Forum Upgrade Complete

[bradl]

Change is coming.

This is just a "heads up" to let you know that one day you'll log in and the forum will have changed. Or it will appear broken because I'm in the middle of doing the upgrade.

There's a major new release of the forum software out and I think it's about time to upgrade to the latest release. The 'skin' or appearance of the software has changed significantly - you will definitely notice some appearance and functionality changes, but for the most part things will still work pretty much as they have in the past.

As time goes by I will attempt to add back some of the custom styling, but it may take me a while to chip away at it. Fortunately the default colors are not that far off of what I've been using, so it shouldn't be too jarring for you

I don't know exactly when I'll perform the upgrade as it depends on my work/life schedule. It could be anywhere from next week to next month. Whenever it happens, the forum will be set to 'maintenance mode' during the upgrade. However, you may experience dire-sounding error messages during the brief period while the files are being uploaded and the database is being modified. Down-time may be as little as couple hours to as long as a few days. I really hope it will be just a couple of hours. Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

I will post again just before starting the upgrade.

Update: The upgrade will take the week of 21 September. This is a fairly serious upgrade so I've decided to use the services of the software vendor to perform the conversion. This means I won't know *exactly* what day or time. I anticipate Monday or Tuesday. It may take me a couple of days after the conversion to complete follow-up tweaks after the upgrade. I will try to reopen the forum as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.

[bradl]

Update: I have learned that before the major forum upgrade can take place, the underlying database must itself be converted to a newer release. This means that I will be taking Cairn Talk down for maintenance for a short period of time (probably tonight) to convert the database. Assuming the conversion is successful I will reopen the forum promptly (it should only be a matter of minutes if all is well).

After the database update I will submit a request for the forum upgrade. When *that* upgrade takes place, the forum will go down for a longer a period of time - possibly a day or more.

Looking forward to the new software, but I do apologize for the inconvenience.

[bradl]

Update: underlying database updated successfully. Forum upgrade in process queue. Will post again if/when I know more about the specific time-frame the forum upgrade itself will take place.

[bradl]

Update: The main upgrade has been done. So far things mostly work. Yay for that. Please post bugs and questions in Forum Support (please do not PM) and I'll let you know what I know, when I figure it out. I'll be learning this new software right alongside of you!

Meanwhile, there is A TON of clean-up work to be done. Expect the board to go on and offline repeatedly over the weekend, and possibly early next week.

Thank you again for your patience. I hope you'll really like the new Cairn Talk when we're done.