Going Live
- Neo_Bri
- Posts: 1342
- Joined: Mar 21, 2018
Hey admins,
See below. This message was drafted a few days ago to prepare for this version of the site to go live. We will send this out later today when we're sure we're ready. I'll send a blast from the old version. At that point we'll install this site in it's place.
Folks,
Over the weekend we had two phpBB engineers look at our site to determine feasibility and both of them returned to us a verdict that the upgrade we've been working on for weeks was not possible. The reasons for this stem with the site's original host, who put some special modifications in the software. When we transitioned to our current host, they did an upgrade but due to an oversight we specified a development version. Neither of these items alone would be enough to prevent an upgrade, but both together, regrettably do. This was the source of at least many of the login problems as the database was expecting something in the software to exist that no longer did, and reintroducing whatever was missing caused problems in other areas.
Although TromboneChat has been up for nearly two years now, 90%+ of the activity has been from the time that the TTF has been under maintenance. This is fine as our original goal was to be a lifeboat for the TTF in the potential demise of the server or its codebase. We’re still not sure what is happening to the TTF - even those of us who moderate haven’t been told what is going on with the upgrade. We feel that it is in the best interest of the community to reinstall phpBB to the newest version in the event that TTF never comes back. We need to take the lifeboat and turn it into a yacht. Unfortunately, this does mean that everyone will need to create new login information and the posts will no longer exist in the new version.
We can understand both concern of needing to sign up yet again for the TC and we feel your frustration and reluctance to undergo the process again. We've spent countless hours working on it ourselves and want it to be futureproof. Ultimately what we want is a situation where this valuable information can be generated in a secure environment that is easily backed up so that we don’t have the information now but also in the future. We’ve learned from the mistakes of the past implementations and are taking the following steps to ensure that we don’t run into this situation ever again:
• We’re sticking with our current host, who is very stable both financially and technologically
• We’ll keep as close to vanilla phpBB (meaning no software modifications) as possible to avoid conflict with the upgrade process, which is generally very simple with unmodified phpBB code
• We’re building a separate testing environment to parallel best practices in the development world so that upgrades don’t result in downtime
• Only installing the LTS (long term service) installations of phpBB software so that we always have a stable upgrade path
While many of the suggestions we’ve received will be fixed by this process (performance type issues such as the login problems we were experiencing), we haven’t forgotten about the other suggestions we’ve received such as a Wikipedia type structure for brass information as well as a way to access the CCL (Creative Commons License) information that I’ve backed up from the TTF. These are both great ideas and we’ll be looking into them as soon as we get the new install of the site running.
So, once again, please visit us at www.trombonechat.com and create a new account. This is the last time you'll need to - we promise!
We are deeply appreciative of your patience,
TromboneChat Admins (Neo Bri, Matt K, & bubbachet)
See below. This message was drafted a few days ago to prepare for this version of the site to go live. We will send this out later today when we're sure we're ready. I'll send a blast from the old version. At that point we'll install this site in it's place.
Folks,
Over the weekend we had two phpBB engineers look at our site to determine feasibility and both of them returned to us a verdict that the upgrade we've been working on for weeks was not possible. The reasons for this stem with the site's original host, who put some special modifications in the software. When we transitioned to our current host, they did an upgrade but due to an oversight we specified a development version. Neither of these items alone would be enough to prevent an upgrade, but both together, regrettably do. This was the source of at least many of the login problems as the database was expecting something in the software to exist that no longer did, and reintroducing whatever was missing caused problems in other areas.
Although TromboneChat has been up for nearly two years now, 90%+ of the activity has been from the time that the TTF has been under maintenance. This is fine as our original goal was to be a lifeboat for the TTF in the potential demise of the server or its codebase. We’re still not sure what is happening to the TTF - even those of us who moderate haven’t been told what is going on with the upgrade. We feel that it is in the best interest of the community to reinstall phpBB to the newest version in the event that TTF never comes back. We need to take the lifeboat and turn it into a yacht. Unfortunately, this does mean that everyone will need to create new login information and the posts will no longer exist in the new version.
We can understand both concern of needing to sign up yet again for the TC and we feel your frustration and reluctance to undergo the process again. We've spent countless hours working on it ourselves and want it to be futureproof. Ultimately what we want is a situation where this valuable information can be generated in a secure environment that is easily backed up so that we don’t have the information now but also in the future. We’ve learned from the mistakes of the past implementations and are taking the following steps to ensure that we don’t run into this situation ever again:
• We’re sticking with our current host, who is very stable both financially and technologically
• We’ll keep as close to vanilla phpBB (meaning no software modifications) as possible to avoid conflict with the upgrade process, which is generally very simple with unmodified phpBB code
• We’re building a separate testing environment to parallel best practices in the development world so that upgrades don’t result in downtime
• Only installing the LTS (long term service) installations of phpBB software so that we always have a stable upgrade path
While many of the suggestions we’ve received will be fixed by this process (performance type issues such as the login problems we were experiencing), we haven’t forgotten about the other suggestions we’ve received such as a Wikipedia type structure for brass information as well as a way to access the CCL (Creative Commons License) information that I’ve backed up from the TTF. These are both great ideas and we’ll be looking into them as soon as we get the new install of the site running.
So, once again, please visit us at www.trombonechat.com and create a new account. This is the last time you'll need to - we promise!
We are deeply appreciative of your patience,
TromboneChat Admins (Neo Bri, Matt K, & bubbachet)
- Neo_Bri
- Posts: 1342
- Joined: Mar 21, 2018
Questions:
1. Is there anything else we need to do here that is absolutely critical to get done before we pull the trigger?
2. Once I send out the message (I'll specify the time - perhaps 7PM Mountain time), how long will the upgrade take before the new site is able to accept new registrations?
1. Is there anything else we need to do here that is absolutely critical to get done before we pull the trigger?
2. Once I send out the message (I'll specify the time - perhaps 7PM Mountain time), how long will the upgrade take before the new site is able to accept new registrations?