New Software and Hardware.

[kato13]

Alright, since we were disabled I took the time to upgrade our hardware and software.

Hardware.
We have a new box with 4x the processing power and 8x the RAM. I am also moving the gaming site onto a new box to prevent heavy CPU processing actions on that site from effecting the forum. When we were hit by several spam registration bots at the same time we did max out CPU. Hopefully that is now an issue of the past.

Software.
I upgraded us from Vbulletin version 3.5.1 to version 3.8.3. While many of the new functions seem unnecessary for our small, polite and not at all cliquish group. (Friends lists, Infraction warning systems, social groups, etc.) there are a few enhancements worth noting. The ability to quote multiple posts and an avatar enhancement, which should improve page load times ,are both things I found interesting. There might be other functions I am unaware of so if you find anything interesting please post it here.

Also if you find any issues please post or PM me. It is very difficult to find and test every function so I would really appreciate hearing about any issues you might find. Any avatar issues in particular I would like to hear about.

Remaining Issues
Due to a complete reconfiguration of my network several things outside the forum are currently not functional:

My gaming site is currently going through both an IP and and a server migration. Its functions may not be fully functional until Monday.

My email address for this site as well as my personal email address are both non functional at the moment. I am therefore requesting that PMs be used over emails.

Once I have all my remaining network functions fully established, I will probably take everything down for a 4-6 hour period next weekend for a simplification of my wiring, power, and cooling infrastructure.

[kato13]

Little bummed since we could have been up 6 hours sooner, but the UPS guy claimed my name was not on my building directory. He was wrong and I had to go out and meet him on his route or else wait until Monday (Though I would have threatened them into delivering Saturday).

Found a few new functions. Quoted posts now have a link back to the original source. In long threads that might be nice. Also there is some type of tag function for posts. I guess the poster is supposed to attach keywords to make searching easier. That is going to take a bit until we all figure out how to use that and what tags will be helpful. The box seems faster, but as I am literally a nanosecond away network wise, I am not always the best judge.

[Webstral]

Dude, you rock for all your work. I can't tell you how much it means to all of us.

Ian

[Cdnwolf]

You rock Kato!! This is a great place and some of us suffered withdrawl symptoms!!

[kato13]

Originally Posted by Webstral

Dude, you rock for all your work. I can't tell you how much it means to all of us.

Ian

Originally Posted by Cdnwolf

You rock Kato!! This is a great place and some of us suffered withdrawl symptoms!!

(Testing the new multi quote)

Thanks guys. Trust me no one had worse withdrawal symptoms than I did. When I was setting up the new server even though I KNEW it was not online I probably checked it over 100 times to see if anyone had posted LOL.

[Targan]

Thanks Kato. I had been expecting forum withdrawal symptoms this weekend but you've spared me from that. We appreciate all your efforts (and your generosity).