I know it's a long post, but please have a read of this - it's important
The software behind the Penturners Forum is changing, because the current platform is decidedly archaic!
Back in the day, vBulletin was the best of the bunch. It's the software that has powered the Forum since the start, and is what Jim handed over to me to look after when he decided to retire from forum life. However, that was before the incredible advancement in technology which has happened in recent years, not least of all, the advancement in mobile phone technology.
Time and technology marches on, and these days, quite frankly there is much, much better software available.
vBulletin is temperamental, slow, cumbersome, and distinctly unfriendly towards mobiles. Rather than continue to shore it up and keep fighting an endless battle to keep it running as smoothly as possible, I've decided to just bight the bullet and migrate the Forum to brand new software, which will be taking place in the next few days. The new software is produced by XenForo, which many people who are members of other forums may well already be familiar with.
What will that mean for everyone who uses this Forum?
Well, for starters, it'll be stable, well behaved and faster. It will also be HTTPS, which is to say that it'll have a secure SSL certificate - something that I've been conscious of the Forum needing for a long while. The current platform is incapable of supporting HTTPS without losing much of it's functionality, but the new XenForo software fully supports it, which means that your login information and your personal details will be much, much more secure.
It will also be mobile friendly (Yay!), so if you're one of those people who prefers to access the internet on your phone, or you live with a phone welded to the palm of your hand, the Penturners Forum will be accessible in a responsive mobile format for the first time.
Anything else?
As far as most members are concerned, not a lot to be honest. The biggest and most obvious change will be the appearance, and the way we navigate it to get from A to B. That's going to be a change for me too, and there'll be something of a learning curve for all of us. It won't take long to get used to though, and the important thing is that the good old Penturners Forum will still be there underneath it all - all our threads and posts will still be there, all our images and archives, all our private messages, all our user names. They'll all still be there, we've just got to learn our way around it, that's all.
It will provide too, the opportunity to open up some new and exciting things I hope. So far, I've only had the test software to play around with, and I'll have to wait until the new platform goes live before I can fully get to grips with its capabilities, but the priority will be for us all to find our way around the place. It's going to be a bit like being in the same room, but after someone's re-arranged some of the furniture.
Will it need a new login?
No, it shouldn't do - it'll remember all our usernames, and I believe it will also remember our passwords. However, I'm sure that most people currently remain logged in permanently, (either that or their PC does the logging in for them), so there's a good chance that many people won't remember their own username or password without a prompt. We'll all probably need to log in from scratch on our first visit after the new software goes live, therefore, to be on the safe side, it would be a good idea to make a note of your username and password now, and keep it somewhere safe.
When will it happen?
It's being worked on now, so it'll happen sometime in the coming days. I'll give you a bit of notice nearer the time though if I can, and when it does happen, the Forum will probably be offline for 2 or 3 hours, (or possibly a bit longer if the switch-over doesn't go as smoothly as those doing the migration think it will).
Exciting times though, I hope you'll agree, and I'll keep you all in the loop as much as I can - I'll certainly try to give you as much notice as I can before the big event.
And after the big event, I'm absolutely certain there will be a great many opinions and suggestions, which it goes without saying I'll be keen to hear. It's true that I administrate it, but as I've said many times in the past, this is everybody's Forum, and everyone's opinion is a valid one, so don't be shy when the time comes.
The software behind the Penturners Forum is changing, because the current platform is decidedly archaic!
Back in the day, vBulletin was the best of the bunch. It's the software that has powered the Forum since the start, and is what Jim handed over to me to look after when he decided to retire from forum life. However, that was before the incredible advancement in technology which has happened in recent years, not least of all, the advancement in mobile phone technology.
Time and technology marches on, and these days, quite frankly there is much, much better software available.
vBulletin is temperamental, slow, cumbersome, and distinctly unfriendly towards mobiles. Rather than continue to shore it up and keep fighting an endless battle to keep it running as smoothly as possible, I've decided to just bight the bullet and migrate the Forum to brand new software, which will be taking place in the next few days. The new software is produced by XenForo, which many people who are members of other forums may well already be familiar with.
What will that mean for everyone who uses this Forum?
Well, for starters, it'll be stable, well behaved and faster. It will also be HTTPS, which is to say that it'll have a secure SSL certificate - something that I've been conscious of the Forum needing for a long while. The current platform is incapable of supporting HTTPS without losing much of it's functionality, but the new XenForo software fully supports it, which means that your login information and your personal details will be much, much more secure.
It will also be mobile friendly (Yay!), so if you're one of those people who prefers to access the internet on your phone, or you live with a phone welded to the palm of your hand, the Penturners Forum will be accessible in a responsive mobile format for the first time.
Anything else?
As far as most members are concerned, not a lot to be honest. The biggest and most obvious change will be the appearance, and the way we navigate it to get from A to B. That's going to be a change for me too, and there'll be something of a learning curve for all of us. It won't take long to get used to though, and the important thing is that the good old Penturners Forum will still be there underneath it all - all our threads and posts will still be there, all our images and archives, all our private messages, all our user names. They'll all still be there, we've just got to learn our way around it, that's all.
It will provide too, the opportunity to open up some new and exciting things I hope. So far, I've only had the test software to play around with, and I'll have to wait until the new platform goes live before I can fully get to grips with its capabilities, but the priority will be for us all to find our way around the place. It's going to be a bit like being in the same room, but after someone's re-arranged some of the furniture.
Will it need a new login?
No, it shouldn't do - it'll remember all our usernames, and I believe it will also remember our passwords. However, I'm sure that most people currently remain logged in permanently, (either that or their PC does the logging in for them), so there's a good chance that many people won't remember their own username or password without a prompt. We'll all probably need to log in from scratch on our first visit after the new software goes live, therefore, to be on the safe side, it would be a good idea to make a note of your username and password now, and keep it somewhere safe.
When will it happen?
It's being worked on now, so it'll happen sometime in the coming days. I'll give you a bit of notice nearer the time though if I can, and when it does happen, the Forum will probably be offline for 2 or 3 hours, (or possibly a bit longer if the switch-over doesn't go as smoothly as those doing the migration think it will).
Exciting times though, I hope you'll agree, and I'll keep you all in the loop as much as I can - I'll certainly try to give you as much notice as I can before the big event.
And after the big event, I'm absolutely certain there will be a great many opinions and suggestions, which it goes without saying I'll be keen to hear. It's true that I administrate it, but as I've said many times in the past, this is everybody's Forum, and everyone's opinion is a valid one, so don't be shy when the time comes.
