Forum Software Migration Hiccup Thread

[waarmstrong]

I am going back to the USA in a few days. Until this train wreck gets sorted, another hiatus is on my post-travel recommended list.

[marcus]

Anyone got anything positive to say?...

I lost some minutes to learn how to log in , but after that I have had an easy experience in posting , maybe 95% as easy as before .

I am unsure, is a drop of 5% an improvement? ...

The Forum was very good , so 95% of that is still good .

I would like to add that , what I posted in this thread are just information to the Forum owners to improve it IF they want . Independently of if the Forum becomes a little better or a little worse , it was/is/will certainly be a place where common members/visitors help each other for free and because of that I will try to give my best support .

[jason206]

I just "liked" your post (and another one of yours by accident!) for the simple reason that one so rarely sees the word "erstwhile" used correctly. Kudos!

It's quite the odd adjective! Sounds a bit unnatural, but occasionally it just feels right.

[atlantis]

The Forum was very good , so 95% of that is still good .
(redacted) it was/is/will certainly be a place where common members/visitors help each other for free and because of that I will try to give my best support .

Dear Marcus,
I understand that, for you, 95% of that is still good. Fine. However it seems that many members/visitors may have a different view. I have always been interested by figures, statistics and traffic concerning this forum. Without traffic and posts this forum would hardly be sustainable on the long term.

Let's have a look at the last 24 hours figures. Post #53 in this thread has been recorded by the server as being post #832558. My present post will be recorded by the server as being #832611. 24 hours have passed in between these two posts meaning that only a total of 53 posts have been submitted to the server in these 24 hours... with 26 of them being related to the failure this upgrade is. It means that only 27 posts, including 3 spams (deleted) and 3 posts of Davita that a(nother) bug in the update kept unapproved for no valid reason, have been submitted in other threads in these 24 hours.

Basically, if we take out the spams and davita unapproved posts, it means only 21 posts for a 24 hours period. We can't hope to be gratified by an update every week or so to twice this low rate of posting per day, can we?

At this 21 post/day rate, the 5 now unactive mods would be an unnecessary luxury for this board anyway. Just a quick question: How long time a forum with such a low rate of posting might interest sponsors in your opinion?

For the past 4 days we have had a similarly weak daily activity. A quick look at the who's online page is pretty depressing (only 10 members including 4 erstwhile mods who have congregated here for a collective prayer in the hope the Messiah would return).

I remember a time not long ago where 200+ posts submitted per day wasn't a rare occurrence if not a minimum.

For a forum which is "95% as good as before" it is a serious drop in the activity and it should be a concern for all users.

[macvert]

Here's what I have sort of figured so far...
Click the header topic "Forums"
once there , under it is
a set of sub topics
Forums Latest Activity My Subscriptions

Click latest activity, then refresh the page ...et voila I have something that was a whole lot easier before the change.

Any page clicked on to read- before reading it: refresh
Any messages showing up are lies, they are just notifications that someone commented on a post in a thread you happen to be subscribed to...
But you are not necessarily subscribed to any threads you have commented in... ya have to go and set your settings for that
Personal info in the settings might be set as visible to the world & his wife... be sure to go and check them in your settings menu - shows up when u click on your name at the top of the forum.

Oh & don't forget to refresh everything before you read it ... or you just get what you saw last time / last week// last month haha... on the plus side- ooooh yes there is one...
I am getting more of my life back.
I baked crumpets today and made a huge pan of celery soup.

I only keep popping back in here on the offchance I can find something akin to new / interesting comments and hopefully a new format hahaha

Hell a response from the "admin" on here would be useful or a response to the PM ... but I don't see many pigs flying around Java at the moment.

I now see taking a chance as hitting the post button & hoping that the lottery lets my post hit the page ...

mmmm ....... don't mind a bit of crumpet ....

[Anglian]

It says write something, I suppose it should be "Goodbye" this really is a muddle now, I'm too old for this sort of change, I just need to log on and read and enjoy or not whatever has been written, now it's a struggle, I log on, I'm logged off, threads seem 24 hours old, what happened to simplicity,

[Happyman]

Does anyone know why it was thought that we needed an update? Was there some problem with the old system?

[El_Goretto]

Does anyone know why it was thought that we needed an update? Was there some problem with the old system?

From our end, no we didn't. We did have some suggestions to make moderating easier but that's it.

There may be some improvements in terms of server load with better optimised pages, better tools, better customisation, but that's something that concerns the admin more than the users.

My personal opinion is that updates aren't bad. I'm an early adopter myself when it comes to technology. The problem here is the lack of communication and lack of follow-up leaving both users and moderators stranded.

[waarmstrong]

..... My personal opinion is that updates aren't bad. I'm an early adopter myself when it comes to technology. The problem here is the lack of communication and lack of follow-up leaving both users and moderators stranded.

I agree it's a pretty thoughtless roll-out, but beyond that it's also full of glitches such that I can only conclude that the quality of the "upgrade" programming matches the quality of the implementation planning, plus there seems to no discernible effort to fix the problems. From the statement at the top of this page (which is an annoyance itself being placed such that one must scroll back and forth across the message to reach the various buttons that control navigation of the thread.) it seems clear to me that those who foisted this on the board knew it was none too good.

[Jaime C]

And now it's says I'm jason206 logged in. Yeahhhh!

[marcus]

(1) ... It means that only 27 posts, ... How long time a forum with such a low rate of posting might interest sponsors in your opinion? ...

I never had a business , so I don't know . I hope this is only temporary , like it happens in many software upgrades .

Atlantis , let me take the opportunity to say that I think that you / other moderators took the right decision . My post was just a response of a request for a positive view of the Forum's #usability situation .
# ordinary members/visitors usability

[Jaime C]

Hahahaha! So much for security and functionality..

Your PM's were pretty scandalous to read.

[Banana72]

Search function doesn't work...I tried to search for an old thread using a keyword "Turking"...it came up with 0 results. I also often get kicked out every time I clicked on "Forum" or "Today's post".

[Happyman]

From our end, no we didn't. We did have some suggestions to make moderating easier but that's it.

There may be some improvements in terms of server load with better optimised pages, better tools, better customisation, but that's something that concerns the admin more than the users.

My personal opinion is that updates aren't bad. I'm an early adopter myself when it comes to technology. The problem here is the lack of communication and lack of follow-up leaving both users and moderators stranded.

You really are a public servant, aren't you? I appreciate the spirit of it, but I'm more the "let some other buggers early adopt and write about fifty guides on how to use it and then I'll have a look" type.

If there were no glitches, and this were my first day on the forum, I'd be pleased with the software. Actually, the most noticeable thing for me is the low number of posts that A mentioned. Seems like there is hardly anything to read these days... though I sometimes felt like that anyway, completely subjectively.

[bad_azz]

Private messaging- I can't empty my box


Won't let me send messages because I have exceeded the stored quota - which is crap, cos I had it hovering about 90 (yes, inbox & sent)
I cannot delete old messages that I deleted months back - so I cannot send messages... yet I managed to send to Paman the other day- obvs no response form him yet.