Impending forum update

Dear valued Members,

we would like to inform you of an impending update: after long deliberation and intensive (and still ongoing) preparation we have decided to finally upgrade to vBulletin 4, as the current software version vB 3.8.x will no longer be developped and supported.

The upgrade is not trivial and I have spent weeks testing and customising it. These procedures have not been concluded yet, but I expect the upgrade to take place within the next two weeks.

While there are significant technical modifications in the backend, members will most likely not be able to notice any changes in terms of functionality, although there are supposed to be some new features.

- No mojibake: we made sure not to change the DB encoding, so all threads featuring double-byte characters will be ported over seamlessly.

- Editting posts without losing formatting also appears to be working. Finally!

Please find a screen shot below. We shall keep you updated about the upgrade in this thread and during the upgrade on the JREF FB page.

Looks good, but even if the only thing that changed was the formatting issue in editing posts I'd still be more than happy!

I will be praying to the god of good luck .

Sure hope there is little to no down time. Hate going without my JREF fix!

Uncle Frank

:?

I apologise for the short notice, but we will start our upgrade tonight at 19:30 JST (11:30 GMT, 12:30 CET, 06:30 EDT, 03:30 PDT).

I expect the forum and all related modules to be back online within a few hours. I will try to post updates to the JREF Facebook page whenever necessary.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

I'm saying my prayers for a quick & easy change!

I think I will set up an altar in my back yard and slaughter/sacrifice a lamb for good fortune just to be safe.

Uncle Frank

We have tested all eventualities in the past few days. While the upgrade is technically a lot of work, it should be - according to our dry runs - a safe ride. Touching wood...

Of course there will be a lot of cosmetic work to be done in the next few days, dealing with glitches, bugs and complaints, but that's all in a day's work for an admin.

Mission accomplished - almost. There are still a few issues, mostly cosmetic, that need to be taken care of. Thanks again for your patience.

PS: kindly post any bugs or glitches to this thread.

wow JREF looks awsome !
Thank you very much thomas and all who helped upgrading the forum.

aaa.....<--- looking for [POST] button

The forum looks great, I especially like the New post box on the right and the blog section under it.

got to update the FAQ, though...