The Software That Runs Modified: Do We Upgrade?
Posted: 28 Jun 2012 18:33
The software that runs this forum is old and out of date. It's "phpBB 2." There is now "phpBB 3" available. Upgrading to it is advisable. But it's not a decision that I want to make unilaterally because it would effect a few things:
- The custom, rotating banner would die. It might be easy to have some similar effect, but it's something I've totally not looked at and it's just not something I particularly want to worry about. I think we should upgrade and then worry about it later. I think it would be cool to get new submissions and have, perhaps <ahem> better images?
- It would also mostly kill chat, as I wouldn't really want to spend the time figuring that out either. I could keep it if there was enough objection; does anyone ever use it? Is it worth me spending my time on? I wouldn't need to kill it all together, but its integration into the forum (how many users chatting notification; probably the links to it) would go away.
- It's possible that the "bookmarks" functionality might get lost. Is this really a big deal? I could investigate to see if there's a phpBB 3 upgrade path, or perhaps an analog plugin for 3, but I'd rather not
- Any other custom modifications that have been made over the years would go away as well. I don't think there's much of that, if any. But I'm not going to go through the installation with a fine-tooth comb to find out, and there wouldn't really be enough of that which would be important enough to keep around.
- There would need to be a bit of down time; it would likely take about 2-3 hours as the database huge and migration takes forever because I basically have to run the process on my local computer and juggle things accordingly. It's relatively trivial to do, but the last time I tried it I spent hours clicking through its shitty web-based migration process, only to have it fail half-way through
- As mentioned above, the theme would be updated. We're currently using the stock theme, so this is basically a non-issue, but things would look & feel somewhat different. Everything would work basically the same, the content wouldn't change, but the graphics would be different. This is probably nothing but a good thing, but ask Facebook: people don't like change.
The Benefit to Upgrading:
MOBILE ACCESS. Under the new system, we could support a new theme that would format itself properly on a smart phone.
BETTER FOR ME The site runs on my server, so I'd like it to be as performant and secure as possible. Running 10 year old code is somewhat risky and probably takes up more system resources than necessary.
ACCESS TO MODERN PLUGINS. There are things like Facebook Like buttons for posts and the above mention mobile support that we're missing out on because we're stuck in the last decade of software.
The only drawback I can see for upgrading is that IF AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT. The forum works. It works fast. Why change?
Newer isn't necessarily always better, but I think it's worth it in this case to give it a whirl despite the minor caveats noted above. Thoughts? Questions? Have a I missed anything in considering this?
A
- The custom, rotating banner would die. It might be easy to have some similar effect, but it's something I've totally not looked at and it's just not something I particularly want to worry about. I think we should upgrade and then worry about it later. I think it would be cool to get new submissions and have, perhaps <ahem> better images?
- It would also mostly kill chat, as I wouldn't really want to spend the time figuring that out either. I could keep it if there was enough objection; does anyone ever use it? Is it worth me spending my time on? I wouldn't need to kill it all together, but its integration into the forum (how many users chatting notification; probably the links to it) would go away.
- It's possible that the "bookmarks" functionality might get lost. Is this really a big deal? I could investigate to see if there's a phpBB 3 upgrade path, or perhaps an analog plugin for 3, but I'd rather not
- Any other custom modifications that have been made over the years would go away as well. I don't think there's much of that, if any. But I'm not going to go through the installation with a fine-tooth comb to find out, and there wouldn't really be enough of that which would be important enough to keep around.
- There would need to be a bit of down time; it would likely take about 2-3 hours as the database huge and migration takes forever because I basically have to run the process on my local computer and juggle things accordingly. It's relatively trivial to do, but the last time I tried it I spent hours clicking through its shitty web-based migration process, only to have it fail half-way through
- As mentioned above, the theme would be updated. We're currently using the stock theme, so this is basically a non-issue, but things would look & feel somewhat different. Everything would work basically the same, the content wouldn't change, but the graphics would be different. This is probably nothing but a good thing, but ask Facebook: people don't like change.
The Benefit to Upgrading:
MOBILE ACCESS. Under the new system, we could support a new theme that would format itself properly on a smart phone.
BETTER FOR ME The site runs on my server, so I'd like it to be as performant and secure as possible. Running 10 year old code is somewhat risky and probably takes up more system resources than necessary.
ACCESS TO MODERN PLUGINS. There are things like Facebook Like buttons for posts and the above mention mobile support that we're missing out on because we're stuck in the last decade of software.
The only drawback I can see for upgrading is that IF AIN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT. The forum works. It works fast. Why change?
Newer isn't necessarily always better, but I think it's worth it in this case to give it a whirl despite the minor caveats noted above. Thoughts? Questions? Have a I missed anything in considering this?
A