Planned forum software upgrades and temporary service disruptions

[MichaelCorfman]

Currently the GPWA is running a somewhat dated version of the vBulletin forum software. To be precise, we are running version 4.1.3 which was released in April 2011. This month we plan to complete a migration to version 4.2.1 which was released in April of this year.

We plan to take the initial step in the upgrade process this coming Monday, July 8th. I will make a forum post that morning when we have finalized the time, but for now we are planning to perform the first step in the process at 10am EDT (3pm GMT). We expect the service disruption for this initial step to be less than 15 minutes.

The first step will leave us on the same version of vBulletin, but with a sanitized software base that will serve as a foundation for the subsequent version upgrade.

Michael

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

How do you possibly have the time to even make a post like this Michael? Jesus you are a superhero.

GeePwaa Man.

Is it a plane?

[Anthony]

Glad to see the upgrade is upon us.

You see this Rick, we get a 15 minute break on Monday...

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

Lol... better keep the back doors closed

[universal4]

Cool, so I can sleep in Monday lol....

Note to self, turn phone off Monday am....

Rick
Universal4

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

If you see a hungry spider eating up bandwidth ignore it - its that time of year

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

I love that 'hindsight 20/20' saying. Eloquent and yet mesmerising and mystical

[Doolally]

Good luck with the upgrade! Hopefully all goes smoothly for you.

[Christiaan]

The timing is perfect. It is my birthday on Sunday so probably I will have a hangover on Monday

Good luck with the update.

[universal4]

Happy Birthday in advance....

....as a reminder, do NOT throw the computer out the window if the forum isn't working Monday morning....wait at least until the afternoon, then be sure to video the process.....

Rick
Universal4

[MichaelCorfman]

We did complete the first step of the upgrade to sanitize the current version of the site earlier this morning. The total downtime was a little less than ten minutes.

Also, we upgraded to the current version of tapatalk, which allows access to the GPWA forums through mobile devices via the tapatalk app. We initially announced tapatalk support over three years ago in the following thread: The GPWA Forums Have Gone Mobile!. Today the tapatalk app allows access to the GPWA forums from iPhone, iPad, Android, Android tablet, and Windows phones.

Michael

[casinovegas]

Just downloaded the tapatalk app, looks pretty decent

[universal4]

Not sure if the complete upgrade is done yet, but I have been moving threads around during the normal application process etc....and have not seen any issues so far.

I haven't deleted any of Anthony's posts as a test yet....but the day is still early....LOL

Rick
Universal4

[ocreditor]

tapatalk looks great - glad to hear about the update.

[MichaelCorfman]

We just discovered one issue introduced during the upgrade. The smilies used in posts had not been migrated. That issue has been addressed, and smilies within posts now display properly.

If anyone should happen to notice anything else that is amiss, please let us know, and we will do our best to fix it promptly.

Michael

[MichaelCorfman]

We discovered a second issue earlier today that has now been fixed. During new user registration we use spam-o-matic to help keep known spammers off the GPWA forum. There was a software integration glitch with that spam-o-matic that temporarily prevented new user registrations.

Michael