SMF 2.0 RC1 has been released

[Vekseid]

...so we will be upgrading in the coming week or two. I am going to be upgrading and applying the intended modifications to another forum to make sure everything works smoothly first.

Yes this means we are getting search back.

TAKE NOTE OF THE FOLLOWING

1: The arcade will be going away temporarily. - and it's not coming back with all of the games. If someone could compile a list of desired games to keep, that would be awesomesauce. Bonus points for saving the associated .swf files.
2: My Topics is getting replaced with a dedicated mod. That means I'm going to look into the possibility of clearing people's notification lists so we are treated less like spammers. I will make a more pertinent announcement about this after the upgrade.
3: I need to shut down the shoutbox in order to archive it. It will be returning better and more powerful (ie, AJAX : ) than before. Don't worry : )
4: The Youtube mod is also getting replaced. With a far superior modification. It looks like it will do a number on the old links though.
5: Since the theme is my own design I'm going to have to recode that (again) - will probably also take the opportunity to redo the chat >_>

That seems to be just about everything from the user end. The upgrade is going to bring the forums down for a -long- time, so I'm going to try to figure out how I can cheat first.

[Haibane]

Sounds good. Can you be more specific about what a " - long - " time is, please?

[Psi]

I have that mod going myself - the bookmarks one, works ok but I haven't tested it on anything large scale?
Want some screenshots uploaded of it in use Veks?   I have one with two threads currently in it.

I might have to run the small update from beta 4 over mine this weekend.

Another option to consider in future if you like the idea of it.

PM Informer: http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=1202

[Aeval]

*SB going(temporarily)..some games going..forums down for a long time...Aeval thinks she is going to cry and go in withdrawal! Never been in withdrawal before..not so sure she wants to go there now!*

[Vekseid]

Sounds good. Can you be more specific about what a " - long - " time is, please?

Several hours : /

[WyldRanger]

Several hours : /

Just let us know before it happens so we can all brace ourselves for the withdrawal symptoms!  :o :-X

[Paradox]

I've been meaning to ask this for a while now-

Do we really need the shoutbox archive? How often do people actually go back and read anything beyond the last few pages? The archive does back over 2 years. It's approaching twenty-four thousand pages; isn't most of that just wasting space?

[Caity]

The My Topics update looks promising.  :)

[Vekseid]

I've been meaning to ask this for a while now-

Do we really need the shoutbox archive? How often do people actually go back and read anything beyond the last few pages? The archive does back over 2 years. It's approaching twenty-four thousand pages; isn't most of that just wasting space?

I'm going to archive it into a thread, actually.

[Duchess]

thread? why not wiki?

[Oniya]

I was thinking a simple text file, maybe broken up by year or month - enough that someone could use the browser's 'Find' function to locate something, but not too fancy.

[Paradox]

I'm going to archive it into a thread, actually.

Oo, good idea!

Okay; thanks for clearing that up for me.

[TanaSilver]

Several hours : /

Several hours, whew! When you said "long," I figured you meant weeks.

BTW, Paradox, the quote you have under your name is my favorite line from Hitchiker's Guide. Well chosen!

[Chevalier des Poissons]

The arcade will be going away temporarily.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I see no reason in life anymore. My world is falling apart.

*Suicides*

[Vekseid]

Several hours, whew! When you said "long," I figured you meant weeks.

Well if I don't find a way to speed it up it could take a day : /

[Paradox]

For the sake of all these upgrades, I'm sure we could handle a day.

[Sarena]

 :o  I thought a -long- time meant days or weeks...and was very depressed at the prospet.

*nods*  Yes, a day or hours is a much better time frame to cope with.  *goes to stock up on withdrawal easing items...chocolate, caffiene...* Okay...I'm ready.

[Ket]

-coughs- 

Could you so kindly do said upgrade between the 17th and 20th of February?  That way I won't have to worry about withdrawls because I won't really be here anyways.

-giggles-

-runs- 

[Aragem]

I'm glad that this place will get an update.   ;D

[ShrowdedPoet]

Goodbye lag?

[Will]

I think that's a seperate, server-related issue.

[ShrowdedPoet]

Damn!  It is killing me!

[Vekseid]

Goodbye lag?

Only a little bit, though I'll be doing more optimizations after we upgrade.

Will take a new server to kill them entirely.

[Scott]

I wish I could nab a server from work and get it to you. We've got 4 or 5 fairly new Dell Poweredge Servers sitting around collecting dust. With my luck though I'd get caught, and I wouldn't want to bring on the bad Karma.

[Vekseid]

I wish I could nab a server from work and get it to you. We've got 4 or 5 fairly new Dell Poweredge Servers sitting around collecting dust. With my luck though I'd get caught, and I wouldn't want to bring on the bad Karma.

Would still have to get it to me and then pay for colo costs :-p

[Scott]

That, and bail.

[Haibane]

Several hours : /

Oh really? That's 'long'? Haha, no problem. I thought you meant a week! Several hours is no sweat, I'll just sleep. ;D

[Tiberius Reign]

Well, how much trouble is it to remind people that we have an IRC channel? People can just congregate there during the down time.

TR

[Xillen]

I was guessing long something around the lines of 24 hours, maybe a bit longer :P

So it'll be just a few hours for the core to be back (the basic forum), but quite a bit longer for the parts that need special replacement like Shoutbox, Arcade, My Topics, etc...?

Depending on how long the shoutbox will be inactive that might cause a bit of an influx on the chat (considering people know how to reach that)...

I'm assuming whatever you stored in My Topics will be gone, so everyone will have to backup that list?

Is there anything else we should worry about backing up?

What effect will this have on labels in private messages?

[Tiberius Reign]

Assuming that it doesn't mess with recent posts, or even post history, I don't think backing up My Topics is overly necessary, since only lazy people won't go into post history to retrieve the topics.

TR

[Oniya]

I tend to use 'replies to your posts' to keep track of my threads anyways.

[Vekseid]

My Topics is a hack on your notifications. So you can just retrieve the list from there until I clear them. Bookmarks will be available almost immediately. The new shoutbox shouldn't take very long either, really. Of everything the arcade is the tedious one.

[Sultrynets]

Question: With the new server that you just purchased and said upgrade being done on said new server... Will there still be a significant amount of down time on the site?  Call me stupid if you will, but I don't know how putting new servers in place and doing upgrades for them works.  ;D

[Caeli]

I think Veks said that the switch / transfer would take several hours. :)

[Vekseid]

Question: With the new server that you just purchased and said upgrade being done on said new server... Will there still be a significant amount of down time on the site?  Call me stupid if you will, but I don't know how putting new servers in place and doing upgrades for them works.  ;D

I will be giving a better update of how long it takes after I have my ducks in a row this weekend : ) The new server's disk and memory throughput appear to be about 50% faster than our VPS here, to say nothing of having two cores to play with. I could potentially have it set up within an hour again, though we'll still have to play the IP game for a few days.

[Chris Brady]

So the Upgrade hasn't happened yet?

[Vekseid]

I'll edit the first post or make a better announcement after I complete the move : )

[Caeli]

Let us know when the wiki is back up, too. :) *hugs Veks*

[Thufir Hawat]

It might be just me, but let me know when the die roller is up again. I just can't find it, and the links seem not to be working any more. And, well, I'd really need it for my games ;).

[Paradox]

I want my strike-through formatting available in the shoutbox again!

..please?

[Vekseid]

It might be just me, but let me know when the die roller is up again. I just can't find it, and the links seem not to be working any more. And, well, I'd really need it for my games ;).

Is up, running, etc : )