Hi friends  

I'm working on the update of the site, the reason is that we keep having errors even if I try to fix them, something with the software goes wrong with the database, that has a newer version than the old one.

What will happen should be actually nothing, the site should look and work just the same with overall updated code, I'll take the occasion for cleaning out things that no one is actually using. later, I've some ideas for organizing better the sections of the forum.

Updating, and keeping things work, is a long process: you should have seen sites losing the database of the users and the messages, here the worst scenario could be that you'll have to reset your passwords because we have an uncommon way to encrypt them, but I'll probably figure out how to have it working without resetting the passwords .

The steps will be:

- I will install the "vanilla" software on a subdirectory
- I will test, being sure that it works without errors, if it shows errors I'll probably move the site to a different provider (we're on Godaddy now)
- If it works flawlessly I'll install the modifications needed for Posetteforever
- The last phase will be the more painful: transferring the data and manually modyfing the database in order to keep all the data working

For the last phase, the site will have to be closed for a while, for a reason: transferring the data from a "working" site would mess up the whole process, I need to "freeze" it, and I have to backup the site while it is closed to avoid the same mess. So the site will close for a while, I'll backup it, move the working software on the main directory, fill it with the files (pictures, attachments, smilies, files etc.) and then manually fill the database.

I would keep only english as the language for the commands of the site ( the language is already english but we've command that can be choosen in different languages) that is because it's difficult for me going to modify scripts written in another languages. Actually some commands are kept in english or not working if the user has not english as the main language. BTW I've to examine how the new software works, maybe it is simpler...

It will take probably a couple of days of full work  (fake illness incoming   ...)

Our base will be phpBB, like now, phpBB is a free software for forums, we used it from the beginning, I tested other kind of fora but I just like phpBB. If you've suggestions they are welcome.

About the dates: probably the last phase will come in a couple of months, you know how I'm lazy, and this is just a bad period for what concerns time to dedicate to my hobbies ...

About the errors that some times appear on the forum (especially in the shoutbox and in the thumbnails pictures), they are due to the cache that is written on disk from the database, I found no way to correct it, if not that every time the front page is loaded, it clears the cache, so the error disappear if you refresh the page. I know, it's only a patch, but for now I have to keep things working like that till the update. Another error appeared yesterday , I patched it but I was pushed to begin the process of the upgrade.

I'm sorry for the problems, I hope you can live with them for a while (the bots are not guilty for them   )

Tormie

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Thanks for the info Tormie.

I'll continue to suffer through the "front page oddities" (I thought that they were due to my rapidly aging version of Safari...).

Good luck with the updates & upgrades!  

Oh yes, I'm sorry to hear about the upcoming illness.

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It's not what you look like, when you're doing what you're doing;
It's what you're doing, when you're doing what it looks like you're doing.

   initially, The front page   'only did weird things
occasionally and reloading the page was easy...
I thought     'Tormie 'is snoring...  
and Chicca   'she 'plays  'on the PC keyboard...  
(since he forgets to 'clean  the litter box...)

But since I see   that it is getting     'gradually   worse  
perhaps is the time  'to get it  'actually fixed.

Okay Perhaps  it is not the fault  of the 'bots pecking..
but neighter is it  'donkey's fault....
 
It ismore likely  the result of not enough regular maintainance...
As  Too much time  'put towards  '-the  'guarding  ofthe fridg...

The manteinance, like the fixing of the database, is done automatically ecery day, it's not like that, it looks like the data comes back corrupted from the new database.

I kept the old one alive, during my next free day, I'll try to import the database to the old one and see how it goes...

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All hail the Boss...

GrouchoC.

PS Dialup seems so painful now...

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Am I the only one who thinks they named it Windows because it is a major pane? BA-DUM BOOM!!