Message board software changes in the works......

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Due to the increasing amount of spammers attacking our message board, we are upgrading to a more secure message board software.

All of our data and history WILL be migrated as will your user accounts.

We are not sure at this point if your avatars will be transferred, but the new interface should make posting a new one easy just in case.

This will be happening very soon.

Thanks for being understanding during the change over.

[Gregg Machel]

Just to add a few notes here.

We are finding that a lot of good people signing up for the board are getting buried due to all of the spammers signing up for almost 100 accounts a day. Sorting through these has proven to be a nightmare. Our apologies for anyone who has not yet been approved. If we let the spammers get through, they destroy our board.

Some people have reported issues with not being able to post messages after they type them in. I could give a technical explanation for this, but I will spare you all. Basically the software we currently use has a problem with this area and there is no work around without removing a LOT of security.

The new messageboard software (vBulletin) is much more advanced and better supported. What we have been using (phpBB) is good, but it's also free, and there isn't a whole lot of fast support when you need it. Our new software is "purchased" and has higher quality support.

The new software offers more features for a large board like this one too. Once we get stabilized, we can look into enhancing the messageboard and adding more features.

I use the new messageboard software on another forum I work on that gets over 1,000,000 hits a day, and it handles it without issue. We should have no issues and have room for expansion.

I realize that people by nature are resistant to change, but trust me, this will make our community better!

I just tested this with a copy of our database, and it works fine. I was able to log in with my current username and password without issue. All of my posts were still there, and the board looks like it transferred in tact.

I am planning to do this within the next week. If you come here and the board is shut down, I am probably moving it. I will try to post in advance when I do this, and it should not be longer than 4-6 hours.

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

[Hairstacker]

Just want to say thank you(!!!) Gregg for all your efforts. We're blessed to have you behind the scenes. =D>

[Adam Grace]

Yes, thanks Gregg and Bill!