Welcome to the new forum.

Matthew · 2012-09-24 20:23:23

So I couldn't leave well enough alone, and now we have a brand new, sadly empty community support forum.

The community was running on Vanilla 2.18.1. There were a few things about it that were bothering me, so I checked in for updates and saw that 2.18.4 was available. And so I decided to upgrade. I actually couldn't find release notes for the .2, .3 or .4 updates -- just a vague forum post saying the latest fixed a security vulnerability and "bugs" -- which annoyed me, but I figured .4 must surely be better than .1, so I started downloading.

While that was happening, I tried to find upgrade procedures so that I could make sure to do things right. I didn't find anything at first, and then I found ... something. Vague, it was. But seriously, how hard could this be? So I unpacked the download, uploaded the files, ran the update script, and ... FATAL ERROR. Completely unable to access my database.

I checked the Vanilla support forum for help, found nothing. I posted a new discussion to ask for help, but as I write this it still sits in my Drafts awaiting moderation. No one has seen my plea for help, and maybe no one ever will.

I cleaned out the server, uploaded a fresh set of files and went at it again, but to no avail.

I searched the forums again, found several reports of problems with no satisfactory answers. Feeling utterly spent and completely alone, I began flailing aimlessly at Google. No love. And despairing, I have turned to alternatives.

There were things I liked about Vanilla, but also things I didn't like. I'm not so bothered at letting it go. What bothers me is having lost the wealth of valuable support information we had managed to accumulate in the forum over the past nine months since the CE2 refresh.

We're now setup on PunBB. It's lightweight, but mature and with a good reputation. The installation was quick and easy, and my first impressions are good. I am sorry that I must ask users to register anew yet again, but it couldn't be helped this time around.

So, what I had expected to be an easy, five-minute upgrade has turned into a hours-long nightmare. Not how I had wanted to finish my day, and a long day it has been.

Onward and upward, my friends ...

Brandt · 2012-09-24 21:48:58

Had to grab this opportunity to make the very first reply to the new forum. Yay!

BTW -- I never mentioned it, but I hated the previous forum

Much better now, IMHO!

Matthew · 2012-09-24 21:51:43

Ha! Perhaps a blessing in disguise in ways. I do wish we might have kept the user accounts and posts, though.

Matthew · 2012-09-24 21:52:40

I like that I can easily add links to the menu -- Blog, Docs and Shop are now accessible from the forum. Vanilla didn't allow me to do that without hacking it.

Brandt · 2012-09-24 21:56:18

Yeah, the posts would have been nice! Lots of content in there -- is it irretrievable?

Matthew · 2012-09-24 21:58:42

Seems so, unless I can get an installation of Vanilla to access the database again, which the currently available version is failing to do. There are no tools that I've found for converting Vanilla databases to other formats. And I hold little hope for getting support on Vanilla; they seem to have abandoned the open source project in favor of pushing users to their hosted platform, which -- after going through this crap -- I refuse even to consider.

Matthew · 2012-09-24 22:04:59

And the FAQ ... that's a bad loss. I'm hoping Rod has a backup, as he wrote most of it. I was hoping to find a copy in my mailbox, but no such luck.

RichC · 2012-09-24 23:52:52

... and it looks like you cannot do attachments , as i believe i have Rod's Markdown .txt file here .

## the Info page

Like Services, the Info page is another generic page. The content below is a Markdown testbed which may be used to style typography for your website; you will find the Typography options at the end of the Site Info control pane.

# This is an H1 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet nunc erat, vehicula tincidunt nisl. Donec ac metus purus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed nec lacus ac ligula bibendum tempus.

## This is an H2 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet nunc erat, vehicula tincidunt nisl. Donec ac metus purus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed nec lacus ac ligula bibendum tempus.

### This is an H3 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet nunc erat, vehicula tincidunt nisl. Donec ac metus purus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed nec lacus ac ligula bibendum tempus.

#### This is an H4 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet nunc erat, vehicula tincidunt nisl. Donec ac metus purus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed nec lacus ac ligula bibendum tempus.

##### This is an H5 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet nunc erat, vehicula tincidunt nisl. Donec ac metus purus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed nec lacus ac ligula bibendum tempus.

###### This is an H6 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum sit amet nunc erat, vehicula tincidunt nisl. Donec ac metus purus. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed nec lacus ac ligula bibendum tempus.

An unordered list:

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> It was seven o'clock of a very warm evening in the Seeonee hills when Father Wolf woke up from his day's rest, scratched himself, yawned, and spread out his paws one after the other to get rid of the sleepy feeling in their tips. Mother Wolf lay with her big gray nose dropped across her four tumbling, squealing cubs, and the moon shone into the mouth of the cave where they all lived. "Augrh!" said Father Wolf. "It is time to hunt again." He was going to spring down hill when a little shadow with a bushy tail crossed the threshold and whined: "Good luck go with you, O Chief of the Wolves. And good luck and strong white teeth go with noble children that they may never forget the hungry in this world."

Selected works of Rudyard Kipling organized in an ordered list: 

1. Mandalay (1890) (poetry)
2. Gunga Din (1890) (poetry)
3. The Jungle Book (1894)
4. The Second Jungle Book (1895)
5. Captains Courageous (1897)
6. Kim (1901)
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for those without the info page that comes with pages.

It could also just be the txt from the info page ;)

Do what you will with this post :)

Rich

Last edited by RichC (2012-09-24 23:53:29)

Matthew · 2012-09-25 00:26:39

Nice, Rich. I've added it to the Announcements and Info section. Thanks.

Matthew · 2012-09-25 00:33:08

Scratch that; Rod's got backups and I think he's going to post that and the FAQ.

RichC · 2012-09-25 01:26:25

yayyyyy ...:)
reminds me to back up my site and blog a bit later

last backup i did was a month ago

Matthew · 2012-09-25 01:39:51

I am guilty of not backing up The Turning Gate frequently enough. I wish databases were less a pain in the ass. Probably something I should do this week while it's on my mind, though.

Matthew · 2012-09-25 16:40:05

And my support request at the Vanilla forums is still sitting in my drafts folder awaiting moderation before it will appear in their forum. Fuck those guys.

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2012-09-24 20:23:23

Welcome to the new forum.

#2 2012-09-24 21:48:58

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#3 2012-09-24 21:51:43

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#4 2012-09-24 21:52:40

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#5 2012-09-24 21:56:18

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#6 2012-09-24 21:58:42

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#7 2012-09-24 22:04:59

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#8 2012-09-24 23:52:52

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#9 2012-09-25 00:26:39

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#10 2012-09-25 00:33:08

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#11 2012-09-25 01:26:25

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#12 2012-09-25 01:39:51

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

#13 2012-09-25 16:40:05

Re: Welcome to the new forum.

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