Possible Downtime 4/26-4/30
 

Got the below notice from Hostmonster about updating their PHP. This could result in forum downtime, though hopefully it won't. Their recommendations to upgrade the site are not possible right now.

To be safe, if there's anything you want to save here, do it before next week. As I've mentioned before, without access to the original VB license, we've been on borrowed time for awhile.

Hey Ben!
Thanks for the heads up.
I believe the files of the forum are automatically backed up every so often. If this is the case, can you tell us when the last update was so we'll know how far to go back? Also would it be possible to get a copy of all the files in case something terminal happens?

There are supposed to be daily, weekly and monthly backups, though I've found it's not always reliable (last time had to restore using a month old backup).

I will try to download a local copy. Though if our PHP becomes incompatible, it's possible even backups won't be useable afterward. I don't expect that to happen, but... best to be prepared.

We lost the Alizee forum, it would be really sad to lose this site.

vBulletin 3.8.4 and lower will not work with PHP 5.3.0 or higher.
 

Be sure to have a full backup of the forum database before the php upgrade takes place, in case the upgrade causes database corruption.

The forum footer says it's currently running on "vBulletin® Version 3.8.4".

https://forum.vbulletin.com/forum/vb...n-for-vb-3-8-4
says
"vBulletin 3.8.4 and lower will not work with PHP 5.3.0 or higher."

If that is true, vBulletin needs to be upgraded before the forced php upgrade takes place, otherwise it might break completely and not work at all anymore.

So... Because I'm a new member, I am not quite aware of all the events here. :13:

So is there now a risk of a longer break, for example? :nervous:

What about these problems in different versions etc? What is the history and reasons for any difficulties!?

It would be nice to know.... If that information is just public matters.

Yes, I have read some of the old debates on the subject, but all in all, the overall picture is quite unclear to me.

Some time ago when we were discussing forum upgrades, I had contacted somebody at vBulletin to talk about their cloud hosting service. The cost was very reasonable per month. They would migrate AAm at no cost up to the latest version, which is v5.x. History would migrate over along with user accounts.

There is a one time cost for the vBulletin 5 license, and the amount is not so bad. There are members here that would kick in a donation towards this cost, myself included.

vBulletin would perform upgrades and backups included with the hosting fees.

There was some pushback from members who did not want to lose the chat box. vBulletin 5 has very nice features, but a native chat box is not one of them. They don't allow 3rd party add-ons to be installed on their servers. However, if it came down to having AAm without a chat box or not having AAm at all, I would choose the former every time. :)

I think this should be considered as a back up plan should AAm not work after the upgrade. Enough of us have each other's personal email addresses to communicate with each other if the worst happens.

If a blackout occurs, I encourage all members to keep trying to get back on periodically. I want AAm to live on and will do my part to keep this site going.

https://www.vbulletin.com/en/vbulletin-cloud

"Sites automatically upgraded to each latest version of vBulletin"

Which means never again upgrade or known security issues.
Not as far as I can see in the FAQ of the vBulletin Cloud:

Q: Do I need to buy a separate vBulletin license?
A: No, your vBulletin Cloud account includes a license to use while your site is hosted on vBulletin Cloud.

Q: Can I import my existing forum into vB Cloud?
A: Yes, we can import vBulletin 5, vBulletin 4 or vBulletin 3 databases.

I don't think this is relevant anymore.
The choice now seems to be to lose everything or only the chat box, while we can still chat on Telegram, Facebook, Discord, etc.
Besides, the chat box was mainly used for new registered users to notify someone to get activated, while the new vBulletin version has advanced anti-bot and anti-spam features, so the manual activation of members to avoid spam will probably not be needed anymore.

Well the good news is we're already running PHP 7.3.27, so this can't be completely true. Maybe the update won't cause problems at all.

I made a local backup today. Could possibly use it for transferring to vbulletin-cloud. I might look into that when hosting is up for renewal in June regardless. Hostmonster hasn't been the most reliable, nor easiest to work with.

Thanks Ben. That would be great. It would be nice to move to a secured site.

Moving to the cloud might mean we might lose some things, like the custom landing page, chat box and maybe some other 3rd party features I am not aware of, but the general consensus now seems to be that nobody is concerned with that anymore. VB has some templates to start with and allow customizations to the banner. I believe they also support language packs.

My two cents is that I agree that we should not let the chat box be a sticking point. It isn’t used enough for significant conversation and I doubt if it will be missed. If necessary, we could always create a sticky forum thread called “chat.” It seems to me there would be very little practical difference, since posts are pretty much immediate, anyway.

^I thought the same as Bamagirl!

In fact, I have a lot of experience with physical chat threads!

I'm pretty 100-0 thread!

The chat box apparently doesn’t even have history, as in the case of threads.

So I don’t think the Chat box should be a big deal.

Actually, the chat box does have history. There is a down arrow to the right of the word "ChatBox". If you click on it, a dropdown menu appears and there is an option to view the archives. This is actually quite handy if you need to make changes to what you typed in chat, because it gives you the option to edit. I have used it a number of times.

The chat box was heavily used around three years ago to the point where members were posting links and comments there instead of threads. We were trying to encourage members to utilize the threads more and over time there was less activity on the chat.

The one main advantage of the chat box is to be able to broadcast a message to all registered users so that it would be seen only by them. It is not visible to non-members and web crawlers don't pick up the content, so there are no worries the conversations would end up forever in cyberspace.

Wow! :yay:

I stand repaired!

I hadn’t researched the subject very much! :13:

Well, that’s good, yes, but still, like you said, this kind of discussion can be a “problem” for a forum if there’s no text in the actual threads. [Although because of its archive, that too is a "thread" ...]

Yet, once history exists, :)(: it would also be great if it could be preserved (even as an archive, etc.)! :13:

I'd say about 85% of the conversations that were going on back then, were taking place in chat and 85% might be low. It was that way because the head guy at the time liked it that way and if you wanted to talk to him on a certain subject, you more less had to do it in chat.

Like you said, it's a problem when there's little text in the actual threads. How could we attract new members if they see nothing current going on? But eventually we got things turned around and what do we have today? Maybe 5% of conversations going on in chat if that.

^I now read the history of Chat in a little more detail.

Apparently at some point the forum was closed to visitors? Opening the forum was an excellent reform!:dance::bow:

For example, I myself probably wouldn’t have registered if I hadn’t read here as a guest months ago first (impossible to say when I have this madness, but at least many “less crazy” would hardly have registered).

Also, for those who are in favor of a chat area past the forum area, what’s the point of having a forum at all if almost everyone is talking in chat? :13: I ask in a good way. :)

So I think the chat can be "deleted", even as a disruptive area of the forum, but the history is still valuable, which would be good to preserve if somehow even possible.

"Why have a chat at all?"

Well. I guess you just had to be there. ;)

If anyone is interested in what the 2007 AAF homepage looked like, take a look here

https://web.archive.org/web/20071130...eeamerica.com/

Hold on, the picture used as the main header there isn't from 2007 or prior though, right? It's one of the UEDS photos.
Is there maybe something I'm missing/overlooking? Is it possible the photos were originally taken for Psychedelices, not used, then repurposed for UEDS? :13:

https://web.archive.org/web/20101119...ges/main12.jpg

This background picture was archived 2010-11-19.
Since its filename is just "main12.jpg" it shows up in older website archives too, but the image didn't contain the same content back then before it was replaced with the on 2010-11-19 archived UEDS photo with the filename "main12.jpg".

Looks like we are at the Y2k moment. Does anyone feel the ground shaking?

Huh, guess that makes sense. A bit odd that the exact same file name was used for a new picture though.