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.