Making Modifications

[Ash-Bash 0]

Hi guys,Seeing as everyone hates the idea of upgrading to IPB 3.0.X, We could at least make the current forum better.Though the admin's don't seem to be interested in there members. Why can't we get a new skin? We have had this one ages, It would like 1-2 minutes to do the my cent skin edits...We choose one as a community but I very much doubt the admin's will install it because they seem to be very lazy.Why can't we try and make this site faster for people in the UK, Defrag the database etc.It seems as though this forum is dieing slowly as the admin's are not putting any effort in. I have not seen one online for weeks!Yours Pissed off,- Ash

[inverse_bloom 0]

You know that could be nice, the colors seem a bit dull to me. Even changes just to the top banner would great. I think your just managing to be online between the times moderators arent. For instance this last week i've spotted them over several occassions. Just a slight digression, does the UK get bottlenecked internet connectivity or something?

[rvalkass 5]

Seeing as everyone hates the idea of upgrading to IPB 3.0.X, We could at least make the current forum better.

Though the admin's don't seem to be interested in there members.

You seem to underestimate the complexity of upgrading, especially when the myCENTs script is also very complex and coded into the forums, and even more complex now that it integrates into Xisto's central billing system. The time spent testing and debugging is colossal. There is also the risk - if something goes wrong then thousands of members are inconvenienced. Moving to our current version took quite a while after the release by Invision, and likely the same situation will apply with v3.

 

Why can't we get a new skin? We have had this one ages, It would like 1-2 minutes to do the my cent skin edits...

We choose one as a community but I very much doubt the admin's will install it because they seem to be very lazy.

Do we need a new skin? What benefits does it bring? What is wrong with the current one?

 

Far from being lazy, the two admins are incredibly busy. Both have key roles running Xisto and keeping Xisto online and working smoothly. Due to these other tasks they don't have the luxury of time to be able to post as much as I'm sure they'd like to. Also remember that us moderators have been granted enough access to be able to keep on top of the day-to-day running of the forums and dealing with spam, leaving the admins free to work on the more difficult stuff.

 

Why can't we try and make this site faster for people in the UK, Defrag the database etc.

I'm in the UK and notice no speed issues whatsoever - Xisto and all Xisto-hosted sites load just as fast as any other. Which ISP are you using, as the issue would seem to be with them.

 

Having the database in a bad state is obviously in no-one's interest, and the staff at Xisto obviously do their best to keep things running smoothly and as fast as possible.

 

It seems as though this forum is dieing slowly as the admin's are not putting any effort in. I have not seen one online for weeks!

BuffaloHelp was last online on the 22nd. OpaQue was last online on the 26th. Looks like you're just missing them. Remember that neither BH or OpaQue are in the UK, so are in completely different time zones to you.

 

Just a slight digression, does the UK get bottlenecked internet connectivity or something?

Nope. Despite what people say, we actually have pretty good Internet connectivity (depending on your ISP), especially between the UK and the rest of the world.

[Ash-Bash 0]

You seem to underestimate the complexity of upgrading, especially when the myCENTs script is also very complex and coded into the forums, and even more complex now that it integrates into Xisto's central billing system. The time spent testing and debugging is colossal. There is also the risk - if something goes wrong then thousands of members are inconvenienced. Moving to our current version took quite a while after the release by Invision, and likely the same situation will apply with v3.

Well a lot of people are saying we can't upgrade because of the scripts so if we can't upgrade then why don't we change our look. We have had this skin for 20 years and the banner for 60! we need to change its getting Dull and Boring.

 

Do we need a new skin? What benefits does it bring? What is wrong with the current one?

Yes we do, When Posting I find the Feel, Texture & Colour of the skin are necessary to a better post and Will give members more flexibility over the forums.

 

Far from being lazy, the two admins are incredibly busy. Both have key roles running Xisto and keeping Xisto online and working smoothly. Due to these other tasks they don't have the luxury of time to be able to post as much as I'm sure they'd like to. Also remember that us moderators have been granted enough access to be able to keep on top of the day-to-day running of the forums and dealing with spam, leaving the admins free to work on the more difficult stuff.

Well is that why you employ and hire people to take stress off from you... I find the mods have been keeping active (Well most).

 

I'm in the UK and notice no speed issues whatsoever - Xisto and all Xisto-hosted sites load just as fast as any other. Which ISP are you using, as the issue would seem to be with them.

Even though you might not a defrag of the Database would be great for faster search results etc. I am currently with TalkTalk, Unqiue times I get around 20mb/s peak times around 10mb/s so still decent speeds. I am also using FireFox (Obviously )

 

Having the database in a bad state is obviously in no-one's interest, and the staff at Xisto obviously do their best to keep things running smoothly and as fast as possible.

I am saying though a defrag would be good for this size of a forum and will make it run so smooth!

 

BuffaloHelp was last online on the 22nd. OpaQue was last online on the 26th. Looks like you're just missing them. Remember that neither BH or OpaQue are in the UK, so are in completely different time zones to you.

But the role of being an admin is not only to be keeping your forum up and partner sites up, Its to intract with the community, Be making regular announcements, Bring new things to the forum etc.

 

Nope. Despite what people say, we actually have pretty good Internet connectivity (depending on your ISP), especially between the UK and the rest of the world.

Yeah, But I used to be on Virgin Media and got 50mb/s and Xisto was still slow....

[-Sky- 0]

Ash, obviously you don't understand the coding of IPB 3.0.x. Perhaps if you got your butt off Counter-Strike you'd notice that Invision Power Board 3.0 is HARD-CODED. The 3.0 version of IPB is way more complex, it's very difficult to code with if your not used to hard coded forum software.

We choose one as a community but I very much doubt the admin's will install it because they seem to be very lazy.

Excuse me? Ahh, hell no...di..did...did I just see you saying our Administrators are "lazy" ?? Goddamn Ash, perhaps if you had to do what BH and OpaQue does, YOU'd most probably give up within a week of getting the position. It's not easy to run a webhosting company with servers that OpaQue manages..support tickets, MyCENT scripts, coding, Xisto role Staff etc. It's NOT EASY!
Seriously, but if YOU was an Admin here, what would YOU provide us?? Exactly. Nothing but lazyness, useless posts and trouble with errors all the time from your "code editing" for IPB. You'd most probably mess up the ipsclass.php, class_display.php files or something. Perhaps if you hadn't noticed the reason to why OpaQue and Buffalo has been inactive is because they are in a different time zone to GMT. OpaQue lives in India, which has a different time zome, so stop your whining and just be friendly.

For swearing at the end of your post, I wouldn't be surprised if you get banned...

[shadowx 0]

at first i hated the theme, i truly did. But it is growing on me. It provides the user with an easy to read interface. The black on grey theme of the posts is easy on the eye as opposed to black on white etc... I am in the UK, also with talktalk (since they bought my old ISP, Tiscali) and have no problems at all. I dont see the need for any database defragging as to me the forum runs, searches and loads fine. It is a HUGE forum so some delay is expected but in all honesty i dont find it any slower than other sites.Why dont you apply your own CSS to the site through Firefox? If it bothers you that much just download the CSS used here, edit it and apply in firefox options as a custom CSS. Problem solved.It requires work but not nearly as much work as a new skin needs.

[-Sky- 0]

I agree with you Shadow. However, the only thing that would bother Ash, is he can't code for Invision Power Board. I've known him for 2-3 or so years now, so I know what he can and cannot do on IPB. So, why not learn Ash? It's easy when you get the hang of it.

Edited November 27, 2009 by -Sky- (see edit history)

[shadowx 0]

For a custom CSS formatting you dont even need any skills apart from CSS and HTML. Just view the source of the forums HTML, identify the tags you want to change (for example i expect the forum is styled by DIVs for different areas like the post area, the member avatar div etc...) and apply formatting and save.I must admit i havent tried it but meh...

[anwiii 17]

sigh! i will never feel our admins are lazy. what one says needs to change....another says they like it the way it is. that is SOOOO wrong to say the admins are lazy because of one sided viewpoints. ash, you have been here a while and contributed alot and i am amazed at your subjectivity....

[-Sky- 0]

I know I've been here longer then Ash, and some longer then me, but Ash has more posts here, because he started to post 100 posts in 2 days..aka spam. (in my point of view anyway) but I don't really care if I have less posts then him. But, yeah, for once anwii, I agree with you there. Our admins are not lazy, they have alot to do, thus making them very busy like rval stated above.

[anwiii 17]

for once huh? well, i am not going to argue that.....but i will say that you are somtimes just as subjective in your post as ash.

it's how people look at things and concentrating so much on one thing that they lose the meaning behind all the other things. ash is trying to make a point even though others....like myself feel he went overboard in what he said.....but let's not get distracted behind the meaning of ash's post

I know I've been here longer then Ash, and some longer then me, but Ash has more posts here, because he started to post 100 posts in 2 days..aka spam. (in my point of view anyway) but I don't really care if I have less posts then him. But, yeah, for once anwii, I agree with you there. Our admins are not lazy, they have alot to do, thus making them very busy like rval stated above.

[webishqiptar 0]

Well I own a website, and use cms to maintain it. I use wordpress. The thing I hate most, and find it difficult and time consuming is to upgrade to further releases and to make current updates to plug-ins. That is pretty hard because you may never know how the upgrade could affect the overall scripts. I also own a forum, and find it difficult to make constant upgrades, this is difficult and there are always new issues creating problems. It is hard and needs lots of work to create a stable thing. So I can imagine what a messy thing would come from upgrading this forum to something more complex, it would be unconvenient for all of us.

[k_nitin_r 8]

Hi!@webishqiptarI run a website on WordPress too and I think the upgrade has been beautifully handled with notification of new updates and one-click upgrades. Most web hosts provide a one-click backup of your existing site (the database as well as the scripts and any HTML files) so the general process is to make a backup, perform the upgrade, and perform a basic test to ensure that everything is working the way it should be. You might also want to check for any new options that have been introduced as a result of the upgrade.I'm not sure about how forum upgrades are handled, but I'm assuming that it involves creating a configuration file and overwriting the files of the old installation with that of the upgrade, after performing a backup.I've noticed that as long as you have a good web hosting service, the upgrade process should be smooth. With anything less than your average web hosting firm, you might experience upgrades that stop mid-way, or FTP file transfers that experience frequent disconnects or errors.@Ash-BashI can't imagine why people would be against the idea of upgrading to a new version of the software (I'm sorry, I've been away from the forum for a while so probably missed the discussion about an upgrade to Trap 17.com) because I think staying with an older version would mean not receiving security updates or bug fixes. Bug fixes are less of a concern because when users have been using a system for a long time and haven't experienced any problems, it's unlikely that the majority of the users would complain about a bug affecting their everyday operations on the system. Security issues, however, are more likely to affect legacy systems and since vendors do not support them, finding and patching security issues because a lot more expensive.WordPress had a couple of security issues too and the security vulnerability was only present in older installations. Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac OS provide frequent updates to fix bugs and security vulnerabilities. Imagine still running on Windows 95 while trying to patch the system and keeping it running securely.