An update on where things stand.

Hi Everyone
I thought I'd put together a consolidated update on where things stand - and all being well you'll actually be able to see this one.

Obviously we have issues, for those interested the problem is the PHP code the site is written in. It has now hit a point where it is sufficiently old that portions of it simply are not working, and whilst i've patched up some parts the only realistic way of fixing it all would be a complete code rewrite on a more modern version - which I'm afraid is a bit beyond me.

So, where does that leave us. Well I've sured up what we have and got as much as i can working - the main thing broken at the moment is the ability to create new topics, i know WHAT is happening but i don't know WHY - i'll make a separate post on that. Trying to trace that and fix it would be quite an undertaking……

Instead I've started work on moving us to a new platform. Unfortunately this is also not a straightforward option given the age of this software there's not really any easy paths to move it. I have found something that might work and I've done some initial testing. So far I've been able to successfully migrate the user base, and the forum setup, unfortunately migrating the post history is proving problematic. 

I'll keep plugging away at it and update on progress. 

Thanks Jay

Now that I've proved this works here's the update on New Topics.

Effectively the linking between topics and posts aren't working - i don't know why - everything is being created as it should but they aren't being linked up. I can fix this in the database on a case by case basis but that's obviously not ideal at all.
For the time being if people can stick to replying to existing threads as much as possible that would be good - where we need a new topic, reach out to one of the mods and they'll let me know what's needed.

One final point - there will be times that I need to take the Forum down to do work for the migration - if you try to access the forum and get a 'Status 500' error - don't panic - give it ten minutes and retry.

Sorry for the disruption but due to the problems we're having I'm having to work on it live and when i have time (in amongst work/kids etc) so I can't really give notice before it happens.

In your own time Jay and thanks.

Thank you Jay for spending a great deal of time and effort with our dear aged forum, which has become like an old and much loved family let to so many of us.
You have our gratitude and very best wishes,

Bill

Minor niggle, when replying (other than Quick reply) I often get a "Whisper" box presumably to direct a message to another member, similar to the "private message" on other forums, however it defaults to the senders ID which brings up a snotty error message when hitting send.

Dorsetmike mike Ive just done an inline whisper (PM)to you, in this thread and no error message ? looks like it worked fine. you get two choices, one is a direct whisper (PM) actually IN this thread, the other creates a whisper (PM) outside of this thread

Im going to login as billbrown and repeat the whisper to check its working ok for members  O_o

cheers

Matt

All seems to work OK, may take some getting used to though.

I just tried to reply to this topic and got an error msg. 4th try as a test

Colin W said

I just tried to reply to this topic and got an error msg. 4th try as a test

From “Post #287,038”, 30th March 2023, 9:55 pm

It seems I can't "Reply" if I've made the most recent post. I'm posting this by quoting my Post #287038 to see if that works. It looks more promising.

Colin W said

Colin W said

I just tried to reply to this topic and got an error msg. 4th try as a test

From “Post #287,038”, 30th March 2023, 9:55 pm

It seems I can't "Reply" if I've made the most recent post. I'm posting this by quoting my Post #287038 to see if that works. It looks more promising.

From “Post #287,039”, 30th March 2023, 10:01 pm

Reconfirmed.
 If mine is the most recent Post I can't use the "Reply" option to add a new post. If "Reply" is selected I get sent to "Whisper" then am told I can't message myself.

This will be a nuisance if not fixed up, hopefully a minor issue.

The original reason for my post got lost in the problem encountered!  I wondered if we can have likes options for posts, icons for various options as on RMWeb?  

How am I posting successfully?

As a workaround, I selected the "Quote" option for last post then deleted all the former Post material which is quoted and added my new message!

seems to work!

Test 1 let's talk to myself

Test 2 I'm talking to myself 🤣

Test 3 now trying to talk to my other selves using quick reply

Yup I am officially  talking to myself successfully  😜  

OK Colin all I can suggest is keep on carrying  on and see if you hit the same problem again ? I  have managed to hold the best conversation I've  had with myself in ages ! Using both reply and quick reply with back to back ermmm replies  🫠


Cheers

Matt

P.S. like button etc. . . No idea. . . Added to list of queries  for breakage

😇

Cheers

Matt

Colin W said

The original reason for my post got lost in the problem encountered!  I wondered if we can have likes options for posts, icons for various options as on RMWeb?  

From “Post #287,041”, 30th March 2023, 10:09 pm

Hey, possibly in the future - unfortunately right now, unlike RMWeb you have one single admin trying to make this all work out of pride and determination. YMRC is a community site with no commercial backing and all of the work here is me, I'm doing my best to give you guys all the same features you would get somewhere else but there's no team here, just one guy trying to build a site cause he didn't want to see it die.