SITE CHANGES ON THE WAY

[JohnShaft]

I just want to let you all know I'll be making a few changes to HE over the next few days plus.

We're most likely moving hosts. So if you visit us and we're down at any point know that that's the reason why and we should soon be back up.
I'll be purchasing a licence for top-end forum software VBulletin. We've needed to do this for some time, as we've been running on a final trial version of Invision for ages. Most people prefer VB over Invision. And there's a lot of cool modifications I can easily install for VB, which I couldn't here.
I'll make the changeover to the black skin I've been testing around then. And I *will* be integrating the forum skin with it (in at least one form or another). I'm beyond sick of looking at default boards. And with VB you don't need to redo the skin every time a new version comes out, which was the problem with Invision.

I also hope to add a few new features to the main site. Movie Posters, maybe a Movie Database with a catalogue of the latest news for new movies, but these will be in the coming weeks. We'll probably see some very limited advertising for the first time too. And I mean *limited*. It will still seem like none compared to most of the spamming horror sites out there advertising mobile phones. I'll have none of that shit here.
It'll just be a couple of contextual text links, or a single contextual image advert. No adverts for mobile phones like many of the rest of the horror sites out there.

I'm putting a lot of time into making a lot of improvements for Horror Express, as we've stood still for far too long. So hopefully you'll see a great improvement in the site. :afro:

Cheers
John

[Unconscious]

PHPBB is pretty good too, John.

[JohnShaft]

Hi mate. Yeah PhpBB is pretty good.

But Invision is super secure, and heavily supported. PhpBB is a bit erratic in that regard as it's free software with people just working on it when they have the time.
Plus there's a lot of Mods that can be installed for VB that don't need re-adding after every new version comes out.

On the topic of sites, how's D3U doing lately?

[Unconscious]

D3U is doing pretty well- I'll PM the link to the main page that we have in the works- a second opinion on it would be great- if that's okay with you, that is.

[42nd Street Freak]

Sounds groovy boss!

[JohnShaft]

OK, very near this now guys. Estimated time for move Wednesday-Friday.

One thing that will happen with the new forum software I've purchased, is that all passwords will be reset, mainly for security reasons, and people will have to set up a new one. That will be for the new board. Which should come along with the move.

I don't expect any downtime now I've looked more into it, but if we get a little you know what's happening. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just loving what you can do with VBulletin since I've bought it and tested it offline.

John

[Bloody Mary]

Originally posted by JohnShaft@Mar 20 2006, 12:36 AM
OK, very near this now guys. Estimated time for move Wednesday-Friday.

One thing that will happen with the new forum software I've purchased, is that all passwords will be reset, mainly for security reasons, and people will have to set up a new one. That will be for the new board. Which should come along with the move.

I don't expect any downtime now I've looked more into it, but if we get a little you know what's happening. I'm really looking forward to it. I'm just loving what you can do with VBulletin since I've bought it and tested it offline.

John
Quoted post


We still keep our pin name, but we have to change our passwords? Do we still have our avatars and the recent information we had?

[JohnShaft]

Originally posted by Bloody Mary@Mar 20 2006, 01:47 PM
We still keep our pin name, but we have to change our passwords? Do we still have our avatars and the recent information we had?

Mary, yes, everything will be the same.

All the posts will be transferred, all usernames will be the same, I'll transfer the avatars. Everything basically. My belief with things like this is that we need to keep everything, and I'll do everything I have to to make that the case.

Like I say, the only thing is the passwords being reset, for security reasons. And that's as standard with forum software transfers.

Basically everything we have will be staying. And we'll be getting a number of things we don't have. Some of those things I'll add on a trial basis, and if they work, and are used, they'll stay permanently.

Oh, and the forums will be re-organised. For one, I'm going to set up a seperate Introductions sub forum, to cut down on the clutter of the Introduce thread, and hopefully encourage new people to make that first post.

[Bloody Mary]

Okay. ^_^

Just wanted to get a clear understanding for myself. I don't know software much in technical terms (well I'm not much of a computer techie) but I guess change is a good thing. Can't wait to see how the new modifications change the site and burn the spammers in hellfire. :devil:

[JohnShaft]

Well I guess a lot of people think change is a bad thing. That's certainly what I've seen on a number of message boards when something gets changed "Damnit! This suckorz! I want back [insert crap feature which actually sucked from a logical perspective]".

But, yeah I anticipate no minuses and many pluses.

I'm actually uploading the site now. And that's working. It's also pretty much noticably faster when I'm comparing the "page generation times". These things always come in fits and starts though. Faster at times, slower at others.

As for the Spammers burning in Hellfire, damn I'm hoping that's so. They're daily now. Often multiple times. You actually won't be seeing a lot of the ones that are being posted because they are getting deleted as soon as Dave or I see them.

But I've got a number of options to deal with them on the new board, so I'll try them out and see what works best. I'm pretty f**king confident (famous last words John...). :afro:

[Raven]

Awesome can't wait :afro:

[JohnShaft]

Just to let everyone know I've put the transfer in now. The site should be getting served by the other host in within 24-48 hours. While it won't drop entirely it may well go out of range once or twice for short periods as the Domain Name Servers are transferring.

If it sounds complicated, it just means "It's moving now. It'll be there soon." :afro:

[JohnShaft]

Okay, I guess we're moved. It actually happened quicker than I thought. In fact it caught me on the hop by a couple of hours. And I've still got SOOOO much to do.

Avatars aren't imported yet, despite my promise, but I'll do my best with them. But anyway, now you can upload your own whenever you feel like, so have at it.

And you know the drill, "if you have any quest...."

[But damn I need my smiley back. Gotta make that a priority. :D]

[Raven]

I'm loving that zombie banner :D

[Carmilla]

Ok, forget everything I said with me being pleased with vb. This is even better than the vb boards I used to know. I just noticed that by clicking over the username you get a whole menu with options regarding a user. Man. I'm in awe. And that spoiler tag sistem? Beautiful. I used to have to highlight the text to read the spoiler. (Sorry, this is just me being nerdy!)

[JohnShaft]

Hah, Carmilla I'm exactly the same. I love all of those popup menus, IPB had none of them. So many things respond on the page rather than taking you to another one (Quick Reply and Edit), it just makes the whole thing much faster.

The spoiler tags were also unbelievably easy to implement in this.

There's actually a whole lot of new things I can integrate but I'm going to pick and choose, and haven't decided which would be best yet.

Anyway I'm glad you like it. :afro: