Well, I have been attempting to upgrade the server all day, but I'm not having much luck. I have restored us back to where we were before I started.  I will likely be trying this again, but I have to call it a night for now.

Give em hell

Give em hell

I managed to get a test forum up and running with the latest version.

I have to say, it's a fairly big change to the overall look and function of the site. I'm going to try and get the skinning and other various stuff done on the test server before migration.

It's hard to say how well everything will transfer over. I know the friends lists are going to be lost. The new list type auto notifies of posts of anyone on your follow i.e. 'Friends List'

Not sure how the front page stuff will hold up either. Going to run some tests to find out, but hopefully I can at least archive what's there.

Anyway, point being, at some point I will need to shut the server down again and due the migration. I will try to keep the board up this time, but I will have to disable posting to prevent loss of data.

I'll give a bit more heads up when I try again.

Maybe a little change won't be such a bad thing.

Took a different route. Transferred the entire database and got it upgraded on the test forum. It's an even bigger change than I thought.

Going to try and do most of the tweaks on the test forum so I can minimize the down time here. It did take about 2 hours to do the full upgrade though. So there will be some down time for sure.

Anyone have preference on a theme? This one will be gone when I upgrade. The default is a lighter look. I've found some good dark skins though.

I've always preferred darker themes. Easier on the old eyes at night and looks better. Is there anything any of us can do to help you out?

I like the darker themes as well.

At first there won't be much. I just need to get it updated and the basics working.

However, I will need help squashing bugs, and finding missing stuff. There is going to be quite a bit of he current design lost.

So, input on what we would like to see return etc.

One thing I would like to know, do we still want to keep the front page articles? I thought about leaving access to old content, but otherwise doing a complete redesign.

I think our news days are over and I'm fine with that. If there's an archive leftover that can be accessed, that'd be cool. Our GC writers can use them for references etc. If it's too much work, though, I think no one would mind if they weren't archived.

Keeping the archive won't be too big of a deal. It looks like it's going to lose formatting, but it shouldn't be a big deal if it's just archiving.

Is there any front page content that we want?

Not that I can think of off the top of my head.

I'll have to think about it. Might just put some status stuff there. TS online list, active forum members, live streams, latest post, etc

Sounds good to me, man. Really, just make it easy on yourself. Not much else than the forums getting used right now, and that's just barely.

Yeah I know. Hell, I'm barely here myself. Can't give up on the ole girl though. Just time for a redirection.

I've also been working on getting a server up to run game servers. Not playing anything at the moment, but I wouldn't mind throwing some of the classics back online.

Either way, I like working on this stuff. Just won't be as fast as I use to be.

Just won't be as fast as I use to be.

 

I say that almost daily.

 

I won't give up on her, either. She's brought me a lot of great friends over the years.

Same here friend. Time to start CPR.

I'm still testing on the skins etc, but I plan on rolling out the full update here in a week or two. I'll post before I upgrade. It will probably take 2 hours.