Be on the lookout --
I will be upgrading the MCW Forums to a new platform over the weekend. A definite downtime will be announced the moment I have finished testing of the import of the old forum data we are currently using and be posted here in this thread.
The upgrade and re-opening of the forums should take no more than 6 hours to complete - including final testing before re-opening to the public. Should we experience any issues with the live migration, we will restore the current forums and come back online while we diagnose what went wrong.
There will be a definite layout change but they will still resemble forums most of you are used to using. KEEP THE FOLLOWING IN MIND:
- Usernames and passwords will be transferred over - your old logins will still work, but you will have to re-login to the forums if you are a user who 'stays logged in' from visit to visit.
- Make sure you have an up-to-date email address registered on your profile - DO THIS NOW - incase you have forgotten your password, you can request a link to get it reset from the old system before we transfer over. Once the changeover is complete, we will have to reset the password for you if you have forgotten it.
- While this is new software, it has been extensively tested in is being used on thousands of websites throughout the world - the software choice was not taken lightly. But this means that you will notice some differences in how things work - don't be afraid to ask if you are having problems in the Support Forum so we can point you in the right direction
Below are some features we are adding (plus more not listed here):
- RSS Feeds
- User Selectable Themes
- Custom Avatars
- Image Uploads direct to the forums (not complete galleries though)
- Enhanced Private Messages
- Mobile Device Support (to be enhanced as software upgrades progress)
- Better performance and more up to date appearance
- Notifications of new posts in a thread
- Forum Subscriptions
- Last but not least: the return of the archives - over 140,000 posts dating from back to 2003 will all be restored with this upgrade
Again, be sure to check your email address and password to make sure they are up to date and ready to go during your next login. Make sure you can login successfully now, so that when the new upgrade comes online you will be able to get right in and start posting!
I have been working on the database migration (importing to the new system and testing) for the last two weeks and things are just about ready to roll. It will be announced in this thread when we have a for-sure date and time frame when we will be pushing the migration so stay tuned.
Edited by user
Saturday, December 18, 2010 9:10:56 PM
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Reason: Not specified