BeardedDragon going offline... Good things are coming!

[beardie]

Don't worry... we're not going offline permanently!

This Saturday (tomorrow), the site will be offline for an extended period of time (some 4-8 hours), starting around 10 or 11 AM PDT.

I know, I know... what will you all do with your Saturdays without your fix of bearded dragon discussions???

So, why is this happening?

Well... let's just say good things are coming!!

I will be doing a lot of technical work, migrating everything over to a new server.

But wait! There's more! ... I will also be migrating all of the data to new software. Things will look very different, as I've also worked to adjust the design of the site.

The most important thing, your logins will all still work when we come back online.

 

[CooperDragon]

Exciting! Please let me know if you need any help with the migration and I'll be happy to do what I can.

 

[beardie]

Exciting! Please let me know if you need any help with the migration and I'll be happy to do what I can.

Thanks. I think I have it covered. I've been spending the last couple weeks re-running trial migrations and trying to automate (i.e. write scripts) the manual changes needed after the built-in data migration support.

I'm pretty sure it will go fairly smoothly, but it just takes a lot of time. The first step is to migrating the existing stuff over to the new server instance and "containerize" things. That's not just the website... but the DNS server, mail server (my main personal email runs on this system), data analytics, database server, and the web server (plus a few other things). THEN, I have to upgrade phpBB from 3.0 to 3.2 (which can take over an hour, possibly up to 2). When that completes, I can then migrate the data from phpBB to the new software (which will take 2 hours), and then I have to spend time performing the final data updates and manual steps that are needed. Thus... 4-8 hours (likely closer to the 6-7 hour timeframe).

My wife has also been helping to rework the "Buying Guide". She dove deep into the weeds on what current practices are for many of the areas, and turned that single guide into several. I am hoping that will be helpful to people.

Anyway... I don't wanna give away too much. I really do think people are going to love the new software. It's just such a pleasure to use. It was actually frustrating typing out this notice because of how this editor works, after I got used to the new one.

 

[Drache613]

Hello Alex,

It is quite a change, but looks great! I do think everyone will find
it easy to use, thanks! I am sure it took awhile to get changed
over.

Tracie

 

[kingofnobbys]

Looking good , just did my daily jumbo post , manually added the img and /img tags mostly because it's easy . I do miss the IMG tag .
The limit of 20 images per post just meant I had to split the post into 2. No biggy.

 

[DorgEndo]

The front page is quite nice. It is modernized. Good work and thank you.

 

[beardie]

I do miss the IMG tag

Miss the IMG tag? It's still there. That's actually what the "Insert Image" tool does. You can also press Control-P (Command-P on a Mac). And if you want a little of the "old school" editor... on the upper right, you'll see a set of square brackets when typing. That will take you into BBCode mode, where you work with the raw BBCode. And you can toggle back and forth if some parts you want raw BBCode, and others you want WYSIWYG. Also, I bumped up the max number of images. If it becomes a broader issue, I'll reduce it again, and can make some exceptions for known "big posters".

 

[beardie]

The front page is quite nice. It is modernized.

We can all thank my wife, @Shinryu . The general flow and idea is largely based on her research for what modern and clean websites should have on a home page, and then the two of us working out the theory into what you see today.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I've been simply typing in the BB codes as needed .... I'm old school .... and know the coding .

 

[beardie]

I've been simply typing in the BB codes as needed .... I'm old school .... and know the coding .

Well, in that case, you might notice that when you switch your editor to BBCode mode, it actually remembers it throughout the site until you change it back. That actually confused me for a while when the other buttons were all disabled and I couldn't figure out why... it was that I was in BBCode mode. But it is easy enough to toggle it off when I want the tool bar buttons, and back on when I need the BBCode.