum Tweaking

Reply #1 – January 10, 2024, 02:47:40 PM

So it looks like our upgrade worked, as we installed the forum software from scratch today and moved stuff over. So far so good. If anyone sees something amiss just let either Alex or myself know. Thanks for your patience!

Re: Forum Tweaking

Reply #2 – January 10, 2024, 05:59:25 PM

Looks good! Thanks for putting in the work!

Re: Forum Tweaking

Reply #3 – January 11, 2024, 06:00:05 AM

Thanks for all the work & keeping the site going 👍. Will you need members to donate to help cover the upgrades/changes in any way?

Re: Forum Tweaking

Reply #4 – January 11, 2024, 08:28:10 AM

As of right now, we're okay. I think the hosting renewal and the domain renewal are both in the fall (October-ish). Last year I set aside the previous donations and paid with that. Those funds are gone but we'll cross that bridge once we get closer to the renewal dates. Appreciate the thought.

Re: Forum Tweaking

Reply #5 – January 11, 2024, 08:31:16 AM

Looks good!

I ran into one oddity. When I went to logon on the home page it put me into an error that couldn't log on. I then went to a thread and logon went fine. Is that something on my end that needs to be cleared?

Re: Forum Tweaking

Reply #6 – January 11, 2024, 11:05:26 AM

It might be a cache/cookie thing with your browser. I'm kinda having the same issue with one browser, but not in another, and I'm thinking a cache cleaning should fix the issue.

This board software is really finicky. We had to start from scratch to update it...normally things don't happen like that and we're hoping it's a one-time deal. The cookies seem very persistent throughout.