THE BOARDS WILL BE SHUT DOWN ANY TIME NOW, AND REMAIN DOWN FOR APPROX 12 HOURS


I'm looking at doing the switch this weekend: I'm gonna shut BOTH boards down around 3AM ET Saturday (Midnight PT Friday) and let the importer do its thing for 8-9 hours while I sleep. Then when I get up I'll fine-tune stuff that I've been working on the past couple weeks if they were lost. (And hopefully the importer doesn't hang, or my connection goes down, in the middle of the night to delay things)

If all goes smoothly, it should be up and running Saturday afternoon. If all does NOT go smoothly, it could be Saturday evening or even Sunday. (It better not interfere with football! lol)

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Anyone wishing email updates during that timeframe, please EMAIL webmaster@GangsterBB.NET me (starting now) with "Board Updates Please" as the subject, and I'll keep y'all informed on the progress!
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I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE TO BE SURE THAT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE UP-TO-DATE IN YOUR PROFILES!




Okay, folks - for the past couple weeks I've been busy playing with the latest version of UBB. I'm quite excited about it, actually, as there are so many cool new things available!

*** The new board should be installed the weekend of Oct 21, causing considerable downtime ***

I'm gonna list some of the PROS and CONS first:

UPDATED 10/15:

PROS

• Database backend which should run more efficiently than the current setup, with less of a chance of my overwriting it
• ALL current posts will be brought over, so nothing will be lost
• I can post important Announcements to all forums at the same time so they won't be missed. That would've been good for this posting!
• Will include a left-side column with a Search box, Who's Online (you can be invisible), Links, Board stats, and more
• Uur old friend "Shout Box" (this one works - in fact, the last shouts from 2004 are still on there!), Calendar displaying member birthdays (if you have one designated - don't worry, you don't need to include the year!), Optional Private Calendar for your own use, and more. (The right-side column has been disabled to allow more room for the forums)
• You can have 200 PMs rather than 60. You can even PM up to 10 people at once! (They're called Private Topics)
• Sub-forums can be created if I feel the need
• You'll be able to attach certain files to your posts, within reason - and until this gets abused. There will be a file size limit.
• You'll finally be able to upload your own avatars (up to 5k), and the avatar size has been increased from 64x64 to 72x72 (Any bigger and I'd have to remake all the ones we have already)
• I'll be activating RSS feeds for some or all forums if desired by you guys
• With "Topic Watching" you can subscribe to a topic w/ optional email alerts. You can watch forums, topics, or even other members
• Increased Polling functions
• New Post Editor allows you to change font, font color, font size and more!
• Quick Reply may or may not be implemented - I haven't decided yet. It's off for now, to avoid confusion.
• Topic Ratings - know at a glace which topics are worth visiting
• This could be good or bad: The Importer imports A BUNCH of old PM you sent/received! So you'll have to delete a slew of them. However, if there were any you regretted deleting in the past, you MIGHT get them back (if the OTHER person didn't delete it)
• Your Profile can include more IM addresses, and a "public" email address different than your official one if you choose
• You can still turn off other people's avatars and signatures - but I'm still not allowing images in signatures because it's unsightly. Unless I can control the size of them - we'll see.
• If there are Categories that you NEVER visit, you can collapse them to hide them if you want
• Active Topics for past 24, 48 hours or 7 days
• EVENTUALLY, Live Chat can be integrated into the BB, using your BB name! (I may need to take donations first for that, tho )
• The BB reports the latest 5 newest members rather than just 1
• The Top 5 posters are also listed, which should make Irishman and DE NIRO happy
• You have the option to view the BB in "Threaded" View (I don't care for it, but now it's a profile option for those who do)
• Admins and Mods can enter the Admin/Mod Control Panel instantly
• By clicking on a user's name on a post, you can instantly view their profile, PM them, "watch" them, or view their other posts
• You can email a post to a friend, and print out an entire topic
• You'll be able to search all forums at once, like in the past
• "Preview Post" is really cool
• Multiple skins will allow you to view the board in different ways - the default "GBB" style emulates this board
• I'm sure I forgot some!

CONS

• I tried my best to recreate the look of the current BB, but the new one won't be 100% the same.
• Currently you click on a person's name to get to the last post of a thread. The new way, you'll be clicking on the date instead, as clicking on a name goes to that person's profile. It's just something minor to get used to, that's all.
• While Active Topics includes more time options, it currently loses the topic preview that we currently have. Hopefully they'll bring that feature back in the future.
• There is currently no inline frame to view the entire thread on the reply page, but you can see the last post. I hope they bring this feature back because I used it all the time to navigate w/o opening a new window, but for now that's what we'll need to do I guess.
• PMs emailed to you currently do NOT include details of the PM
• Most Member #s will change - I'LL be that long-lost #2 once again! But it appears Member #'s aren't displayed anyway, so no big deal. (You can still see them looking at the url of someone's profile, tho)
• Change is tough sometimes. But this new version JUST came out, and things will improve and be added as they release updates.
• The biggest CON of all, though: It takes 8-9 hours to import the current BB posts into the new one. So after we test out the waters and everything's running smoothly on the new version, I'll have to close the current BB to be sure all new posts/members make it over. This also assumes everything will work smoothly. So, from the time I close the current BB, to the time the new one opens, it could be about 10 hours (best case) to 12 hours until the new one's up and running. And worst case would be that it didn't work right and I'd have to do it again (another 10+ hours)... But I'm obviously trying to prevent that from happening with the current tests I'm doing, and you're gonna do, and as I learn the new software better and better.

As I said, some things may work a little differently than what we're used to, but I think the PROS outweigh the CONS.

If you wanna check out what state it's in right now, check it out ! (You'll need to log in with your current login info)

Again, it's not final - just where it's at right now.

IMPORTANT!

> The new version of the BB is for TESTING ONLY -- Do not post anything you'll want to keep, as they will ALL be ERASED!

> Anything and Everything you do on the TEST BOARDS will be ERASED when testing is over! What you do there will NOT effect the current BB!

> Please test EVERYTHING you can, and explore around to get a feel for it. Try to break it, even.

Please take some time to explore and test it out. When we switch over will depend on how well/poorly the testing goes... could be next week!