Possible forum software update coming soon

[Robin Garr]

For about a month now we've been running this forum's siblings, the WineLovers Discussion Group forums, on the recently released new upgraded version of phpBB, the system we use to drive this forum. It's essentially similar, has a few new bells and whistles and a handful of significant changes, but as two strong benefits, it's quicker and more secure against hack attacks.

Accordingly, we're seriously contemplating upgrading this forum as well. The move, if we make it, will come later this month, and will happen overnight during a low-traffic weekend period.

Any of you who'd like to start getting ready for this are invited and welcome to check out the WineLovers Discussion Groups,
http://www.wineloverspage.com/forum/village/

I think you'll find that the setup isn't hard to get used to. Most of the wine geeks, after the usual initial wailing and gnashing of teeth , seem to like it better than the old.

hmmm . . .looks pretty similar.

::I want more smilies, though.::

Went back in time and re-read some of the old forum last night for fun and let me again thank you for the bright and shiny quarters we now inhabit. After almost a year in our new digs I can only say bring on the phpBB upgrade (mainly for the fact that pfhpBBtf was Candidate Bill the Cat's favorite campaign slogan) Bill was a conservative who embraced new technology .

I opted to not upgrade to phpBB 3.0 at LouHI. For one, I added too many mods (including spambot and hacker blocking) and my own custom development that would make an upgrade next to impossible. Secondly, a lot of the custom development implements features not found in phpBB 3.0. And most importantly, I think version 3.0's user interface is too busy -- IMHO version 2.0 is friendlier for older eyes.

I don't say the above to dissuade you from upgrading, of course. It's every board admin's individual decision. But if you applied any mods to your board (and it appears you did), they may be very difficult to apply to the new version.

[Robin Garr]

I opted to not upgrade to phpBB 3.0 at LouHI. For one, I added too many mods (including spambot and hacker blocking) and my own custom development that would make an upgrade next to impossible. Secondly, a lot of the custom development implements features not found in phpBB 3.0. And most importantly, I think version 3.0's user interface is too busy -- IMHO version 2.0 is friendlier for older eyes.

I don't say the above to dissuade you from upgrading, of course. It's every board admin's individual decision. But if you applied any mods to your board (and it appears you did), they may be very difficult to apply to the new version.

We had a lot of mods on the old wine forum, which had limited our ability to do routine upgrades. There are really none here, unless you count my extensive hand-tweaking the html in the header.

There are a couple of stability and security improvements in 3 that make it worthwhile, especially for fairly high-traffic forums. It also handles registration much more stylishly, and we get so hammered by offshore spammers trying to register that the new system is WELL worth it to me in terms of time saved spotting, rejecting and deleting them.

The more mods I've done to the board software, the harder it was to apply upgrades. It took the use of file compare software and a programmer's eye to keep it all from falling apart. Luckily (or unluckily), the 2.0.x version is no longer being updated, so that issue is gone. But then, I still have to deal with conflicts between mods and custom development. It's a lot of fun (sometimes).

As for handling high traffic, I've applied a mod that really helps with that -- query caching. I think phpBB 3.0 does this as well. So that's definitely a good reason to upgrade.

And for offshore spammers, I've applied an array of mods that has brought that under control. Now, I rarely ever have to deal with them. I don't even have to use captchas for registration any longer, although they're still available if I need them in a pinch. If upgrading tames these critters, that's certainly a good reason as well.

I appreciate the need for stabilizing the software on these fronts, as before I did stabilize them, my board was originally causing too much stress on the database server, and spammers were slipping in left and right. I almost thought that running the board was going to turn out to be a nightmare. But it's nearly a breeze now after a *lot* of development work.