IMPORTANT: An Early Warning - Heads Up!

[Dobber]

I'm leaning towards the decision to scrapping VBulletin 5. I like their ideas for this version a lot, but they released it a year before it was ready IMO. You were all right and I was wrong

So what I would do would be to restore VBulletin 3 - which would mean losing all posts since November 13 (when this move was made). I would do my best to copy your Reps and your Post Count, and then get data entry clerks to put them in for me. But the posts themselves from the last 2.5 months would be lost (to keep them would mean a lot of work and money). Then once restored, we would upgrade to VBulletin 4 - because an upgrade is still necessary (security) but VB 4 is a forum that works and is the best updated version to use. This is a big move that, although will cause more pain for us all - it's for the best. I want to do it right this time and put this all behind me. But I think the 'pain' would just be a few hours of downtime at most, and the loss of posts as I noted above, and possibly an initial influx of spam (that maybe only the mods will see) as we work to implement spam blocks.

I am working with a Canadian programmer who specializes in forums and has done nothing but forums for eight years. This will not be screwed up. I will update this post with timelines, relaunch date, etc. But it will happen SOON.

Thank you for your patience.

As I have mentioned here on the weekend, the forum isn't officially open right now. So when this relaunches I will post a big announcement on DobberHockey, Twitter, Facebook and send a newsletter to those who signed up for those (you can do it in the shop).


UPDATE (7:20pm ET): I gave the programmer the go-ahead. VBulletin 3 will be restored in development tonight. Tomorrow morning I believe, this forum will be back to VBulletin 3 (and I think I can keep this live) while VBulletin 4 is set up in development. By Monday, the forum will switch to VBulletin 4.

What this means for you, the bad:

1. You will lose any posts you did in the past 2.5 months, though I will manually adjust your post count to where it is now (make note of it just in case, and let me know what it is if you don't think it's right). I think your old Rep will come back and I think I should just leave that (good for most people, bad for some) - UPDATE: apparently there is a solution that will allow all posts to be kept. Not 100% official, but looks very promising.
2. The site will be down for an hour or so in the morning, and again in the night.
3. You may need to re-do your signature or any new avatar
4. New users (since November 13) will be manually put back into the system, but you'll have to reset your password (boy can I see that biting me in the ass over the next few weeks...)


What this means for you, the good:
1. PM's will work
2. Subscription emails will work
3. "Read thread" indicators will be back
4. Filter for picking which forum sections to list under 'Latest Posts' will be back
5. No more login issues. No more sign-up issues
6. User Settings will work
7. Admin CP will work (okay that one's for me)
8. Android forum shift? That may fix
9. That weird cursor jump when you back up in typing a post will be gone
10. etc


Sorry for no notice. At all. Literally. But the sooner I act, the sooner I can make changes/fixes once and for all

[davidgoodburn]

Thanks for the heads up. Too bad about V5. I like the look of the user interface but there are a lot of little bugs that they need to fix before it is ready for prime time. Hopefully you can get the changeover to V4 done during the break so its ready to go for the stretch run.

Since most posts are only point in time relevant it hopefully isnt too big a loss to anyone. I'll even accpet the loss of post count and rep if it gets it done. They're only numbers and not worth worrying about IMO.

[gainerama]

Restoring everything from Nov 13 and giving us something closer to the old forum sounds good. Restoring my 17,000 rep pts from Nov also sounds good.

[Dobber]

It looks like this will be done within 48 hours, shutdown as early as tomorrow morning. I'll keep u posted

[blayze]

Not to second guess your judgment but I'm not sure why you need to scrap the whole thing.

There's been a lot of bugs and headaches, but you've done a TON of work and now it's gotten to the point where the major kinks have been ironed out and for the most part the forum is pretty functional as is.

Why start over?

[mounD]

Whatever is going to work, just make it happen. Keep us updated, and good luck to you, sir.

[kovalchuk17]

alright. as frustrating as it is for us as fantasy hockey enthusiasts, we are just that ... enthusiasts. this is your livelyhood and youre the one paying the bills for upgrades just to maintain stability let alone growth. fortunately, youre the best and have been for many years so im sure itll be fine. fortunately its the olympic break so traffic is going to be lower than normal anyways right?

[gainerama]

Originally posted by blayze

Why start over?

Obviously he looked at the disappointing performance of his roster and decided it was time to rebuild.

[mister_mcgoo]

Originally posted by blayze View Post
Not to second guess your judgment but I'm not sure why you need to scrap the whole thing.

There's been a lot of bugs and headaches, but you've done a TON of work and now it's gotten to the point where the major kinks have been ironed out and for the most part the forum is pretty functional as is.

Why start over?

because vBulletin 5 marks one of the worst releases of a piece of software in history...like remember how bad Vista sucked? Same deal, they totally screwed the pooch on it.
it sucks to have to scrap things I agree but these forums have been painful tghe last few months, I know the flaky behavior has killed my passion for these forums, I'm sure it's been even worse for newer users of the site
sometimes you gotta amputate to save the limb

[Axeman33]

Damn, and I almost back up to 6K posts again. LOL!

Do what you think is best for the long term Dobber. The true Dobberites will stick it out.

[Dobber]

Originally posted by mister_mcgoo View Post

because vBulletin 5 marks one of the worst releases of a piece of software in history...like remember how bad Vista sucked?

Couldn't have said it better myself

sometimes you gotta amputate to save the limb

Couldn't have said it better myself

[Dobber]

Originally posted by Axeman33 View Post
Damn, and I almost back up to 6K posts again. LOL!

Do what you think is best for the long term Dobber. The true Dobberites will stick it out.

Your post count won't be lost. The posts...they may be lost. But the number under your name won't be lost.

[Dobber]

Updated the initial post. This thing is a "GO"

[Atomic Wedgy]

Crap.... what a terrible position to be put in Dobber. Hopefully it goes well as we can all forget the "great forum disaster of 2014". PS.... it wasn't all that much of a disaster for me. I see lot of complaints but I dont really have any. The place is still awesome. The Dobber forum at 70% is still better than every fantasy hockey forum in the world.

[blayze]

Just for the record... I had 39,655 posts prior to tomorrow's reset. Let it be known and documented.