Please Read - Board Updates & Changes

[Ryan]

Hi everyone,

As many of you have probably noticed, our board occasionally slows down so badly that it's impossible to browse pages or post messages. The board software we are currently using here at SimplyDiscus is user-friendly, but it seems to be giving our server a very hard time.

In the next week or so, I will be converting our entire board over to a new version of software. It is still "YaBB (Yet Another Bulletin Board)" software, which means it looks and "feels" similar to our current board, but it is written in a different kind of code that should be less taxing on the server.

There is a conversion feature, and in theory this should move all of our members and messages over to the new board, but since we have so many members and tons of messages, there's a significant chance that something could go wrong. For that reason, I am asking that everyone please save anything you want to keep to your local hard drive, including Instant Messages, pictures that you have posted, etc.

A few people have also been asking me what features we will have. Here are a few of them that are built into the new board:

• File attachments
• Private/Instant messaging
• User profiles
• Country flags
• User-selected avatar images

Some things may work a little differently, but for the most part they are the same basic add-ons. The Private Message feature is a little less advanced than our own, but there will be updates for things like that later.

Once I have the new board ready, I will put this board into Maintenance Mode, convert all of the members and messages to the new board, and then post a link there. You will have to log in on the new board, but your old username and password should work. If not, we'll deal with that problem when we get there Due to the way the site is programmed, you may or may not have to edit your profile page.

And now for some slightly bad news... If you have posted links to specific messages on the SimplyDiscus forum (Al and Ardan, I notice that you have done this on several occasions to reference past threads), those links will no longer work because the URLs are going to change. So you will either have to edit all those posts or just leave the links inactive. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Does anyone have questions, comments, or suggestions? I'll try to answer them here.

Ryan

[Jeffery_Doty]

Ryan,

Thank you for your hard work in upgrading the board!

One question comes to mind, will attachments such as photos migrate over with the new board?  Or will the link become dead?

Thanks!

Jeff
Oregon

[Ardan]

Hi Ryan,
I am guilty as noted! ;D I have posted links to other posts. when you say I need to edit them, does that mean I can change them to the new links after you set up the new site?
I noticed the slow down and was going to ask if it was just I, but now I see it is the server.

I figured we would tire out the server sooner or later, seeing how busy we always are ;D ;D ;D

Hey thanks a bunch for all the hard work Ryan!!

Oh, Do we all start over with zero posts again? ;D

Ardan :sunshine:

[Ryan]

One question comes to mind, will attachments such as photos migrate over with the new board? *Or will the link become dead?

Hi Jeff,

Good question. In theory, everything will transfer over, including all of our posts and the attachments in them. I'm going to run some tests with a "dummy" board first. My only concern is that we have so many messages and hundreds of attached pictures, something is almost guaranteed to go wrong. I read through posts of people who upgraded their board the same way I plan to upgrade ours--some had problems, some said it was smooth sailing. So we shall see

Ryan

[Ryan]

when you say I need to edit them, does that mean I can change them to the new links after you set up the new site?

Basically, yes. If the switch goes successfully, all the threads should still be intact on the new board, just with a different URL. Which means you should be able to search through, find the messages you want to link to, and edit the links to make them work again. It will be a lot of work, though, as you have lots of posts here.

Oh, Do we all start over with zero posts again?

Member profiles and settings should transfer over, meaning everyone will keep their stars and # of posts. I already converted part of the "dummy" board I talked about, and everyone's # of posts stayed in tact with the move, as did their profiles and avatar images.

Ryan

[jim_shedden]

Ryan : I have noticed that things have been very slow. Thanks for making the changes.

Jim

[Pick]

Thanks for all the hard work Ryan!  May the force be with you!  (Not really, I'm a christian so I should say May the Lord be with you...but I just like saying it.  Hee Hee.)

TC

[DenverDan]

Hi Ryan

Thanks for the change, I started to fall asleep waiting for the pages to change. Also better you than me, computers can ALMOST be as tempermental as Discus.  Good Luck !!

Dan

[Carol_Roberts]

I usually have three windows open to simply at once.  This saves times as I can go from window to window reading posts.
Carol

[Ryan]

We have migrated to the new board. Unfortunately, all of our previous picture attachments did not carry over. The attachment feature still works, and you may resume attaching files, but the previous ones didn't stay with the correct messages. I have all of the picture files with nowhere to put them. Sorry :-\

A couple things--

- Smileys will not be completed for a couple of days. For now, we'll have to use the standard ones. Don't worry--once I install the additional smileys, the ones in all of the old posts should work again. For now, they will not display in the messages.

- Country flags are being worked on. Once I get them installed, you will have to go into your Profile and re-select your country. That is fairly painless.

- Advanced IM features. Unfortunately, this software has the older version of IM's (I still can't figure out why they didn't upgrade it) meaning that all of the IM's load on a single page, instead of having an individual page for each. Supposedly the software developers are working on an update for this. Until then, we must make do.

Any other questions or problems? If you have trouble with anything please let me know. If you don't tell me, I can't troubleshoot.

Ryan

[SLY]

at least u got the users and data over..applause for ryan please.

[Ardan]

Good Job Ryan,
IT's Working ;D ;D ;D and it's fast!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 8)

Thanks
Ardan

[gump]

Excellent job Ryan. Looks good & faster!! Yahoo.. Now we will be bombarded with a whole bunch of new pictures!! Got to like that!! Hats off to ya bud.
Pierre

[SLY]

ryan maybe you can make the avatar size bigger..probably 100 X 100..65 X65 is very small..u can hardly see the fish.

[brewmaster15]

And IBM thinks they have good tech people!!!

Thanks for the hard work Ryan, its much appreciated!!!

-al