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fuller wrote:Not that it really matters, but do we know how long the site will be down for?
here is a quote from cleverwise from botf side
cleverwise wrote:The changes coming are significant and numerous. Most of the infrastructure for our community is being modified and altered.
Short of keeping PHPBB as the forum software this is a complete redo and reorganization. Raven Nuke is being retired. The new layout will be mobile friendly and more streamlined.
Downtime should be minimal, and additional notices will be made, however a few minutes here and there will probably occur.
development is done on separate board to keep down time to a minimum.
On Nov 25th we will be taking the new design live. This means, as stated, Raven Nuke will be retired on that date. It was originally planned to launch the redesign early next year. However the hosting company is going to force the latest version of PHP onto our community starting December 1st. This has created a forced deadline as it will break Raven Nuke by causing fatal errors. If you aren't already aware this is the system used to run this community.
While it could be patched this would take some doing and just isn't worth the effort when we can cut over to the new layout. Unfortunately this forced deadline means some of the features we originally planned to have working with the launch will just have to come online over the next few months. There just isn't enough time to get it all done as first mapped out. So be it.
As for downtime; it should be minimal. On that day we will be upgrading the site itself, the Armada community, and Birth community. These will be done one at a time. When upgrading the communities there will be a few minutes perhaps up to 30 minutes or so of time locked out of the boards as we must upgrade AFC to PHPBB 3.x which will take longer. Many tests have been run importing data and doing upgrades to the download sections and boards via development areas. Still I would rather quote a longer time and have it take less than the other way around.
There will be no exact time set other than the 25th. TC and I will be working together to cut over when possible, starting in the afternoon EST. We will just get a section going and verify things are okay before moving onto the next. Obviously should you reach the boards and site during the upgrading/transformation period simply please be patient and know we are working on it.
I know this community has been burned in the past with multi-week downtimes. I can promise this will NOT occur as I am an experience server administrator and programmer with official database training. I am guessing getting off these older systems and streamlining the backend will take a few hours from start to finish. Therefore expect certain parts of the site to be temporarily unavailable as these changes occur.
Additional Point:
Why the 25th? To give us some breathing time in case something doesn't go right. While I doubt any major issues, due to much testing, I still prefer a fallback plan just in case. So if the upgrade failed we can fall back onto Raven for a few more days. It is just smart planning to have a cushion. Plus on the 28th it is Thanksgiving in the USA and not the best day to coordinate a change over.
Excellent work! I like the design of this quite a lot!
Some of you are dicks. I, too, am a dick. The ways in which you were dicks does not magically render my behaviors any less destructive. The flip-side applies as well.
Elrond wrote: I like the design of this quite a lot!
me too!, it's a really great effort from all involved! Hopefully, the new look site will entice some more users to the site and get a more active forum.
That would make for some good times, no doubt. The community may be somewhat smaller than it once was, but it sure isn't dead. And if it once was dead at some point, then it's a zombie. In the event that that is the case, I'd better get my vinyl records ready so that I can adequately defend myself from the zombie hordes.
Some of you are dicks. I, too, am a dick. The ways in which you were dicks does not magically render my behaviors any less destructive. The flip-side applies as well.
It would be nice if there was a list of the changes instead of just a link to the rules. Fortunately they aren't as long as on some places like SpaceBattles.
