Irma and Site Upgrade Announcement (Part I)

[Vekseid]

Please read this entire message as it covers several disparate topics.

I hope this message finds everyone safe.

Of course, the US has been pummeled with disasters lately - I am currently in 'fire nation', myself. The Sun cast shadows here for the first time in over a week Saturday morning, and we can see the mountains again. Hopefully it continues clearing. Whatever you have faced or may be facing, you have friends here, and our thoughts are with you.



Hurricane Irma

Recently, Irma's path has shifted to Florida's west coast, and there is a significant chance that the eyewall will pass over Tampa, which is where our mailserver and remote backups are located. Proper data centers are the modern equivalent of fortresses in the physical sense, and the one housing our server in Tampa is no exception. Our host there is not making any promises, however, so I will be retrieving the most critical data - mostly configuration stuff - as a precaution.

The most likely scenario is that, if enough switches get knocked out, there may be periods where e-mail notifications do not get sent or even get lost.

In any case, there is a chance that e-mail notifications may get disrupted Sunday or Monday. Appropriate measures will be taken depending on the status of the server itself.

Elliquiy's website is in Chicago and is in no danger from any hurricane.



Members with fancy usernames

If your username - the name you log in with - has fancy characters - diacritics, symbols, or anything outside of alphanumeric characters, periods, spaces, and hyphens (A-Za-Z .-) - send me a private message.

During the conversion to Elkarte, it is likely that I will also need to convert the character set, as well. Since usernames are a part of the password salt in SMF, it will not be possible for you to log in should your username contain non-ascii characters.

Make sure your e-mail address on Elliquiy is a functioning one, and can receive password reset notifications if needed.

The further pruning of the allowed character list is to minimize issues with other software, upgrades, and tricks.



Blind, otherwise visually impaired members, and others who browse Elliquiy using assistive technologies

Elkarte is in its final phase of testing. As a part of that effort, if you or someone you know uses assistive technology to access Elliquiy, it would be greatly appreciated if you send me a private message. I will give you a link to the test site, and we can ensure that you can:

1) Register

2) Post new topics

3) Read new topics

4) Post and read new replies

5) Send and receive new private messages

6) Search

7) Configure extra fields

8) And otherwise do everything normal sighted people can with the site.



A note on  the buddy system

After the move to Elkarte, the buddy system is going to begin taking a more and more prominent role on the site.

You will find the transitions to be a bit smoother if you ensure you are mutual buddies with your friends here.

This may be confusing, as currently SMF treats buddies as a sort of afterthought. It will make more sense once Elliquiy has upgraded, however.



The future of the Ons and Offs system

Some of you remember the Rabbit Hole, which was what F-List was before F-List was a thing.

It was problematic and clearly dying, so without knowing about F-List, I whipped together what is our current ons and offs page, mostly over a weekend.

...it is a right mess. Inefficient, ugly, and does not support our visually impaired membership.

While I plan to convert most of our custom scripts to Elkarte, converting the Ons and Offs as-is would take almost as much work as redoing it. Especially if I wanted to support our blind members in the mean time.

I refactored Elkarte's custom fields code to more fully handle most of the basic page data, so the 'saved' data will remain.

The oft-confusing matrices will not be converted to Elkarte, however.

The replacement is going to come from the new CMS schema instead, and I may or may not have it ready ahead of time for the Elkarte conversion. There is a lot that I want to have done for going live with Elkarte, including some massive commonly requested features.

In any case, I suggest bringing any tidbits in from the matrix to your personal Ons and Offs thread in the forums, here.



About Elkarte

Elkarte is a fork of Simple Machines Forum (our current software) that has some features members have been requesting, and I have been a small part of contributing to over the past couple years. A selection of user-facing features includes:

* Post drafts
* Reply-by-email
* @mentions
* Vastly superior mobile layout
* 'Live' notifications

It is currently in its hopefully final phase of testing, and bringing it to Elliquiy is a multi-stage process that will occur over the next several months. Outside of the Ons & Offs matrices, all features currently on Elliquiy will be a part of Elkarte - I have already converted the shoutbox and the wiki, for example, plus have working integrations for another piece of software a lot of you have been badgering me about.

The Elkarte team hopes to have 1.1 final out in a month. Only one blocker remains, and the only remaining issue of note is the accessibility testing I mention above.



Regarding the Equifax Leak

I thought I would put this here, for my fellow Americans.

The 'check' site that Equifax put up is a scam. It returns a random result. See here: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/09/equifax-breach-response-turns-dumpster-fire/

Likewise, freezing your credit with Equifax returns a highly insecure PIN. See here: https://twitter.com/webster/status/906638411930497029

At this point, my personal opinion is that you should be dealing with Equifax and its subsidiaries through one or more of the following entities:

1) Your lawyer.
2) Your state attorney general.
3) Your elected representatives.

At this point, Equifax has proven that they cannot be trusted in any capacity. They are simply holding your personal information hostage accordingly, and trying to milk what profit they can out of this situation by getting people to sign up to their service.



Thank you for reading, and stay safe, everyone.

As 'part I' indicates, there will be further announcements as things progress with Elkarte. Stay tuned. : )

[persephone325]

OMG! I'm so excited for the Elkarte move!!

Thank you for this update, Veks! <3

[Xue]

Thanks for the detailed and considered update, Veks :)

[Blythe]

Extremely excited for the Elkarte updates/move. :)

Thank you, Vekseid, (and to all those who worked on Elkarte) for all your hard work. I really can't say that enough! ^^

My thoughts to those affected by Irma--I hope those of you affected will be safe.  :-\

And ugh, Equifax. Just...that is beyond terrible.  >:(

[Ariel]

My thoughts are with everyone in Florida, Texas, the Caribbeans, etc. </3

Super ready for Elkarte!!!!

[Jail Rose]

Awesome! Thanks for this update, Vekseid!

Those who are affected by Hurricane Irma, I hope all of you there are safe. I heard this hurricane is more dangerous than it is, so keep safe, everyone!

[Nico]

Thank you Ves for the update!

Please stay safe everyone, if you are anywhere near that moster Irma. Just seeing it on CNN scares me.

[vin26m]

Thank you for the update and for all the great work you do, Vekseid.

[Bruja]

Thanks for the updates Vekseid!

[AzureSpark]

Thanks for the updates!

[Nymphadora]

Very exciting! Thank you for your work and the details you gave!

[Sain]

Thanks Veks and everyone else who worked on those updates. They look just awesome. Really looking forward to trying them out ;D

[AmberStarfire]

Thanks Veks for all the work that you do for us, and everyone in Florida, please be safe.

[Yukina]

Thank you for the updates, Veks. :)

[Ouroboros]

Oo, this is all super cool. Thank you for the update and all of your hard work!

[Various]

Just to be clear about Elkarte, it's just that the site format will change, not the URL right? It'd still be elliquiy.com just with a face lift?

[Amaris]

Thanks for the update!

My thoughts and prayers are with those in the storm's path, please stay safe!

[mayovagn]

First I heard about this, lazy on reading news posts so I am.

This sounds like a good thing. Thanks Veks! I am always impressed and grateful for how you constantly try to improve things and try your very best to take care of the wonderful people that have found a home in this unlikely and wonderful place you have created.

m.

[Nadir]

Just to be clear about Elkarte, it's just that the site format will change, not the URL right? It'd still be elliquiy.com just with a face lift?

That's right~

[AmberStarfire]

I can make some more themes, but it's my preference to wait until the site's complete so they won't need changing later.

[RedPhoenix]

Looking forward to all the new stuff, not sure I understand all of it but it sounds fun! :D

Speaking of themes will the current ones still be here? I've been using the Rainbow theme so long I'm not sure I would recognize normal E anymore. :)

[AmberStarfire]

Looking forward to all the new stuff, not sure I understand all of it but it sounds fun! :D

Speaking of themes will the current ones still be here? I've been using the Rainbow theme so long I'm not sure I would recognize normal E anymore. :)

If they are then it's highly unlikely they'd work properly. They're built around the current E site, so they'd need to be built again around the new one.

[Vekseid]

We'll have a new round of theme redesign before the conversion goes live.

I refactored nearly all of the css for this, to make it easier to create color variants.

[RedPhoenix]

Yay! :D

[Sessha]

 Thank for the notifications Vek.

[Beguile's Mistress]

I've been praying for all of our friends in Florida and the states in the path Irma and other hurricanes on their way here.

Also, for others worried about the Equifax situation, please remember there are two other credit reporting agencies - Transunion and Experian - who track your credit standing and usage.  If you are having difficulty resolving issues through Equifax try contacting the others to to see if you can put a watch on your ID and credit while Equifax sorts things out.  It isn't the most ideal solution but it might give you some notice or warning if your ID is being tampered with.

[Kuroneko]

Thank you for the update, Veks. Your hard work on this transition is greatly appreciated.

[The Green One]

Thank you for the information!

I'm excited about the upcoming changes~

[Haibane]

A note on  the buddy system

You will find the transitions to be a bit smoother if you ensure you are mutual buddies with your friends here.

Veks, is there any way to do this automatically or should I drop everyone on my buddy list a note advising them of this and asking that they mutually buddy me?

Thanks.

[Missy]

I only have two questions:

1) whats the buddy system thing? Do I need to have a buddy?

2) Whats the equifax thing and what does it have to do with E? Did I miss an announcement back in august or something when I was in the woods???

[Nadir]

The buddy system is our Friend thing, you input a name into it and it bolds that person's name when they are online in the Who's Online section.

Equifax has nothing directly to do with E but they had a major security breach so if you have business with them (they are a credit group) your details might be compromised.

[Oniya]

Equifax is one of the credit reporting agencies.  There was a major breach that was discovered recently, which means a lot of people's financial and identity data was seen by unknown parties.  According to the link Veks provided, the ass-covering is in high gear, and the actual 'doing something about it' is pretty superficial.  If you live in the States, it's possible that it affects you.

It affects E the same way Irma does:  it could severely screw over you or people you know.

[Missy]

How likely is it to have effected you?

[Vekseid]

If you are an adult United States citizen, then probably.

Equifax put up a site to 'check if you had been impacted', but it returns a random result and tries to push their credit monitoring service.

It is a situation that demands a legal resolution. Not paying Equifax more money to maybe, possibly, clean up a bit of the mess that they have caused.

[gaggedLouise]

A note on  the buddy system

After the move to Elkarte, the buddy system is going to begin taking a more and more prominent role on the site.

You will find the transitions to be a bit smoother if you ensure you are mutual buddies with your friends here.

This may be confusing, as currently SMF treats buddies as a sort of afterthought. It will make more sense once Elliquiy has upgraded, however.

I got a notice this morning pointing me here, from a lady who has me on her friend list - we've been in a couple of games together, we're good friends and writing buddies, but up until now I had not added her as a buddy in a formal sense. I did at once after she had been in touch this morning. But if those lists will be getting more functionality in the near future, does that mean we're encouraged to send an alert to the fellow member when we're adding them as a friend?

[DarkAria]

Thank you for the update and for all your hard work, Veks. You are appreciated. <333

[Verasaille]

Glad to hear the update will be soon. Also very happy the Tampa situation is alright.

You do amazing work Veks!!

[MagicalPen]

Is there more information on what this Buddy System is and why it is important for 'buddies' to be selected and vice versa? What is the benefit etc?

[Nessy]

If you are an adult United States citizen, then probably.

Equifax put up a site to 'check if you had been impacted', but it returns a random result and tries to push their credit monitoring service.

It is a situation that demands a legal resolution. Not paying Equifax more money to maybe, possibly, clean up a bit of the mess that they have caused.

Just my two cents here,

Check your credit reports from Transunion and Experian. You can get your credit reports for free, and anyone who is using your information should show up there. It is true some lending institutions only report to one of the three bureaus but many report to more than one. If you don't see any unusual activity there or on any of your existing accounts, I would suggest you wait until you do whatever Equifax is telling everyone to do. Their plan right not is not sufficient, doesn't work, and will most certainly change due to pressure and legal considerations... the company may very well go belly up too which makes anything they offer in question anyway.

[gaggedLouise]

The buddy system is our Friend thing, you input a name into it and it bolds that person's name when they are online in the Who's Online section.

Veks hinted that the functionality of the Friending system is going to expand in the future - so far it's been little more than a memory aid to spot which of your favourite folks are online - and that this is where the Mutual friending thing comes in. is there anything we could get ti hear about what this expansion is going to look like, what the buddy system will be used for, and so on? :)

[Vekseid]

I am being largely mum for now. : )

One thing that won't be in 1.1 but will happen in the future is factoring limits on the bcc system for private messages and conversations. Mutual buddies not counting against such limits, for example.

[gaggedLouise]

*nods, also silent* :)