Forum bombshell!

[Andrew Slater]

Reminder: the forum will be off-line for about 20 minutes from 9pm this evening for another precautionary backup.

[Andrew Slater]

The database backup is complete.

[DracoM]

[french frank]

The database backup is complete.

Your 20 minuteses get shorter and shorter, Andrew.

[Andrew Slater]

Your 20 minuteses get shorter and shorter, Andrew.

It's not me, it's the server which is getting faster: I suspect its loading is reducing as users depart.

[cjsb]

I have bookmarks that take me straight to certain topics - consequently I have only just seen this thread. Very many thanks to those who have been spending hours working to preserve this forum!

[french frank]

Progress has been made with installing the upgrade on the new platform. If I understand (big caveat! ) it's a matter of connecting the existing forum database with the upgrade software, currently being worked on. The FutureQuest situation seems one big mess involving bankruptcy proceedings so there is a possibility that their closure will be sudden, brutal and unannounced. We are entirely prepared for that and at present the worst scenario looks to be forum closure for a few days rather than hours or minutes.

We plan an email if needed - not to all members but to those who have been logged in recently. Failing which, news will be posted on the temporary Facebook page.

[Andrew Slater]

Apologies, but I'm going to make an impromptu backup this morning (Saturday) at 11am. The down-time shouldn't be more than 20 minutes.

[Bryn]

Apologies, but I'm going to make an impromptu backup this morning (Saturday) at 11am. The down-time shouldn't be more than 20 minutes.

So carping about the last 15 minutes or so of the BaL on Petrushka will just have to wait.

[Andrew Slater]

So carping about the last 15 minutes or so of the BaL on Petrushka will just have to wait.

I don't want to deprive you - I'll be as quick as I can.

[oddoneout]

Apologies, but I'm going to make an impromptu backup this morning (Saturday) at 11am. The down-time shouldn't be more than 20 minutes.

No need for apologes as far as I'm concerned. I'm just grateful that things are in train to enable the forum to continue, having seen in the past what can happen when ignorance and lack of preparation sinks an otherwise useful site.

[Andrew Slater]

Backup complete.

[Pulcinella]

Backup complete.

Thanks again, Andrew.
Now we can continue to moan about another Andrew and this morning's BaL.

[Dave2002]

Backup complete.

I didn"t even notice this time. I noiced a big one a couple of evenings ago, but even that did't last long. Despite some criticism round here I'm actually quite enjoying RR this morning.

[french frank]

It appears that Andrew and Mark have managed to launch the upgrade on the new platform; I haven't had time to check it yet (I get up when Mark goes to bed ). A word of caution: it does appear that the style of this current version of vBulletin (especially the colours - I'm not clear about the layout at the moment) is not compatible with the upgrade and much has to be built up from scratch. Looking at the "style variables" of the upgrade, I can see that not even the terminology they use is the same as last time (itself a steep learning curve for me when we had slightly more time to work on it - it does appear that FQ can only last a matter of a few days longer).

So, we may have to launch with a very different 'look' or close for a few days. Don't forget the Facebook information page!

Add: I've logged in with my username and password! The layout is - recognisable, sort of. I think it will be useable but we'll have to see how much we can alter as we go. Currently the new forum is called vBulletin. Lots of things we don't want so I hope we can discard them.