COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Pluggy]

I've just emailed the guy who repaired and reconfigured the board, back in 2013. I got a reply back saying he isn't in the business anymore.

Plan B, we made enquiries of another guy but in the end didn't use him. I emailed him and I'll see what he says.

This is his site : https://www.phpbbservices.com/

The ongoing costs are probably something fairly trivial like a tenner a year. Its all disguised in new secure hosting packages on the 1&1 site.

[Pluggy]

Having had a reply from 'the man' I have an idea of costs. THe SSL certificate is £7.99 for the first year and £23.99 subsequent years. Were looking a 1 off cost to get it sorted of $30 - $60. (US dollars).

I'm thinking its doable inside the funding I've received for this tax year (ends 5th April). Any objections if I decided to go ahead ?

[PanBiker]

No problems here Stephen. See my post in the admin thread.

[Wendyf]

It's looking promising! Just testing....

[Tizer]

OG still seemed `out of action' when I looked earlier in the day but I've just logged in and found it looking different. The only new posts I'm seeing are those above from Wendy, Pluggy and Panbiker (oh, and Panbiker's one in the Admin thread). I vote for going ahead and I'm quite happy to add more funds, it's time I put in more anyway.

[Pluggy]

He's still working on it, Although it looks like basic posting is working. There may be some compromises. We've go the very latest php system and phpBB software. Unfortunately the addons we use haven't caught up yet. and may not work properly. It looks like the revolving banner pictures are going to a be a victim.

[PanBiker]

Early days but I can see we have no gallery so no images in posts, no enhanced post editor, reply to last post icon has reverted to default. These were the only three tweaks we had above the base version of the BBS. Hopefully these can be patched.

Our spambot measures have also been overwritten with this version, consequently the last five member registrations since the board came back online are all spammers. I have banned all of them and reconfigured to our proven Q&A list.

[Tripps]

Good to see the site back up again. I've had 'separation anxiety'.

I don't understand the security thingy. What problem is it expected to solve? Nothing on here need 'security' does it? I never saw a problem for ages except when this issue was raised - and I can't find the smilies! If it ain't broke - no need to fix it would be my view. 'smile'

[Pluggy]

The recent posting questioning our lack of SSL security (https) started it, Whilst we were at it there have been underlying problems in the admin panel relating to out of date forum software. I did some research on updating stuff and hence logged in to the hosting control panel and became aware of another problem in that the old PHP software we were using was going into 'paid support' phase which I've falllen foul of in the past. Meanwhile I'd contacted 'the man' about putting ssl on the site.

So I did what I did last time and updated (it requests it updated and they do it when they get around to it). I asked to update from version 5.5 to the slightly newer 5.6 which shouldn't have broken anything. The day afterwards I wake up to the site being down and numerous emails awaiting. I go back to the hosting control to find they hadn't updated to PHP version 5.6 but to the very latest 7.0 which our old software took aversion to and ceased functioning. I then asked 'the man' to get it working with 7.0 which the latest version of phpBB (the board software) will work with). Then it becomes apparent that the addons we have on the board haven't been updated to work with the latest phpBB software. He thinks he can get some/most of it working but he is still working on it.

Back in 2013 just after I took over we had the site go down and we took the decisionj to remove most of the literally dozens of addons that Doc had put on and reduced it to 3. I dread to think what would have happened if we still had the dozens of addons. Its bad enough getting 4 pieces of software to work let alone several dozen. If it were purely up to me I'd remove all the addons, but I was talked around to keeping the Gallery and fancy editor. They do add something.

Hideously complex this running a BBS thing.....

[Big Kev]

Good to see things on the mend

[PanBiker]

I don't understand the security thingy. What problem is it expected to solve? Nothing on here need 'security' does it? I never saw a problem for ages except when this issue was raised - and I can't find the smilies! If it ain't broke - no need to fix it would be my view. 'smile'

The donate feature of the site redirects to Paypal which is a secure site in its own right.

As Pluggy has explained it was really the background stuff (PHP and the BBS version) that prompted the meltdown notwithstanding the hosting site overstepping their remit and upgrading past what was necessary. Having said that it would probably only have been a matter of time before we hit this point anyway. One of the problems we have to live with is that the BBS software and all the various add on modifications are all not for profit creations and therefore may or may not all keep pace with one another or the platform software that is needed for them to run on.

Smilies: you can get at these by using the full editor rather than the quick reply. The last version of the BBS software defaulted to the enhanced post editor that we had installed so smilies were always there.

The larger "jump to last post" icon that we used to have is easily changed, I modified it last time we re-jigged the site. Gallery though is a completely separate module and a different kettle of fish so to say.

Early days, lets see what our new guy can do and wait for his feedback.

[Tripps]

"The donate feature of the site redirects to Paypal which is a secure site in its own right."

That's what I thought was the case. I won't bang on about it - but are you saying the overload, and updating to a more up to date version than we need at the time when we looked into more 'security' was just a coincidence?

Thanks for the help - I've recovered the smilies. It's always a mistake to comment on something that's just changed - it usually sorts itself out soon.

Anyway - that's enough - I'll go with whatever Pluggy and Ian recommend.

[PanBiker]

Indeed Tripps as Pluggy explained here, one thing leads to another.

The recent posting questioning our lack of SSL security (https) started it, Whilst we were at it there have been underlying problems in the admin panel relating to out of date forum software. I did some research on updating stuff and hence logged in to the hosting control panel and became aware of another problem in that the old PHP software we were using was going into 'paid support' phase which I've fallen foul of in the past. Meanwhile I'd contacted 'the man' about putting SSL on the site.

So I did what I did last time and updated (it requests it updated and they do it when they get around to it). I asked to update from version 5.5 to the slightly newer 5.6 which shouldn't have broken anything. The day afterwards I wake up to the site being down and numerous emails awaiting. I go back to the hosting control to find they hadn't updated to PHP version 5.6 but to the very latest 7.0 which our old software took aversion to and ceased functioning.

[Pluggy]

Don't look now but the gallery is back albeit looking different,....

[PanBiker]

Yes, but my avatar has gone AWOL and it won't let me change it.

A number of the board features have been rejigged in this version, quick links have gone into a drop down and the moderator tools under posts have been "sexed up" somewhat. Likewise the user reference in the top bar now has a drop down.

If we can only have one banner picture I would vote for the panorama of the town with Bancrofts in the foreground, the winter ones are a bit dour in comparison.

[PanBiker]

Gallery is back but the images are not referencing correctly to the posts as the directory structure is different.

This shows the discrepancy:

Original reference in post: http://www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/gall ... e_id=13973

Current reference on new version: http://www.oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/app. ... 973/medium

It will display correctly using the new reference of course but the insertion method has changed with not having the enhanced editor.



This of course means that all previously existing images will not be displayed in the threads which does tend to screw up the narrative if it relies on the image.

New images added can be inserted with their new URL strings.

[Pluggy]

I was playing around with that. THe image numbers are the same but the path is different. Its not too difficult to edit existing posts. I adjusted Stanleys last post in his favourite thread : http://oneguyfrombarlick.co.uk/viewtopi ... 890#p99890

The pathnames are more logical if anything.

[Pluggy]

What was different about your avatar ? mine and everybody elses seem OK......

[Tripps]

Are we really saying that every picture reference path needs to be re-done?

[PanBiker]

As it stands at the moment yes. It's not difficult to alter but that would not be a viable option there are thousands.

Don't know about my avatar, it's animated but so are quite a few more, can't see why it wont let me alter it in my profile all the other options and preferences work in there.

[Pluggy]

We were screwed if we stayed put we're screwed if we move forward........

Anybody want a forum to administer ?

[PanBiker]

I have just managed to reconfigure my avatar, similar to the gallery the new version of the avatar editor in the user profile defaults to a different place. It deselected my avatar and I had to search the directory structure offered to find it again. I wonder why it was only mine? Everyone else's avatars were in the same directory, apart from those with custom uploaded ones.

[PanBiker]

We were screwed if we stayed put we're screwed if we move forward........

We normally discuss and sort out all the technical issues in the admin threads. Somehow this all fits better under the agony and the ecstasy at the moment.

[Stanley]

I'm just glad to see the site up and running again. I managed to post some pics the other day even though the rest of the site was down and I have managed to post them in shed matters this morning but I can't post any new ones. I get this message
SQL ERROR [ mysqli ]

Field 'image_exif_data' doesn't have a default value [1364]
I also got a message that 'Other Objects' had reached its limit.
I shall crash on without images for the time being and wait patiently for the brains to sort it out.
Like all violent change this is going to take some adjusting to. I think we should all be patient.
On the security certificate I say go ahead and like Tiz I am banging in a donation. I know Pluggy says he is all right at the moment but that isn't good enough. He may need to get our contractor to sort the gallery for us for instance..... Let's bite the bullet now and do a proper job. OG is worth it! Ill support anything you do.

[Stanley]

Heed hee! I can't find the donate button! Point me at it please.....