ALL MEMBERS - General statement about software upgrades/changes

Hi folks,

Here is some information about coming updates and changes. Before some of you start cringing, take a deep breath and hear me out. I realize that this is all very long but I think it is important or I would not waste the time or effort.

Rather than just make changes and let the chips fall where they may, I am explaining every change we make (other than changes so minor no one would notice) in order to keep you folks up to date and engaged in the process.

As a way of precursor (or to avoid cursing) let me say this; Change can be good, and it can be bad. I will be the first one to join in when offering critical comments about some changes. There are a lot of things in the world and our lives that have changed in ways that I do not like, and I think many of you will agree. Newer is not always better. I say this only to qualify what comes next in order to let you know that I do not believe that just changing a lot of things is always the way to go.

I’ve already said this on other threads, but I am going to say it again. We are not going to change any of the great things about this place that we all love. None of the changes we will make are anything that I consider major.

I think that after a lot of you folks work with me and the staff for a while you will be comfortable with everything and there will be a level of trust developed that will let you trust us when we say that we are changing something and it will be for the better. We are all Frisco people, and friends, and that’s the most important thing. That will never change.

So, what’s this all about; what is changing?

Soon, we will do a software upgrade. The end result of that will be 90% or more unnoticeable, so I will explain changes that you will probably notice.

Right now we are running Version 4.1.1 of the software that drives the site. Updates to 4.1.2 or 4.1.3 are usually just improvements in present functioning that the software developers find bugs in and fix them, etc. You never notice those changes normally. Sometimes the developers have identified things that don’t work just quite right and they simply fix them with different code. No big deal of any kind there.

The second (and most important) thing that happens during these updates is plugging holes. As you know, the Internet is full of spammers and hackers and they troll the digital highways looking for ways to wreak havoc.

We (people who operate these software systems) are often alerted by the software vendor(s) of potential exploits that have been discovered in the software. Sometimes they tell us that a situation is urgent and a patch or update must be applied at once in order to preserve the integrity of the forum.

Once these vandals realize that they can crash a site, they will use other software to do it. It has happened to TrainBoard before but not here that I am aware of, and we don’t want it to happen! Right now, there are vulnerabilities in the software and we need to get it upgraded as fast as we can if for no other reason than this.

The third thing is the introduction of new features. This does not happen as frequently as the first two things (bug fixes and security fixes) but it does happen with unpredictable frequency.

If the software developers have been working on a new feature, they may introduce it when an update is offered, even what would normally be considered a small, routine upgrade.

So, what can we expect new after the update?

The updating of the software will not change much that you folks see other than what will be described here and this shouldn’t cause too much pain.

I have already described the one new major feature in another thread but I have a little bit more to say about it. The new feature is called “Activity Stream” and it is one that I personally like a lot! And, I think it is perfectly suited for our forum here and the amount of traffic we have.

For a fallen flag railroad forum, we have a lot of traffic! I’ve looked at what some other fallen flag folks have and we are doing great. We have an energetic group of members and quite a few posts every day. We have a lot of nice folks and we welcome new members. We have a lot of contributions; People post pictures, brochures, information, etc., on a very regular basis and that is exciting!

So, what do most of us do every day when we check in? We look to see what has happened since we were last here. But, how do we do that? On the front page (“portal” at http://www.frisco.org) it shows the new posts. I will talk more about this below.

This is handy because if you check in every day, there are probably several new threads that have been posted or updated since you were here. The Activity Stream will let you see this and a little more.

I’m going to use TrainBoard as an example again so please bear with me as it is the best example I have. If you go here: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/activity.php you will see the TrainBoard Activity Stream. In fact, if you just go to www.trainboard.com it should redirect you right to the Activity Stream as it is the most common page viewed on the entire site.

Scroll down and you will see that you can see all new posts, photos, etc., that have been posted. But wait, hang out a few minutes and a link will appear under the words “Activity Stream” that will say something like “New posts (2).”

That means that while you were there two new posts have been made. Click on that and the new posts will appear without reloading the page. This is great stuff.

Not only do you see the topic, forum, and name of the poster, but you see some of the text of the post. This lets you decide whether or not you want to click over and read it. For short posts, you can read them without even leaving that page.

The Activity Stream is perfect for “forum campers” like me that want to set on the forum all day and constantly check for new activity.

I think you guys are going to like this feature! If you have questions or comments about it, please say so.

Now, next, I want to talk about the main page (or “portal”) that you land on if you just go to frisco.org.

Some of you folks may not like this one but hear me out.

That main page, or portal, is an add-on feature that is not part of the software. It was made by a different group of people because vBulletin (our main software) did not include a portal product and people wanted one. We formerly used this same product on TrainBoard.

When vBulletin introduced the generation 4 software (remember when Frisco.org changed looks dramatically a couple of years ago?) a portal was included as part of the software.

It is not dramatically different than this one but it is a little different. It can be customized though in a variety of ways. If you want to see one example of how it looks, here is the TrainBoard example: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/content.php

It’s a little different and it can be changed to suit people.

I would like to do away with the non-OEM portal page and go to the one that is part of vBulletin for the following reasons: 1) I believe it to be more secure. The less add-on software the less chances of someone finding a wormhole. 2) It is easier to manage from within vBulletin itself. 3) The Activity Stream is much more likely to be used on a daily basis that the portal page (I think). 4) It updates automatically when the software is updated and you don’t have to worry about compatibility problems. 5) There is a less chance (I think) of any database errors caused by this product (although I am not aware of such a problem now).

Let’s talk about what’s on the front page that we don’t want to lose: Starting at the top left corner, we have links to other sites. No problem there. We can re-do that. We have a PayPal donation block. No worries there. That is simple. We have a featured post in the center. We can have many with the other portal so nothing bad there. Random photos; I am not sure about that one but if we can do it we will continue to do that. Below that, recent posts. That we can do. Over on the right is statistical stuff and I think we can do most of that as well. So, nothing major there, right?

I had a conversation with a TrainBoard member one time that said that he thought that everything was just perfect the way it was and that no more changes were needed. I’ve kind of heard that from a couple of you too.

As much as we might want to think that way sometimes, we can’t. It’s like changing the oil in your car; if you don’t keep up with it you’ve got big trouble.

The software we use (vBulletin) is driven by a language called PHP. If there were no more updates, eventually the software would become old and unsupported and would cease to work properly as PHP is automatically updated on most servers. That is beyond our control. If such a thing happened, we would have a big mess.

If a person is going to operate a site like this, it needs to be kept up to date with the latest software versions, and that means getting comfortable with at least a minimal amount of change. As I said earlier, I am not out to change the world here. This is why I don’t believe that the saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” applies to what we are doing here.

Something will always be broke, whether you realize it or not, and will need attention. However, I will be the first to state that unnecessary tinkering with anything is not good and we are not engaged in that here. I think that some opposition may be because people perceive that to be the case.

I know that some folks want no change. I am making the case as to why that is not possible and trying to let you know that any change will not be something that screws up what is great about Frisco.org. Eventually we will get past this and we won’t be talking about all of this stuff.

After we get everything set where it needs to be we will talk about adding some new folks to the staff rolls. I think it would be good to have about 10 strong people on board that can check in every day and help keep things running smoothly.

I do not ask you folks to just follow me blindly and accept everything that I say. I welcome discussions and other opinions. I do ask that all comment be in the spirit of the site. No doubt some of you will think of things that I will miss, and that is important.

Feel free to ask questions or throw out comments in the sake of a friendly discussion to make the site all it can be. As I stated before, no one should fear that changes will happen here that will impact the site in a negative way. Not everyone is going to like every little thing. There are things that I don’t like and changes to the software that I have suggested. Some have been implemented, some have not.

We are all working together here for a common goal.

Charlie

 

Howdy Charlie,

Terrific note! I think you are right on track. It is very good to see you grabbing the throttle and notching it up.

Persist,
mike

 

You're not going to start shooting are you?

 

Guys,

I might run the software upgrade tonight. I am not sure and I would say that there is a less-than 50% chance because I want to have a couple of free hours to do it and I am not sure that I will have that kind of time tonight, but I might.

The site would probably be down less than 30 minutes for an upgrade. If something goes wrong, it would be down longer while it was straightened out.

I have ran upgrades on vBulletin well over 100 times, probably significantly more than that. I have crashed TrainBoard three times during upgrades and it's always been fixed. I never was able to figure out what went wrong in any case and I tell you this only to be honest if something gets messed up a little bit. Hopefully not and that's why I have gone slow on this rather than just charging into it.

If, after the upgrade, some things look different (colors, layout, etc.), don't freak out. It can all be changed back. The reason I say this is that I have never upgraded Frisco.org so I am not sure what templates will need to be reverted to default and then changed back to our settings. This is not uncommon. Three or four software upgrades have been released since this site was upgraded and that makes it a little more likely that there will need to be some after-the-fact adjustments. So again, if things look a little different, do not be alarmed.

Patience is the key to getting through it.

If I do not do the upgrade tonight, I will post later to tell you that.

If anyone has questions, feel free to post.

Charlie

 

Sherrel, unless I am grossly mistaken and do not generally understand computer software, (not likely because of my educational background) the upgrade will not change the overall structure of the site. As Charlie indicated, the color scheme may be different until we get it customized and the portal may look different but the site should still be pretty much the same.

To everyone, I like the site pretty much as is, but we could tweak it a bit and make it just a bit better, but those changes would come later and not without full disclosure/discussion first. We need to make it a little easier to maintain.

 

Test post following upgrade.

 

Hi Guys,

We survived the upgrade. We are now at the latest version. I have some work to do though. I have turned the forums back on, but I have quite a few things to do related to housekeeping. You may see a few things that look a little different. Feel free to ask questions if you need to or to point out something that seems wrong.

I will keep working on this this evening as long as I can.

Charlie

 

Thank you. I hope everyone enjoys the Activity Stream.

Charlie

 

Congratulations Charlie. I am sorry it was so stressful coming in cold like that. I knew you could do it. Best, mike

 

No worries Mike. I've said it time and time again but you did a 100% job on this site and I'm only trying to do the things that would have to be done as time moves on anyway. I was a bit worried about screwing it up.

There are a couple of problems but nothing I can't fix.

Thanks again. Now, get well.

Charlie

 

Looks good from here.

 

Frisco Friends,

I have spent about 4 1/2 hours working on the forums this evening. As you can see, things look a little bit different - nothing major, just slight cosmetic changes when you compare. The real change is that we can sleep tonight without worrying that someone will run malicious code to destroy our site. We can also be assured that our site will function as efficiently as possible at this point in time.

The cosmetic changes are really out of necessity right now. None of this is because I think it "looks better." This is just more of a default look. But, I think it looks pretty clean. Nothing major has really changed. The colors are the same. It's just minor stuff and it's pretty clean looking and nothing has happened that impacts what goes on here.

There are still things that I am working on that will take many hours. These hours will be put in during the coming days. There are a couple of thing that I am having trouble with but that is just part of it. I've been through it before.

I hope you folks are happy that we are securing the site and moving forward to offer the best site possible. I thank you for your patience, understanding, and support through this time.

I will be away much of the day tomorrow as I have a day off work and my wife has a job list for me. I will check in if possible to help with any problems and I will be back on tomorrow night.

Thanks again folks. We are simply taking Mike's fine work one step further and I'm excited about it. What do you think of the Activity Stream?

Charlie

 

HIP,HIP,HOORAY!!
Tom Holley