ANNOUNCEMENT - Forum Upgrade

[Marina]

Due to the problem here http://ms-people.com/forum/topic/16163-database-error/, I have to upgrade the forum software (sooner than I anticipated).

 

I will try to leave the forum open for as long as possible whilst I work on the upgraded version. But, if the database error should get worse, I may have to just shut it down till I'm ready.

 

When I do close the forum for the upgrade, I will give you advance notice. It will then remain closed for a while whilst it's upgraded and I perform all the necessary changes and installations of add-ons etc. I don't know how long it may be closed for, a few days to a week or more; much of it depends on how I and my MS feels day-to-day.

 

In the meantime, the forum will continue to be buggy with this problem - to see how to deal with it, please see the link above.

 

On the whole, the appearance of the upgraded forum wont be too different than it is now but there are nevertheless some differences. Some of these might include transparent icons that don't show till your mouse happens to hover it. This could be a nuisance to some of you with either vision or dexterity problems. Where and if possible, I will try to make these more visible or simply get rid of them totally.

 

IMPORTANT - One of, if not THE most important changes to you is that avatars are gone. Instead, it uses your profile photo. So, if you have an avatar, it will disappear and will be replaced by your profile photo, or by nothing if you have no profile photo. If you prefer to use your current avatar, you might want to change your profile photo to that of your avatar NOW, before the upgrade, so that you don't lose your avatar. This doesn't mean you have to use an actual photo, you can still use a graphic instead. EDIT - The upgrade will move your avatars to your profile photo. If you don't have an avatar but have a profile photo, your photo will be used as your avatar. If you don't want this, please remove your photo.

NOTE - another change is (I think) that it won't allow animated images as they're meant to be photos not animations. This is actually perhaps not a bad thing as some MSers find animated avatars to be disturbing to their vision.

 

A number of other things are gone too, like topic descriptions - but there are add-ons to bring these back, which I will install.

 

"Reputation" is replaced by "Like"... In other words, it will no longer be the person who has a "reputation" but will be the post that is "liked", a bit like on Facebook.

 

With some of the other things that might be gone, there are add-ons I can install to bring them back or replace them. There might even be new add-ons for other stuff that didn't exist for this older version. Once the forum is upgraded and re-opened, I'll let you know of the main changes.

 

Once again, thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience during the time we'll be closed.

[Marina]

Please note, as per this topic, you don't need to change your profile photo of your avatar, although it won't matter if you have.

[Marina]

I'm getting closer to getting the upgrade done, although it might not be for a week or so. I'll notify everybody both here and by email about when I expect the dates to be, and will email again to let you know when the forum re-opens.

 

If you want to receive these email notifications, please go to your Settings and then to the "Notification Options" tab. Make sure there's a tick in "Send me any updates sent by the board administrator" as you won't receive these emails if it's not ticked.

 

Once the forum is closed for the upgrade, there will be a notice advising you of why the forum is closed and I'll try to keep the notice updated as to how long it might be before it's open again.

[Marina]

The forum will close tomorrow, Sunday night, at midnight for the upgrade.

 

I will try my best to re-open the forum as soon as I can after I do all the installations and so on, but I'm afraid it will take me a few days...

 

As I said in my first post: once again, thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience during the time we'll be closed.