Announcement of an impending move to Xenforo forums and the technical reasons

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussion' started by Richard.R, Feb 28, 2012.

  1. Richard.R

    Richard.R Guest

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    Speed
    Recently Gardeners Corner has been running much slower due to the fact our vBulletin install is badly outdated, vBulletin's latest version apart from being very glitchy is even slower than the vBulletin we're on presently.

    Xenforo is one of the fastest and optimised software on the market with much lower server strain resulting in better speed.

    Security
    vBulletin has not been an overly secure software in 2 years, even the latest versions have a string of critical security flaws requiring constant patching.

    Our version of vBulletin reached end of life over a year ago (think like the 'use by' date on food), and just recently we were hacked exploiting a fault in the aging software.

    Such a hack if not stopped when it was, could have resulted in thousands of member accounts and their computers infected with virus and malware.

    Stability
    As our current software ages, more and more functionality is being lost due to outdated coding languages and scripts, resulting in a much less stable browsing experience for members and a much more costly platform to maintain for staff, both in time and money.

    Xenforo our new software
    Xenforo was created by the lead developer of vBulletin 3 before he left the company over disagreements with the path they were taking for development (basically vBulletin become shoddy and cost about twice as much).

    The software uses the latest coding protocols and security features and apart from being much quicker than vBulletin, it also offers a much more user-friendly forum experience .

    About the Move
    The move will take place on Sunday 4th March 2012 starting about 6.30am and concluding sometime before 9am on the following day, the site will be unavailable to members during this time.

    However it is possible the move could be concluded faster and be back online the late afternoon/evening of that day. Updates will be posted on gardeners corner's twitter account which can be found here https://twitter.com/#!/gc_forum
     
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    • Marley Farley

      Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

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      I hate change usually, but I can't wait for this now.. Things have got a bit difficult here now, so it is very exciting as it is sooo user friendly, much easier than the current vB.. Allot of very hard work has been done to give us this new look & I think you will agree that it is really is soo much better.. :yay:
       
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      • Axl

        Axl Gardener

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        This is great news. Some of the features of Xenforo look fantastic. Looking forward to this.

        Do we get real time thread updating as standard?
         
      • catztail

        catztail Crazy Cat Lady

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        Is there a tickle button on there??? :heehee:
         
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        • Fidgetsmum

          Fidgetsmum Total Gardener

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          Numpties like me will be asking ... will I have to do anything? Only I'm still on 'the pills' from when we had to reset passwords and 'things' in March last year.
           
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          • Val..

            Val.. Confessed snail lover

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            Does that mean more smillies!!!!!!!:heehee:

            Val
             
          • SiXpence

            SiXpence Gardener

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            Fidget, thanks for asking that,

            Thanks also to admin for the new software and that work that entails to set it up.

            Will I need to register again would have been my question after reading this topic....:sofa:
             
          • Kristen

            Kristen Under gardener

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            Do you mean if you leave a thread open that it will "gain" any new messages?

            If so I don't think so, but the Alerts will tell you that the thread has been updated, and from what I've seen that works well (when you do something in a different thread, post a reply for example, a little tag appears next to the message you just adding saying something like "You have 999 alerts" and then you can hover the mouse over the Alerts menu an a list of recent alerts appears (threads that have changed, PMs, all sorts of things that can select to show, or not), so you are likely to KNOW that the thread has changed in short-order.

            But, FWIW, on here I just keep pressing "Quick links : Today's posts" and reading anything "new" that I am interested in.

            You can always link a smilie from another site as an IMG image of course ...

            Nah, they won't make it that hard, but you might need to change some of the options set on your account - e.g. a new feature might be turned ON for everyone, and if you hate it you'll have to turn it OFF.
             
          • JWK

            JWK Gardener Staff Member

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            Me too :help:

            Quite a few things didn't migrate last time, 'friend's list', 'thanks' (or 'likes'), thread's subscriptions not to mention the logging in/cookie problem and the visible Date of Birth issue.

            But I'm an optimist so I'm sure it will be just fine this time :dbgrtmb:
             
          • shiney

            shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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            I'll 'go with the flow' as long as I have the chance to change the colour of the 'style' to something not too harsh on the eyes - my poor old eyes can't take it! :heehee:

            I keep my 'style' set on Spring.

            With everything elsde I can work it out by trial and error - usually more error. :(
             
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            • Lolimac

              Lolimac Guest

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              I'm sure it will be great:rolleyespink: if only i knew what it all meant:pcthwack:...
              No worries i'l catch up:D :chicken:
               
            • Scrungee

              Scrungee Well known for it

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              As avatar pics, signature links, etc. regularly get lost during upgrades (and I'm not saying that will happen again this time), it may be a good idea to get the details ready for updating your User CP following the changeover.
               
            • shiney

              shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

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              Thanks Scrungee :dbgrtmb:

              I'll get mine ready now :heehee:


              [​IMG]
               
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              • Dave W

                Dave W Total Gardener

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                Once upon a time I found working at the leading edge of technology was fun.
                Nowadays 'the leading edge' feels more like 'the bleeding edge'. :o
                 
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                • Richard.R

                  Richard.R Guest

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                  Spring style has been copied over almost exactly as our vb version :)

                   
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