So, this Sunday forum outage....

[ubeaut]

OVERLAPPING SCREEN TABS:
Sorry about the overlapping tabs not being fixed last night but there was a much more pressing problem with the mail server putting us out of action. Hopefully the tabs problem will be fixed today some time.

For now an easy fix may be to use Firefox or instead of IE or if the eyesight is good Ctrl - (that's Ctrl and the minus key) will reduce the screen size and fix it.

ADS AND POPUPS:
If you see ads at the top of the screen you ere not logged in to the forums. There is only one ad block on the forums for for logged in members. It is a trial ad block found right down at the bottom of the page and when it is just text it is almost impossible to see. When it is a graphic ad (it switches between text & graphic) you can't miss it.

The ads on the Guest view of the forum and in the Archive are there to help pay to keep this site FREE (some people seem to have forgotten it's all free and run by unpaid volunteers) and are hopefully are annoying enough as to act as an incentive for guests to sign up and become contributing members.

Popups.... What popups? There are no popups installed on these forums (other than those in the tabs etc which have been here for ever including on the old forms). If anyone sees a popup ad on these forums it will most likely be coming from your own computer infected with a tracking virus or similar.

What's happening:
Steven and I are still hard at it trying to get all the fixes in place but having businesses to run and is slowing us down a little. Since last Sunday I have been working until 2 & 3 am in the back room every night updating the counters and trying to do stuff to cause the least disruption and Steven is endeavoring to do things whenever he gets a few spare minutes.

It is happening albeit slower than anticipated. Mostly because of the massive size of this beast we call Woodwork Forums. There are around 15 million items that need to be updated, The Search Engine update took a little over 32 hours, attachment thumbnail update run yesterday went for around 10 hours until it in conjunction with the mail serve made the forums fall over due to the load on the server.

I'm off to the factory for a late start and will be working there all weekend trying to catch up on many lost hours over the past weeks due to shows, forums, and other bloody annoying stuff like 30+ emails a day from disgruntled members demanding immediate responses as to why the forums are stuffed and how it is inconveniencing them and why they will never be back again, and how dare we.... etc etc, etc.

It's free people. Suck it up or leave. Bit harsh but some people just don't seem to get it.

Anyway as they said during another great conflict:

KEEP CALM.jpg

Personally I prefer this one

kettle.jpg

Cheers - Neil

[BobL]

I don't remember if "similar threads" was in the previous forum version or not but I had to chuckle at seeing these as the suggested links from a thread on "Lathe bed wear".

• Wear to buy
• Why do brides wear white?
• What do you wear in the workshop
  
• What do you wear when you're woodworking?

[Humphrey9999]

It's free people. Suck it up or leave. Bit harsh but some people just don't seem to get it.

Well said, Neil.
Most of us appreciate the enormous effort that you guys have put in, (and all for free). Well done.

[ian]

Neil, Groggy, and the other mods

Change is almost always a shock, especially when it involves a well loved and much visited site


Seven days in and I mostly like the new version
I especially like the way pictures display in a pop-up window where you can scroll through all pictures attached to a post


THANK YOU for your perserverance

[Scott]

It's free people. Suck it up or leave. Bit harsh but some people just don't seem to get it.

hehe, suckin' it up as we speak.

[bj383ss]

What the 2 above me said. I think the mods are doing a great job and the new forum will be awesome once all finished.

Bret

[FenceFurniture]

Neil, you could always suspend the worst whingers until you're done. It'll save us from having to read all the carp as well.

Edit: And I for one would be very happy to contribute some bucks each month towards the running of this amazing resource. Actually, I can't believe that it's free.

[BobL]

Change is almost always a shock, especially when it involves a well loved and much visited site

I had about 6 months practice of using and getting quite comfortable with "the latest format" on a couple of other forums, but it was still a bit of a shock when WWF updated.

A couple more weeks/months and we won't remember much or anything about the previous version - I certainly don't remember anything about the version before the last one.

Thanks to all the mods for all their hard work

[Chesand]

The only constant in this world is change

[SAISAY]

Actually, my poor old eyes find this colour much easier to read than the old one, it was only the first day when the screen popped up in glaring white that I got a bit of a shock.
I like the more logic way the forums are organised.
Also the panel on the right showing the latest posts are good, one doesn't have to scroll all the way down the pages to see whether there is anything new worth reading

All in all, well done by all of you.

Cheers
SAISAY

[Groggy]

People don't like change, that is a fact. But there are certain realities in the IT world that have to be faced.

Running software is a little bit like being on a treadmill, stay in the middle and everything is good. Run too fast (update every time something new comes along) and you come a cropper. Run too slow (update only when the software wont work anymore) and you also come a cropper.

There are a number of things required to keep the forums in the 'sweet spot' of the treadmill, here are just a few:

Make sure the current version of the forum software is supported by vBulletin.
Make sure the add-ins are still supported by their vendors.
Make sure the vBullletin version and the add-ins still work with IE8,9,10,11, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, etc
Make sure the software provides the security required for the safety of the members and their details.
Make sure the software keeps up with the mainstream of video plugins, market sales options, PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX compatability.
Make sure the capability of the software is attractive and reflects current technology.
Make sure the software will still run on updated hardware and operating systems as it wears out (about every two years sees a server replaced where I am).

At some point of the race you drift to the back and need to plan when to jump to the next version. You plan that jump so you don't delay too long and slide off the end. You also plan it so you don't jump off the far end. You make an assessment and go for it, hoping that at worst you may have a little stumble but recover your rhythm quickly.

We made the jump and are recovering our rhythm.

[FenceFurniture]

See? It's easy.

[underfoot]

It's free people.

It's Free??.....who's the Nigerian bloke I've been paying then?

[nrb]

All will be fine.
IS IT TIME TO CLOSE THIS THREAD??????

[Scott]

All will be fine.
IS IT TIME TO CLOSE THIS THREAD??????

No!!!!!!