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IMPORTANT: Site Upgrade Coming on July 1st


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Hey all!
 
On July 1st, 2016, LoversLab will be making its 2nd attempt to transition to the newest version of the forum software.
Many of you will remember the disastrous attempt we made last year, which ultimately did not work out and resulted in the site having to revert back to a several weeks old backup from before the update. This time, however, we are significantly more prepared for it.
 
To start, the current version of the site will not simply go away immediately. On July 1st, the current version of LoversLab site will remain the primary URL for loverslab.com. However, from that point there will be a secondary site, with a different URL (to be announced), which will be the future site. The new site will use the updated forum software (IPB 4.1) and will use a copy of the data from the July 1st version of the site.
 
After 48-72 hours have passed, these 2 versions of the site shall flip and the new version of the site shall become the primary one, and the old (currently used) version will be moved to a backup/archive URL so users may copy any data off it they might have missed moving during the 48-72 hour period while both versions of the site were up.
 
This time, the change should go much smoother due to this transition period between the two. The site is much more prepared for the changes after the lessons learned last time, (I know what to expect now), not to mention both the software and server setup have matured in significant ways.
 
 
This is the update plan with the occurring dates:

  • July 1st: loverslab.com = IPB 3.4 - Old software, read/write, primary site, current content at Jul 1st.
  • July 1st: new.loverslab.com = IPB 4.1 - New software, read/write, secondary site, current content at Jul 1st. It will be mid conversion for a couple of days, as the conversion to 4.1 takes some time. The original version remains the "primary version" for 48-72 hours, to prevent any major moving pains.
  • July 3rd: loverslab.com = IPB 4.1 - The new site will be established as the primary site, replacing the old one. Therefore, “new.loverslab.com” will be renamed “loverslab.com”. The content that is accessible on July 3rd will be the content that was there on July 1st; the conversion process to 4.1 should be completed by July 3rd. Be aware that any changes/posts/threads/uploads made to the old 3.4 version between Jul 1st and 3rd will be lost and not available on the new version of the site.
  • July 3rd: archive.loverslab.com = IPB 3.4 - formerly loverslab.com – all content from the previous site prior to July 3rd will be available on this archive site. This version of the forum will become read only.
  • July 31st: archive.loverslab.com = IPB 3.4 - On July 31st archive.loverslab.com will be shut down. The archived information will no longer be available. (We’ll still have a backup of this version just in case shit goes sideways like last time.)

It will essentially be the reverse of what happened when the site reverted back to 3.4 after the last attempt to upgrade. This should hopefully allow for some breathing room during the transition, rather than last time where everybody was essentially immediately thrown into the deep end.

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Noooooooooo

 

 

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

 

oooooo!!!!

 

(Actually, it's your site, so I'm sure you know best).

 

EDIT:-

 

opps: I replied to this on the right hand panel not realizing it was in the Announcements section. So I suspect a faux pas for doing that sort of thing. Sorry.

 

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Good luck, Ashal!  I hope it goes smoothly.

Actually, I rather liked the old-new site; so if the new-new site has the look and functionality of the old-new site, then it will be a definite improvement over the old-old site.  But then, if the new-new site functions (or not, as the case may be) like the old-new site did, then we will, once again, be back on the old-old site.  :P:D

 

I'm ready either way.  ;)

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... the old-new site... ...new-new site... ...old-new site....

 

Aaaarrgghhh....  :P

 

Old site: the one we are running now

Old-new site: the tentative upgrade of last year (it does not exist anymore)

New site: the one we will get in a week.

 

And then, because of Murphis laws we will need something:

 

old-new-new site (in case of miserable shit and we will do again as last year for the upcoming site)

new-old site (in case we need to differenciate between the old-old site and the old-new site)

old-old-new site (in case we upgrade, but the revert, and we still want to refer to the site that is gone of last year (the new one))

old-new-old site (the passed upgraded site, in case the new one will work.)

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Hi, well i guess changes can (and should) be positive, in particular when they're necessary to keep the forum safe and up to date.
Now i only use forums on my desktop PC, so based on the reverted previous update, and based on forum software from other sites, i'd like to mention a few things where i hope they don't change:

1. The ability to write posts and PMs directly in BBcode with an 1:1 preview function, without the software messing around with my input unless i make a code error. The previous software update would only allow to write in the regular text editor, had no preview and would instantly convert hyperlinks after pasting their URL. So it felt like having no control over the final appearance of posts whatsoever.

For me this is extremely important, because when i make a post with lots of text, spoilers and images, i need 100% control over what i write and can't just press "add reply" hoping for the best.

2. Forums and forum pages being displayed as individual web pages with their own URL. Newer forum software changed this to be controlled by (probably) Javascript, so the "browser back / forward" buttons would always send you back to page 1 instead of the spot where you left. Like all forums, this isn't just infuriating because it's a massive convenience downgrade, but those JS forums are always extremely slow compared to the "good old" forums.

3. Overall layout - for me, Loverslab has always had a very good and readable layout. A classic forum, you know where the buttons are, and they do what they're supposed to when you click them. Easy on the eyes, mature selection of fonts and color scheme.

The previous update felt like... i'd like to avoid the word "cheap", but something made it look a bit like twitter or tumblr (just kidding, tumblr pages don't count as websites).

You know optimized for mobile devices, where users just read and maybe give a "thumbs up" or write some half-sentence as comment. But certainly not for long elaborate posts (in particular for mod development and releases) or discussions.

 

 

-------------

 

 

I'd also like to ask / give feedback about some issues with LL recently:

 

- writing something in the quick reply box, then switching to the full editor, has the site often "forget" most or everything i just wrote. It literally took me over 20 minutes to write this post, because the site often doesn't react to changes in the BBcode editor for several minutes.

 

- spoilers with images don't open until the site (or my browser) has finished loading them all, this also locks down the text box after hitting "preview" and can take several minutes each time.

 

- something that has been around for quite a while, and might have something to do with firefox or an update for the software. The text box for BBcode no longer has a line break, so the lines just extend infinitely and you have to scroll left and right. I know for sure that this wasn't the case until some time ago (could be 1-2 years already).

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I always support better things. If the new version would be better, advanced, faster, much stable ... why not... let's migrate ... (I just hope that we won't move back to old one again after some time) ... ;)

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what the he*k is wrong with the current site :(

 

It is old?

It has a very old of site software that is no more maintained?

Is stopping us to create a better one?

 

We all love the current structure (and the bbCode) and layout.

But this is limiting.

 

I love my car!!! Why I cannot go faster than 50 MPh? (~ 80 KHr) --> Because your engine is shit, you need to upgrade it.

And because you upgrade the engine, upgrade also the covers, and the sits, and the accessories.

 

The only thing it will be kept is the roads you ride. Full history.

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Will there be a way to bookmark individual posts for later reference?

I know I can follow topic, but never find a way to tag a post unless by blogging it.

 

Well 3 days of double duty browsing both forums isn't too bad :P

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