Server move, software update and other bits...

[Ed Sullivan]

So this probably looks a fair bit different...

The CPA site has been sitting on a server for a number of years. It came time that we needed to move from that server. There were a number of reasons, but most significantly, the server has been crashing quite regularly over the past month or two.

So, I've migrated the site to a new server, but along with that, there have been some changes. Notably, this server is much newer and using newer versions of underlying software. That has meant:

1. That the forum software version had to be updated. We were running an absolutely ancient version of XenForo. This new version is much more modern and will actually work comfortably on phones, for example. There are far too many changes to list, though ultimately it should work similarly.

2. Significantly, this means that the main site, articles, etc is dead and not really something that can come back. They were powered by code that is literally 20 years old, written by me as a teenager when I was learning to code. It is in no way compatible with the latest server software we're running. I might be able to extract some bits of data from this if it was significant, but given that the old server was dying several times a day, I just needed to get the site off it.

If you run into any obvious issues, please let me know, though it may just be some differences in how the new version of XenForo does things!

 

[turgy22]

Farewell, front page. We had some good times together.

On the positive side, poop emoji!

 

[Oversoul]

On the positive side, poop emoji!

Ed, what have you wrought?

 

[TomB]

This could get messy...

 

[Spiderman]

Wow, so.... bright!

 

[Mooseman]

Now this looks cool. Hope we didn't lose the articles all together. Maybe we can start a Article section of the forums.

 

[Oversoul]

On a more serious note, thanks Ed for keeping this place alive for over 20 years.

Now this looks cool. Hope we didn't lose the articles all together. Maybe we can start a Article section of the forums.

While it might be a bit much to ask of Ed to find a way to recover the articles, the Waybackmachine archived the front page long after the last time we had a front page update. I checked and I am able to look at the old articles. So it looks like we can, in principle, recover them. I don't know what the best way would be to go about creating a robust archive for that content, but I am all for it. I already have saved copies of most, if not all, of my old articles. But I'd really like to preserve the Beyond Dominia content that was archived here and some of the other cool front page stuff. Killer Joe, Big Blue, Psarketos, Orgg, etc. had some substantial contributions. I guess maybe even Turgy's articles might be of interest to someone possibly. You never know.

 

[Ed Sullivan]

Now this looks cool. Hope we didn't lose the articles all together. Maybe we can start a Article section of the forums.

If people still want to contribute articles, this would definitely be the way to go.

I do still have the content of the database with the articles, so I should be able to extract them. I may be able to get them reposted to the forums semi-automatically (though there may be some limitations there).

 

[Mooseman]

I may be able to get them reposted to the forums semi-automatically (though there may be some limitations there).

We are here to help, so whatever you need. Well, Spidey is here to do work, the rest of us are laggards.....

 

[Spiderman]

I will be more prompt than in the past!

 

[turgy22]

I guess maybe even Turgy's articles might be of interest to someone possibly. You never know.

Are you including me in that someone? Because that's one. Well, not all the articles, but some of them.

Actually, I did have a point of pride in one article I wrote maybe 15 years ago about mana curves. If you Google "mana curve", it still comes up in the first page of results. I'll be a bit disappointed to see that disappear.

 

[Oversoul]

If you run into any obvious issues, please let me know, though it may just be some differences in how the new version of XenForo does things!

Running into a bit of a bug that wasn't present before here (and is also not on the other message board I frequent that runs on XenForo (although perhaps they're not on the latest version either).

If try to highlight a bit of text to bold it, this tends to bold everything below the line I was highlighting. Same with italicizing text. Doesn't matter whether I'm using a mouse or using the arrow keys to select the text.

 

[Spiderman]

Copying colored text doesn't seem to carry over to the copy

 

[Mooseman]

I am only experiencing the copy color issue nd it's not that big a deal.
I am using IE.

 

[Oversoul]

I am using IE.

 

[Mooseman]

Only way to get here from work's firewall blocks.

 

[Ferret]

Interesting. I like it.

 

[TomB]

It's definitely brighter..

 

[Spiderman]

The color issue isn't a big deal but was a nice QOL

I'm using Chrome...

How does IE get around the firewall? They just didn't think it would be used?

 

[Mooseman]

How does IE get around the firewall? They just didn't think it would be used?

Not sure how the blocking algorithm is set up, but that's the deal..... I know odd as it is.